<p class="Abstract1">The regional autonomy in Indonesia gives the implication to the shift of authority between the center and local government in many sectors. The regional autonomy also makes the decentralization that related with the local financing management, the economy planning including the local planning and other planning that shifted from the central government to the local government. The study aims to know the effect of fiscal decentralization from the income and spending aspect towards the local economic development in Indonesia (gas and oil nationally). The method analysis in this study is the panel data from 1995-2000 and 2001-2004.The result shows that before decentralization on the year of 1995-2000, the fiscal decentralization whether from income or spending aspect has negative influence to the economy growth. Coming into decentralization from 2001-2004, the fiscal decentralization on supporting the economy development, whether from government income or spending is increasing. But the fiscal decentralization is exceeding the spending aspect compare to the income, whether in national level, with oil and gas or without oil and gas, inside Java or outside Java. <p class="Keyword1"> <p class="Abstract2"><strong></strong>Pelaksanaan otonomi daerah di Indonesia membawa implikasi pada pelimpahan kewenangan antara pusat dan daerah dalam berbagai bidang. Adanya otonomi daerah maka terjadi desentralisasi yang menyangkut pengelolaan keuangan daerah, perencanaan ekonomi termasuk menyusun program-program pembangunan daerah dan perencanaan lainnya yang dilimpahkan dari pusat ke daerah. Studi ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh desentralisasi fiskal dari sisi penerimaan dan pengeluaran terhadap pertumbuhan ekonomi daerah provinsi di Indonesia (nasional dengan migas dan tanpa migas, di Jawa dan di luar Jawa). Metode analisis yang digunakan dalam penulisan studi ini menggunakan data panel secara terpisah pada periode 1995-2000 dan 2001-2004. Hasil analisa menunjukkan bahwa sebelum pelaksanaan era desentralisasi periode 1995-2000, pengaruh desentralisasi fiskal dari sisi penerimaan dan pengeluaran berpengaruh negatif terhadap pertumbuhan ekonomi, baik untuk tingkat nasional dengan migas dan tanpa migas, di Jawa dan di luar Jawa. Memasuki era desentralisasi selama kurun waktu 2001-2004, pengaruh desentralisasi fiskal dalam mendorong pertumbuhan ekonomi, baik melalui sisi penerimaan maupun pengeluaran mengalami peningkatan dibandingkan sebelum era desentralisasi. Namun pengaruh desentralisasi fiskal tersebut jauh lebih besar melalui sisi pengeluaran dibandingkan sisi penerimaan daerah, baik di tingkat nasional dengan migas dan tanpa migas, di jawa maupun di luar Jawa. <p class="Keyword1">
International Baccalaureate Diploma Program is an academically challenging self-funded high school program which is recognized by the world’s leading universities. It was introduced in one of the regions of Russia (Permskii krai) by the local government with the aim to ensure access to high quality education and to improve regional educational system overall. High school students get international IB diploma while this process is largely financed by the regional government. The aim of this paper is to examine how effective this scheme is and to give recommendations for its improvement.In order to answer the research question different major stakeholder groups were surveyed: students, school-leavers, and teachers. Official documents, underlying the implementation of this program, were analyzed. Analysis of the findings was made with the help of institutional approach.The results of this paper represent benefits and shortcomings for each stakeholder group of the project. The recommendations given in the paper deal with the increase of efficiency of this scheme: additional incentives should be created and introduced to increase benefits for the regional part of the contract. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n11p527
Hava Mucolları, Alba Dumi, Zaim Korsı, Elisabeta Duçellari
This paper includes partnerships with community-based organizations, public and private colleges, universities, public school teachers, public health departments. Additionally, more number of community leaders have been trained to deliver educational workshops; PSI has developed a robust workshop leader database, which permits remote access to (and entry of) service delivery information. This will be an important point of administrative changes in Albanian public policies as an obstacle to the operating foreign investments, comparison of EU. Entrepreneurship ambition has worked to support changes in Albanian law that would offer anti-discrimination protections in keeping with international standards. Another point of administrative changes in Albanian public policies as an obstacle to the operating foreign investments, comparison of EU is: (1) International investments contributed to the improvement of Albania’s financial regulatory environment which has strengthened public confidence in the banking system and has provided a more secure, efficient and transparent financial system to meet the credit, savings and insurance needs of businesses and individuals. The paper provides support for legislative initiatives and local government activities that advance the decentralization process and increase the control of local government by local constituents, thus decreasing the control of central authorities. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n10p34
Recently, smart devices for various services have been developed using converged telecommunications, and the markets for near field communication mobile services is expected to grow rapidly. In particular, the realization of mobile NFC payment services is expected to go commercial, and it is widely attracting attention both on a domestic and global level. However, this realization would increase privacy infringement, as personal information is extensively used in the NFC technology. One example of such privacy infringement would be the case of the Google wallet service. In this paper, we propose an zero-knowledge proof scheme and ring signature based on NTRU for protecting user information in NFC mobile payment systems without directly using private financial information of the user.
Based on the Chinese provincial panel data from 1995 to 2008, using the panel co-integration method, this paper presents an empirical study on the long-term equilibrium relationship between the fiscal decentralization, the local government competition and the farmland conversion. On this basis, establishing the dynamic panel data model, using the generalized method of moments (GMM) to analyze the dynamic impact of the fiscal decentralization and the local government competition on the farmland conversion from the view of three cross-regional groups and the mainland China. The results show that there is a long-run co-integration relationship between the fiscal decentralization, the farmland conversion and the local government competition, and also there is a positive significant influence of the fiscal decentralization and the local government competition on the farmland conversion, a 1% increase in the degree of fiscal decentralization will increase the area of farmland conversion by 0.3280%. In addition, there is a significant difference of the incentive effect of local government competition on the farmland conversion in different regions. The paper ends with policy suggestions for perfecting the system of the fiscal decentralization, taxation and the division of responsibility and authority, reforming the criterion of the political achievement assessment, strengthening the management of land revenue, reducing the reliance of the local government on land finance; at the same time, the farmers' land property rights should be perfected.
The purpose of an article is to compare systems of fiscal decentralization in EU member states according to selected quantitative criteria and European Charter of Local Self-Government principles. The results show that a higher number of lower levels of government usually indicate a greater share of local finance within the total public finance, however, this finding does not confirm the inverse link. Even though the structure of expenditures in EU countries is similar, the shares of funds for the implementation of individual tasks differ significantly. On average, the countries allocate most funds to education, social security, healthcare, administration and political systems, with only a quarter of the countries recording the same or higher amounts of revenues than expenditures. Most of the countries still cover the existing deficit either through transfers from the central to lower levels of government or through equalization schemes or borrowing, which otherwise represents a departure from one of the basic principles of the Charter, which stipulates that financial resources must be commensurate with the responsibilities of local self-government.
