Environmental policies in a differentiated oligopoly revisited

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fujiwara, Kenji [School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin Univ., Uegahara 1-1-155, Nishinomiya, Hyogo 662-8501 (Japan)

2009-08-15

Constructing a model of polluting oligopoly with product differentiation, we consider how product differentiation, together with the presence and absence of free entry, affects optimal pollution tax/subsidy policies. The sign of the short- and long-run optimal pollution taxes are highly sensitive to the parameter measuring product differentiation as well as the presence of free entry. How they are affected by a change in product differentiation, which is not addressed in the existing literature, is also made clear. (author)

The selective use of emergency shipments for service-contract differentiation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alvarez, Elisa; van der Heijden, Matthijs C.; Zijm, Willem H.M.

2013-01-01

Suppliers of capital goods increasingly offer performance-based service contracts with customer-specific service levels. We use selective emergency shipments of spare parts to differentiate logistic performance: We apply emergency shipments in out-of-stock situations for combinations of parts and

Efficient Web Services Policy Combination

Science.gov (United States)

Vatan, Farrokh; Harman, Joseph G.

2010-01-01

Large-scale Web security systems usually involve cooperation between domains with non-identical policies. The network management and Web communication software used by the different organizations presents a stumbling block. Many of the tools used by the various divisions do not have the ability to communicate network management data with each other. At best, this means that manual human intervention into the communication protocols used at various network routers and endpoints is required. Developing practical, sound, and automated ways to compose policies to bridge these differences is a long-standing problem. One of the key subtleties is the need to deal with inconsistencies and defaults where one organization proposes a rule on a particular feature, and another has a different rule or expresses no rule. A general approach is to assign priorities to rules and observe the rules with the highest priorities when there are conflicts. The present methods have inherent inefficiency, which heavily restrict their practical applications. A new, efficient algorithm combines policies utilized for Web services. The method is based on an algorithm that allows an automatic and scalable composition of security policies between multiple organizations. It is based on defeasible policy composition, a promising approach for finding conflicts and resolving priorities between rules. In the general case, policy negotiation is an intractable problem. A promising method, suggested in the literature, is when policies are represented in defeasible logic, and composition is based on rules for non-monotonic inference. In this system, policy writers construct metapolicies describing both the policy that they wish to enforce and annotations describing their composition preferences. These annotations can indicate whether certain policy assertions are required by the policy writer or, if not, under what circumstances the policy writer is willing to compromise and allow other assertions to take

Simulation of logical traffic isolation using differentiated services

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Dlamini, I

2009-06-01

Full Text Available This paper extends work on a forensic model for traffic isolation based on Differentiated Services (DiffServ) and measures its performance by using a simulation. The simulated model has four basic components: traffic generators, the DiffServ network...

Advancing LGBT Elder Policy and Support Services: The Massachusetts Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Krinsky, Lisa; Cahill, Sean R

2017-12-01

The Massachusetts-based LGBT Aging Project has trained elder service providers in affirming and culturally competent care for LGBT older adults, supported development of LGBT-friendly meal programs, and advanced LGBT equality under aging policy. Working across sectors, this innovative model launched the country's first statewide Legislative Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Aging. Advocates are working with policymakers to implement key recommendations, including cultural competency training and data collection in statewide networks of elder services. The LGBT Aging Project's success provides a template for improving services and policy for LGBT older adults throughout the country.

NASA policy on pricing shuttle launch services

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, J. M.

1977-01-01

The paper explains the rationale behind key elements of the pricing policy for STS, the major features of the non-government user policy, and some of the stimulating features of the policy which will open space to a wide range of new users. Attention is given to such major policy features as payment schedule, cost and standard services, the two phase pricing structure, optional services, shared flights, cancellation and postponement, and earnest money.

Evidence-based policy versus morality policy: the case of syringe access programs.

Science.gov (United States)

de Saxe Zerden, Lisa; O'Quinn, Erin; Davis, Corey

2015-01-01

Evidence-based practice (EBP) combines proven interventions with clinical experience, ethics, and client preferences to inform treatment and services. Although EBP is integrated into most aspects of social work and public health, at times EBP is at odds with social policy. In this article the authors explore the paradox of evidence-based policy using syringe access programs (SAP) as a case example, and review methods of bridging the gap between the emphasis on EBP and lack of evidence informing SAP policy. Analysis includes the overuse of morality policy and examines historical and current theories why this paradox exists. Action steps are highlighted for creating effective policy and opportunities for public health change. Strategies on reframing the problem and shifting target population focus to garner support for evidence-based policy change are included. This interdisciplinary understanding of the way in which these factors converge is a critical first step in moving beyond morality-based policy toward evidence-based policy.

Does Head Start differentially benefit children with risks targeted by the program's service model?

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Elizabeth B; Farkas, George; Duncan, Greg J

Data from the Head Start Impact Study ( N = 3540) were used to test for differential benefits of Head Start after one program year and after kindergarten on pre-academic and behavior outcomes for children at risk in the domains targeted by the program's comprehensive services. Although random assignment to Head Start produced positive treatment main effects on children's pre-academic skills and behavior problems, residualized growth models showed that random assignment to Head Start did not differentially benefit the pre-academic skills of children with risk factors targeted by the Head Start service model. The models showed detrimental impacts of Head Start for maternal-reported behavior problems of high-risk children, but slightly more positive impacts for teacher-reported behavior. Policy implications for Head Start are discussed.

Pricing strategies and service differentiation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mandjes, M.R.H.

2004-01-01

This paper analyzes a communication network, used by customers with heterogeneous service requirements. We investigate priority queueing as a way to establish service differentiation. It is assumed that there is an infinite population of customers, who join the network as long as their utility

Worldwide policies on epilepsy and blood donation: a survey among blood services.

Science.gov (United States)

Kellens, A; De Buck, E; Emonds, M-P; Vandekerckhove, P; Lagae, L

2018-02-01

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder characterized by the appearance of seizures. Often, epilepsy patients are temporarily or permanently excluded from blood donation. To gain a better understanding of the policies that are currently applied, we performed a survey among blood services. A cross-sectional, Web-based questionnaire using the online Questback tool was developed and distributed to 46 representatives of blood services worldwide. The questionnaire was composed of nine questions. A total of 27 respondents, representing blood services in 26 countries on five continents, participated in the survey. Current policies range from permanent acceptance over temporary exclusion to permanent exclusion. Rationales for these different policies are diverse. The majority of blood services (59·3%) apply temporary exclusion as their policy, though no consensus exists on the length of time that epilepsy patients have to be medication-free or seizure-free. None of the respondents could provide data about adverse events in epilepsy patients during the blood donation process. The results of this survey indicate a large discrepancy in policies applied worldwide. A lack of scientific evidence could be one of the underlying reasons. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to further research the potential risks for donors and recipients regarding blood donation by people with epilepsy. This can then serve as a base for evidence-based policymaking and lead to safer and more effective blood transfusion programmes. © 2018 International Society of Blood Transfusion.

Is there a relationship between service integration and differentiation and patient outcomes?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robin P. Newhouse

2003-11-01

Full Text Available Objective: To examine the level of service integration within Maryland hospitals and service differentiation across the hospital system or network and its affect on heart failure patient clinical and economic outcomes. Data sources/Study setting: Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission Inpatient Data for 1997 and 1998 were used for secondary data analysis. Study design: Retrospective cross sectional. Independent variables were the level of service integration and differentiation created from the 1998 American Hospital Association Annual Survey based on the work of Bazzoli et al. [1]. The primary dependent variables were readmission, in-hospital mortality, length of stay and costs. Data collection/Extraction methods: Patients discharged from Maryland hospitals with a diagnosis that grouped to DRG 127 (heart failure were extracted. Multivariate linear and logistic models clustered by hospital were used to analyse results at the patient level. Principal findings: A higher likelihood of readmission was found as the level of Community Differentiation increased. Although costs were higher as Total Differentiation increased in 1998, these results were not validated by 1997 data. No significant relationship was found between integration of services and outcomes. Conclusions: Similar outcomes were achieved regardless of the level of service integration or differentiation. Community hospitals produce similar patient outcomes at the same cost for this diagnosis.

Government food service policies and guidelines do not create healthy school canteens.

Science.gov (United States)

de Silva-Sanigorski, Andrea; Breheny, Tara; Jones, Laura; Lacy, Kathleen; Kremer, Peter; Carpenter, Lauren; Bolton, Kristy; Prosser, Lauren; Gibbs, Lisa; Waters, Elizabeth; Swinburn, Boyd

2011-04-01

In 2006, the Victorian Government adopted the School Canteens and other school Food Services (SCFS) Policy that bans the sale of sweet drinks and confectionary and recommends the proportions of menu items based on a traffic light system of food classification. This study aims to determine whether compliance with the policy improves the nutritional profile of the menus. Items from food service menus were assessed for compliance with the SCFS policy and categorised as 'everyday' ('green'), 'select carefully' ('amber') or 'occasionally' ('red') (n=106). Profile analysis assessed differences in the nutritional profile of the menus between sub-groups. Overall, 37% of menus contained items banned under the policy. The largest proportion of items on the assessed menus were from the 'amber' category (mean: 51.0%), followed by 'red' (29.3%) and 'green' (20.3%). No menus met the traffic light-based recommendations and there was no relationship between policy compliance and the proportion of items in each of the three categories. To increase the healthiness of the school food service we recommend a greater investment in resources and infrastructure to implement existing policies, and establishing stronger monitoring and support systems. © 2011 The Authors. ANZJPH © 2011 Public Health Association of Australia.

Directed technical change and differentiation of climate policy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Otto, Vincent M.; Loeschel, Andreas; Reilly, John

2008-01-01

This paper studies the cost effectiveness of climate policy if there are technology externalities. For this purpose, we develop a forward looking model that captures empirical links between CO 2 emissions associated with energy use, directed technical change and the economy. We find our most cost effective climate policy to include a combination of R and D subsidies and CO 2 emission constraints, although R and D subsidies raise the shadow value of the CO 2 constraint (i.e. CO 2 price) because of a strong rebound effect from stimulating innovation. Furthermore, we find that cost effectiveness of climate policy improves if it is differentiated between technologies. Even our rudimentary distinction between CO 2 intensive technologies and non-CO 2 intensive technologies lead to this result. Such differentiated climate policy encourages growth in the non-CO 2 intensive sectors and discourages growth in CO 2 intensive sectors by harnessing positive effects of technology externalities on total factor productivity in the former and letting the latter bear relatively more of the abatement burden. This result is robust to whether emission constraints, R and D subsidies or combinations of both are used as climate policy instruments. (author)

Differentiation of car rental services in the Croatian market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karolina Karlo Marijanović

2010-06-01

Full Text Available A number of service companies focus on service differentiation nowadays. The companies that manage to deliver superior service are winners and may serve as an example of how the growth of services has changed business. The first part of the paper presents an analysis of the Croatian car rental services market. The theoretical part of the paper provides an insight into the characteristics of services in general, followed by an overview of the characteristics and features of the companies operating in the local market. The second part of the paper deals with the work of Porter and his three generic strategies, and with his differentiation strategy in particular. Subsequently, all possibilities of differentiation strategies that are appropriate to the car rental services are analyzed. Beside global recession, the Croatian market is currently also struggling with huge competition and companies cannot generate profit without continuous differentiation of all elements of service. In the third chapter the following hypothesis is set: By a continuous differentiation of all elements of the services marketing mix small businesses can compete with large international companies. Acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis is shown by the research conducted among users of the specific service. Its results fully confirm the set hypothesis. The fact that, despite global recession, the majority of respondents believes the survival of small- and medium-sized companies which continuously differentiate their business activities to be unquestionable is indeed encouraging.

A Scalable Policy and SNMP Based Network Management Framework

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

LIU Su-ping; DING Yong-sheng

2009-01-01

Traditional SNMP-based network management can not deal with the task of managing large-scaled distributed network,while policy-based management is one of the effective solutions in network and distributed systems management. However,cross-vendor hardware compatibility is one of the limitations in policy-based management. Devices existing in current network mostly support SNMP rather than Common Open Policy Service (COPS) protocol. By analyzing traditional network management and policy-based network management, a scalable network management framework is proposed. It is combined with Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) framework for policybased management and SNMP-based network management. By interpreting and translating policy decision to SNMP message,policy can be executed in traditional SNMP-based device.

Provider cost analysis supports results-based contracting out of maternal and newborn health services: an evidence-based policy perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Hatcher, Peter; Shaikh, Shiraz; Fazli, Hassan; Zaidi, Shehla; Riaz, Atif

2014-11-13

There is dearth of evidence on provider cost of contracted out services particularly for Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH). The evidence base is weak for policy makers to estimate resources required for scaling up contracting. This paper ascertains provider unit costs and expenditure distribution at contracted out government primary health centers to inform the development of optimal resource envelopes for contracting out MNH services. This is a case study of provider costs of MNH services at two government Rural Health Centers (RHCs) contracted out to a non-governmental organization in Pakistan. It reports on four selected Basic Emergency Obstetrical and Newborn Care (BEmONC) services provided in one RHC and six Comprehensive Emergency Obstetrical and Newborn Care (CEmONC) services in the other. Data were collected using staff interviews and record review to compile resource inputs and service volumes, and analyzed using the CORE Plus tool. Unit costs are based on actual costs of MNH services and are calculated for actual volumes in 2011 and for volumes projected to meet need with optimal resource inputs. The unit costs per service for actual 2011 volumes at the BEmONC RHC were antenatal care (ANC) visit USD$ 18.78, normal delivery US$ 84.61, newborn care US$ 16.86 and a postnatal care (PNC) visit US$ 13.86; and at the CEmONC RHC were ANC visit US$ 45.50, Normal Delivery US$ 148.43, assisted delivery US$ 167.43, C-section US$ 183.34, Newborn Care US$ 41.07, and PNC visit US$ 27.34. The unit costs for the projected volumes needed were lower due to optimal utilization of resources. The percentage distribution of expenditures at both RHCs was largest for salaries of technical staff, followed by salaries of administrative staff, and then operating costs, medicines, medical and diagnostic supplies. The unit costs of MNH services at the two contracted out government rural facilities remain higher than is optimal, primarily due to underutilization. Provider cost analysis

Demand-based provision of housing, welfare and care services to elderly clients: from policy to daily practice through operations management.

Science.gov (United States)

de Blok, Carolien; Meijboom, Bert; Luijkx, Katrien; Schols, Jos

2009-03-01

Practical implementation of notions such as patient-orientation, client-centredness, and demand-driven care is far from straightforward in care and service supply to elderly clients living independently. This paper aims to provide preliminary insights into how it is possible to bridge the gap between policy intent, which reflects an increasing client orientation, and actual practice of care and service provision. Differences in personal objectives and characteristics generate different sets of needs among elderly clients that must have an appropriate response in the daily routines of care and service providers. From a study of the available literature and by conceptual reasoning, we identify several important operational implications of client-oriented care and service provision. To deal with these implications the authors turn to the field of operations management. This field has deepened the understanding of translating an organisation's policy into daily activities and working methods. More specifically, we elaborate on the concept of modularity, which stems from the field of operations management. With respect to elderly people who live independently, this concept, among others, seems to be particularly useful in providing options and variation in individual care and service packages. Based on our line of reasoning, we propose that modularity provides possibilities to enhance the provision of demand-based care and services. Furthermore, our findings offer direction on how organisations in housing, welfare and care can be guided in translating demand-based care to their operational processes.

The role of government policy in service development in a New Zealand statutory mental health service: implications for policy planning and development.

Science.gov (United States)

Stanley-Clarke, Nicky; Sanders, Jackie; Munford, Robyn

2014-12-01

To explore the relationship between government policy and service development in a New Zealand statutory mental health provider, Living Well. An organisational case study utilising multiple research techniques including qualitative interviews, analysis of business and strategic documents and observation of meetings. Staff understood and acknowledged the importance of government policy, but there were challenges in its implementation. Within New Zealand's statutory mental health services staff struggled to know how to implement government policy as part of service development; rather, operational concerns, patient need, local context and service demands drove the service development process. © The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists 2014.

Principles, effects and problems of differential power pricing policy for energy intensive industries in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Boqiang; Liu, Jianghua

2011-01-01

The Chinese government canceled the preferential power pricing policies for energy intensive industries and imposed a reverse differential pricing policy in order to promote energy efficiency and the adjustment and upgrading of the industrial structure. This article analyzes the principles of China's differential power pricing policy, the externalities of energy and the modified Ramsey pricing rule, and also points out the policy implications of China's differential power pricing policy. In our samples, we investigate eight power intensive products in the Henan province with respect to their power consumption per unit (power intensity), electricity cost, total cost, the electricity tariff and profit, in order to test the effects of the differential power pricing policy. The results show that the primary effect of the differential power pricing policy is that enterprises decrease their total costs and improve their productive efficiencies in advance, in anticipating a higher electricity tariff. -- Research highlights: → The article suggests a modified Ramsey pricing model where demand elasticity is replaced by elasticity of energy consumption and polluting elasticity to internalize the negative externality of high energy intensive industry. → The article assesses the effects of differential pricing policy through on-site survey of high energy intensive industries in Henan province and analyzes the reasons behind those effects. → The article presents the lessons and policy implications of implementing differential pricing policy aimed at energy conservation and emission reduction.