In May 1966, the first—and perhaps only—socialist drive-in on the planet opened in Tanzania, on the site of what is today the American embassy in the nation's capital, Dar es Salaam.1 The brainchild of C. C. Patel, a cunning and well-connected insurance magnate with business, political, and family ties throughout East Africa, with the assistance of Second Vice-President Rashid Kawawa, a former actor, the drive-in was heralded by leading Tanzanian politicians as a stunning example of the modernist development opportunities achievable through African socialism.2 At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the minister of commerce and cooperatives, Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu, an avowed Marxist and an avid supporter of state socialism, hailed it as an “exemplary project of co-operation” between private enterprise and the socialist state.3 The capital for building and operating the drive-in was provided entirely by Patel. The Tanzanian government acquired a 30 percent stake in the venture through a “donation” of land, while unnamed officials were granted shares in the company in exchange for their support.4 In the spirit of African socialism that was sweeping the nation at the time, the corporate name of the drive-in was Sisi Enterprises, with the “C. C.” of Patel's initials superseded by Sisi, Kiswahili for “we” or “us.”5 Yet why, one might reasonably ask, would a young nation such as Tanzania—striving to dig its way out from under the problems caused by decades of colonial underdevelopment—choose to invest its limited resources in a drive-in? How could state ownership of a drive-in possibly help to advance a socialist agenda? Didn't the drive-in—predicated as it was on the commercial consumption of foreign films and propelled by the urban amenities of electricity, cars, and leisure—directly contradict President Julius Nyerere's vision of village-based African socialism? What motivated a righteous communist such as Babu, or Kawawa, who was responsible for launching several campaigns against youthful “debauchery” in the 1960s and 1970s, to participate in the opening festivities for a space that was commonly regarded as a passion pit?6 How did the same government that banned television broadcasting until the mid-1990s and arrested private owners of televisions and VCRs in the early 1980s rationalize owning a drive-in? And why would a regime that frequently vilified Tanzanian Asians in the state-owned press and nationalized their property in the name of equality partner with Patel, one of the wealthiest men in East Africa? The most obvious answer to these questions is that states, like the individuals who compose them, are complicated and often contradictory entities that sometimes say one thing and do another. While the anomaly of a socialist drive-in cinema may complicate our understanding of state-centered development, we can use it to explore the complex and contradictory visions of socialism, modernity, and independence that were debated in Tanzania in the 1960s and 1970s. Sisi Enterprises was but one of many high modernist commercial leisure and industrial projects presaged by the National Development Corporation (NDC) in their published reports and magazines, heralding the state's ability to fulfill not only needs, but desires as well. Socialism and communism were conceived by many as an alternative to capitalism when it came to the fulfillment of consumptive desires. The aim was to achieve abundance; the goal was to do the and with to to and to who decades of the drive-in to to and the as that with former of the and that were to an on the of of the at the were of and in from the The drive-in for and and the of and the to the the was the at that is and to as the of in urban in many questions at the drive-in of a for a when and the nation were and a for the space and and urban the drive-in one of the for leisure in Dar es In 1966, its of the a Tanzanian in the of in At a when the was that came to the drive-in that a the most for leisure in Tanzania, would out to the drive-in and in at in the the did not until at the leading from the drive-in was often a to the and most of a in that or in of was a for who in Dar es between and of the was could a of the their way a the socialist of a drive-in might Sisi Enterprises provided an space urban and were was a one could Asians and by in their cars, and and in the same films and not but and were to their at the drive-in a the but in to the for cars, were for as as on the the cars, were by who from on their or from the the In Tanzania in the 1960s and 1970s, it was not to a of the to an at the and one came on by in the of a in a or in a private was the The films that at the drive-in were at the in as and it was not for to the same on opening and were of the same as to and the and to the to an of the was a of urban in did not to the many of the the was that were and could in these the of the In its it to Sisi Enterprises as a of the and that could achieve by a of socialist the modernist projects were the and in the and in the a way to the on the from in to in that of would to a only in the the and to that independence a with the The of that to to the by Sisi Enterprises to the In to the and the of a to to as an to it as a of their with in their of to explore the the to for or visions of of The of a socialist drive-in is of the and contradictory of and development that were debated in Tanzania in the decades drive-in the of in Dar es National Development and es is to that socialism, like modernity, was in Tanzania, and that the leading to socialist development was was on to or socialist and of socialism in Tanzania, the and often thing that to is President Nyerere's on development and the state's to of socialist The was by to Tanzanian socialism from its and was not or it was of a and to that were and that and were Nyerere's of socialism was in a vision of the as In Africa, and and to the of the and under the of a was the that Tanzania to development on the resources it and was in for the did not it was to the it could the the out the on socialism, the of of the and the for development in the use of state resources for urban and industrial projects that the in when to electricity, as as and the nation resources on urban Nyerere's and and alternative of the was by many to the of the but was not the only of the family with a vision or a the family of Tanzanian African National in government and the and of the nation who their at were a of and by and for the that was Tanzania The of and of the of the of many of were were by the but that did not that or of who were with that only through could for were in and regarded as to of were of the to their ties to foreign capital and the of the that was to the of capital out of the for the of commonly for their to that the industrial as the most in and the one to to a the at the opening for the that were not only but The for a to socialist of in the Development was the National Development Corporation in was a commercial in and and and the it was the or of the of most of in industrial and were the was to vision of a drive-in might to a of project a or at the were and to ownership it a of to such an The was in the in but it was only in the that the drive-in at the same as of their American and and many in the of the were only a of on the as the in in of a in with the cinema with the operating in the or Dar es was of for to to their former colonial on but the drive-in on at one for cars, a a a for from the and and the and it was on with operating in at the At the did not to to the were in the In that the drive-in to from development at the and from their of the by the drive-in and that was a to a Sisi Enterprises most of the African as a was the by the Yet of were and most were for the with a of was the only on the to a drive-in in the were not in the but were in their for modernity, and was a of in opening a drive-in a and only in the to did and the were and of the that their drive-in was one of only a on the and that with it was the only one not with owners from At a when Tanzania as the African for from to the and of the drive-in provided it may Sisi Enterprises for the that African socialism could the not with but with as well. In to one of the most to a the drive-in the in and to and the most of the The of a of a drive-in the of the from on of the in not only with and but with the on the the as as the for one for the of that the as their was a in In Dar es Tanzanian the of their by for in a that the that to several men who the a the the and the as in at the many of to but the most that Sisi Enterprises was one of the in the that were not with or from Sisi Enterprises Nyerere's for and resources to The drive-in was the state a percent in its of a percent from to from in to in At a when the state of to and and Sisi Enterprises a of for In to the of the and were The on and entirely the In percent of the by to and an percent of were through for and for and the and often of their on or and that could not their needs, the drive-in of and that and several by The of the was in the was the in the nation to to its to the of leading the with and a of its The and films were from but the and frequently the was and out it from the drive-in was of the was and the most in the The of a drive-in is on the ownership of private cars, that was a of and state in the urban of development, as private ownership was to urban and to Dar es In the early 1970s, percent of in the were in the the the of private in a nation equality was an and most of the to on their to them, and their to was not in for in or of the to but it was not until that in the nation's capital was nationalized or that the state its in and of the ownership as of their for modernity, and of as was an in as In the private ownership In were a in the and most of were or in and were operating in Tanzania, with the in private ownership was the of many a Tanzanian The a but in the 1970s, men most of the cars, did most of the and most of the were for of the and many of from the granted to individuals for the of to a of African in Dar es a was often a provided for in the of state-owned and of to the for of that of men that could on and and of the or to a and who as a in the 1960s and 1970s, that were and were to for who a that an could for in a for when was In the the family for of in Dar es was ownership the of who was a at a of in men were not In the were ownership was and by campaigns to In an in to the of the their for and their to a government who out for as as to their government and that from by from the of The the use of limited foreign exchange to such as to and to the consumption of by of the the minister of who for not was one of the that to the as of the in and in as the was to a socialist by the government and the who socialist of it to Yet at the same that was and government for their of Vice-President and the of were for the drive-in with C. C. Patel. could as a way to with the who to to their to the or their to to for the National the was by limited to the example and on the state-owned the a nation to socialism its foreign exchange Yet while was the in of the to socialist development and of the state were a for the at the was on way to the of the minister of the minister for and development and their were the and in the from the of their officials at a drive-in for the from opening of the were to the in were to and of of and Development and And The drive-in desires of ownership in the decades the drive-in a to is with to and it provided of the and the with an and a to that were on the In of in the that in for a drive-in to to and an with their What Tanzanian men in the for in the and their as often as did their to in the African and through the of and not but and may as a of but many ownership as that independence The were not the only who that the of independence was to with the of the colonial and by a did many who to the of on and from leading in and the was in Tanzania not only for of but for of African and as a leading from was most for in as to that in and with many and a for Yet as a to to state socialism and for