Understanding and benchmarking health service achievement of policy goals for chronic disease

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Key challenges in benchmarking health service achievement of policy goals in areas such as chronic disease are: 1) developing indicators and understanding how policy goals might work as indicators of service performance; 2) developing methods for economically collecting and reporting stakeholder perceptions; 3) combining and sharing data about the performance of organizations; 4) interpreting outcome measures; 5) obtaining actionable benchmarking information. This study aimed to explore how a new Boolean-based small-N method from the social sciences—Qualitative Comparative Analysis or QCA—could contribute to meeting these internationally shared challenges. Methods A ‘multi-value QCA’ (MVQCA) analysis was conducted of data from 24 senior staff at 17 randomly selected services for chronic disease, who provided perceptions of 1) whether government health services were improving their achievement of a set of statewide policy goals for chronic disease and 2) the efficacy of state health office actions in influencing this improvement. The analysis produced summaries of configurations of perceived service improvements. Results Most respondents observed improvements in most areas but uniformly good improvements across services were not perceived as happening (regardless of whether respondents identified a state health office contribution to that improvement). The sentinel policy goal of using evidence to develop service practice was not achieved at all in four services and appears to be reliant on other kinds of service improvements happening. Conclusions The QCA method suggested theoretically plausible findings and an approach that with further development could help meet the five benchmarking challenges. In particular, it suggests that achievement of one policy goal may be reliant on achievement of another goal in complex ways that the literature has not yet fully accommodated but which could help prioritize policy goals. The weaknesses of QCA can be

Model projections and policy reviews for energy saving in China's service sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Lin

2013-01-01

Energy efficiency of buildings in the service sector is becoming increasingly important in China due to the structural shift of the economy from industry to services. This paper employs a bottom-up cohort model to simulate current energy saving policies and to make projections for future energy use and CO 2 emissions for the period 2000–2030 in the Chinese service sector. The analysis shows that energy demand in the service sector will approximately triple in 2030, far beyond the target of quadrupling GDP while only doubling energy use. However, it is feasible to achieve the target of emission reduction by 40% in 2020 even under the poor state of compliance rate of building standard. This paper also highlights four crucial aspects of designing optimal energy saving policies for China's service sector based on the model results. - Highlights: • Government energy saving target cannot realize with current policies in services. • Energy savings policies for new buildings are crucial than building retrofitting. • Cooling energy use increases significantly to reach equal weight as heating. • CO 2 tax can contribute to change in fuel mix, and thus emission reductions. • Low compliance rate limits further energy saving, hence green fund is required

Policy-Aware Sender Anonymity in Location-Based Services

Science.gov (United States)

Vyas, Avinash

2011-01-01

Sender anonymity in Location-based services (LBS) refers to hiding the identity of a mobile device user who sends requests to the LBS provider for services in her proximity (e.g. "find the nearest gas station etc."). The goal is to keep the requester's interest private even from attackers who (via hacking or subpoenas) gain access to the LBS…

The Effects of Medicaid Policy Changes on Adults Service...

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — The Effects of Medicaid Policy Changes on Adults Service Use Patterns in Kentucky and Idaho According to findings reported in The Effects of Medicaid Policy Changes...

Using Partial Differential Equations for Pricing of Goods and Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Traykov Metodi

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This article is based on the methodology of comparative analysis, using an innovative approach for pricing of various goods and services. Benchmarking is the continuous search to find and adapt better pricing methods that leading to increased profits. We will consider the numerical solution of partial differential equations, based on Black-Scholes model for pricing of goods and services within European option. Also, we will present formulation and numerical behavior of explicit and implicit methods that can be use in pricing for company assets within European option.

Does Head Start differentially benefit children with risks targeted by the program’s service model?☆

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Elizabeth B.; Farkas, George; Duncan, Greg J.

2015-01-01

Data from the Head Start Impact Study (N = 3540) were used to test for differential benefits of Head Start after one program year and after kindergarten on pre-academic and behavior outcomes for children at risk in the domains targeted by the program’s comprehensive services. Although random assignment to Head Start produced positive treatment main effects on children’s pre-academic skills and behavior problems, residualized growth models showed that random assignment to Head Start did not differentially benefit the pre-academic skills of children with risk factors targeted by the Head Start service model. The models showed detrimental impacts of Head Start for maternal-reported behavior problems of high-risk children, but slightly more positive impacts for teacher-reported behavior. Policy implications for Head Start are discussed. PMID:26379369

A call for differentiated approaches to delivering HIV services to key populations.

Science.gov (United States)

Macdonald, Virginia; Verster, Annette; Baggaley, Rachel

2017-07-21

Key populations (KPs) are disproportionally affected by HIV and have low rates of access to HIV testing and treatment services compared to the broader population. WHO promotes the use of differentiated approaches for reaching and recruiting KP into the HIV services continuum. These approaches may help increase access to KPs who are often criminalized or stigmatized. By catering to the specific needs of each KP individual, differentiated approaches may increase service acceptability, quality and coverage, reduce costs and support KP members in leading the HIV response among their communities. WHO recommends the implementation of community-based and lay provider administered HIV testing services. Together, these approaches reduce barriers and costs associated with other testing strategies, allow greater ownership in HIV programmes for KP members and reach more people than do facility-based services. Despite this evidence availability and support for them is limited. Peer-driven interventions have been shown to be effective in engaging, recruiting and supporting clients. Some programmes employ HIV-positive or non-PLHIV "peer navigators" and other staff to provide case management, enrolment and/or re-enrolment in care and treatment services. However, a better understanding of the impact, cost effectiveness and potential burden on peer volunteers is required. Task shifting and non-facility-based service locations for antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation and maintenance and antiretroviral (ARV) distribution are recommended in both the consolidated HIV treatment and KP guidelines of WHO. These approaches are accepted in generalized epidemics and for the general population where successful models exist; however, few organizations provide or initiate ART at KP community-based services. The application of a differentiated service approach for KP could increase the number of people who know their status and receive effective and sustained prevention and treatment for HIV

Ecosystem services and economic theory: integration for policy-relevant research.

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Brendan; Turner, Kerry; Zylstra, Matthew; Brouwer, Roy; de Groot, Rudolf; Farber, Stephen; Ferraro, Paul; Green, Rhys; Hadley, David; Harlow, Julian; Jefferiss, Paul; Kirkby, Chris; Morling, Paul; Mowatt, Shaun; Naidoo, Robin; Paavola, Jouni; Strassburg, Bernardo; Yu, Doug; Balmford, Andrew

2008-12-01

It has become essential in policy and decision-making circles to think about the economic benefits (in addition to moral and scientific motivations) humans derive from well-functioning ecosystems. The concept of ecosystem services has been developed to address this link between ecosystems and human welfare. Since policy decisions are often evaluated through cost-benefit assessments, an economic analysis can help make ecosystem service research operational. In this paper we provide some simple economic analyses to discuss key concepts involved in formalizing ecosystem service research. These include the distinction between services and benefits, understanding the importance of marginal ecosystem changes, formalizing the idea of a safe minimum standard for ecosystem service provision, and discussing how to capture the public benefits of ecosystem services. We discuss how the integration of economic concepts and ecosystem services can provide policy and decision makers with a fuller spectrum of information for making conservation-conversion trade-offs. We include the results from a survey of the literature and a questionnaire of researchers regarding how ecosystem service research can be integrated into the policy process. We feel this discussion of economic concepts will be a practical aid for ecosystem service research to become more immediately policy relevant.

Service Coordination Policies and Models: National Status.

Science.gov (United States)

Harbin, Gloria L.; Bruder, M.; Mazzarella, C.; Gabbard, G.; Reynolds, C.

This report discusses the findings of a study that investigated state coordination of early intervention services for infants, toddlers, and young children with disabilities. State Part C coordinators participated in a survey that sought their perceptions of values under girding service coordination, approach to service coordination, policies,…

Forecasting Economic, Social and Environmental Growth in the Sanitary and Service Sector Based on Thailand's Sustainable Development Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pruethsan Sutthichaimethee

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to forecast the long run implementation of Thailand’s sustainable development policy in three main aspects, including economic, social and environmental aspect for the the sanitary and service sectors from 2016 until 2045. According to the national data for the years 2000–2015, based on the ARIMAX model, it has been found that Thai economy system is potentially changed and growing rapidly by 25.76%, the population has grown by 7.15%, and the Greenhouse gas emissions will gradually increase by 49.65%, in the year 2045. However, based on the analysis above, if Thailand fails to run the afore-mentioned policy properly, it will be difficulto successfully implement sustainable development, because the increased emission is moving in the same direction with economy and social aspect of Thailand.

Optimal pricing policies for services with consideration of facility maintenance costs

Science.gov (United States)

Yeh, Ruey Huei; Lin, Yi-Fang

2012-06-01

For survival and success, pricing is an essential issue for service firms. This article deals with the pricing strategies for services with substantial facility maintenance costs. For this purpose, a mathematical framework that incorporates service demand and facility deterioration is proposed to address the problem. The facility and customers constitute a service system driven by Poisson arrivals and exponential service times. A service demand with increasing price elasticity and a facility lifetime with strictly increasing failure rate are also adopted in modelling. By examining the bidirectional relationship between customer demand and facility deterioration in the profit model, the pricing policies of the service are investigated. Then analytical conditions of customer demand and facility lifetime are derived to achieve a unique optimal pricing policy. The comparative statics properties of the optimal policy are also explored. Finally, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effects of parameter variations on the optimal pricing policy.

A Variable Service Broker Routing Policy for data center selection in cloud analyst

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Ahmad M. Manasrah

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Cloud computing depends on sharing distributed computing resources to handle different services such as servers, storage and applications. The applications and infrastructures are provided as pay per use services through data center to the end user. The data centers are located at different geographic locations. However, these data centers can get overloaded with the increase number of client applications being serviced at the same time and location; this will degrade the overall QoS of the distributed services. Since different user applications may require different configuration and requirements, measuring the user applications performance of various resources is challenging. The service provider cannot make decisions for the right level of resources. Therefore, we propose a Variable Service Broker Routing Policy – VSBRP, which is a heuristic-based technique that aims to achieve minimum response time through considering the communication channel bandwidth, latency and the size of the job. The proposed service broker policy will also reduce the overloading of the data centers by redirecting the user requests to the next data center that yields better response and processing time. The simulation shows promising results in terms of response and processing time compared to other known broker policies from the literature.

Supporting differentiated quality of service in optical burst switched networks

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Bin; Bassiouni, Mostafa A.

2006-01-01

We propose and evaluate two new schemes for providing differentiated services in optical burst switched (OBS) networks. The two new schemes are suitable for implementation in OBS networks using just-in-time (JIT) or just-enough-time (JET) scheduling protocols. The first scheme adjusts the size of the search space for a free wavelength based on the priority level of the burst. A simple equation is used to divide the search spectrum into two parts: a base part and an adjustable part. The size of the adjustable part increases as the priority of the burst becomes higher. The scheme is very easy to implement and does not demand any major software or hardware resources in optical cross-connects. The second scheme reduces the dropping probability of bursts with higher priorities through the use of different proactive discarding rates in the network access station (NAS) of the source node. Our extensive simulation tests using JIT show that both schemes are capable of providing tangible quality of service (QoS) differentiation without negatively impacting the throughput of OBS networks.

Moving Zimbabwe Forward : an Evidence Based Policy Dialogue ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Moving Zimbabwe Forward : an Evidence Based Policy Dialogue ... levels of poverty, unemployment, inflation and poor service provision in the areas of education, ... International Water Resources Association, in close collaboration with IDRC, ...

QoS Differential Scheduling in Cognitive-Radio-Based Smart Grid Networks: An Adaptive Dynamic Programming Approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Rong; Zhong, Weifeng; Xie, Shengli; Zhang, Yan; Zhang, Yun

2016-02-01

As the next-generation power grid, smart grid will be integrated with a variety of novel communication technologies to support the explosive data traffic and the diverse requirements of quality of service (QoS). Cognitive radio (CR), which has the favorable ability to improve the spectrum utilization, provides an efficient and reliable solution for smart grid communications networks. In this paper, we study the QoS differential scheduling problem in the CR-based smart grid communications networks. The scheduler is responsible for managing the spectrum resources and arranging the data transmissions of smart grid users (SGUs). To guarantee the differential QoS, the SGUs are assigned to have different priorities according to their roles and their current situations in the smart grid. Based on the QoS-aware priority policy, the scheduler adjusts the channels allocation to minimize the transmission delay of SGUs. The entire transmission scheduling problem is formulated as a semi-Markov decision process and solved by the methodology of adaptive dynamic programming. A heuristic dynamic programming (HDP) architecture is established for the scheduling problem. By the online network training, the HDP can learn from the activities of primary users and SGUs, and adjust the scheduling decision to achieve the purpose of transmission delay minimization. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed priority policy ensures the low transmission delay of high priority SGUs. In addition, the emergency data transmission delay is also reduced to a significantly low level, guaranteeing the differential QoS in smart grid.

Innovation in Health Policy Education: Project-Based Service Learning at a Distance for Graduate Midwifery Students.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Hoover, Cheri

2015-01-01

Core competencies for midwifery practice include an understanding of systems of health care delivery and advocacy for legislation and policy initiatives that promote quality in health care. Today's rapidly changing health care environment, due in part to the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, mandates that midwives possess greater literacy in health policy and comfort with political action than ever before. Frequently disinterested in politics and intimidated by the policymaking process, student midwives lack the foundational knowledge and practical skills needed to meet this professional obligation. The Midwifery Institute of Philadelphia University graduate program educates both student nurse-midwives and student midwives in health policy using an innovative, project-based service-learning approach featuring real-world collaborative experiences. This novel teaching style is ideally suited for instruction at a distance because of the diversity of experience brought to the virtual classroom by students in widely disparate geopolitical locations. As students accomplish measurable objectives within their individually developed projects and reflect with classmates about their experiences, they feel empowered to effect change and report lower perceived barriers to future political engagement. © 2015 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Current state of seagrass ecosystem services: Research and policy integration

KAUST Repository

Ruiz-Frau, A.

2017-10-12

Seagrasses contribute to the maintenance of human wellbeing. However certain aspects of their role as ecosystem service (ES) providers remain understudied. Here, we synthesise the state of seagrass ES (SGES) research and policy implications. Additionally, we recommend ways in which SGES research can be integrated in to policy design, by drawing lessons from the case of Blue Carbon (BC). SGES research suffers from three main biases: a geographical bias, SGES has been restricted to chartered seagrass areas; a type of service research bias, provisioning and regulating services have received extensive attention while cultural services remain understudied; a type of discipline bias, the ecological aspects of SGES have been well documented while economic and social aspects remain in comparison understudied. These are particularly important, as an understanding of the social and economic considerations of the provision of ES is fundamental to facilitate its integration into policy frameworks. Lessons drawn from the operationalization process of BC show the reoccurrence of certain aspects that have enabled the integration of BC into policy. These aspects are grouped under 4 different categories. From the analysis of these elements we draw lessons that could facilitate the operationalization of other ecosystem services and their incorporation into management policy frameworks.

Quantifying the Quality of Service of Streaming Media in Differentiated Services Networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Agrawal, D.K.; Kleiberg, T.; Papp, S.; Kooij, R.E.; Van Mieghem, P.

2007-01-01

Quality of Service (QoS) support in the current internet is indispensable because of QoS-sensitive real-time applications such as Voice-over-IP, IP-TV, video conferencing, online gaming etc. Since the introduction of the Differentiated Services (Diff-Serv) architecture there has been considerable

Quantifying the quality of service of streaming media in differentiated services networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Agrawal, D.K.; Kleiberg, T.; Papp, S.; Kooij, R.E.; Mieghem, P. van

2007-01-01

Quality of Service (QoS) support in the current internet is indispensable because of QoS-sensitive real-time applications such as Voice-over-IP, IP-TV, video conferencing, online gaming etc. Since the introduction of the Differentiated Services (Diff-Serv) architecture there has been considerable

Economic Differentiation as a Determinant of Higher Education Pricing and Expenditure Policies and State-wide Public Policy: Implications for Governance. ASHE 1983 Annual Meeting Paper.

Science.gov (United States)

Alfred, Richard L.

A study of the impact of economic differentiation on institutional pricing and expenditure policies, higher education public policy, and governance in public colleges and universities is described. It is suggested that economic differentiation is a likely determinant of variation in institutional expenditure and pricing policies and higher…

Energy, emissions and emergency medical services: Policy matters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brown, Lawrence H.; Blanchard, Ian E.

2012-01-01

Understanding the energy consumption and emissions associated with health services is important for minimizing their environmental impact and guiding their adaptation to a low-carbon economy. In this post-hoc analysis, we characterize the energy burden of North American emergency medical services (EMS) agencies and estimate the potential marginal damage costs arising from their emissions as an example of how and why health services matter in environmental and energy policy, and how and why environmental and energy policy matter to health services. We demonstrate EMS systems are energy intensive, and that vehicle fuels represent 80% of their energy burden while electricity and natural gas represent 20%. We also demonstrate that emissions from EMS operations represent only a small fraction of estimated health sector emissions, but for EMS systems in the United States the associated marginal damage costs are likely between $2.7 million and $9.7 million annually. Significant changes in the supply or price of energy, including changes that arise from environmental and energy policy initiatives designed to constrain fossil fuel consumption, could potentially affect EMS agencies and other health services. We encourage cross disciplinary research to proactively facilitate the health system's adaptation to a low-carbon economy. - Highlights: ► Estimated EMS-related emissions less than 1% of health sector emissions. ► Damage costs of U.S. EMS-related emissions estimated at $2.7 to $9.7 million. ► EMS energy burden is approximately 442 MJ per ambulance response. ► Approximately 80% of EMS energy burden is vehicle fuels. ► Energy supply, price and policy could impact EMS (and other health) services. ► Research needed to facilitate health services’ adaptation to a low carbon economy.

Implementation of Service Differentiation to Achieve Competitive Advantage. Case: Nevsky Hotel Grand.

OpenAIRE

Martysevich, Anna

2013-01-01

The main purpose of the thesis was to find out which hotel services could bring competitive advantage to the Nevsky Hotel Grand and differentiate the hotel from the competitors. What could be improved in the services of the hotel or which kind of services could be created in the hotel in order to attract more customers and be competitive on the market. The theoretical framework of the thesis was based on the data gathered from various sources of information in printed and electronic form s...

A hybrid credibility-based fuzzy multiple objective optimisation to differential pricing and inventory policies with arbitrage consideration

Science.gov (United States)

Ghasemy Yaghin, R.; Fatemi Ghomi, S. M. T.; Torabi, S. A.

2015-10-01

In most markets, price differentiation mechanisms enable manufacturers to offer different prices for their products or services in different customer segments; however, the perfect price discrimination is usually impossible for manufacturers. The importance of accounting for uncertainty in such environments spurs an interest to develop appropriate decision-making tools to deal with uncertain and ill-defined parameters in joint pricing and lot-sizing problems. This paper proposes a hybrid bi-objective credibility-based fuzzy optimisation model including both quantitative and qualitative objectives to cope with these issues. Taking marketing and lot-sizing decisions into account simultaneously, the model aims to maximise the total profit of manufacturer and to improve service aspects of retailing simultaneously to set different prices with arbitrage consideration. After applying appropriate strategies to defuzzify the original model, the resulting non-linear multi-objective crisp model is then solved by a fuzzy goal programming method. An efficient stochastic search procedure using particle swarm optimisation is also proposed to solve the non-linear crisp model.

Power Efficient Service Differentiation Based on Traffic-Aware Survivable Elastic Optical Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Turus, Ioan; Fagertun, Anna Manolova; Dittmann, Lars

2014-01-01

This study assesses the feasible energy savings whendefining different service classes based on protection schemesincore optical networks.Wepropose a dedicated energy savingstrategy for each of the service classes in order to minimize theoverall power consumption of the network.Four Classes of Se...... while for the proposed approach the difference in power consumption is almost negligible.Moreover, incase of the proposed approach,silver serviceclass can benefit for superior quality of service compared to the gold service class, due to the grooming mechanism.......This study assesses the feasible energy savings whendefining different service classes based on protection schemesincore optical networks.Wepropose a dedicated energy savingstrategy for each of the service classes in order to minimize theoverall power consumption of the network.Four Classes...... the sleep-mode capability of the opto-electronic devices as well as the elastic data-rateadaptation based on symbol-rate and modulation-format re-configurations. The results show that in the baseline approach the power consumption is strongly dependent on the ratio between the different service classes...

Policy-Making in Unemployment Services:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Caswell, Dorte; Høybye-Mortensen, Matilde

The development of paternalist policies, such as the increase of punitive methods in welfare services, has been identified and analysed internationally (Mead, 1998; Soss et al., 2011a). The combination of these with an emphasis on instruments such as competition and performance measurement has be...... are categorised as having problems besides unemployment (Caswell et al., 2011)....

Environment based innovation: policy questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Rui Silva

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Natural resources and physical cultural resources, referred to in this paper as “Environmental Resources”, can be important assets for regional competitiveness and innovation. In recent years, these types of assets have been increasingly taken into consideration in the design and implementation of regional development strategies, as a consequence of their potential role as a source of differentiation and of new competitive advantages. However, in contrast to environmental policies, which usually focus on the protection of the environment, innovation policies and their instruments are largely shaped by, and geared towards, knowledge-based innovation.In this paper, we discuss the role played by environmental resources in the context of regional innovation policies. We begin by discussing the relationship between environmental resources and regional development, and by emphasizing some contrasting views with regard to the function of environmental resources in regional development. Then, we address the relationship between regional competitive advantages and innovation strategies. The specific issues and problems that arise whenever the aim is to attain competitive advantages through the valorisation of environmental resources constitute the core of section III. In that section, we highlight the specific characteristics of environmental resources and we discuss the applicability of the “natural resource curse” argument to the dynamics based on the valorisation of environmental resources. The reasons that justify public interventionas well as the difficulties concerning the adequate level of intervention (local / regional / national are also examined. The paper ends with some conclusions and policy implications.

Differential Service in a Bidirectional Radio-over-Fiber System over a Spectral-Amplitude-Coding OCDMA Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chao-Chin Yang

2016-10-01

Full Text Available A new scheme of radio-over-fiber (RoF network based on spectral-amplitude-coding (SAC optical code division multiple access (OCDMA is herein proposed. Differential service is provided by a power control scheme that classifies users into several classes and assigns each of them with a specific power level. Additionally, the wavelength reuse technique is adapted to support bidirectional transmission and reduce base station (BS cost. Both simulation and numerical results show that significantly differential quality-of-service (QoS in bit-error rate (BER is achieved in both downlink and uplink transmissions.

Diversifying Fiscal Support by Pricing Public Library Services: A Policy Impact Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Hicks, Donald A.

1980-01-01

Addresses the possibility of diversifying the resource base of public libraries dependent on property taxes for funding through the setting of fees for library services, and reports on a pricing policy adopted by the Dallas Public Library System. Twenty-seven references are cited. (FM)

Morphological analysis of energy services: Paving the way to quality differentiation in the power sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Salah, Florian; Flath, Christoph M.; Schuller, Alexander; Will, Christian; Weinhardt, Christof

2017-01-01

The activation of the still predominantly passive demand side is necessary to further guarantee a stable power system in the short term and ensure capacity adequacy in the long run. A system with a high share of generators with nearly no marginal costs requires new services that facilitate transmitting the right economic signals to the system stakeholders. To this end we refine the notion of energy services and propose a framework to systematically design quality differentiated energy services for consumers. This approach facilitates a value-based economic assessment of energy services that deviates from the marginal-cost-paradigm. We further illustrate pricing options for these new energy service products and outline infrastructural needs and additional use case-specific product properties. Moreover, we discuss how the morphological approach can be formalised using a mathematical programming formulation and introduce a complexity measure that facilitates assessing potential adoption obstacles for end consumers. Additionally, we illustrate the practical applicability of these findings by using a prototypical implementation of a decision support system. To foster differentiated energy services, we recommend a more lenient regulatory regime lowering the barriers for new market entrants. - Highlights: • Activating the demand side is necessary to further guarantee a stable power system. • We refine the notion of energy services helping to tackle this obstacle. • A morphological box to design quality differentiated energy services is proposed. • We extend this framework by implementing a prototypical decision support system. • A more lenient regulatory regime is needed to foster differentiated energy services.

Servicom policy intervention: Improving service quality in Nigerian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In this case study we examine the raison d'être and implementation of a policy intervention, which was promulgated in 2005 for the purpose of eradicating inefficiency and corruption, and inculcating customer orientation in the Nigerian public sector. The policy goes by the acronym 'SERVICOM' -'service compact with all ...

Differential private collaborative Web services QoS prediction

KAUST Repository

Liu, An

2018-04-04

Collaborative Web services QoS prediction has proved to be an important tool to estimate accurately personalized QoS experienced by individual users, which is beneficial for a variety of operations in the service ecosystem, such as service selection, composition and recommendation. While a number of achievements have been attained on the study of improving the accuracy of collaborative QoS prediction, little work has been done for protecting user privacy in this process. In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving collaborative QoS prediction framework which can protect the private data of users while retaining the ability of generating accurate QoS prediction. We introduce differential privacy, a rigorous and provable privacy model, into the process of collaborative QoS prediction. We first present DPS, a method that disguises a user’s observed QoS values by applying differential privacy to the user’s QoS data directly. We show how to integrate DPS with two representative collaborative QoS prediction approaches. To improve the utility of the disguised QoS data, we present DPA, another QoS disguising method which first aggregates a user’s QoS data before adding noise to achieve differential privacy. We evaluate the proposed methods by conducting extensive experiments on a real world Web services QoS dataset. Experimental results show our approach is feasible in practice.

Differential private collaborative Web services QoS prediction

KAUST Repository

Liu, An; Shen, Xindi; Li, Zhixu; Liu, Guanfeng; Xu, Jiajie; Zhao, Lei; Zheng, Kai; Shang, Shuo

2018-01-01

Collaborative Web services QoS prediction has proved to be an important tool to estimate accurately personalized QoS experienced by individual users, which is beneficial for a variety of operations in the service ecosystem, such as service selection, composition and recommendation. While a number of achievements have been attained on the study of improving the accuracy of collaborative QoS prediction, little work has been done for protecting user privacy in this process. In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving collaborative QoS prediction framework which can protect the private data of users while retaining the ability of generating accurate QoS prediction. We introduce differential privacy, a rigorous and provable privacy model, into the process of collaborative QoS prediction. We first present DPS, a method that disguises a user’s observed QoS values by applying differential privacy to the user’s QoS data directly. We show how to integrate DPS with two representative collaborative QoS prediction approaches. To improve the utility of the disguised QoS data, we present DPA, another QoS disguising method which first aggregates a user’s QoS data before adding noise to achieve differential privacy. We evaluate the proposed methods by conducting extensive experiments on a real world Web services QoS dataset. Experimental results show our approach is feasible in practice.

'Demand pull' government policies to support Product-Service System activity: The case of Energy Service Companies in the UK

OpenAIRE

Hannon, MJ; Foxon, TJ; Gale, WF

2015-01-01

Product-Service Systems (PSSs) constitute a family of service-based business models designed to satisfy our societal needs in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner. To date however PSS application has remained niche due to a variety of critical barriers. This paper explores how ‘demand pull’ national government policies could support PSS activity by addressing these barriers and cultivating market demand. Lessons are drawn from a case study of how regulatory, economic incenti...

Negotiated complexity in ecostystem services science and policy making

OpenAIRE

Keune, Hans; Dendoncker, Nicolas

2014-01-01

Abstract: Its a long way from scientific knowledge to concrete policy action. Along the way many decisions have to be made. A lot of these decisions relate to setting priorities. With regard to policy uptake of scientific knowledge on ecosystem services, the need for an integrated decision-making framework is crucial. Framing complexity is a crucial aspect of any ecosystem services approach: How do we deal with ecological and social complexity? The complexity to be taken into account and the ...

Research-Based Knowledge: Researchers' Contribution to Evidence-Based Practice and Policy Making in Career Guidance

Science.gov (United States)

Haug, Erik Hagaseth; Plant, Peter

2016-01-01

To present evidence for the outcomes of career guidance is increasingly seen as pivotal for a further professionalization of policy making and service provision. This paper puts an emphasis on researchers' contribution to evidence-based practice and policy making in career guidance. We argue for a broader and more pluralistic research strategy to…

Tax administration as health policy: hospitals, the Internal Revenue Service, and the courts.

Science.gov (United States)

Fox, D M; Schaffer, D C

1991-01-01

Since 1969 federal tax policy has permitted nonprofit hospitals to turn away indigent patients or to transfer them to public hospitals. The Internal Revenue Service made health policy, but its officials remain convinced that they were not making policy at all. Convinced that it was reasoning from legal principles, the Revenue Service accepted the hospital industry's view of the history and purpose of hospitals. The federal courts further obscured the problem. Moreover, the Revenue Service took no interest in the effects of its ruling on the services provided by tax-exempt hospitals until 1989. We describe these events and seek to explain them by linking the recent history of health policy to the assumptions that govern the making of tax policy. We conclude that the making of health policy by tax officials who are not accountable for it and who believe that they are not making policy at all is not in the public interest.

A review of the present state and future policy alternatives for home visit nursing services in Korea.

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Ji Young; Noh, Wonjung; Kim, Eunjoo; Choi, Kyung Won

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to describe the current state of home visit nursing services in the Korean context and to suggest future policy directions. First, the three home visit nursing services that have developed in Korea are compared using the analytic framework provided by Gilbert and Terrell in 2012. The framework is based on four dimensions of social welfare: users, services, source of funds, and service delivery process. Second, we perform a strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat analysis to suggest comprehensive and constructive home visit nursing service policies for the future. Specifically, we advocate the creation of an organization that steers the central government to operate an integrated management organization to distribute services and reduce redundancy for preventing the waste of both medical and state financial resources. This study also recommends the development of educational programs to improve the quality of services and service evaluation criteria for the objective assessment of those services. These policy guidelines may prove useful both for Korea and for other countries that intend to prepare or revise their home visit nursing service systems. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Prospects for Mainstreaming Ecosystem Goods and Services in International Policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kok, M.T.J.; Prins, A.G.; Tyler, S.R.; Pinter, L.; Baumuller, H.; Bernstein, J.; Tsioumani, E.; Venema, H.D.; Grosshans, R.

2010-08-01

Degradation of ecosystems worldwide threatens local and regional supplies of food, forest products and fresh water, and also biodiversity. Although most decisions that directly affect ecosystem management are made locally, these decisions are influenced by national and international policies. This study shows how local delivery of ecosystem goods and services (EGS) is closely linked to international policies on development cooperation, trade, climate change and reform of international financial institutions. Integrating or mainstreaming EGS considerations into these policies provides significant opportunities for reducing poverty, while simultaneously improving the quality of local EGS. Furthermore, mainstreaming EGS in international policies can contribute significantly to achieving policy objectives on biodiversity and sustainable management of natural resources. However, mainstreaming EGS requires careful consideration because many of the opportunities identified as reducing poverty, may have the opposite effect if poorly managed or implemented. A major challenge is, therefore, to ensure consistent policies across scales and policy domains based on analysis of the local situation. In order to support poverty reduction it matters how the mainstreaming is done and who benefits locally. Tools to mainstream EGS into non-environmental policy domains are available, but there are few examples of their systematic application. Examples of tools that could play a constructive role in this process are the monitoring and reporting mechanisms developed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Granting authority to a new policy. A community benefit services policy becomes part of the general business strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Karibo, J

1994-05-01

Bon Secours Health System's new strategic plan and community benefit services policy integrates the planning, budgeting, evaluating, and reporting of community benefit services into management processes at the same level of authority as other operational activities. The strategic plan of Bon Secours Health System, headquartered in Marriottsville, MD, documents the system's mission, operating principles, vision, and five goals, one of which is to improve the communities' health status. The community benefit services operating policy requires that the Bon Secours Health System chief executive officer (CEO) and each local system CEO and nursing home administrator form a multidisciplinary local work group to be responsible for community benefit services. Each local work group assesses the needs of its community within the framework of the annual planning process. Determining what services are needed and how to deliver them is relatively easy. The difficult task is determining which of the many needs to address. What a community lacks may be the result of poor or inadequate public policy. For example, its priority may not be healthcare. In these situations healthcare providers may be best able to serve the community by providing indirect support to social service providers or by advocating for change. The community benefit services operating policy provides a standard approach to match the community's priority needs with the institution's resources and produce a measurable improvement in health status.

Integrating evidence into policy and sustainable disability services delivery in western New South Wales, Australia: the 'wobbly hub and double spokes' project.

Science.gov (United States)

Veitch, Craig; Lincoln, Michelle; Bundy, Anita; Gallego, Gisselle; Dew, Angela; Bulkeley, Kim; Brentnall, Jennie; Griffiths, Scott

2012-03-21

Policy that supports rural allied health service delivery is important given the shortage of services outside of Australian metropolitan centres. The shortage of allied health professionals means that rural clinicians work long hours and have little peer or service support. Service delivery to rural and remote communities is further complicated because relatively small numbers of clients are dispersed over large geographic areas. The aim of this five-year multi-stage project is to generate evidence to confirm and develop evidence-based policies and to evaluate their implementation in procedures that allow a regional allied health workforce to more expeditiously respond to disability service need in regional New South Wales, Australia. The project consists of four inter-related stages that together constitute a full policy cycle. It uses mixed quantitative and qualitative methods, guided by key policy concerns such as: access, complexity, cost, distribution of benefits, timeliness, effectiveness, equity, policy consistency, and community and political acceptability. Stage 1 adopts a policy analysis approach in which existing relevant policies and related documentation will be collected and reviewed. Policy-makers and senior managers within the region and in central offices will be interviewed about issues that influence policy development and implementation. Stage 2 uses a mixed methods approach to collecting information from allied health professionals, clients, and carers. Focus groups and interviews will explore issues related to providing and receiving allied health services. Discrete Choice Experiments will elicit staff and client/carer preferences. Stage 3 synthesises Stage 1 and 2 findings with reference to the key policy issues to develop and implement policies and procedures to establish several innovative regional workforce and service provision projects. Stage 4 uses mixed methods to monitor and evaluate the implementation and impact of new or adapted

Service contract of Renault Kerax 440 truck with deductible and policy limit coverage modification

Science.gov (United States)

Bustami, Pasaribu, Udjianna. S.; Husniah, Hennie

2016-02-01

In this paper we discuss a service contracts with coverage modification that only offer preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance for Renault Kerax 440 Truck by service contract provider. Corrective maintenance costs is modified with deductible and policy limit during the period of the service contract. Demand for a service contract is only influenced by the price of the service contract, deductible, and policy limit offered by producer to consumer. The main problem in this thesis is determining the price of a service contract, deductible, and policy limit to get maximum profit for producer for each of service contract.

Policy-based Network Management in Home Area Networks: Interim Test Results

OpenAIRE

Ibrahim Rana, Annie; Ó Foghlú, Mícheál

2009-01-01

This paper argues that Home Area Networks (HANs) are a good candidate for advanced network management automation techniques, such as Policy-Based Network Management (PBNM). What is proposed is a simple use of policy based network management to introduce some level of Quality of Service (QoS) and Security management in the HAN, whilst hiding this complexity from the home user. In this paper we have presented the interim test results of our research experiments (based on a scenario) using the H...

Trust and Privacy Solutions Based on Holistic Service Requirements

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez Alcón, José Antonio; López, Lourdes; Martínez, José-Fernán; Rubio Cifuentes, Gregorio

2015-01-01

The products and services designed for Smart Cities provide the necessary tools to improve the management of modern cities in a more efficient way. These tools need to gather citizens’ information about their activity, preferences, habits, etc. opening up the possibility of tracking them. Thus, privacy and security policies must be developed in order to satisfy and manage the legislative heterogeneity surrounding the services provided and comply with the laws of the country where they are provided. This paper presents one of the possible solutions to manage this heterogeneity, bearing in mind these types of networks, such as Wireless Sensor Networks, have important resource limitations. A knowledge and ontology management system is proposed to facilitate the collaboration between the business, legal and technological areas. This will ease the implementation of adequate specific security and privacy policies for a given service. All these security and privacy policies are based on the information provided by the deployed platforms and by expert system processing. PMID:26712752

Trust and Privacy Solutions Based on Holistic Service Requirements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Antonio Sánchez Alcón

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The products and services designed for Smart Cities provide the necessary tools to improve the management of modern cities in a more efficient way. These tools need to gather citizens’ information about their activity, preferences, habits, etc. opening up the possibility of tracking them. Thus, privacy and security policies must be developed in order to satisfy and manage the legislative heterogeneity surrounding the services provided and comply with the laws of the country where they are provided. This paper presents one of the possible solutions to manage this heterogeneity, bearing in mind these types of networks, such as Wireless Sensor Networks, have important resource limitations. A knowledge and ontology management system is proposed to facilitate the collaboration between the business, legal and technological areas. This will ease the implementation of adequate specific security and privacy policies for a given service. All these security and privacy policies are based on the information provided by the deployed platforms and by expert system processing.