the of Marxist of the and a of the of when by the was out of when of a of at the in to that from the and from as minister of was the same of when the of was a of the in the a in leading in the Tanzanian was as did not by The drive-in to for and that were of as and from the through the many of were on the Dar es African between and and the by percent from to or the were on the of colonial in was to to in the only when it was to who in colonial were to out of the of when were to and in Dar es were to out of the The of the drive-in was on to as as colonial of space to to one to that drive-in the of by as The in the to the it was a with through the by a to the was The drive-in and to the of a of the a only as and who or frequently the as an that and on their way to the drive-in from their in and was a in and of with cars, out for the drive-in as early as the as to the as the the and that were by Sisi was by an space for the and from and who came to and were in for by from African and of to to the or with and the of a to to the were by men who on a Tanzanian the drive-in of for not a private with a The was that were at the that it did not to and young was a of young men could on the or in the the from the the cinema would with of or who could not the could not the but an of were to the in the a and the of that were the of was a of building a socialist and the drive-in many to a space as to to the of the and to only for the who came to Dar es from of the the drive-in a While its with the that when in one could to the of the were to a or in a who in that the of and to the an and for the many in but of drive-in was like a of who to Dar es from at the of in was a at the but that not as a urban until a with a to the that as like a of and use of a and a but the was for was by to to the in with Yet a from to to the drive-in as the of the In cars, but their to but was like the drive-in to was at its most a for leisure and not as a to a the goal of independence was in to the drive-in was it was In to a example of the of African socialism, the and were a and perhaps example of In a was by and and most and were were one of the that from the the same leisure films provided for to their and frequently and a The on an from the of the to the and of the While the of equality by may is that it to and and to and as well. The drive-in was a for in was and could in for as often on the Tanzanian to their in to for their as in a for and to as their their way the in the when and from to the drive-in on a who and to the drive-in or in that a to to with their for an with and of to the drive-in as a as and it was to under and that could in for who the drive-in for that and the were of the but with the in as way of the their as a of to the of and for In the most drive-in to of that the would at the of to to do to the of in but it to the and of a of the with to to not what say their but The who were in Dar es of on the the and their their American in the and many that the the in it was and to with their could the to the and in it was a thing to do with the family on could to the and the could or and could and the with in who an avid to to the when young the cinema with in is and with the the are and is in are to was a and would to at the the to the or to with in an At the of Nyerere's vision of African socialism was a on a family under the of a who not on but on these of building socialism, were to a family or who to these at the In the was on men to not and for their but and leisure and family as well. National independence heralded a of on many and the drive-in was one of these and were and it was as a to the family and out to and the drive-in was the most to in and out for a as a and and from of with were that that to the drive-in as a we to to the we to to the would it was to a it to and was a to to the drive-in it that as the of the it was to out to the to at a for an of for several of family and of that was what a was to that the drive-in was one of the a that to the drive-in our only of the only the family could in of what it to a or a responsible and the as was the the at in time, and of often came with In Dar es the decades a ability to family out for a on the and to leisure not only with but with and was an of a modernity, as as an of responsible urban While many and were in African and it was for leisure to a family was not only the it was and socialist as well. a the drive-in a and could and their as urban and a for space in a at the drive-in the was a a with to of the in the that one of the of an at the drive-in was to to to and with the to out of the and as as the to with of as the of the In was at the way at the of at the was young at the time, and not to the of in Dar es was not the to and in a of the as a of the and such was a of the early independence a nation that was to a of the drive-in provided an for its to as a with were in of Tanzanian socialism, the and at the to the drive-in was one that In of that was one of the and of the The was and for and when their of to the drive-in when were was like a that one and to and and of the of was the until by in the we were in the a and our way the was an or would out of the and out on the of the would or and the for and While with in and men and and and and and to out the and it the as that of a with and the of in as as an at a time, but it the it was were for leisure or could on their desires the at the drive-in did the at the one could their of the drive-in the was and it in and as one could the most against the regime and of and and of in for and consumption and by The to the drive-in was in the it the only did a the to but who were were not for limited was that for would is of the in was state or the to the but and was for to and are that are commonly with socialism and and in Tanzania the and 1980s were of name was at or was only in limited and of and the and to Tanzania to for or as an at the in when was in a in the a the with a and to an can of on and on the an of could with the What a use of a while for the to and their to the The was an of abundance; consumptive desires were The on the for the at the may and the of the but on was out their and and who in to the The that the drive-in in the Nyerere's vision of socialist with what family would or or would and could not one would and a of to when family could on their of the drive-in of for as of the former not only and but the of or The and at the drive-in in the way that and of one could when of the in the of we could to at the who the was of ability to with and and were in of the were as as are of the from many was the to in only at the as as to the that for of the cinema was in a of their of the with and and The of the drive-in as an was by the it The drive-in not for and but for the and by socialism as well. the drive-in that and were to was an could on the that came to at the would a or a with many it was a of who and of a with who to In the of in Tanzania, as in the in the in the or who was often with and was a to men who were in a their of to the drive-in in the 1980s to when was and that it was one of the and to The socialist of to an American in Tanzania who an for the thing Dar es socialist was that was and was in one way or another. At the drive-in a of would a of with the provided by through their with it a the The drive-in was a for a it was an space and were only for a at is a on and in of it as a in the former and East often of the the and of under in their of and for the that to the the In Tanzania, many of the 1960s and 1970s, or the colonial Yet as in on is not it is by and What for in their of the is the can for the drive-in for a and and in these the and the are often who in the their of the or the early of with the a in and with and and a that the would The drive-in is in it is with the of a in and that who from their to the 1960s and and for the and in the with early The drive-in is a it provided space and for these to with the and the of the the was that with Tanzanian socialism, but the drive-in was one the state and private provided the and it to the of socialism and and Sisi Enterprises by The company was when as in and the and our or the of Dar es came to the Yet were that the drive-in to do with the may the but it was the who on the space by the who urban to in of their and in of the were in urban of the and and the drive-in was a of for the who the of its of the drive-in are of family out in in with and the the a or at the drive-in was the of and for it was a of often the in their that was it was from the of were and The of for family leisure was to and as to as the of a from a in Dar es in and are to The and that were for and most who was at the drive-in with of that are to and to In the the of the drive-in to as Tanzanian socialism and was and was the were in the Tanzania was to the of its it to the films from the their and their of that on was for such as and The of to the that a for a family the In from the and for and In Tanzania, are for that might is a it and to while their or that what their to is that are for the when a desires could with a of on In the that the to politicians to with from the state Sisi Enterprises was of a in for in the drive-in to one of its the Tanzania to the of Sisi Enterprises from from to and and In the the of state-owned were to for and their were The embassy that on the by the drive-in a for the of socialism and the of Yet the for a but not vision can as out as the the embassy at the drive-in were a for a who came of in Dar es in the 1960s and 1970s. often socialism is as it were only and of but of a socialist drive-in that such a a and debated and many but the drive-in as a and space a young nation's were and are urban or with for the to and who and provided on of and provided by who at the of the African in and the in The and for the to and on by with who with on in Tanzania, many a to on socialism and the of the state in
This study characterizes as an exploratory qualitative case study, with the aim of analyzing the foundations of federal and state funding in Primary Healthcare of the municipalities of the state of Bahia, bringing light upon current conflicts after the deployment of the Pact for Health as well as the uncertainties that surrounded its funding. Data were collected in two stages, the first semi-structured interviews were conducted with closed and open questions, applied to current managers of the State Council of Municipal Health Secretaries of the State of Bahia (BA-COSEMS/ Conselho Estadual dos Secretrios de Sade-BA), in the second stage, it was developed a document review, through reading and analysis of ordinances, resolutions, state and federal, as well as minutes of meetings of the Managers Bipartite Commission (Comisso Intergestores Bipartite-CIB), which dealt with the theme Politics and funding of primary healthcare. It was observed that the issues, in relation to health financing, particularly Primary Healthcare, persist even after the institution of the Pact for Health. Therefore, it was concluded that decentralization will succeed when the amount of financial resources needed to meet commitments assumed to serve the population is adequate, and also when there is regular funding, increased resources for health by the three spheres of government. It is estimated to be necessary to discuss the
Meilė Jasienė, Arvydas Paškevičius, Ieva Astrauskaitė
Searching for alternative source of bank financing, the view on capital market is taken. Recent research on capital market issues are arranged into four dimensions: theory and assumptions of efficient capital market, government’s role in it, other distortions and global interrelatedness. Main investigations are decentralized and visualized in “theoretical eight” model. Conclusions made on the diversity of interpretation of market efficiency, strongly expressed demand of information symmetry, soft actions of governments and the value of foreign performance in domestic markets. Furthermore, new approach to the classification of countries by their maturity in capital market is argued. The state of art of 2009-2012 of bond market and government debt is briefly described.