Trust and Privacy Solutions Based on Holistic Service Requirements.

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez Alcón, José Antonio; López, Lourdes; Martínez, José-Fernán; Rubio Cifuentes, Gregorio

2015-12-24

The products and services designed for Smart Cities provide the necessary tools to improve the management of modern cities in a more efficient way. These tools need to gather citizens' information about their activity, preferences, habits, etc. opening up the possibility of tracking them. Thus, privacy and security policies must be developed in order to satisfy and manage the legislative heterogeneity surrounding the services provided and comply with the laws of the country where they are provided. This paper presents one of the possible solutions to manage this heterogeneity, bearing in mind these types of networks, such as Wireless Sensor Networks, have important resource limitations. A knowledge and ontology management system is proposed to facilitate the collaboration between the business, legal and technological areas. This will ease the implementation of adequate specific security and privacy policies for a given service. All these security and privacy policies are based on the information provided by the deployed platforms and by expert system processing.

Design of price incentives for adjunct policy goals in formula funding for hospitals and health services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duckett Stephen J

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Hospital policy involves multiple objectives: efficiency of service delivery, pursuit of high quality care, promoting access. Funding policy based on hospital casemix has traditionally been considered to be only about promoting efficiency. Discussion Formula-based funding policy can be (and has been used to pursue a range of policy objectives, not only efficiency. These are termed 'adjunct' goals. Strategies to incorporate adjunct goals into funding design must, implicitly or explicitly, address key decision choices outlined in this paper. Summary Policy must be clear and explicit about the behaviour to be rewarded; incentives must be designed so that all facilities with an opportunity to improve have an opportunity to benefit; the reward structure is stable and meaningful; and the funder monitors performance and gaming.

Service differentiated and adaptive CSMA/CA over IEEE 802.15.4 for Cyber-Physical Systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Feng; Li, Jie; Hao, Ruonan; Kong, Xiangjie; Gao, Ruixia

2013-01-01

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) that collect, exchange, manage information, and coordinate actions are an integral part of the Smart Grid. In addition, Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning in CPS, especially in the wireless sensor/actuator networks, plays an essential role in Smart Grid applications. IEEE 802.15.4, which is one of the most widely used communication protocols in this area, still needs to be improved to meet multiple QoS requirements. This is because IEEE 802.15.4 slotted Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) employs static parameter configuration without supporting differentiated services and network self-adaptivity. To address this issue, this paper proposes a priority-based Service Differentiated and Adaptive CSMA/CA (SDA-CSMA/CA) algorithm to provide differentiated QoS for various Smart Grid applications as well as dynamically initialize backoff exponent according to traffic conditions. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed SDA-CSMA/CA scheme significantly outperforms the IEEE 802.15.4 slotted CSMA/CA in terms of effective data rate, packet loss rate, and average delay.

Evidence-based policy: implications for nursing and policy involvement.

Science.gov (United States)

Hewison, Alistair

2008-11-01

Evidence-based policy making is espoused as a central feature of government in the United Kingdom. However, an expectation that this will improve the quality of policy produced and provide a path to increased involvement of nurses in the policy process is misplaced. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that the emphasis on evidence-based policy is problematic and cannot be regarded as a "new model" of policy making. Also, it could deflect attention from more practical approaches to policy involvement on the part of nurses. Policy development activities, acquisition of skills in policy analysis, and other forms of involvement are needed if nurses are to move along the continuum from policy literacy, through policy acumen, to policy competence. This involves taking a critical stance on the notion of evidence-based policy.

servicom policy intervention: improving service quality in nigerian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Admin

customer orientation in the Nigerian public sector. The policy goes by ..... Graham Effect' (Arnold, Cooper and Robertson,. 1995). .... system and budgeting time and money to pursue services ... customer relationships, and facilitating a safe and.

Policy trends and reforms in the German DRG-based hospital payment system.

Science.gov (United States)

Klein-Hitpaß, Uwe; Scheller-Kreinsen, David

2015-03-01

A central structural point in all DRG-based hospital payment systems is the conversion of relative weights into actual payments. In this context policy makers need to address (amongst other things) (a) how the price level of DRG-payments from one period to the following period is changed and (b) whether and how hospital payments based on DRGs are to be differentiated beyond patient characteristics, e.g. by organizational, regional or state-level factors. Both policy problems can be and in international comparison often are empirically addressed. In Germany relative weights are derived from a highly sophisticated empirical cost calculation, whereas the annual changes of DRG-based payments (base rates) as well as the differentiation of DRG-based hospital payments beyond patient characteristics are not empirically addressed. Rather a complex set of regulations and quasi-market negotiations are applied. There were over the last decade also timid attempts to foster the use of empirical data to address these points. However, these reforms failed to increase the fairness, transparency and rationality of the mechanism to convert relative weights into actual DRG-based hospital payments. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Financial incentives and psychiatric services in Australia: an empirical analysis of three policy changes.

Science.gov (United States)

Doessel, D P; Scheurer, Roman W; Chant, David C; Whiteford, Harvey

2007-01-01

Australia has a national, compulsory and universal health insurance scheme, called Medicare. In 1996 the Government changed the Medicare Benefit Schedule Book in such a way as to create different financial incentives for consumers or producers of out-of-hospital private psychiatric services, once an individual consumer had received 50 such services in a 12-month period. The Australian Government introduced a new Item (319) to cover some special cases that were affected by the policy change. At the same time, the Commonwealth introduced a 'fee-freeze' for all medical services. The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, it is necessary to describe the three policy interventions (the constraints on utilization, the operation of the new Item and the general 'fee-freeze'.) The new Item policy was essentially a mechanism to 'dampen' the effect of the 'constraint' policy, and these two policy changes will be consequently analysed as a single intervention. The second objective is to evaluate the policy intervention in terms of the (stated) Australian purpose of reducing utilization of psychiatric services, and thus reducing financial outlays. Thus, it is important to separate out the different effects of the three policies that were introduced at much the same time in November 1996 and January 1997. The econometric results indicate that the composite policy change (constraining services and the new 319 Item) had a statistically significant effect. The analysis of the Medicare Benefit (in constant prices) indicates that the 'fee-freeze' policy also had a statistically significant effect. This enables separate determination of the several policy changes. In fact, the empirical results indicate that the Commonwealth Government underestimated the 'savings' that would arise from the 'constraint' policy.

Computation of a near-optimal service policy for a single-server queue with homogeneous jobs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansen, Søren Glud; Larsen, Christian

2001-01-01

We present an algorithm for computing a near-optimal service policy for a single-server queueing system when the service cost is a convex function of the service time. The policy has state-dependent service times, and it includes the options to remove jobs from the system and to let the server...... be off. The systems' semi-Markov decision model has infinite action sets for the positive states. We design a new tailor-made policy-iteration algorithm for computing a policy for which the long-run average cost is at most a positive tolerance above the minimum average cost. For any positive tolerance...

Computation of a near-optimal service policy for a single-server queue with homogeneous jobs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansen, Søren Glud; Larsen, Christian

2000-01-01

We present an algorithm for computing a near optimal service policy for a single-server queueing system when the service cost is a convex function of the service time. The policy has state-dependent service times, and it includes the options to remove jobs from the system and to let the server...... be off. The system's semi-Markov decision model has infinite action sets for the positive states. We design a new tailor-made policy iteration algorithm for computing a policy for which the long-run average cost is at most a positive tolerance above the minimum average cost. For any positive tolerance...

NASA Cloud-Based Climate Data Services

Science.gov (United States)

McInerney, M. A.; Schnase, J. L.; Duffy, D. Q.; Tamkin, G. S.; Strong, S.; Ripley, W. D., III; Thompson, J. H.; Gill, R.; Jasen, J. E.; Samowich, B.; Pobre, Z.; Salmon, E. M.; Rumney, G.; Schardt, T. D.

2012-12-01

Cloud-based scientific data services are becoming an important part of NASA's mission. Our technological response is built around the concept of specialized virtual climate data servers, repetitive cloud provisioning, image-based deployment and distribution, and virtualization-as-a-service (VaaS). A virtual climate data server (vCDS) is an Open Archive Information System (OAIS) compliant, iRODS-based data server designed to support a particular type of scientific data collection. iRODS is data grid middleware that provides policy-based control over collection-building, managing, querying, accessing, and preserving large scientific data sets. We have deployed vCDS Version 1.0 in the Amazon EC2 cloud using S3 object storage and are using the system to deliver a subset of NASA's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) data products to the latest CentOS federated version of Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF), which is also running in the Amazon cloud. vCDS-managed objects are exposed to ESGF through FUSE (Filesystem in User Space), which presents a POSIX-compliant filesystem abstraction to applications such as the ESGF server that require such an interface. A vCDS manages data as a distinguished collection for a person, project, lab, or other logical unit. A vCDS can manage a collection across multiple storage resources using rules and microservices to enforce collection policies. And a vCDS can federate with other vCDSs to manage multiple collections over multiple resources, thereby creating what can be thought of as an ecosystem of managed collections. With the vCDS approach, we are trying to enable the full information lifecycle management of scientific data collections and make tractable the task of providing diverse climate data services. In this presentation, we describe our approach, experiences, lessons learned, and plans for the future.; (A) vCDS/ESG system stack. (B) Conceptual architecture for NASA cloud-based data services.

Mapping and modelling ecosystem services for science, policy and practice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Burkhard, B.; Crossman, N.; Nedkov, S.; Petz, K.; Alkemade, R.

2013-01-01

Ecosystem services are a significant research and policy topic and there are many modelling and mapping approaches aimed at understanding the stocks, demands and flows of ecosystem services on different spatial and temporal scales. The integration of geo-biophysical processes and structure

Abortion law, policy and services in India: a critical review.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirve, Siddhivinayak S

2004-11-01

Despite 30 years of liberal legislation, the majority of women in India still lack access to safe abortion care. This paper critically reviews the history of abortion law and policy in India since the 1960s and research on abortion service delivery. Amendments in 2002 and 2003 to the 1971 Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, including devolution of regulation of abortion services to the district level, punitive measures to deter provision of unsafe abortions, rationalisation of physical requirements for facilities to provide early abortion, and approval of medical abortion, have all aimed to expand safe services. Proposed amendments to the MTP Act to prevent sex-selective abortions would have been unethical and violated confidentiality, and were not taken forward. Continuing problems include poor regulation of both public and private sector services, a physician-only policy that excludes mid-level providers and low registration of rural compared to urban clinics; all restrict access. Poor awareness of the law, unnecessary spousal consent requirements, contraceptive targets linked to abortion, and informal and high fees also serve as barriers. Training more providers, simplifying registration procedures, de-linking clinic and provider approval, and linking policy with up-to-date technology, research and good clinical practice are some immediate measures needed to improve women's access to safe abortion care.

To What Extent Are Canadian Second Language Policies Evidence-Based? Reflections on the Intersections of Research and Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jim eCummins

2014-05-01

Full Text Available The paper addresses the intersections between research, ideology, and Canadian educational policies focusing on four major areas: (a core and immersion programs for the teaching of French to Anglophone students, (b policies concerning the learning of English and French by students from immigrant backgrounds, (c heritage language teaching, and (d the education of Deaf and hard-of hearing students. With respect to the teaching of French, policy-makers have largely ignored the fact that most core French programs produce meager results for the vast majority of students. Only a small proportion of students (< 10% attend more effective alternatives (e.g. French immersion and Intensive French programs. With respect to immigrant-background students, a large majority of teachers and administrators have not had opportunities to access the knowledge base regarding effective instruction for these students nor have they had opportunities for pre-service or in-service professional development regarding effective instructional practices. Educational policies have also treated the linguistic resources that children bring to school with, at best, benign neglect. In some cases (e.g., Ontario school systems have been explicitly prohibited from instituting enrichment bilingual programs that would promote students’ bilingualism and biliteracy. Finally, with respect to Deaf students, policy-makers have ignored overwhelming research on the positive relationship between academic success and the development of proficiency in natural sign languages, preferring instead to perpetuate the falsehood that acquisition of languages such as American Sign Language by young children (with or without cochlear implants will impede children’s language and academic development. The paper reviews the kinds of policies, programs, and practices that could be implemented (at no additional cost if policy-makers and educators pursued evidence-based educational policies.

Counseling, Psychological, and Social Services Staffing: Policies in U.S. School Districts.

Science.gov (United States)

Brener, Nancy; Demissie, Zewditu

2018-06-01

Schools are in a unique position to meet the mental and behavioral health needs of children and adolescents because approximately 95% of young people aged 7-17 years attend school. Little is known, however, about policies related to counseling, psychological, and social services staffing in school districts. This study analyzed the prevalence of such policies in public school districts in the U.S. Data from four cycles (2000, 2006, 2012, and 2016) of the School Health Policies and Practices Study, a national survey periodically conducted to assess policies and practices for ten components of school health, were analyzed in 2017. The survey collected data related to counseling, psychological, and social services among nationally representative samples of school districts using online or mailed questionnaires. Sampled districts identified respondents responsible for or most knowledgeable about the content of each questionnaire. The percentage of districts with a district-level counseling, psychological, and social services coordinator increased significantly from 62.6% in 2000 to 79.5% in 2016. In 2016, 56.3% of districts required each school to have someone to coordinate counseling, psychological, and social services at the school. Fewer districts required schools at each level to have a specified ratio of counselors to students (16.2% for elementary schools, 16.8% for middle schools, and 19.8% for high schools), and the percentage of districts with these requirements has decreased significantly since 2012. Increases in the prevalence of district-level staffing policies could help increase the quantity and quality of counseling, psychological, and social services staff in schools nationwide, which in turn could improve mental and behavioral health outcomes for students. This article is part of a supplement entitled The Behavioral Health Workforce: Planning, Practice, and Preparation, which is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

An Item Bank to Measure Systems, Services, and Policies: Environmental Factors Affecting People With Disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, Jin-Shei; Hammel, Joy; Jerousek, Sara; Goldsmith, Arielle; Miskovic, Ana; Baum, Carolyn; Wong, Alex W; Dashner, Jessica; Heinemann, Allen W

2016-12-01

To develop a measure of perceived systems, services, and policies facilitators (see Chapter 5 of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health) for people with neurologic disabilities and to evaluate the effect of perceived systems, services, and policies facilitators on health-related quality of life. Qualitative approaches to develop and refine items. Confirmatory factor analysis including 1-factor confirmatory factor analysis and bifactor analysis to evaluate unidimensionality of items. Rasch analysis to identify misfitting items. Correlational and analysis of variance methods to evaluate construct validity. Community-dwelling individuals participated in telephone interviews or traveled to the academic medical centers where this research took place. Participants (N=571) had a diagnosis of spinal cord injury, stroke, or traumatic brain injury. They were 18 years or older and English speaking. Not applicable. An item bank to evaluate environmental access and support levels of services, systems, and policies for people with disabilities. We identified a general factor defined as "access and support levels of the services, systems, and policies at the level of community living" and 3 local factors defined as "health services," "community living," and "community resources." The systems, services, and policies measure correlated moderately with participation measures: Community Participation Indicators (CPI) - Involvement, CPI - Control over Participation, Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders - Ability to Participate, Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders - Satisfaction with Role Participation, Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Ability to Participate, PROMIS Satisfaction with Role Participation, and PROMIS Isolation. The measure of systems, services, and policies facilitators contains items pertaining to health services, community living, and community resources. Investigators and clinicians can measure

Public policy and regulatory implications for the implementation of Opportunistic Cloud Computing Services for Enterprises

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kuada, Eric; Olesen, Henning; Henten, Anders

2012-01-01

Opportunistic Cloud Computing Services (OCCS) is a social network approach to the provisioning and management of cloud computing services for enterprises. This paper discusses how public policy and regulations will impact on OCCS implementation. We rely on documented publicly available government...... and corporate policies on the adoption of cloud computing services and deduce the impact of these policies on their adoption of opportunistic cloud computing services. We conclude that there are regulatory challenges on data protection that raises issues for cloud computing adoption in general; and the lack...... of a single globally accepted data protection standard poses some challenges for very successful implementation of OCCS for companies. However, the direction of current public and corporate policies on cloud computing make a good case for them to try out opportunistic cloud computing services....

The Influence of Low-Barrier and Voluntary Service Policies on Survivor Empowerment in a Domestic Violence Housing Organization.

Science.gov (United States)

Nnawulezi, Nkiru; Godsay, Surbhi; Sullivan, Cris M; Marcus, Suzanne; Hacskaylo, Margaret

2018-01-18

The purpose of community-based domestic violence crisis housing programs (e.g., shelters) is to provide a safe setting that promotes empowerment for survivors of intimate partner violence. For staff to reach this aim, the program must have formal structures and processes in place to support such efforts. This study explored how low-barrier and voluntary service policies influenced staff practices and survivor empowerment. Low-barrier policies require that programs remove barriers that prevent survivors, particularly those who have mental health concerns and/or addictions, from being able to access services. A voluntary service policy states that survivors have the right to choose which services, if any, they would like to engage in during their stay at the program. Survivors' ability to stay at the housing program is not contingent on their participation in program services. This exploratory-sequential (QUAL→ quan) mixed-method study examined how low-barrier and voluntary service policies influenced staff behavior and how these behaviors then related to survivor empowerment. Qualitative results revealed that low-barrier and voluntary service were guided by cultural values of justice and access, encouraged survivor-centered practices among staff, and were believed to promote survivor autonomy. Quantitative results suggested that when survivors perceived they had a choice to engage in program services or meet with an advocate, their empowerment increased. This study has implications for domestic violence organizational practice and provides evidence about the contextual factors that support individual empowerment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Food Service Guideline Policies on State Government-Controlled Properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaganjor, Hatidza; Bishop Kendrick, Katherine; Warnock, Amy Lowry; Onufrak, Stephen; Whitsel, Laurie P; Ralston Aoki, Julie; Kimmons, Joel

2016-09-13

Food service guideline (FSG) policies can impact millions of daily meals sold or provided to government employees, patrons, and institutionalized persons. This study describes a classification tool to assess FSG policy attributes and uses it to rate FSG policies. Quantitative content analysis. State government facilities in the United States. Participants were from 50 states and District of Columbia in the United States. Frequency of FSG policies and percentage alignment to tool. State-level policies were identified using legal research databases to assess bills, statutes, regulations, and executive orders proposed or adopted by December 31, 2014. Full-text reviews were conducted to determine inclusion. Included policies were analyzed to assess attributes related to nutrition, behavioral supports, and implementation guidance. A total of 31 policies met the inclusion criteria; 15 were adopted. Overall alignment ranged from 0% to 86%, and only 10 policies aligned with a majority of the FSG policy attributes. Western states had the most FSG policies proposed or adopted (11 policies). The greatest number of FSG policies were proposed or adopted (8 policies) in 2011, followed by the years 2013 and 2014. The FSG policies proposed or adopted through 2014 that intended to improve the food and beverage environment on state government property vary considerably in their content. This analysis offers baseline data on the FSG landscape and information for future FSG policy assessments. © The Author(s) 2016.