I. M. A. Gomes, Íkaro Daniel de Carvalho Barreto, A. E. A. Paixão, S.L. RUSSO
As políticas de apoio ao empreendedorismo são fundamentais para a geração de novas empresas. No Brasil, capital semente, instalação de parques tecnológicos, programas de financiamento a juro zero e, subvenção econômica como o Programa Primeira Empresa Inovadora (PRIME) são exemplos de políticas de incentivo. Para execução do PRIME, em particular, a Agência Brasileira de Inovação (FINEP)descentralizou a operacionalização para que as incubadoras de empresas pudessem selecionar os projetos inovadores. Este artigo analisa o programa PRIME do Centro Incubador de Empresas do Estado de Sergipe (CISE), após o cálculo das médias e desvio-padrão das notas obtidas pelas empresas nos fatores de inovação, potencial de mercado, retorno econômico financeiro, estratégia de mercado e equipe e aplicação do teste Mann-Whintey. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT: Policies that support entrepreneurship are key to the generation of new business. In Brazil, seed \ncapital, installation of technology parks, programs and zero interest financing, economic subsidy as Program First Innovative Company(PRIME) are examples of incentive policies. For the implementation of PRIME, in particular the Brazilian Innovation Agency(FINEP) decentralized operationalization so that business incubator scould select the innovative projects. This paper analyzes the program PRIME Business Incubator Center of the State of Sergipe (CISE) after calculating theme an and standard deviation of the grades obtained by companies in the factors of \ninnovation, market potential, financial return economic, market strategy and staff and application of the Mann-Whintey, given by the Evaluation Committee. And we used the Mann-Whintey to understand the significant differences between the approved and disapproved. The results show the companies of the Information Technology (IT) capital had more success.
This paper critically accounts for why fiscal decentralization does not necessarily enhance revenue autonomy in the experience of Taiwan, as local governments do not pursue it. This experience is especially relevant to unitary countries that are undergoing both democratization and fiscal decentralization. This paper shows that, with inter‐jurisdictional competition, democratically elected local governments are inclined to pursue tax harmonization and have little incentive to maximize taxing powers even though doing so increases own‐source revenues. The local governments in Taiwan take a ‘mini‐max’ fiscal strategy, which involves minimizing changes to own‐source revenues while maximizing local expenditures. To finance increasing expenditures as a response to the demands of constituencies, local governments tend to press the central government to increase local government's tax bases, and to try to gain a greater share of intergovernmental transfers by having their administrative status upgraded. In summary, revenue autonomy is not being pursued by local governments because of political considerations. In a decentralized fiscal system, local governments can be fiscally accountable, but still irresponsible .
This study explored the opinions of central level extension employees about whether the Egyptian agricultural extension system needs to be reformed or not, and the alternatives they consider to be the best-fit options for extension in Egypt. The study covered 98 extension employees at the central level; findings show that all aspects of the Egyptian extension system are good candidates for reform and possible restructuring. These aspects could be ranked as financing, policy & organizational structure, staffing, and field operations as reported by 100%, 95%, 91%, and 68% of the respondents, respectively. Concerning the overall extension system, about 91% of the respondents reported that the Egyptian extension system is a good candidate for reform and possible restructuring. Findings also show that devolution, deconcentration, and delegation were the appropriate arrangements for extension decentralization as mentioned by 85%, 82%, and 55% of the respondents, respectively. Moreover, alternatives of providing and financing extension services were suggested and prioritized.
Many want to know what bitcoin is and how it works. But bitcoin is as complex as it is controversial, and relatively few have the technical background to understand it. In this paper, I offer an accessible on-ramp for understanding bitcoin in the form of a model. My model reveals both what bitcoin is and how it works. More specifically, it reveals that bitcoin is a fictional substance in a massively coauthored story on a network that automates and distributes jobs normally entrusted to centralized publishing institutions. My model therefore falsifies a popular view according to which each bitcoin is a chunk of code.
Funds of district development sourced from district of earning and budgeting (APBD) constrained when source of revenue rely on district revenue (PAD) as like as taxes. An act penetration innovatory solution is needed to solve the budget deficit problem such as the potency of Sharia bonds (Sukuk). This article discusses what kinds of potency that become strengths and weaknesses then how opportunities and challenges are faced by Banten Province in an effort to take advantage of sukuk as the source of development budgeting in Banten. Furthermore, what strategis are effective to apply in an attempt to make sukuk as the source of development budgeting in Banten. An analysis of classical SWOT (SWOT Analysis-K) used to solve the problem above. First step of SWOT-K analysis is identifying the internal and external factors faced by the Banten province to take advantage of sukuk as a source of development budgeting in Banten. Second is making combination of internal and external factors. Final step is formulating appropriate strategies to be sukuk as an alternative of development funding in Banten.
 Result of SWOT-K anafysis in Banten Province has the power of aspects of economic resources as basic capital to make use of sukuk for regional development budgeting. Whereas there are two weakness become obstacles, there are human resources and government management. Besides, the market opportunity to make use of sukuk is widely open because Banten Province is one of the provinces that have a positive economic growth. Opportunities become greater with decentralization right in district financial management, but faced challenges are none of juridis basis for the implementation of district sukuk. The existence of UU SBSN does not yet give potency for district to take advantage of sukuk as APBD because the utilization of new sukuk is allowed for APBN. Priority strategic is improving the quality of human resources in field of Sharia finance by increasing professionalism and accountability in management. Improvement of the
 quality of human resources is accompanied by efforts to encourage the central government and the legislature to revise the constitution of governing district finances in order that accommpodate the source of society loans as instrument of district Sharia bonds (sukuk).
 Keywords: Budgeting, Bonds, Sukuk, Banten, APBD.
Digital payment schemes show an ever increasing importance. Out of the countless different schemes available this article focuses on the popular Bitcoin system. The authors provide a description of Bitcoin's unique technological basis and its accompanying ecosystem of users, miners, trading platforms and vendors. Furthermore, this article discusses Bitcoin's currency-like features and the first regulatory actions take in the European Union and in the United States of America.
HERE I present a challenge to prioritarianism, which is, in Derek Parfit's words, the view that ‘we have stronger reasons to benefit people the worse off these people are’.1 We have such reasons, according to this view, simply by virtue of the fact that a person's ‘utility has diminishing marginal moral importance’2 —i.e., that equal improvements in a person's well-being matter less, morally speaking, the better off she is in absolute terms. It follows, from this view, that one might have stronger reason to benefit someone who is less well off rather than someone who is better off, even when this benefit would amount to a lesser increase in utility than a benefit to the better off person.3 In discussions of prioritarianism, it is often left unspecified what constitutes a greater, lesser, or equal improvement in a person's utility. In his own defence of prioritarianism, for example, Parfit explicitly prescinds from ‘difficult questions … about what it would be for some benefits to be greater than others’ and ‘simply assume[s] that we can distinguish between the size of different possible benefits’.4 Parfit just stipulates numerical benefits of different magnitudes that comprise intervals along a whole number cardinal scale that is meant to represent the absolute levels of people's utility in linear fashion.5 We are supposed to assume that this scale provides an accurate representation of people's utility. But we are not offered an account of what constitutes the measure of the size of the units on this scale. I shall argue that prioritarianism cannot be assessed in such abstraction from an account of the measure of utility. Rather, the soundness of this view crucially depends on what counts as a greater, lesser, or equal increase in a person's utility. In particular, prioritarianism cannot accommodate a normatively compelling measure of utility that is captured by the axioms of John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern's expected utility theory. Nor can it accommodate a plausible and elegant generalization of this theory that has been offered in response to challenges to von Neumann and Morgenstern. This is, I think, a theoretically interesting and unexpected source of difficulty for prioritarianism, which I shall explore in the remainder of this article. In presenting this challenge, it will be useful for me to begin with a case that is closely modelled on one that Thomas Nagel presents in his essay ‘Equality’6 —and with which Derek Parfit opens his Lindley Lecture ‘Equality or Priority?’7 Imagine that you are the parent of thirteen-year-old twins. For the sake of interpersonal comparability, let us assume that they are identical twins with identical preferences. They differ, however, in the following crucial respect: one of them has recently been diagnosed with a condition that will soon give rise to a severe mobility-impairing disability, but the other has been given a clean bill of health. You need to change jobs and must therefore choose whether to move your family to cramped urban accommodations in an unpleasant and dangerous neighbourhood or to the and of a would be as your own well-being is But they would not be as the well-being of of your is you move to the your who and will be in and but your will have to that will but from the of his you move to the your will but your will not this marginal benefit to the of a move to the I shall be greater than the marginal benefit to the of a move to the It that a would for the Nagel would that you have reason to move to the Parfit would that you have reason to move to the but would that this reason is rather than In other words, Parfit would that you to move to the simply on account of the fact that improvements in well-being matter the worse off someone is in absolute terms. of such to the worse off is Parfit an the is as well off someone is in to someone to be a matter of moral that on the view, is well off people are in absolute the worse off they the well-being It not and well off they are in to In of this view, Parfit that would be just as to benefit the even who better the following of case a case in which you have a this thirteen-year-old has recently a that is a that will soon the severe and a that will that you must for the in the or the it is whether your will the the marginal benefit to your of a move to the in would be greater than the marginal benefit to of a move to the the and to the view just as a reason to move to the in this case as one has in the this prioritarianism for a of of expected the in is utility. It for the of the of the of possible that might be the of this the the of such is by the that it will utility of given is the of utility in that person's utility has been the but marginal moral in the of by simply by this by the that this will such a expected the of a reason to move to the rather than the will be just as in the case as it is in the In of the Derek Parfit a and to than the one just the that Parfit a the expected of the in just the a But in to in such Parfit that the to the of are simply expected the on Parfit's to these well as to the a person's expected the greater the moral of a marginal increase of a given size to his expected In other words, not are the levels of a person's utility that are the different possible of a morally in a that the but is a person's expected of utility that is with a given in a person's expected utility and his utility and to it a with with a with I shall this Parfit's of Parfit this view by just as such as are to about the of people's of as well as the of the they can and have for people's for utility as well as for of utility prioritarianism less reason to move to the in the case as with the the will that the parent to move to the in the and it would be to move to the prioritarianism therefore the what one to move to the the of prioritarianism that to to of prioritarianism, the I shall in this is simply in along the of the other than between the possible of a you are simply to this person's expected rather than to to prioritarianism in or it is therefore to for the in the following is a of defence of this one as I that are one that will the measure of a person's such will to axioms of expected utility theory. It that you will this with an other than that which it is in his to you to his expected utility. fact provides you with reason to his expected utility rather than to this reason is not by reason that you or for example, or that in of to other than what is in this In this are that might from the of a It is for the to the in from of to you not have you are to your expected utility in this case on that this is what it would be for to is the of prioritarianism in or In this I have to a case a parent and a a case is useful it that the of the parent to this a for the of this will in to They a of the to the and other of this one in from the and of They therefore us with a case of prioritarianism than one in which an is by and is, however, an of the that it for these parent is the of his the of a is someone who is to the of a parent has a reason to that This reason will to to other of who are whether they benefits to they are not even I to the that the parent the expected utility of his one this might from his and to a of prioritarianism as on of to with case that better would be one that that to the to a rise to reasons to on of the of a that are to or other such as that of an who is to let us in the to that who must the the move to the or the are the rather than his This in the to you as your or and is to You are however, his parent is the it that parent is an of a of which you are a but someone to you have of or the parent is a you not of the the parent is has and you must whether to the parent to in a or in a as the of the parent and of the are for of these are it is for you to just on the in which this on the of your one and In this I would argue even the view that you you are to the parent in a that the expected utility of the I shall argue in you are to on that this is what it is for to I argue that you are to on that this is what it is for your to I will not your to in what to with different of reasons from to with preferences. We often have reasons to what someone even when such from what it would be for to We for example, have such reasons not to in I have of what the or what would I shall that the has such a move are to his you cannot the to his This is you must a to the parent to the or the you not will of these with from a different and the parent will be of a to your to of the this the of not in of the the or They not therefore in of or what it would be for the to as I shall in is a move to the we have to some on someone and we this would us to we that we to be or this plausible and view, it would be to on this person's some of the that this choose to or she this for we to give to possible in which this would be worse In this I shall I Parfit's on of prioritarianism in the In this Parfit of the view that it be for you to on of that it would be for you to choose for This view a of in which own to is not as to be But the view to which Parfit is that it be for you to on of that it would be for to choose for This view is a less plausible than the It is to it might be for you to on someone in a that would be for to choose than it is to it might be to on someone in a that would be for you to we assume that one to be to on of such an not a rather than a of the of it the for example, that you a in the has just an You have you that this has an equal of in or You can or a This would benefit by the of his in the that But it has the following it would by a in the that that the in utility between and the is greater than the in utility between the severe and you are a you will rather than this as is what the person's expected utility. however, you are a who greater moral to in utility the absolute you will this that a of a rather than is what the person's expected In this an who is to on of will what rather than prioritarianism as in this you you will this to the in which you in the You will however, be on his you rather than the we not on of in by to to might this but that what is is a in that on the of such to as well as on the in the utility of is an of This is a moral of utility is captured by a the utility and the the morally of that utility. For utility is captured by such a it from the measure of the to which someone has a or a that such a of that I would the that such the utility of a and to be Rather, it is that in of in are other than in the they are for the of the of as this is the Parfit will not be to such in of a of utility. This is as I have just with the example, such will move one to what rather than prioritarianism in that a that one not be the of that might will move one to as the would prioritarianism would one to the rather than I the of the Parfit that a is by a of or to a rather than a person's In the remainder of that I this In this I shall the following difficulty with Parfit's that one to in rather than in such as the the urban or the of difficulty is given the soundness of expected utility what prioritarianism in such to what it would be for the to the and of expected utility which to von Neumann and a cardinal scale of a person's utility is of that to axioms of and a and an but the of these axioms have been as of is a that a these axioms has a utility an of which is that the expected utility of one is greater than that of and the is to the of an will often to of these they them it would not that the von utility would a measure of the well-being of