Food Service Guideline Policies on State Government Controlled Properties

Science.gov (United States)

Zaganjor, Hatidza; Bishop Kendrick, Katherine; Warnock, Amy Lowry; Onufrak, Stephen; Whitsel, Laurie P.; Ralston Aoki, Julie; Kimmons, Joel

2017-01-01

Purpose Food service guidelines (FSG) policies can impact millions of daily meals sold or provided to government employees, patrons, and institutionalized persons. This study describes a classification tool to assess FSG policy attributes and uses it to rate FSG policies. Design Quantitative content analysis. Setting State government facilities in the U.S. Subjects 50 states and District of Columbia. Measures Frequency of FSG policies and percent alignment to tool. Analysis State-level policies were identified using legal research databases to assess bills, statutes, regulations, and executive orders proposed or adopted by December 31, 2014. Full-text reviews were conducted to determine inclusion. Included policies were analyzed to assess attributes related to nutrition, behavioral supports, and implementation guidance. Results A total of 31 policies met inclusion criteria; 15 were adopted. Overall alignment ranged from 0% to 86%, and only 10 policies aligned with a majority of FSG policy attributes. Western States had the most FSG policy proposed or adopted (11 policies). The greatest number of FSG policies were proposed or adopted (8 policies) in 2011, followed by the years 2013 and 2014. Conclusion FSG policies proposed or adopted through 2014 that intended to improve the food and beverage environment on state government property vary considerably in their content. This analysis offers baseline data on the FSG landscape and information for future FSG policy assessments. PMID:27630113

Contribution of ecosystem services to air quality and climate change mitigation policies: the case of urban forests in Barcelona, Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Baró, Francesc; Chaparro, Lydia; Gómez-Baggethun, Erik; Langemeyer, Johannes; Nowak, David J; Terradas, Jaume

2014-05-01

Mounting research highlights the contribution of ecosystem services provided by urban forests to quality of life in cities, yet these services are rarely explicitly considered in environmental policy targets. We quantify regulating services provided by urban forests and evaluate their contribution to comply with policy targets of air quality and climate change mitigation in the municipality of Barcelona, Spain. We apply the i-Tree Eco model to quantify in biophysical and monetary terms the ecosystem services "air purification," "global climate regulation," and the ecosystem disservice "air pollution" associated with biogenic emissions. Our results show that the contribution of urban forests regulating services to abate pollution is substantial in absolute terms, yet modest when compared to overall city levels of air pollution and GHG emissions. We conclude that in order to be effective, green infrastructure-based efforts to offset urban pollution at the municipal level have to be coordinated with territorial policies at broader spatial scales.

Who benefits from removing user fees for facility-based delivery services? Evidence on socioeconomic differences from Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

Science.gov (United States)

McKinnon, Britt; Harper, Sam; Kaufman, Jay S

2015-06-01

Coverage of skilled delivery care has been increasing across most low-income countries; however, it remains far from universal and is very unequally distributed according to socioeconomic position. In an effort to increase coverage of skilled delivery care and reduce socioeconomic inequalities, governments of several countries in sub-Saharan Africa have recently adopted policies that remove user fees for facility-based delivery services. There is little rigorous evidence of the impact of these policies and few studies have examined effects on socioeconomic inequalities. This study investigates the impact of recent delivery fee exemption policies in Ghana, Senegal, and Sierra Leone on socioeconomic differences in the use of facility-based delivery services. Using Demographic and Health Survey data from nine sub-Saharan African countries, we evaluated the user fee policy changes using a difference-in-differences approach that accounts for underlying common secular trends and time invariant differences among countries, and allows for differential effects of the policy by socioeconomic position. Removing user fees was consistent with meaningful increases in facility deliveries across all categories of household wealth and maternal education. We found little evidence of differential effects of removing user fees across quartiles of household wealth, with increases of 5.4 facility deliveries per hundred live births (95% CI: 2.1, 8.8) among women in the poorest quartile and 6.8 per hundred live births (95% CI: 4.0, 9.7) for women in the richest quartile. However, our results suggest that educated women benefited more from removing user fees compared to women with no education. For women with at least some secondary education, the estimated effect was 8.6 facility deliveries per hundred live births (95% CI: 5.4, 11.9), but only 4.6 per hundred live births (95% CI: 2.2, 7.0) for women with no education (heterogeneity p-value = 0.04). Thus, while removing fees at the point

Evidence-based medicine - an appropriate tool for evidence-based health policy? A case study from Norway.

Science.gov (United States)

Malterud, Kirsti; Bjelland, Anne Karen; Elvbakken, Kari Tove

2016-03-05

Evidence-based policy (EBP), a concept modelled on the principles of evidence-based medicine (EBM), is widely used in different areas of policymaking. Systematic reviews (SRs) with meta-analyses gradually became the methods of choice for synthesizing research evidence about interventions and judgements about quality of evidence and strength of recommendations. Critics have argued that the relation between research evidence and service policies is weak, and that the notion of EBP rests on a misunderstanding of policy processes. Having explored EBM standards and knowledge requirements for health policy decision-making, we present an empirical point of departure for discussing the relationship between EBM and EBP. In a case study exploring the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services (NOKC), an independent government unit, we first searched for information about the background and development of the NOKC to establish a research context. We then identified, selected and organized official NOKC publications as an empirical sample of typical top-of-the-line knowledge delivery adhering to EBM standards. Finally, we explored conclusions in this type of publication, specifically addressing their potential as policy decision tools. From a total sample of 151 SRs published by the NOKC in the period 2004-2013, a purposive subsample from 2012 (14 publications) advised major caution about their conclusions because of the quality or relevance of the underlying documentation. Although the case study did not include a systematic investigation of uptake and policy consequences, SRs were found to be inappropriate as universal tools for health policy decision-making. The case study demonstrates that EBM is not necessarily suited to knowledge provision for every kind of policy decision-making. Our analysis raises the question of whether the evidence-based movement, represented here by an independent government organization, undertakes too broad a range of commissions using

THE IMPLICATION OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS BELIEF ABOUT GRAMMAR TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE POLICY IN INDONESIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cecilia Titiek Murniati

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Recent studies have suggested that teachers beliefs have a significant influence on actual classroom practice and, consequently, on students achievements. However, little research has been done to investigate the influence of Indonesian language policy and teachers beliefs. The study reported seeks to examine the influence of English language policy on pre-service teacher's beliefs about the teaching of English language grammar in Indonesian schools. The research participants were pre-service teachers who have taken the subjects of Structure, Teaching Methods, and Micro-teaching in three public and private universities in Central Java and Yogyakarta Special District. Due to time and scheduling limitations, the sampling method used in this study was convenient sampling. Documentation, survey schedules, interviews, focus group discussions were used to gather the data. The findings revealed that although the language policy in Indonesia has put English language teaching and learning within the framework of communicative competence since the enactment of the 2006 School-based Curriculum, the pre-service teachers still believed that traditional method of teaching grammar (explicit grammar instruction was imperative to use. The pre-service teachers tended to exclude English language policy enacted by Indonesian government in their discussion about teachers beliefs. Instead, the pre-service teachers constructed their beliefs about English language grammar teaching and learning process on their prior experiences in learning and teaching grammar.

Policy Framework for Covering Preventive Services Without Cost Sharing: Saving Lives and Saving Money?

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Stephanie C; Pearson, Steven D

2016-08-01

The US Affordable Care Act mandates that private insurers cover a list of preventive services without cost sharing. The list is determined by 4 expert committees that evaluate the overall health effect of preventive services. We analyzed the process by which the expert committees develop their recommendations. Each committee uses different criteria to evaluate preventive services and none of the committees consider cost systematically. We propose that the existing committees adopt consistent evidence review methodologies and expand the scope of preventive services reviewed and that a separate advisory committee be established to integrate economic considerations into the final selection of free preventive services. The comprehensive framework and associated criteria are intended to help policy makers in the future develop a more evidence-based, consistent, and ethically sound approach.

Paucity of qualitative research in general medical and health services and policy research journals: analysis of publication rates.

Science.gov (United States)

Gagliardi, Anna R; Dobrow, Mark J

2011-10-12

Qualitative research has the potential to inform and improve health care decisions but a study based on one year of publications suggests that it is not published in prominent health care journals. A more detailed, longitudinal analysis of its availability is needed. The purpose of this study was to identify, count and compare the number of qualitative and non-qualitative research studies published in high impact health care journals, and explore trends in these data over the last decade. A bibliometric approach was used to identify and quantify qualitative articles published in 20 top general medical and health services and policy research journals from 1999 to 2008. Eligible journals were selected based on performance in four different ranking systems reported in the 2008 ISI Journal Citation Reports. Qualitative and non-qualitative research published in these journals were identified by searching MEDLINE, and validated by hand-searching tables of contents for four journals. The total number of qualitative research articles published during 1999 to 2008 in ten general medical journals ranged from 0 to 41, and in ten health services and policy research journals from 0 to 39. Over this period the percentage of empirical research articles that were qualitative ranged from 0% to 0.6% for the general medical journals, and 0% to 6.4% for the health services and policy research journals. This analysis suggests that qualitative research it is rarely published in high impact general medical and health services and policy research journals. The factors that contribute to this persistent marginalization need to be better understood.

Agent-Based Framework for Personalized Service Provisioning in Converged IP Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Podobnik, Vedran; Matijasevic, Maja; Lovrek, Ignac; Skorin-Kapov, Lea; Desic, Sasa

In a global multi-service and multi-provider market, the Internet Service Providers will increasingly need to differentiate in the service quality they offer and base their operation on new, consumer-centric business models. In this paper, we propose an agent-based framework for the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) electronic market, comprising the Consumer Agents, Broker Agents and Content Agents, which enable Internet consumers to select a content provider in an automated manner. We also discuss how to dynamically allocate network resources to provide end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) for a given consumer and content provider.

Ecosystem Based Management in Transition: From Ocean Policy to Application

Science.gov (United States)

Saumweber, W. J.; Goldman, E.

2016-12-01

Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been proposed as a means to improve resource management and stewardship for more than two decades. Over this history, its exact goals and approaches have evolved in concert with advances in science and policy, including a greater understanding of ecosystem function, valuation, and thresholds for change, along with direct reference to EBM principles in statute, regulation, and other Executive Actions. Most recently, and explicitly, the Administration's National Ocean Policy (NOP) called for the development of a Federal EBM framework that would outline principles and guidelines for implementing EBM under existing authorities. This cross-agency framework has yet to be developed, but, the NOP, and related Administration initiatives, have resulted in the practical application of EBM principles in several issue-specific policy initiatives ranging from fisheries and marine protected area management to coastal adaptation and water resource infrastructure investment. In each case, the application of EBM principles uses apparently unique policy mechanisms (e.g. marine planning, ecosystem services assessment, adaptive management, dynamic ocean management, etc.). Despite differences in terminology and policy context, each of these policy initiatives is linked at its core to concepts of integrated and adaptive management that consider broad ecosystem function and services. This practical history of EBM implementation speaks to both the challenges and opportunities in broad incorporation of EBM across diverse policy initiatives and frameworks. We suggest that the continued growth of EBM as a practical policy concept will require a move away from broad frameworks, and towards the identification of specific resource management issues and accompanying policy levers with which to address those issues. In order to promote this progression, Federal policy should recognize and articulate the diverse set of policy mechanisms encompassed under the

Differential in Utilization of Maternal Care Services in Empowered Action Group States, India (1990-2006

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeetendra Yadav

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Low use of maternal care services is one of the reasons why child mortality and maternal mortality is still considerably high in India. Most maternal deaths are preventable if mothers receive essential health care before, during, and after childbirth. In India, the eight socioeconomically backward states referred to as the Empowered Action Group (EAG states; lag behind in the demographic transition and low utilization of maternal health care services. Addressing the maternity care needs of women may have considerable ramifications for achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG – 5.Aims & Objectives:  To explore the prevalence, trends and factors associated with the utilization of maternal care services in Empowered Action Group States, India (1990-2006.Material Methods: Data from three rounds of the round of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS, known as the National Family Health Survey (NFHS of India were analyzed. Bivariate and multivariate-pooled logistic regression model were applied to examine the utilization of the maternal and child health care trends over time.Result: The results from analysis indicate that the full ANC and skilled birth attendant (SBA has increased from 17% and 20% to 25% and35% respectively during the last one and half decade (1990-2006.Conclusion: Various socioeconomic and demographic factors are associated with the utilization of maternal care services in EAG states, India. Promoting the use of family planning, female education, targeting vulnerable groups such as poor, illiterate, high parity women, involving media and grass root level workers and collaboration between community leaders and health care system could be some important policy level interventions to address the unmet need of maternal and child health care services among women. The study concludes that much of these differentials are social constructs that can be reduced by prioritizing the needs of the disadvantaged and adopting

Differential in Utilization of Maternal Care Services in Empowered Action Group States, India (1990-2006

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeetendra Yadav

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Low use of maternal care services is one of the reasons why child mortality and maternal mortality is still considerably high in India. Most maternal deaths are preventable if mothers receive essential health care before, during, and after childbirth. In India, the eight socioeconomically backward states referred to as the Empowered Action Group (EAG states; lag behind in the demographic transition and low utilization of maternal health care services. Addressing the maternity care needs of women may have considerable ramifications for achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG – 5. Aims & Objectives:  To explore the prevalence, trends and factors associated with the utilization of maternal care services in Empowered Action Group States, India (1990-2006. Material Methods: Data from three rounds of the round of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS, known as the National Family Health Survey (NFHS of India were analyzed. Bivariate and multivariate-pooled logistic regression model were applied to examine the utilization of the maternal and child health care trends over time. Result: The results from analysis indicate that the full ANC and skilled birth attendant (SBA has increased from 17% and 20% to 25% and35% respectively during the last one and half decade (1990-2006. Conclusion: Various socioeconomic and demographic factors are associated with the utilization of maternal care services in EAG states, India. Promoting the use of family planning, female education, targeting vulnerable groups such as poor, illiterate, high parity women, involving media and grass root level workers and collaboration between community leaders and health care system could be some important policy level interventions to address the unmet need of maternal and child health care services among women. The study concludes that much of these differentials are social constructs that can be reduced by prioritizing the needs of the disadvantaged and

Towards a project-based service delivery approach : Uncovering organisational tensions

OpenAIRE

12330841 - Van der Waldt, Gerrit

2009-01-01

In line with the modernizing, re-inventing and alternative service delivery paradigm, governments increasingly utilise project-based methodologies to improve service delivery. There is general agreement that projects are becoming increasingly important for government institutions to operationalise strategic objectives and policy programmes. This approach is commonly known as ‗Management-by-Projects‘. To adopt this approach requires of public institutions to adjust their existing structures...

Policies of access to healthcare services for accompanied asylum-seeking children in the Nordic countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandahl, Hinuga; Norredam, Marie; Hjern, Anders; Asher, Henry; Nielsen, Signe Smith

2013-08-01

Asylum-seeking children constitute a vulnerable group with high prevalence and risk for mental health problems. The aim of this study was to compare policies of access to healthcare services, including physical examination and screening for mental health problems on arrival, for accompanied asylum-seeking children in the Nordic countries. This study was based on the national reports "Reception of refugee children in the Nordic countries" written by independent national experts for the Nordic Network for Research on Refugee Children, supplemented by information from relevant authorities. In Sweden, Norway and Iceland, asylum-seeking children had access to healthcare services equal to children in the general population. On a policy level, Denmark imposed restrictions on non-acute hospitalisations and prolonged specialist treatments. Regarding health examinations, Sweden deviated from the Nordic pattern by not performing these systematically. In Denmark, Iceland, and some counties in Sweden, but not in Norway, screening for mental health problems was offered to asylum-seeking children. Access to healthcare services for asylum-seeking children differs in the Nordic countries; the consequences of these systematic differences for the individual asylum-seeking child are unknown. For asylum-seeking children, access to healthcare has to be considered in a wider context that includes the core conditions of being an asylum-seeker. A comparative study at policy level needs to be supplemented with empirical follow-up studies of the well-being of the study population to document potential consequences of policies in practice.

Web and Internet-based Capabilities (IbC) Policies - U.S. Department of

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&IIC DCIO IE DCIO R&A DCIO CS In the News Library Contact us Web and Internet-based Capabilities (IbC) Policies Army Navy Air Force Marine Corps General DoD Internet Services and Internet-Based ) Information Collection under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (OMB Memo) Internet Domain Name and Internet

Long term warranty and after sales service concept, policies and cost models

CERN Document Server

Rahman, Anisur

2015-01-01

This volume presents concepts, policies and cost models for various long-term warranty and maintenance contracts. It offers several numerical examples for estimating costs to both the manufacturer and consumer. Long-term warranties and maintenance contracts are becoming increasingly popular, as these types of aftersales services provide assurance to consumers that they can enjoy long, reliable service, and protect them from defects and the potentially high costs of repairs. Studying long-term warranty and service contracts is important to manufacturers and consumers alike, as offering long-term warranty and maintenance contracts produce additional costs for manufacturers / service providers over the product’s service life. These costs must be factored into the price, or the manufacturer / dealer will incur losses instead of making a profit. On the other hand, the buyer / consumer needs to weigh the cost of maintaining it over its service life and to decide whether or not these policies are worth purchasing....

China's experiment on the differential electricity pricing policy and the struggle for energy conservation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen Jinjin

2011-01-01

Differential electricity pricing was promulgated by China's central government to guide the development of high energy-consuming industries, which are significant for energy conservation. This paper examines the twists and turns of the policy implementation at the provincial level, and seeks to elucidate the difficulties in its implementation. Local governments, concerned that following the central directives would hurt local interests, have tried to deviate from the central orders while the central revises the policy from time to time to ensure local compliance. Three difficulties are analyzed: (1) the current relations between the central and local energy regulatory institutions make these local institutions difficult to perform their duties, and affect incentives for local governments to respond to central directives; (2) financial reform puts a great burden on local governments to raise revenues to cover expenditures, making local governments focus mainly on economic development rather than serving merely as political agents of the central government; (3) the aggressive attitude of local governments in pursuing GDP growth is not necessarily driven by the central government, but by pressure from competition among localities and the need to win local support. Solving these difficulties is important for making national energy conservation polices effective and efficient. - Highlights: → Adopt the differential electricity pricing policy to achieve energy conservation. → The implementation of the differential electricity pricing policy is far from smooth. → Current relations between the central and local energy regulatory institutions. → Financial burden on local governments. → Pressure from competition among localities and the need to win local support.

Change Best: Task 2.3. Analysis of policy mix and development of Energy Efficiency Services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boonekamp, P.; Vethman, P.

2010-04-01

The aim of the Change Best project is to promote the development of an energy efficiency service (EES) market and to give good practice examples of changes in energy service business, strategies, and supportive policies and measures in the course of the implementation of Directive 2006/32/EC on Energy End-Use Efficiency and Energy Services. This report addresses task 2.3: Analysis of policy mix and development of Energy Efficiency Services.

Status of costing hospital nursing work within Australian casemix activity-based funding policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Heslop, Liza

2012-02-01

Australia has a long history of patient level costing initiated when casemix funding was implemented in several states in the early 1990s. Australia includes, to some extent, hospital payment based on nursing intensity adopted within casemix funding policy and the Diagnostic Related Group system. Costing of hospital nursing services in Australia has not changed significantly in the last few decades despite widespread introduction of casemix funding policy at the state level. Recent Commonwealth of Australia National Health Reform presents change to the management of the delivery of health care including health-care costing. There is agreement for all Australian jurisdictions to progress to casemix-based activity funding. Within this context, nurse costing infrastructure presents contemporary issues and challenges. An assessment is made of the progress of costing nursing services within casemix funding models in Australian hospitals. Valid and reliable Australian-refined nursing service weights might overcome present cost deficiencies and limitations. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Impact of a population based intervention to increase the adoption of multiple physical activity practices in centre based childcare services: a quasi experimental, effectiveness study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Finch Meghan

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There is considerable scope to improve the delivery of practices that increase the physical activity of children in centre based childcare services. Few studies have reported the effectiveness of interventions to address this, particularly at a population level. The primary aim of this study was to describe the impact of an intervention to increase the adoption of multiple policies and practices to promote physical activity in centre based childcare services. Methods A quasi experimental study was conducted in centre based childcare services (n =228 in New South Wales (NSW, Australia and involved a three month intervention to increase the adoption of eight practices within childcare services that have been suggested to promote child physical activity. Intervention strategies to support the adoption of practices included staff training, resources, incentives, follow-up support and performance monitoring and feedback. Randomly selected childcare services in the remainder of NSW acted as a comparison group (n = 164 and did not receive the intervention but may have been exposed to a concurrent NSW government healthy eating and physical activity initiative. Self reported information on physical activity policies, fundamental movement skills sessions, structured physical activity opportunities, staff involvement in active play and provision of verbal prompts to encourage physical activity, small screen recreation opportunities, sedentary time, and staff trained in physical activity were collected by telephone survey with childcare service managers at baseline and 18 months later. Results Compared with the comparison area, the study found significantly greater increases in the prevalence of intervention services with a written physical activity policy, with policy referring to placing limits on small screen recreation, and with staff trained in physical activity. In addition, non-significant trends towards a greater increase in the

Paucity of qualitative research in general medical and health services and policy research journals: analysis of publication rates

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Background Qualitative research has the potential to inform and improve health care decisions but a study based on one year of publications suggests that it is not published in prominent health care journals. A more detailed, longitudinal analysis of its availability is needed. The purpose of this study was to identify, count and compare the number of qualitative and non-qualitative research studies published in high impact health care journals, and explore trends in these data over the last decade. Methods A bibliometric approach was used to identify and quantify qualitative articles published in 20 top general medical and health services and policy research journals from 1999 to 2008. Eligible journals were selected based on performance in four different ranking systems reported in the 2008 ISI Journal Citation Reports. Qualitative and non-qualitative research published in these journals were identified by searching MEDLINE, and validated by hand-searching tables of contents for four journals. Results The total number of qualitative research articles published during 1999 to 2008 in ten general medical journals ranged from 0 to 41, and in ten health services and policy research journals from 0 to 39. Over this period the percentage of empirical research articles that were qualitative ranged from 0% to 0.6% for the general medical journals, and 0% to 6.4% for the health services and policy research journals. Conclusions This analysis suggests that qualitative research it is rarely published in high impact general medical and health services and policy research journals. The factors that contribute to this persistent marginalization need to be better understood. PMID:21992238

Linking ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services for public policy

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Christina P; Jiang, Bo; Kinzig, Ann P; Lee, Kai N; Ouyang, Zhiyun

2015-01-01

Governments worldwide are recognising ecosystem services as an approach to address sustainability challenges. Decision-makers need credible and legitimate measurements of ecosystem services to evaluate decisions for trade-offs to make wise choices. Managers lack these measurements because of a data gap linking ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services. The dominant method to address the data gap is benefit transfer using ecological data from one location to estimate ecosystem services at other locations with similar land cover. However, benefit transfer is only valid once the data gap is adequately resolved. Disciplinary frames separating ecology from economics and policy have resulted in confusion on concepts and methods preventing progress on the data gap. In this study, we present a 10-step approach to unify concepts, methods and data from the disparate disciplines to offer guidance on overcoming the data gap. We suggest: (1) estimate ecosystem characteristics using biophysical models, (2) identify final ecosystem services using endpoints and (3) connect them using ecological production functions to quantify biophysical trade-offs. The guidance is strategic for public policy because analysts need to be: (1) realistic when setting priorities, (2) attentive to timelines to acquire relevant data, given resources and (3) responsive to the needs of decision-makers. PMID:25394857

Space assets, technology and services in support of energy policy

Science.gov (United States)

Vasko, C. A.; Adriaensen, M.; Bretel, A.; Duvaux-Bechon, I.; Giannopapa, C. G.

2017-09-01

Space can be used as a tool by decision and policy makers in developing, implementing and monitoring various policy areas including resource management, environment, transport, security and energy. This paper focuses on the role of space for the energy policy. Firstly, the paper summarizes the European Union's (EU) main objectives in energy policy enclosed in the Energy Strategy 2020-2030-2050 and demonstrates how space assets can contribute to achieving those objectives. Secondly, the paper addresses how the European Space Agency (ESA) has established multiple initiatives and programs that directly finance the development of space assets, technology and applications that deliver services in support of the EU energy policy and sector. These efforts should be continued and strengthened in order to overcome identified technological challenges. The use of space assets, technology and applications, can help achieve the energy policy objectives for the next decades.

Value-based Q(s,S) policy for joint replenishments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johansen, Søren Glud; Thorstenson, Anders

replenishment order is issued, if the expected cost of ordering immediately according to the (s, S) policy is less than the expected cost of deferring the order until the next demand or until the level Q is reached. We use simulation to evaluate our policy. Applying the value-based Q(s, S) policy to a standard...... set of 12-item numerical examples from the literature, the long-run average cost of the best known solution is reduced by approximately 1%. Further examples are also investigated and in some cases for which the cost structure implies a high service level, the cost reduction exceeds 10% of the cost...

CO2 emissions in the global supply chains of services: An analysis based on a multi-regional input–output model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Wencheng; Peng, Shuijun; Sun, Chuanwang

2015-01-01

As the service sector dominates the economy in developed countries, its environmental impact has become an important issue. Based on a multi-regional input–output model, this paper estimates consumption-based emissions of service sectors of 41 countries and regions, and discusses the emission abatement policy of service sectors. The results indicate that consumption-based emissions of the service sector in most countries and regions are much greater than direct emissions generated by the service sector. Further decomposition by production sources demonstrates that final demand for services in certain countries causes substantial emissions in the other countries. In most countries, major parts of consumption-based emissions of the service sector come from upstream emissions in non-service sectors due to the intermediate consumption of non-service inputs in the service sector. For the US and China, the consumption-based emissions of their service sectors are traced back to different service consumption bundles and production sectors, which enable us to identify service categories and production sectors that play key roles in the impact of service sectors on CO 2 emissions. Finally, policy implications of the results are discussed for the climate effect of the service-oriented economy, global mitigation of climate change, sustainability, and the decarbonization of the service sector. - Highlights: • A consumption perspective for the assessment of the environmental impact of the service sector. • International supply chain effect is analyzed using a global input–output model. • Consumption-based emissions of the service sector are decomposed in two ways. • Policy implications for emissions mitigation in the service-oriented economy.

Science, Policy, and Practice: Three Cultures in Search of a Shared Mission.

Science.gov (United States)

Shonkoff, Jack P.

2000-01-01

Discusses how child development research, social policy design, and human service delivery for children and families reflect three separate yet related cultures. Argues that transmitting knowledge from the academy to social policy and practice could be facilitated by a simple taxonomy differentiating established knowledge from both reasonable…

Service differentiation in spare parts supply through dedicated stocks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alvarez, Elisa; van der Heijden, Matthijs C.; Zijm, Willem H.M.

2012-01-01

We investigate keeping dedicated stocks at customer sites in addition to stock kept at some central location as a tool for applying service differentiation in spare parts supply. We study the resulting two-echelon system in a multi-item setting, both under backordering and under emergency shipments

Advancing team-based primary health care: a comparative analysis of policies in western Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Suter, Esther; Mallinson, Sara; Misfeldt, Renee; Boakye, Omenaa; Nasmith, Louise; Wong, Sabrina T

2017-07-17

We analyzed and compared primary health care (PHC) policies in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan to understand how they inform the design and implementation of team-based primary health care service delivery. The goal was to develop policy imperatives that can advance team-based PHC in Canada. We conducted comparative case studies (n = 3). The policy analysis included: Context review: We reviewed relevant information (2007 to 2014) from databases and websites. Policy review and comparative analysis: We compared and contrasted publically available PHC policies. Key informant interviews: Key informants (n = 30) validated narratives prepared from the comparative analysis by offering contextual information on potential policy imperatives. Advisory group and roundtable: An expert advisory group guided this work and a key stakeholder roundtable event guided prioritization of policy imperatives. The concept of team-based PHC varies widely across and within the three provinces. We noted policy gaps related to team configuration, leadership, scope of practice, role clarity and financing of team-based care; few policies speak explicitly to monitoring and evaluation of team-based PHC. We prioritized four policy imperatives: (1) alignment of goals and policies at different system levels; (2) investment of resources for system change; (3) compensation models for all members of the team; and (4) accountability through collaborative practice metrics. Policies supporting team-based PHC have been slow to emerge, lacking a systematic and coordinated approach. Greater alignment with specific consideration of financing, reimbursement, implementation mechanisms and performance monitoring could accelerate systemic transformation by removing some well-known barriers to team-based care.

Age-Differential Effects of Job Characteristics on Job Attraction: A Policy-Capturing Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zacher, Hannes; Dirkers, Bodil T; Korek, Sabine; Hughes, Brenda

2017-01-01

Based on an integration of job design and lifespan developmental theories, Truxillo et al. (2012) proposed that job characteristics interact with employee age in predicting important work outcomes. Using an experimental policy-capturing design, we investigated age-differential effects of four core job characteristics (i.e., job autonomy, task variety, task significance, and feedback from the job) on job attraction (i.e., individuals' rating of job attractiveness). Eighty-two employees between 19 and 65 years ( M age = 41, SD = 14) indicated their job attraction for each of 40 hypothetical job descriptions in which the four job characteristics were systematically manipulated (in total, participants provided 3,280 ratings). Results of multilevel analyses showed that the positive effects of task variety, task significance, and feedback from the job were stronger for younger compared to older employees, whereas we did not find significant age-differential effects of job autonomy on job attraction. These findings are only partially consistent with propositions of Truxillo et al.'s (2012) lifespan perspective on job design.

The use of a policy dialogue to facilitate evidence-informed policy development for improved access to care: the case of the Winnipeg Central Intake Service (WCIS).

Science.gov (United States)

Damani, Zaheed; MacKean, Gail; Bohm, Eric; DeMone, Brie; Wright, Brock; Noseworthy, Tom; Holroyd-Leduc, Jayna; Marshall, Deborah A

2016-10-18

Policy dialogues are critical for developing responsive, effective, sustainable, evidence-informed policy. Our multidisciplinary team, including researchers, physicians and senior decision-makers, comprehensively evaluated The Winnipeg Central Intake Service, a single-entry model in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to improve patient access to hip/knee replacement surgery. We used the evaluation findings to develop five evidence-informed policy directions to help improve access to scheduled clinical services across Manitoba. Using guiding principles of public participation processes, we hosted a policy roundtable meeting to engage stakeholders and use their input to refine the policy directions. Here, we report on the use and input of a policy roundtable meeting and its role in contributing to the development of evidence-informed policy. Our evidence-informed policy directions focused on formal measurement/monitoring of quality, central intake as a preferred model for service delivery, provincial scope, transparent processes/performance indicators, and patient choice of provider. We held a policy roundtable meeting and used outcomes of facilitated discussions to refine these directions. Individuals from our team and six stakeholder groups across Manitoba participated (n = 44), including patients, family physicians, orthopaedic surgeons, surgical office assistants, Winnipeg Central Intake team, and administrators/managers. We developed evaluation forms to assess the meeting process, and collected decision-maker partners' perspectives on the value of the policy roundtable meeting and use of policy directions to improve access to scheduled clinical services after the meeting, and again 15 months later. We analyzed roundtable and evaluation data using thematic analysis to identify key themes. Four key findings emerged. First, participants supported all policy directions, with revisions and key implementation considerations identified. Second, participants felt the policy roundtable

Mapping ecosystem services for policy support and decision making in the European Union

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Maes, J.; Egoh, B.; Willemen, L.; Liquete, C.; Vihervaara, P.; Schägner, J.P.; Grizzetti, B.; Drakou, E.G.; Notte, La A.; Zulian, G.; Bouraoui, F.; Parcchini, M.L.; Braat, L.C.

2012-01-01

Mainstreaming ecosystem services into policy and decision making is dependent on the availability of spatially explicit information on the state and trends of ecosystems and their services. In particular, the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 addresses the need to account for ecosystem services

Nature as capital: Advancing and incorporating ecosystem services in United States federal policies and programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Schaefer, Mark; Goldman, Erica; Bartuska, Ann M; Sutton-Grier, Ariana; Lubchenco, Jane

2015-06-16

The concept of nature as capital is gaining visibility in policies and practices in both the public and private sectors. This change is due to an improved ability to assess and value ecosystem services, as well as to a growing recognition of the potential of an ecosystem services approach to make tradeoffs in decision making more transparent, inform efficient use of resources, enhance resilience and sustainability, and avoid unintended negative consequences of policy actions. Globally, governments, financial institutions, and corporations have begun to incorporate natural capital accounting in their policies and practices. In the United States, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and federal agencies are actively collaborating to develop and apply ecosystem services concepts to further national environmental and economic objectives. Numerous federal agencies have begun incorporating these concepts into land use planning, water resources management, and preparations for, and responses to, climate change. Going forward, well-defined policy direction will be necessary to institutionalize ecosystem services approaches in federal agencies, as well as to guide intersector and interdisciplinary collaborative research and development efforts. In addition, a new generation of decision support tools are needed to further the practical application of ecosystem services principles in policymaking and commercial activities. Improved performance metrics are needed, as are mechanisms to monitor the status of ecosystem services and assess the environmental and economic impacts of policies and programs. A greater national and international financial commitment to advancing ecosystem services and natural capital accounting would likely have broad, long-term economic and environmental benefits.

78 FR 49445 - Wildlife Services Policy on Wildlife Damage Management in Urban Areas

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-14

... Health Inspection Service's Wildlife Services (APHIS-WS) program is making a policy decision on how to... this definition. Otherwise, APHIS will refer all requests for operational assistance with urban rodent...