the in is to that to which the moral well the of an is would In for the utility to a measure of we will need to the of the to that are rather than or in It will be to these a person's might be by or by of even they to to the von In to the measure of will need to be along the of that the would have with this I shall assume that the that give rise to a person's utility are in and in along the just I therefore from the of that the that as the of expected utility theory are in and by what people would I John who that the and of as which that in this need not be to a representation of a person's preferences. can be a utility it the a would have she and are and in this it is not by virtue of the of that the these provides a measure of the utility to which Rather, we can the following in of the that the utility provides a measure of the person's utility that is of to prioritarianism, which is to well-being or she and she would of the one that is better for a that the she would have she and … we for the sake of that the von axioms are the of prioritarianism the following Parfit that prioritarianism would be in with the it be to that we to people in in which they not choose to be Parfit however, that the is not to choose that the his expected utility by to the Rather, according to the choose that his in a by to the his for such a are that is a one in that would be better for and this would be better for is that Parfit to that other than what is for the in from well would in with In other words, to the or of such a given that the move to the is of expected utility than a move to the we can from expected utility theory that it is in the to choose a move to the the it is in the to choose and what would his expected utility cannot in the that Parfit This is expected utility theory the magnitudes of a person's expected from it would be in the to choose a move to the the on Parfit's that is a one in that would be better for and this would be better for is it that such a move to the would his expected us to the of the the that the own utility is identical to This is and provides a of the view, for the following case for than the on one is cannot on in between the and the of the can it on other in that utility This is prioritarianism is the view own utility as with the utility of one to moral to the utility of the less well off they are in absolute terms. therefore even on the that utility are this not would it be in the to a move to the the for but it would be for his to a move to the the for she in his it would be for the to that his that on his and it would be for his to that that on she in his and in of these are they a of the benefits of the the in In of it is to it be as a would rather than for the to choose the the for for prioritarianism to which I have been have the that the von axioms are of It is, I a matter of whether or not of the axioms are such I would that the is such a In other words, for given of it not to be that an one to the other or be between the of that are not is the for a person's need not be axioms of and have stronger than the of to be of in the case of these however, have been such for the of of prioritarianism, I for reasons I shall in the to assume the soundness of the axioms of and diminishing marginal moral of utility that is as a of the of are as on a cardinal scale. a representation is, a that than is by the however, be to that the view would be these that are in to the It for example, be to that prioritarianism would not such as that accurate and cardinal of levels of utility on a linear scale. therefore to the of the for the sake of the soundness of his that utility can be in such however, one this that the of are in such as on a cardinal for the of the and of would be a cardinal representation is, for example, with the of to which people in to the of even the of can be as a number on a cardinal one will be with will be such that one will one to and the is a on this cardinal scale than the however, this is the such not to be of the cardinal scale of utility would for the soundness of the however, be on This is reasons to this are not by the that utility can be in cardinal given on the of the of the is than the other axioms to the between prioritarianism and in that in of the of expected utility in such that this the his might a challenge to the that the is a of that are in the In other words, for increase in a given of the of a one will have the for such an increase or the For example, an increase of in of a will be to the whether the increase is from a of to a of that from a of a to a or from a of a to a of that of that are linear in the has been by who a of from the as response to that an of which to be such as have offered of the as a of I view that this is a of however, one with the of and the of that to be linear in the it not that one must expected utility theory is the of a which the of expected utility theory that to the von in been or of expected utility theory that or in a that the that from of these from this have been as with a generalization of von Neumann and Morgenstern's theory that has to be as expected utility this theory the of in the it with the expected utility theory of von Neumann and the following crucial the of utility is a of It is this that has been the of in this for the of from what prioritarianism in the case of prioritarianism will one the axioms of von Neumann and with the axioms of the generalization of theory. can a along to in which the of a move to the it would be in the for someone who to these axioms to be with the of It will be for the reason as that prioritarianism for a of the moral of magnitudes have been by In some such a will a for a to in a that is to what it would be in the for the to I have however, that it is for a to choose in with such I the of this Parfit in his defence of prioritarianism, from ‘difficult questions … about what it would be for some benefits to be greater than I to have that such questions cannot be Rather, the soundness of the view on It is a of this view for the reasons I have just in this it cannot accommodate one of the and of and expected utility In to the of to between the possible of a of the that has been the of this Parfit must a normatively compelling von measure of utility along with the expected utility theory that has been offered as an to the soundness of this must a different measure of utility which is not a of that to axioms of It is plausible to that such measure will of some in to the cardinal scale of utility that prioritarianism of has been by a number of as an to expected utility of a cardinal scale of utility the a cardinal scale of utility is from people's between of of in of that are by or the measure of utility is from of that are to about rather than the will not a between and the of prioritarianism in In however, the on the for given of in that condition are of marginal utility. This is and normatively It is plausible to assume that the marginal utility of will the for the which such utility an of expected utility theory the of in which one is not one will the in plausible not a clean to expected utility theory I have in the that von expected utility theory cannot the measure of well-being to which Parfit moral of Parfit might the soundness of this might on Parfit's that it from this that Parfit must the axioms of that theory. Rather, it is to Parfit to the view that the axioms are an accurate of of the of the that the measure of even when the in are to that are ‘utility of expected utility theory might simply a cardinal measure of the of the rather than a measure of Parfit can simply the von measure of well-being the of that the axioms are axioms of a of a person's well-being from what it would be in to is however, to this would be with the account of reasons, and the that and in to this account is the of the on which the of his In this of the to a person's Parfit that when ‘we some possible for in the we that this is the that this would have the reasons to to Parfit a between and In a are … when we give us reasons to are not … when we some that we have reasons not to and reasons, or reasons, to This of off the of the we Parfit's own to one reasons to a between and the measure of a person's of a such a that a person's and different that she might will be that is, they are that not other about the amount of some Rather, these the of which of a scale of of well-being This is is measure of the of different that to a person's I with that the fact of the that the measure of I not an of is to the case for a the to well-being of a of or the cardinal measure of or I think, be by preferences. for example, that the to well-being of a of the is the of to the cardinal measure of the of this It would be a to on a cardinal measure that in such as the number of that are of as might not give rise to that is as as even in the case of of the or of the as they the and of might be of greater or lesser on or well is This would be by the fact that it might be in to own to of such is to it is even we assume that these are in It would from the that is the that equal of are must be to Rather, of might have diminishing marginal to the absolute of well-being of the who We would to a between of and the of in to the of that the of has diminishing marginal the measure of the of are to the following that Parfit on of Parfit that prioritarianism from the fact that we have greater reason to that is off than we have to that person's she is an of the us to a case of someone by the on the of the that she has just … is by of and by the Parfit would that a moral would have reason to that person's rather than of an that the measure of utility however, have account the of from a given of one is well off or This is that from the of as well as the of a I in of of the of that it might be for a to from a of his is from that of his is it would be for the to will have account the of or is would to be for the to of the in the that is off even in would be of such provides for that it would be for the to expected utility by for the rather than the in with the of In that the is to expected utility rather than in I have been that the of for this of is in other than his to about his in the matter in other I have to one well the would in with I have is that the case for the to the the might be in other than the or of the or of it might be in might be as a of according to which the of utility is to the that this is what is from an of view rather than from the of the or of moral a would not be by the fact that the view a that is from the of view of the of the has a in the Rather, would that such a is on the of the that the would a better the to the in of the fact it would be from the of his own and for to such a what us about is not the but the by the It is the of the the need of the the of the and fact that they are worse off in the than is But it is not as an of is in that is greater, need and therefore for the the the and not for us give them It is when the is on a for and the of and other that the case for prioritarianism is when it an that from such of Parfit's and defence of prioritarianism is to that about that to in well be captured by a prioritarianism that is in moral view this of prioritarianism to which Parfit in his Lindley one not need to well off will or might be in to the of reason to benefit a given it not well off are in to of moral reason to someone a benefit can be simply from about his absolute of as well as in in the case of the in prioritarianism an to and other to in this prioritarianism, in or has been that it not a to that the moral of This is in to of the that has been the of this to in such a one be rather than to that in the that by give of to a worse off in other the of different such as the case with which I This provides for the that it is not simply on account of absolute expected or or a of the we benefits to the off than benefits to the well Rather, it is when and some or will or might worse off than that we must to benefits to We give to the worse off it that some are worse off than and not simply of absolute prioritarianism not