The Role Played by Agricultural Policy-based Finance in New Village Construction

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

2011-01-01

The necessity of the agricultural policy-based finance in terms of supporting the new village construction is analyzed: in the first place, the theoretical roots of agricultural policy-based finance supporting new village construction are "market failure" and "government intervention"; in the second place, the continual decline of agriculture and the "rural financial market failure" in recent years have become the objective evidence and historical mission for agricultural policy-based finance to support new village construction; in the third place, the combination of agricultural policy-based finance and new village construction is conducive to solving the "three agriculture" problems and facilitating the reform of new village construction. The feasibility of the support is analyzed: firstly, agricultural policy-based finance boasts the status and position of the "primary drive" in new village construction; secondly, the nation continuously deepens the reform of rural financial system and policy-based banks and strengthens the functions of Agricultural Development Bank, which provides policies for agricultural policy-based finance to support new village construction; thirdly, the 14 years’ reform and development of Agricultural Development Bank and the eleventh five year plan lay sound practical basis for the support of agricultural policy-based finance to new village construction. Based on the necessity and feasibility, the following six aspects are analyzed to fully display the function of the "first engine" of agricultural policy-related finance to new village construction. Firstly, strengthening the credit and loan aid to grain and cotton and some other agricultural products in the circulation domain; secondly, strengthening the credit and loan aid to agricultural industrialization in processing field; thirdly, intensifying the credit and loan aid to agricultural comprehensive development, rural infrastructure construction, application and promotion of

Linking ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services for public policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Christina P; Jiang, Bo; Kinzig, Ann P; Lee, Kai N; Ouyang, Zhiyun

2015-01-01

Governments worldwide are recognising ecosystem services as an approach to address sustainability challenges. Decision-makers need credible and legitimate measurements of ecosystem services to evaluate decisions for trade-offs to make wise choices. Managers lack these measurements because of a data gap linking ecosystem characteristics to final ecosystem services. The dominant method to address the data gap is benefit transfer using ecological data from one location to estimate ecosystem services at other locations with similar land cover. However, benefit transfer is only valid once the data gap is adequately resolved. Disciplinary frames separating ecology from economics and policy have resulted in confusion on concepts and methods preventing progress on the data gap. In this study, we present a 10-step approach to unify concepts, methods and data from the disparate disciplines to offer guidance on overcoming the data gap. We suggest: (1) estimate ecosystem characteristics using biophysical models, (2) identify final ecosystem services using endpoints and (3) connect them using ecological production functions to quantify biophysical trade-offs. The guidance is strategic for public policy because analysts need to be: (1) realistic when setting priorities, (2) attentive to timelines to acquire relevant data, given resources and (3) responsive to the needs of decision-makers. © 2014 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and CNRS.

Requirements of health policy and services journals for authors to disclose financial and non-financial conflicts of interest: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Khamis, Assem M; Hakoum, Maram B; Bou-Karroum, Lama; Habib, Joseph R; Ali, Ahmed; Guyatt, Gordon; El-Jardali, Fadi; Akl, Elie A

2017-09-19

The requirements of the health policy and services journals for authors to report their financial and non-financial conflicts of interest (COI) are unclear. The present article aims to assess the requirements of health policy and services journals for authors to disclose their financial and non-financial COIs. This is a cross-sectional study of journals listed by the Web of Science under the category of 'Health Policy and Services'. We reviewed the 'Instructions for Authors' on the journals' websites and then simulated the submission of a manuscript to obtain any additional relevant information made available during that step. We abstracted data in duplicate and independently using a standardised form. Out of 72 eligible journals, 67 (93%) had a COI policy. A minority of policies described how the disclosed COIs of authors would impact the editorial process (34%). None of the policies had clear-cut criteria for rejection based on the content of the disclosure. Approximately a fifth of policies (21%) explicitly stated that inaccurate or incomplete disclosures might lead to manuscript rejection or retraction. No policy described whether the journal would verify the accuracy or completeness of authors' disclosed COIs. Most journals' policies (93%) required the disclosure of at least one form of financial COI. While the majority asked for specification of source of payment (71%), a minority asked for the amount (18%). Overall, 81% of policies explicitly required disclosure of non-financial COIs. A majority of health policy and services journal policies required the disclosure of authors' financial and non-financial COIs, but few required details on disclosed COIs. Health policy journals should provide specific definitions and instructions for disclosing non-financial COIs. A framework providing clear typology and operational definitions of the different types of COIs will facilitate both their disclosure by authors and reviewers and their assessment and management by

Factors associated with early childhood education and care service implementation of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices in Australia: a cross-sectional study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolfenden, Luke; Finch, Meghan; Nathan, Nicole; Weaver, Natasha; Wiggers, John; Yoong, Sze Lin; Jones, Jannah; Dodds, Pennie; Wyse, Rebecca; Sutherland, Rachel; Gillham, Karen

2015-09-01

Many early childhood education and care (ECEC) services fail to implement recommended policies and practices supportive of healthy eating and physical activity. The purpose of this study was to assess whether certain theoretically-based factors are associated with implementation of healthy eating and physical activity policies and practices in a sample of ECEC services. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with Service Managers of ECEC services. The survey assessed the operational characteristics, policy, and practice implementation, and 13 factors were suggested by Damschroder's Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to impede or promote implementation. Logistic regression analyses found a significant association between implementation factor score and full implementation (OR 1.38; 95% CI 1.18-1.61; p = <0.01), indicating that for every one point increase in implementation score, ECEC services were 38 % more likely to be fully implementing the policies and practices. The findings highlight the opportunities for improving implementation of obesity prevention interventions in this setting by developing interventions that address such factors.

18 CFR 2.22 - Pricing policy for transmission services provided under the Federal Power Act.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 18 Conservation of Power and Water Resources 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Pricing policy for... INTERPRETATIONS Statements of General Policy and Interpretations Under the Federal Power Act § 2.22 Pricing policy... Policy Statement on its pricing policy for transmission services provided under the Federal Power Act...

Cloud-based Collaborative Business Services Provision

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Camarinha-Matos, L.M.; Afsarmanesh, H.; Oliveira, A.I.; Ferrada, F.; Hammoudi, S.; Cordeiro, J.; Maciaszek, L.A.; Filipe, J.

2014-01-01

The notion of service-enhanced product, representing the association of services to manufactured products, offers an important mechanism for value creation and product differentiation. This is particularly relevant in the case of complex, highly customized and long-life products. Provision of

Product policy - the main component of the marketing mix in the Romanian health services.

Science.gov (United States)

Coculescu, B I; Purcarea, V L; Coculescu, E C

2016-01-01

The objectives of the reforms in the EU healthcare systems are based on the implementation of the marketing concept in the health systems, which are, among other things: • efficient management of the financial resources and control costs of the rendered health services; • increased satisfaction of the clients of health care services; • broad accessibility to health services; • effective implementation of modern technologies; • rational stimulation of medical services consumption; • achievement of a fair and neutral competition between the public/ private providers and health insurance companies; • introduction of performance criteria in order to increase the incomes of the medical staff and hierarchy in hospitals; • implementation of modern management methods in health services management; • decentralization of the public healthcare system. Product policy in the medical system of healthcare - the most important component of the marketing mix - is the attitude that addresses a medical organization to the volume, structure, and diversity of services subject to their own activities in relation to the requirements of the services market and the competitive actions of other medical institutions.

Task shifting of HIV/AIDS case management to Community Health Service Centers in urban China: a qualitative policy analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Fuchang; Lv, Fan; Xu, Peng; Zhang, Dapeng; Meng, Sining; Ju, Lahong; Jiang, Huihui; Ma, Liping; Sun, Jiangping; Wu, Zunyou

2015-07-02

The growing number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in China points to an increased need for case management services of HIV/AIDS. This study sought to explore the challenges and enablers in shifting the HIV/AIDS case management services from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) to Community Health Service Centers (CHSCs) in urban China. A qualitative method based on the Health Policy Triangle (HPT) framework was employed to gain in-depth insights into four elements of the task shifting strategy. This included a review on published literature and health policy documents, 15 focus group discussions (FGDs) and 30 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with four types of key actors from three cities in China. A total of 78 studies and 17 policy files at the national, municipal and local levels were obtained and reviewed comprehensively. Three semi-structured interview guides were used to explore key actors' views on shifting the HIV/AIDS case management services to CHSCs. It is necessary and feasible for CHSCs to engage in case management services for PLWHA in local communities. The increasing number of PLWHA and shortage of qualified health professionals in CDCs made shifting case management services downwards to CHSCs an urgent agenda. CHSCs' wide distribution, technical capacity, accessibility and current practice enabled them to carry out case management services for PLWHA. However our findings indicated several challenges in this task shifting process. Those challenges included lack of specific policy and stable financial support for CHSCs, inadequate manpower, relatively low capacity for health service delivery, lack of coordination among sectors, PLWHA's fear for discrimination and privacy disclosure in local communities, which may compromise the effectiveness and sustainability of those services. Shifting the HIV/AIDS case management services from CDCs to CHSCs is a new approach to cope with the rising number of PLWHA in China, but it should be

Beware of Data Gaps in Home Care Research: The Streetlight Effect and Its Implications for Policy Making on Long-Term Services and Supports

Science.gov (United States)

Newquist, Deborah D.; DeLiema, Marguerite; Wilber, Kathleen H.

2016-01-01

Policy initiatives increasingly seek greater use of home- and community-based services for older persons and those with chronic care needs, yet large gaps persist in our knowledge of home care, an indispensable component of long-term services and supports. Unrecognized data gaps, including the scope of home care provided by private hire and nonmedical providers, can distort knowledge and poorly inform long-term services and supports policy. The purpose of this article is to examine these gaps by describing the universe of formal home care services and provider types in relationship to major national sources. Findings reveal four distinct home care sectors and that the majority of formal home care is provided in the sectors that are understudied. We discuss the policy implications of data gaps and conclude with recommendations on where to expand and refine home care research. PMID:26062611

Policy-Based mobility Management for Heterogeneous Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mihovska, Albena D.

2007-01-01

Next generation communications will be composed of flexible, scalable and context-aware, secure and resilient architectures and technologies that allow full mobility of the user and enable dynamic management policies that ensure end-to-end secure transmission of data and services across heterogen......Next generation communications will be composed of flexible, scalable and context-aware, secure and resilient architectures and technologies that allow full mobility of the user and enable dynamic management policies that ensure end-to-end secure transmission of data and services across...... access technology (RAT) association, user and flow context transfer, handover decision, and deployment priority. Index Terms— distributed RRM, centralized...

Dynamic virtual machine allocation policy in cloud computing complying with service level agreement using CloudSim

Science.gov (United States)

Aneri, Parikh; Sumathy, S.

2017-11-01

Cloud computing provides services over the internet and provides application resources and data to the users based on their demand. Base of the Cloud Computing is consumer provider model. Cloud provider provides resources which consumer can access using cloud computing model in order to build their application based on their demand. Cloud data center is a bulk of resources on shared pool architecture for cloud user to access. Virtualization is the heart of the Cloud computing model, it provides virtual machine as per application specific configuration and those applications are free to choose their own configuration. On one hand, there is huge number of resources and on other hand it has to serve huge number of requests effectively. Therefore, resource allocation policy and scheduling policy play very important role in allocation and managing resources in this cloud computing model. This paper proposes the load balancing policy using Hungarian algorithm. Hungarian Algorithm provides dynamic load balancing policy with a monitor component. Monitor component helps to increase cloud resource utilization by managing the Hungarian algorithm by monitoring its state and altering its state based on artificial intelligent. CloudSim used in this proposal is an extensible toolkit and it simulates cloud computing environment.

The impact of health system governance and policy processes on health services in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Science.gov (United States)

Tawfik-Shukor, Ali; Khoshnaw, Hiro

2010-06-08

Relative to the amount of global attention and media coverage since the first and second Gulf Wars, very little has been published in the health services research literature regarding the state of health services in Iraq, and particularly on the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. Building on findings from a field visit, this paper describes the state of health services in Kurdistan, analyzes their underlying governance structures and policy processes, and their overall impact on the quality, accessibility and cost of the health system, while stressing the importance of reinvesting in public health and community-based primary care. Very little validated, research-based data exists relating to the state of population health and health services in Kurdistan. What little evidence exists, points to a region experiencing an epidemiological polarization, with different segments of the population experiencing rapidly-diverging rates of morbidity and mortality related to different etiological patterns of communicable, non-communicable, acute and chronic illness and disease. Simply put, the rural poor suffer from malnutrition and cholera, while the urban middle and upper classes deal with issues of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The inequity is exacerbated by a poorly governed, fragmented, unregulated, specialized and heavily privatized system, that not only leads to poor quality of care and catastrophic health expenditures, but also threatens the economic and political stability of the region. There is an urgent need to revisit and clearly define the core values and goals of a future health system, and to develop an inclusive governance and policy framework for change, towards a more equitable and effective primary care-based health system, with attention to broader social determinants of health and salutogenesis. This paper not only frames the situation in Kurdistan in terms of a human rights or special political issue of a minority population, but provides important

The impact of health system governance and policy processes on health services in Iraqi Kurdistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khoshnaw Hiro

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Relative to the amount of global attention and media coverage since the first and second Gulf Wars, very little has been published in the health services research literature regarding the state of health services in Iraq, and particularly on the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. Building on findings from a field visit, this paper describes the state of health services in Kurdistan, analyzes their underlying governance structures and policy processes, and their overall impact on the quality, accessibility and cost of the health system, while stressing the importance of reinvesting in public health and community-based primary care. Discussion Very little validated, research-based data exists relating to the state of population health and health services in Kurdistan. What little evidence exists, points to a region experiencing an epidemiological polarization, with different segments of the population experiencing rapidly-diverging rates of morbidity and mortality related to different etiological patterns of communicable, non-communicable, acute and chronic illness and disease. Simply put, the rural poor suffer from malnutrition and cholera, while the urban middle and upper classes deal with issues of obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The inequity is exacerbated by a poorly governed, fragmented, unregulated, specialized and heavily privatized system, that not only leads to poor quality of care and catastrophic health expenditures, but also threatens the economic and political stability of the region. There is an urgent need to revisit and clearly define the core values and goals of a future health system, and to develop an inclusive governance and policy framework for change, towards a more equitable and effective primary care-based health system, with attention to broader social determinants of health and salutogenesis. Summary This paper not only frames the situation in Kurdistan in terms of a human rights or special political

Framing in policy processes: a case study from hospital planning in the National Health Service in England.

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Jones, Lorelei; Exworthy, Mark

2015-01-01

This paper reports from an ethnographic study of hospital planning in England undertaken between 2006 and 2009. We explored how a policy to centralise hospital services was espoused in national policy documents, how this shifted over time and how it was translated in practice. We found that policy texts defined hospital planning as a clinical issue and framed decisions to close hospitals or hospital departments as based on the evidence and necessary to ensure safety. We interpreted this framing as a rhetorical strategy for implementing organisational change in the context of community resistance to service closure and a concomitant policy emphasising the importance of public and patient involvement in planning. Although the persuasive power of the framing was limited, a more insidious form of power was identified in the way the framing disguised the political nature of the issue by defining it as a clinical problem. We conclude by discussing how the clinical rationale constrains public participation in decisions about the delivery and organisation of healthcare and restricts the extent to which alternative courses of action can be considered. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Advances in geospatial analysis platforms and tools: Creating space for differentiated policy and investment responses

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Maritz, Johan

2010-09-01

Full Text Available be targeted in planning and policy development, and a new "reading" of the South African space economy. The latter for example highlighting the importance of the policy centric network of densely settled clusters, local towns and service centres, regional...

Healthcare service providers' and facility administrators' perspectives of the free maternal healthcare services policy in Malindi District, Kenya: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lang'at, Evaline; Mwanri, Lillian

2015-06-27

Globally, there are increasing efforts to improve maternal health outcomes including the reduction in maternal mortality rates. Improved access to skilled care utilisation during pregnancy and delivery has been one of the strategies employed to improve maternal health outcomes. In Kenya, more than half of the women deliver without the assistance of a skilled attendant and this has contributed to high maternal mortality rates. The free maternal healthcare services policy in all public facilities was initiated as a strategy to improve access to skilled care and reduce poor maternal health outcomes. This study aimed to explore the perspectives of the service providers and facility administrators of the free maternal health care service policy that was introduced in Kenya in 2013. A qualitative inquiry using semi-structured one-on-one interviews was conducted in Malindi District, Kenya. The participants included maternal health service providers and facility administrators recruited from five different healthcare facilities. Data were analysed using a thematic framework analysis. Free maternal healthcare service provision was perceived to boost skilled care utilisation during pregnancy and delivery. However, challenges including; delays in the reimbursement of funds by the government to the facilities, stock outs of essential commodities in the facilities to facilitate service provision, increased workload amidst staff shortage and lack of consultation and sensitisation of key stakeholders were perceived as barriers to effective implementation of this policy. Free maternal healthcare services can be one of the strategies to improve a range of maternal health outcomes. However, the implementation of this policy would be more effective if; the healthcare facilities were upgraded, equipped with adequate supplies, funds and staff; the community are continually sensitized on the importance of seeking skilled care during pregnancy and delivery; and inclusivity and

Beware of Data Gaps in Home Care Research: The Streetlight Effect and Its Implications for Policy Making on Long-Term Services and Supports.

Science.gov (United States)

Newquist, Deborah D; DeLiema, Marguerite; Wilber, Kathleen H

2015-10-01

Policy initiatives increasingly seek greater use of home- and community-based services for older persons and those with chronic care needs, yet large gaps persist in our knowledge of home care, an indispensable component of long-term services and supports. Unrecognized data gaps, including the scope of home care provided by private hire and nonmedical providers, can distort knowledge and poorly inform long-term services and supports policy. The purpose of this article is to examine these gaps by describing the universe of formal home care services and provider types in relationship to major national sources. Findings reveal four distinct home care sectors and that the majority of formal home care is provided in the sectors that are understudied. We discuss the policy implications of data gaps and conclude with recommendations on where to expand and refine home care research. © The Author(s) 2015.

Water and sanitation policies in Argentina: the challenge of universalizing services

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Verónica L. Cáceres

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This article is aimed at contributing to the reflection and debate on the water and sanitation policies in Argentina. For this purpose, regulatory and institutional aspects are discussed regarding services management in the country. The paper also includes a characterization of the five stages of such policies that have marked the progress of the sector. Finally, the main challenges faced by the sector are mentioned as a conclusion.

Evidence-based policy-making in the NHS: exploring the interface between research and the commissioning process.

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Harries, U; Elliott, H; Higgins, A

1999-03-01

The UK National Health Service (NHS) R&D strategy acknowledges the importance of developing an NHS where practice and policy is more evidence-based. This paper is based on a qualitative study which aimed to identify factors which facilitate or impede evidence-based policy-making at a local level in the NHS. The study involved a literature review and case studies of social research projects which were initiated by NHS health authority managers or general practitioner (GP) fundholders in one region of the NHS. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with lead policy-makers, GPs and researchers working on each of the case studies and analysis of project documentation. An over-arching theme from the analysis was that of the complexity of R&D in purchasing. The two worlds of research and health services management often sit uncomfortably together. For this reason it was not possible to describe a 'blueprint' for successful R&D, although several important issues emerged. These include sharing an appropriate model for research utilization, the importance of relationships in shaping R&D, the importance of influence and commitment in facilitating evidence-based change, and the resourcing of R&D in purchasing. These issues have important implications for the strategic development of R&D as well as for individual project application. Moving beyond the rhetoric of evidence-based policy-making is more likely if both policy-makers and researchers openly acknowledge this complexity and give due concern to the issues outlined.