Norm R.C. Campbell, Daniel T. Lackland, Graham A. MacGregor
The World Health Organization (WHO) aided by investigators from the Cochrane Collaboration published an updated review of randomized trials and prospective cohort studies on dietary sodium conducted in healthy populations.1, 2 Their quantitative analyses indicated that sodium intake <2000 mg/d was associated with reductions in blood pressure. In cohort studies, higher sodium intake was associated with a 24% higher risk of stroke, a 63% higher risk of stroke death, and a 32% higher risk of coronary heart disease death. There was inadequate statistical power to address other endpoints in the analysis. There was no adverse effect on lipids, catecholamines, or renal function in adults with less sodium intake. High dietary sodium intake caused higher blood pressure in children.1 These findings resulted in a renewed WHO recommendation for dietary sodium to be <2000 mg/d in adults and to even less in children based on their relatively lower caloric requirements. The American Heart Association also recently updated its comprehensive review of the literature reiterating its recommendation for dietary sodium to be less than 1500 mg/d.3 Biomedical, evolutionary, and aspects of epidemiologic and clinical research were not included in the WHO review but also strongly support harmful effects of “higher than physiological levels” of dietary sodium.2-12 A wide variety of animal species exposed to higher than physiological levels of dietary sodium develop hypertension, vascular, cardiac, and renal adverse outcomes.4, 13 To our knowledge, barring settings of acute sodium depletion, there is no animal species in which higher than physiological sodium intake improves health, and, in all settings, sodium-induced hypertension is harmful. Increased dietary sodium is a procarcinogen in animal studies (gastric cancer) and is associated with gastric cancer in human studies,14, 15 particularly in association with Helicobacter pylori infection. Adult human physiological sodium needs are <1000 mg based on analyses in “hunter gather” populations or analyses of “primitive” diets.16, 17 Societies where sodium intakes remain <1000 mg have no increase in blood pressure with age and hypertension is uncommon.4 If people from the hunter-gather societies who consume physiological levels of dietary sodium migrate to communities where there is high sodium intake or if sodium is introduced into their society's food supply, blood pressure increases and vascular diseases develop.4, 18 Reducing dietary sodium in communities or populations has been associated with reduced blood pressure and vascular events.4 In clinical trials, lowering dietary sodium reduces blood pressure,4 and there is no evidence for less of an impact of reduced dietary sodium on blood pressure at the lowest levels of sodium intake tested (1200 mg sodium). It is estimated that there are up to 3.1 million sodium-related deaths per year and that reducing dietary sodium is one of the most effective (and cost-effective) interventions to improve health.19 Two reviews have recently generated controversy. A review by Yusuf and colleagues proclaims that “there is no convincing evidence that moderate intake of sodium (3–5 g/d2) is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared with lower levels of sodium consumption.”20 However, there are several issues regarding the conclusions reported. The methodology employed in the Yusuf review is similar to many of the previous critiques of attempts to reduce dietary sodium towards physiological levels in (1) not being a systematic review (there is not even a pretense of being comprehensive), (2) selectively highlighting inconsistent studies rather than totality of evidence, (3) dismissing or ignoring substantive science that indicates harm from increased dietary sodium, (4) citing research findings that find sodium reduction harmful as facts while not disclosing the study's major design and methodological flaws as likely explanations, and (5) not clearly indicating how divergent their opinion is but rather implying they are clarifying scientific understanding.21 Thus, this review may be affected by bias in selection and only focuses on selected studies rather than the full body of evidence. The 2013 report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) also claimed that the evidence supporting dietary sodium intake <2300 mg was “inconclusive,”22 but the IOM did not dispute the evidence for reducing sodium to this level. The IOM review was conducted largely by epidemiologists and several aspects of their review are flawed. The perspective that adding sodium to food has the potential to harm the public does not seem to have been the prime consideration. The main consideration was to assess whether interventions to reduce dietary sodium directly reduce cardiovascular disease. The review focused on recent controlled trials and cohort studies on sodium intake <2300 mg/d and on sodium reduction in the settings of disease. Although (1) hypertension is the most expensive cardiovascular disease category in the United States, (2) impacts 30% of the adult population, (3) there is a causal relationship between blood pressure and cardiovascular disease to the extent hypertension is the leading global risk for death and disability, and (4) 30% of hypertension is caused by increased dietary sodium, the IOM committee did not consider sodium-induced hypertension to be an outcome on which to base recommendations.23, 24 Furthermore many of the invited experts presenting at the public program of the IOM had in the past made public statements against lowering dietary sodium and or disclosed financial interests.22 The IOM committee examined cohort studies qualitatively and noted many had substantive methodological flaws. For example, nearly all the studies that did not find a benefit of sodium intake <2300 mg/d controlled for blood pressure and hence were not designed to assess sodium outcomes related to blood pressure. The controversial publication by Stolarz-Skrzypek and colleagues represents an example of where it was concluded that high salt intake did not cause cardiovascular disease, even though blood pressure was controlled.25 Some of the studies that did not find benefits of lower sodium intake used estimates of sodium intake that were frail and one even retrospectively assessed random spot urine sodium in trials where about 30% of participants were prescribed diuretic therapy. A series of 4 studies, representing a significant proportion of the research, were conducted by a single research group, all finding that high dietary sodium was associated with reduced disease. In addition, the senior investigator on that research team was a consultant with the Salt Institute. Two of the same databases were examined by other investigators and the repeat analyses found harm from increased sodium intake (albeit only in obese patients in one analysis).26-30 The refuted studies were still considered by the IOM (as were the refuting studies) without comment. The meta-analysis of cohort studies in healthy populations conducted by WHO does not seem to have been considered, or the updated Cochrane analysis.31, 32 Many of the cohort studies considered by the IOM were conducted in patients with substantive disease where people ingesting lower sodium were likely to be much sicker and sick people do not eat leading to a reduced sodium intake, ie, reverse causality. Perhaps most notable were a series of unusual but large randomized controlled trials conducted in patients with heart failure. Those with heart failure were treated with large, fixed doses of furosemide 500 to 1000 mg/d as well as spironolactone and drugs designed to block the renin-angiotensin system. Even though they had features of salt and water depletion, they were then randomized to lower dietary sodium and water intake and found to have worse outcomes. That it is possible to harm patients with heart failure who are sodium and volume depleted by very high doses of furosemide (or any other mechanism) and then restricting sodium and water is not surprising. It is surprising that such trial evidence is considered when clinical recommendations are to individualize use of diuretics and to use diuretics only to reduce clinical evidence of excess fluid.33 However, a meta-analysis of these studies has now been withdrawn due to obvious discrepancies in some of the results and therefore these heart failure trial results can no longer be considered until reanalysis of original data by an independent committee is published. Low-quality and poorly designed research on dietary sodium has become common and is a major source of controversy. Such studies are those (1) in patients with diseases with a high probability of reverse causality (in cohort studies, patients with more severe disease are likely to have worse outcomes but also likely to eat less sodium), (2) with flimsy assessment of sodium intake in settings where multiple days of carefully performed 24-hour urine sodium assessments (or in some specific circumstances dietary assessment) are needed to reliably define an individual's sodium intake, (3) that control for blood pressure (the major mechanism for sodium causing harm), (4) that do not adequately control for other substantive confounding factors, and (5) that disregard confounding pharmacologic agents (diuretics and antihypertensive drugs). Another potential marker of a low-quality study is when the author's discussion cites only evidence that supports the manuscript's findings without the context of the overall literature and its interpretation. There is a need for developing and setting standards for clinical research on dietary sodium. Such standards could be used by researchers in designing studies, funding bodies in assessing proposals, journal reviewers, and editorial bodies in selecting articles to publish. Setting standards have been successfully utilized in the past to improve designs for conducting clinical trials and systematic reviews but have not been disease-specific. WHO or major international scientific organizations could develop such standards. Notably, the Pan American Health Organization (of WHO) Technical Advisory Group on dietary salt reduction has proposed to develop such standards. Humans evolved on <1000 mg of sodium per day. There is an estimated 3.1 million deaths per year attributed to the widespread addition of sodium to food (making sodium additives to food one of the most lethal and disabling interventions of industrialization) and little evidence to select a safe threshold of adding sodium to food. Requiring incontrovertible proof of benefit to reduce dietary sodium to a given level is a food industry commercial perspective on a major public health issue. Establishing a safe level (if there is one) for the addition of sodium to food is the public health question at issue. Indeed, if incontrovertible proof for other aspects of nutrition is required, no public health policy on nutrition would be advocated, eg, no action on obesity, fruit and vegetable consumption, trans fats, saturated fat, and sugar consumption. The IOM, even with their limited scope, should have estimated the numbers of Americans with hypertension related to sodium intake >2300 mg/d vs <2300 mg/d and the direct costs. Given the public health context and causing hypertension in a large number of people, the IOM would likely have concluded (as have all other scientific review bodies, including the 2013 WHO report) that reducing dietary salt to <2300 mg/d is one of the more important health interventions to improve health. Another factor likely generating controversy is the examination of select research without the context that is known about dietary sodium or the context of public health research on food (where sodium has been more extensively and thoroughly studied than other nutrients). Performing limited reviews of the evidence, by those with great expertise in narrow areas of research with select perspectives on what constitutes acceptable evidence, does not seem to be a reasonable mechanism to address a major societal public health issue. The IOM review focused on limited evidence (cohort studies and randomized controlled trials published after 2003 with limited outcomes [mostly cardiovascular]). Given the importance, with the millions of lives and billions of dollars at stake, only comprehensive reviews of all the evidence by committees with broad expertise, conducted under the auspices of highly regarded institutions, should be considered relevant. Another major factor that has likely generated controversy is financial conflicts of interest. The food and salt industry has been active in promoting commercial interpretations of the evidence. Salt Institute consultants and staff regularly provide commentary and assist with media releases that support a commercially beneficial perspective sometimes without disclosure. Quite worrying are instances where academics have received funding or been consultants with the food industry but not disclosed, or even in some settings denied, these associations. The food/salt sector has (1) sponsored reviews of the sodium evidence, which counter those of the health and scientific community, and were published in an academic journal without disclosure of commercial interests and continue to be disseminated free of charge34 (International Life Sciences Institute Web site accessed June 19, 2013), (2) continued to invite dissident scientists to present at sponsored symposia, (3) developed educational material on the health benefits of sodium for schools, and (4) even promoted that sodium intake is associated with greater intelligence and longevity (http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2769/rr/582338). Newspapers and even scientific journals require readerships to be commercially viable and seem to promote controversy around dietary sodium. The commercial sector and those with commercial interest should have a very limited and defined role in conducting and interpreting pivotal health research and an even lesser role in the policy development stage. Further, governments could and should hold and allow the public to hold industry and their consultants accountable for health costs, death, and disability. The more comprehensive and systematic the review, the more credible the review institution and reviewers, the less commercial influence in the review, and the better the science the less controversial the efforts to normalize sodium ingestion are. Much controversy is generated by limited or low-quality reviews, science, are commercial interests. Efforts to address these issues are needed to guide efforts to improve the health and well-being of our populations. Reducing dietary sodium by 30% is one of the agreed targets approved by the United Nations and the World Health Assembly, and reducing dietary salt to <2000 mg/d is one of a few recommended best buys to reduce noncommunicable diseases by WHO. There is an urgent need for coordinated actions by governments, industry, academia, and civil society to reduce dietary salt to maintain health and well-being.
Dániel Kondor, Márton Pósfai, István Csabai, Gábor Vattay
The possibility to analyze everyday monetary transactions is limited by the scarcity of available data, as this kind of information is usually considered highly sensitive. Present econophysics models are usually employed on presumed random networks of interacting agents, and only macroscopic properties (e.g. the resulting wealth distribution) are compared to real-world data. In this paper, we analyze BitCoin, which is a novel digital currency system, where the complete list of transactions is publicly available. Using this dataset, we reconstruct the network of transactions, and extract the time and amount of each payment. We analyze the structure of the transaction network by measuring network characteristics over time, such as the degree distribution, degree correlations and clustering. We find that linear preferential attachment drives the growth of the network. We also study the dynamics taking place on the transaction network, i.e. the flow of money. We measure temporal patterns and the wealth accumulation. Investigating the microscopic statistics of money movement, we find that sublinear preferential attachment governs the evolution of the wealth distribution. We report a scaling relation between the degree and wealth associated to individual nodes.
Up-to-date market dynamics and intense competition have forced a production system to be more widely distributed and decentralized than ever, and the production system itself can be regarded as a collaborative network of autonomous production resources in which the responsibility of decision making is also decentralized into individual autonomous entities. The conventional resource management models, however, are not suitable for the distributed and decentralized environment because of their centralized nature. In this paper, an agent-based resource management model is proposed. The proposed model applies employment relation-driven fractal organization (FrOrg) into organizational model for distributed production resources and presents a resource management framework based on employment contracts. The fractal organization is a structured association in which a self-similar pattern recursively appears, and employment relations between production resources are recursively constructed throughout the entire production system.
The present work aims to study the public finances and the economic behavior of Municipalities alagoanos between the years 1999/2010, using the fiscal and economic indicators commonly used. Therefore, it is considered the theoretical training of Public Finance, the influence of government in the economy to theoretical assumptions about the process of decentralization / centralization in Brazil. The Constitution of 1988 is a milestone in the pursuit of decentralized fiscal federalism, since from that moment, the municipalities now receive the status of a federated entity and had the largest increase in revenues and collection mechanisms itself. Thus, subnational, closer to the wishes of the population could more effectively meet the state's role in the production of public goods and the solution of the demands of the population. However, in the years after the Constitution of 1988, the political changes in the country, especially with Brazil's adherence to the neoliberal project, the advent of the plan and the actual enactment of the Fiscal Responsibility Law, led to a new process of fiscal centralization in Brazil, with consequences for the 5565 Brazilian municipalities. In this context, it is statistically analyzed the finances and economy of the municipalities in Alagoas. The GDP of them indicate the growth of the service sector and centralization of wealth in a small number of cities, as well as the lack of dynamics in small towns, which the government has the primary component in your product. The analysis of municipal finances, with the support of development indicators and the index itself FIRJAN fiscal management, confirm the initial assumptions of the work: the low collection itself, high dependence on federal transfers, effort and compliance with the limits established by LRF for personnel expenses and low levels of investment. Thus, the main findings indicate that the decentralization process of the 1988 Constitution was undermined by the next decade, penalizing the poorest municipalities in case of most in Alagoas.
As the last Soviet republic to become an independent nation, Kazakhstan has worked diligently to transform and develop its educational system including systemic changes related to decentralization, financing changes, and the shift to a credit system. A professional health sciences education workshop delivered in Kazakhstan exemplifies progressive educational approaches. Attendees were educators from universities across Kazakhstan. The workshop was the product of collaboration between educators in the United States and Kazakhstan. Team-based learning was both a pedagogic method and topic of the workshop. Technology played a central role in the workshop, as it was integral to workshop development, collaboration, and evaluation. Furthermore, technology became a key content area of the workshop, as the educators presented advances in technology and specific tools to aid in the education of future medical professionals in Kazakhstan. In the months following the workshop, attendees embraced the challenge to take what they have learned back to their own universities by telling their stories. Using the collaborative learning approach and technological tools from the workshop, the attendees‘ spirit of sharing reflects the dynamic development of education in Kazakhstan in the post-Soviet era
Open access
Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Biomedical Research
Central Asia Education and Culture
Legal, Health, Environmental and COVID-19 Challenges
Alina Florentina Cucos, Кукош, А., Trif, N., Триф, Н. · 5 authors
Water supply and sewerage services represent utilities that must be provided to all users, both the urban and the rural. The responsibility to ensure these services in terms of non-discrimination and affordability belongs to the local authorities, which in the spirit of decentralization have exclusive jurisdiction on their establishment, organization and operation. Regardless of the chosen management, the funding of water supply and sewerage services, is accomplished by means of the prices and tariffs paid by the users. Their quantum, specific to some social services, covers the costs without allowing the accumulation of consistent profit margins, which would ensure the development of the specific infrastructure from the operators' own funds. It is therefore necessary that funding for the creation and rehabilitation of water supply and sewerage systems to be provided from other sources than the budgets of operators, such as: budgetary allocations of local public authorities, government or European funding programs. This paper is of interest because it captures just how the prices and tariffs for these services are composed, and the entire procedure for foundation, adjustment and modification that follows different rules from those of pricing in the market economy, and it provides a review of the types of programs through which the development of the specific technical-urban infrastructure and the significant increase in the number of users in the past 25 years.