Strategies to improve the implementation of healthy eating, physical activity and obesity prevention policies, practices or programmes within childcare services.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolfenden, Luke; Jones, Jannah; Williams, Christopher M; Finch, Meghan; Wyse, Rebecca J; Kingsland, Melanie; Tzelepis, Flora; Wiggers, John; Williams, Amanda J; Seward, Kirsty; Small, Tameka; Welch, Vivian; Booth, Debbie; Yoong, Sze Lin

2016-10-04

Despite the existence of effective interventions and best-practice guideline recommendations for childcare services to implement policies, practices and programmes to promote child healthy eating, physical activity and prevent unhealthy weight gain, many services fail to do so. The primary aim of the review was to examine the effectiveness of strategies aimed at improving the implementation of policies, practices or programmes by childcare services that promote child healthy eating, physical activity and/or obesity prevention. The secondary aims of the review were to:1. describe the impact of such strategies on childcare service staff knowledge, skills or attitudes;2. describe the cost or cost-effectiveness of such strategies;3. describe any adverse effects of such strategies on childcare services, service staff or children;4. examine the effect of such strategies on child diet, physical activity or weight status. We searched the following electronic databases on 3 August 2015: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, MEDLINE In Process, EMBASE, PsycINFO, ERIC, CINAHL and SCOPUS. We also searched reference lists of included trials, handsearched two international implementation science journals and searched the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (www.who.int/ictrp/) and ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov). We included any study (randomised or non-randomised) with a parallel control group that compared any strategy to improve the implementation of a healthy eating, physical activity or obesity prevention policy, practice or programme by staff of centre-based childcare services to no intervention, 'usual' practice or an alternative strategy. The review authors independently screened abstracts and titles, extracted trial data and assessed risk of bias in pairs; we resolved discrepancies via consensus. Heterogeneity across studies precluded pooling of data and undertaking quantitative

Leadership development in the English National Health Service: A counter narrative to inform policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Hewison, Alistair; Morrell, Kevin

2014-04-01

To examine the current approach to leadership development in the English National Health Service (NHS) and consider its implications for nursing. To stimulate debate about the nature of leadership development in a range of health care settings. Good leadership is central to the provision of high quality nursing care. This has focussed attention on the leadership development of nurses and other health care staff. It has been a key policy concern in the English NHS of late and fostered the growth of leadership development programmes founded on competency based approaches. This is a policy review informed by the concept of episteme. Relevant policy documents and related literature. Using Foucault's concept of episteme, leadership development policy is examined in context and a 'counter narrative' developed to demonstrate that current approaches are rooted in competency based accounts which constitute a limited, yet dominant narrative. Leadership takes many forms and varies hugely according to task and context. Acknowledging this in the form of a counter narrative offers a contribution to more constructive policy development in the English NHS and more widely. A more nuanced debate about leadership development and greater diversity in the provision of development programmes and activities is required. Leadership development has been advocated as being crucial to the advancement of nursing. Detailed analysis of its nature and function is essential if it is to meet the needs of nurse leaders. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cluster Analysis as an Analytical Tool of Population Policy

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Oksana Mikhaylovna Shubat

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The predicted negative trends in Russian demography (falling birth rates, population decline actualize the need to strengthen measures of family and population policy. Our research purpose is to identify groups of Russian regions with similar characteristics in the family sphere using cluster analysis. The findings should make an important contribution to the field of family policy. We used hierarchical cluster analysis based on the Ward method and the Euclidean distance for segmentation of Russian regions. Clustering is based on four variables, which allowed assessing the family institution in the region. The authors used the data of Federal State Statistics Service from 2010 to 2015. Clustering and profiling of each segment has allowed forming a model of Russian regions depending on the features of the family institution in these regions. The authors revealed four clusters grouping regions with similar problems in the family sphere. This segmentation makes it possible to develop the most relevant family policy measures in each group of regions. Thus, the analysis has shown a high degree of differentiation of the family institution in the regions. This suggests that a unified approach to population problems’ solving is far from being effective. To achieve greater results in the implementation of family policy, a differentiated approach is needed. Methods of multidimensional data classification can be successfully applied as a relevant analytical toolkit. Further research could develop the adaptation of multidimensional classification methods to the analysis of the population problems in Russian regions. In particular, the algorithms of nonparametric cluster analysis may be of relevance in future studies.

Environmental policy and the energy efficiency of vertically differentiated consumer products

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brzeskot, Magdalena; Haupt, Alexander

2013-01-01

We analyse optimal environmental policies in a market that is vertically differentiated in terms of the energy efficiency of products. Considering energy taxes, subsidies to firms for investment in more eco-friendly products, and product standards, we are particularly interested in how distributional goals in addition to environmental goals shape the choice of policy instruments. We find that an industry-friendly government levies an energy tax to supplement a lax product standard, but shies away from subsidies to firms. By contrast, a consumer-friendly government relies heavily on a strict product standard and additionally implements a moderate subsidy to firms, but avoids energy taxes. - Highlights: ► We analyse how distributional goals shape environmental policy. ► Firms invest in the energy efficiency of their products and compete in prices. ► An industry-friendly government implements an energy tax and a lax product standard. ► A consumer-friendly government chooses a subsidy to firms instead of an energy tax. ► A consumer-friendly government implements a strict energy efficiency standard

Substitution of Formal and Informal Home Care Service Use and Nursing Home Service Use: Health Outcomes, Decision-Making Preferences, and Implications for a Public Health Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chia-Ching; Yamada, Tetsuji; Nakashima, Taeko; Chiu, I-Ming

2017-01-01

The purposes of this study are: (1) to empirically identify decision-making preferences of long-term health-care use, especially informal and formal home care (FHC) service use; (2) to evaluate outcomes vs. costs based on substitutability of informal and FHC service use; and (3) to investigate health outcome disparity based on substitutability. The methods of ordinary least squares, a logit model, and a bivariate probit model are used by controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, and physical/mental health factors to investigate outcomes and costs based substitutability of informal and formal health-care use. The data come from the 2013 Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR), which is designed by Keizai-Sangyo Kenkyu-jo, Hitotsubashi University, and the University of Tokyo. The JSTAR is a globally comparable data survey of the elderly. There exists a complement relationship between the informal home care (IHC) and community-based FHC services, and the elasticity's ranges from 0.18 to 0.22. These are reasonable results, which show that unobservable factors are positively related to IHC and community-based FHC, but negatively related to nursing home (NH) services based on our bivariate probit model. Regarding health-care outcome efficiency issue, the IHC is the best one among three types of elderly care: IHC, community-based FHC, and NH services. Health improvement/outcome of elderly with the IHC is heavier concentrated on IHC services than the elderly care services by community-based FHC and NH care services. Policy makers need to address a diversity of health outcomes and efficiency of services based on providing services to elderly through resource allocation to the different types of long-term care. A provision of partial or full compensation for elderly care at home is recommendable and a viable option to improve their quality of lives.

Substitution of Formal and Informal Home Care Service Use and Nursing Home Service Use: Health Outcomes, Decision-Making Preferences, and Implications for a Public Health Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chia-Ching Chen

2017-11-01

Full Text Available ObjectivesThe purposes of this study are: (1 to empirically identify decision-making preferences of long-term health-care use, especially informal and formal home care (FHC service use; (2 to evaluate outcomes vs. costs based on substitutability of informal and FHC service use; and (3 to investigate health outcome disparity based on substitutability.Methodology and dataThe methods of ordinary least squares, a logit model, and a bivariate probit model are used by controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, and physical/mental health factors to investigate outcomes and costs based substitutability of informal and formal health-care use. The data come from the 2013 Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR, which is designed by Keizai-Sangyo Kenkyu-jo, Hitotsubashi University, and the University of Tokyo. The JSTAR is a globally comparable data survey of the elderly.ResultsThere exists a complement relationship between the informal home care (IHC and community-based FHC services, and the elasticity’s ranges from 0.18 to 0.22. These are reasonable results, which show that unobservable factors are positively related to IHC and community-based FHC, but negatively related to nursing home (NH services based on our bivariate probit model. Regarding health-care outcome efficiency issue, the IHC is the best one among three types of elderly care: IHC, community-based FHC, and NH services. Health improvement/outcome of elderly with the IHC is heavier concentrated on IHC services than the elderly care services by community-based FHC and NH care services.ConclusionPolicy makers need to address a diversity of health outcomes and efficiency of services based on providing services to elderly through resource allocation to the different types of long-term care. A provision of partial or full compensation for elderly care at home is recommendable and a viable option to improve their quality of lives.

Innovative market-based policy instruments for waste management: A case study on shredder residues in Belgium.

Science.gov (United States)

Dubois, Maarten; Hoogmartens, Rob; Van Passel, Steven; Van Acker, Karel; Vanderreydt, Ive

2015-10-01

In an increasingly complex waste market, market-based policy instruments, such as disposal taxes, can give incentives for sustainable progress while leaving flexibility for innovation. However, implementation of disposal taxes is often criticised by domestic waste handlers that fear to be outcompeted by competitors in other countries. The article discusses three innovative market-based instruments that limit the impact on international competitiveness: Tradable recycling credits, refunded disposal taxes and differentiated disposal taxes. All three instruments have already been implemented for distinct environmental policies in Europe. In order to illustrate how these instruments can be used for waste policy, the literature review is complemented with a case study on shredder residues from metal-containing waste streams in Belgium. The analysis shows that a conventional disposal tax remains the most efficient, simple and transparent instrument. However, if international competition is a significant issue or if political support is weak, refunded and differentiated disposal taxes can have an added value as second-best instruments. Tradable recycling credits are not an appropriate instrument for use in small waste markets with market power. In addition, refunded taxes create similar incentives, but induce lower transactions costs. © The Author(s) 2015.

Migrants' access to healthcare services within the European Union: a content analysis of policy documents in Ireland, Portugal and Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Ledoux, Céline; Pilot, Eva; Diaz, Esperanza; Krafft, Thomas

2018-06-15

The current migration flow into Europe is leading to a growing ethnically diverse population in many European countries. Now more than ever, those populations have different healthcare needs, languages, traditions, and previous level of care. This higher level of diversity is likely to increase health inequalities that might challenge healthcare systems if not addressed. In this context, this study aims at reviewing the policy framework for migrants' access to healthcare in Spain, Portugal and Ireland, countries with a long history of immigration, to identify lessons to be learned for policies on migrants' health. A content analysis of official policy documents was undertaken and the conceptual framework developed by Mladowsky was adapted to classify the actions indicated in the policies. The content analysis revealed that the policy aim for all three analysed countries is the improvement of the health status of the immigrant population based on equity and equality principles. The main strategies are the adaptation of services through actions targeting patients and providers, such as the implementation of cultural mediators and trainings for health professionals. The three countries propose a great range of policies aiming at improving access to healthcare services for immigrants that can inspire other European countries currently welcoming refugees. Developing inclusive policies, however does not necessarily mean they will be implemented or felt on the ground. Inclusive policies are indeed under threat due to the economic and social crises and due to the respective nationalistic attitudes towards integration. The European Union is challenged to take a more proactive leadership and ensure that countries effectively implement inclusive actions to improve migrant's access to health services.

Providing a New Model for Discovering Cloud Services Based on Ontology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Heydari

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Due to its efficient, flexible, and dynamic substructure in information technology and service quality parameters estimation, cloud computing has become one of the most important issues in computer world. Discovering cloud services has been posed as a fundamental issue in reaching out high efficiency. In order to do one’s own operations in cloud space, any user needs to request several various services either simultaneously or according to a working routine. These services can be presented by different cloud producers or different decision-making policies. Therefore, service management is one of the important and challenging issues in cloud computing. With the advent of semantic web and practical services accordingly in cloud computing space, access to different kinds of applications has become possible. Ontology is the core of semantic web and can be used to ease the process of discovering services. A new model based on ontology has been proposed in this paper. The results indicate that the proposed model has explored cloud services based on user search results in lesser time compared to other models.

Route effect on the perception of public transport services quality

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chica-Olmo, J.; Gachs-Sanchez, H.M.; Lizarraga, C.

2016-07-01

User satisfaction sets a basic example for public service quality, especially those considered as basic necessities. The quality in transport service related to conceptualization and measurement, as a decisive demand key, presents challenges for both economic and mobility policies.Several operator companies are involved in the transport sector. Therefore this report aims to design a model of overall satisfaction based on the level of satisfaction with a specific set of factors, considering individual characteristics of users and the differential effect of different bus lines.The current presentation has applied a combined method, using Nonlinear Principal Component Analysis (NLPCA) and a Logit Multilevel Model (LMLM) in two-steps. (Author)

Design and evaluation of overloaded service systems with skill based routing, under FCFS policies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Adan, I.J.B.F.; Boon, M.A.A.; Weiss, G.

2013-01-01

We study an overloaded service system with servers of types S={s1,…,sJ}, serving customers of types C={c1,…,cI} under FCFS. Customers arrive in Poisson streams, join the queue and then abandon or get served. Service is skill based, which is described by a compatibility graph G, where (i,j)¿G if

How does outcome-based funding affect service delivery? An analysis of consequences within employment services for people living with serious mental illness.

Science.gov (United States)

Gewurtz, Rebecca E; Cott, Cheryl; Rush, Brian; Kirsh, Bonnie

2015-01-01

This paper explores the impact of outcome-based funding on service delivery within employment services for people with serious mental illness. It draws on a case study of a policy change in the provincial disability support program in Ontario, Canada where funding for employment programs and services was changed from a fee-for-service to an outcome-based model. The findings highlight that the financial imperative for programs to meet employment targets in order to secure their funding has shifted the focus away from the provision of pre-employment supports to job development and job placements. However, there remains little attention to job matching and career development, and there is concern about access to services among those with complex barriers to employment. There is a need to reconcile tensions between the goals of outcome-based funding and on-the-ground service delivery to promote ongoing innovation in employment services for people with serious mental illness.

The Mental Health Recovery Measure can be used to assess aspects of both customer-based and service-based recovery in the context of severe mental illness

OpenAIRE

Albino J Oliveira-Maia; Albino J Oliveira-Maia; Albino J Oliveira-Maia; Albino J Oliveira-Maia; Carina Mendonça; Marta Camacho; Maria João Pessoa; Joaquim Gago; Joaquim Gago

2016-01-01

Within clinical psychiatry, recovery from severe mental illness has classically been defined according to symptoms and function (service-based recovery). However, service-users have argued that recovery should be defined as the process of overcoming mental illness, regaining self-control and establishing a meaningful life (customer-based recovery). Here we aimed to compare customer-based and service-based recovery and clarify their differential relationship with other constructs, namely needs...

The Mental Health Recovery Measure Can Be Used to Assess Aspects of Both Customer-Based and Service-Based Recovery in the Context of Severe Mental Illness

OpenAIRE

Oliveira-Maia, Albino J.; Mendon?a, Carina; Pessoa, Maria J.; Camacho, Marta; Gago, Joaquim

2016-01-01

Within clinical psychiatry, recovery from severe mental illness (SMI) has classically been defined according to symptoms and function (service-based recovery). However, service-users have argued that recovery should be defined as the process of overcoming mental illness, regaining self-control and establishing a meaningful life (customer-based recovery). Here, we aimed to compare customer-based and service-based recovery and clarify their differential relationship with other constructs, namel...

An assessment of policies and services provision to the physically ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The researcher recommended among others that Academic library policy must be redesigned to include disability resources and services in conformity with ALA standard and Library management should create a disability liaison office on the ground floor of their multiple storey buildings and affiliate such offices with any ...

Telemedicine services in the Republic of Ireland: an evolving policy context.

Science.gov (United States)

MacFarlane, Anne; Murphy, Andrew William; Clerkin, Pauline

2006-05-01

The Republic of Ireland is characterised by few urban conurbations and a high rural population, including significant numbers of island dwellers. Information communication technologies (ICT), including telemedicine, present opportunities to address rural health-service delivery issues. As in other countries, the recent National Health Information Strategy is regarded as pivotal to the modernisation of the Irish health care system. There is, however, a dearth of research about telemedicine in Ireland. This paper reports, to the best of our knowledge, the first systematic review of telemedicine in the two regional health boards in the Republic of Ireland. Details of 11 telemedicine services, all initiated by local policy, will be presented. Results of an interview study with service providers about their experiences of the practices and processes involved in telemedicine service delivery are also provided. The focus of our analysis is two-fold. We assess the resonance of these Irish data with the international literature with particular reference to a recently developed model for the normalisation of telemedicine. For the first time, this model which was developed in the United Kingdom is applied to a fresh set of empirical data in a different health care context. We then discuss a number of health information policy issues for Ireland and elsewhere arising from our analysis.

AN AUTOMATED END-TO-END MULTI-AGENT QOS BASED ARCHITECTURE FOR SELECTION OF GEOSPATIAL WEB SERVICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Shah

2012-07-01

With the proliferation of web services published over the internet, multiple web services may provide similar functionality, but with different non-functional properties. Thus, Quality of Service (QoS offers a metric to differentiate the services and their service providers. In a quality-driven selection of web services, it is important to consider non-functional properties of the web service so as to satisfy the constraints or requirements of the end users. The main intent of this paper is to build an automated end-to-end multi-agent based solution to provide the best-fit web service to service requester based on QoS.

Sector-based political analysis of energy transition: Green shift in the forest policy regime in France

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sergent, Arnaud

2014-01-01

This article examines energy transition political process from a sector-based approach, through the analysis of recent shift in the French forest policy regime. We demonstrate that, since 2007, energy transition policies have led to a harvesting turn within the French forest policy framework, meaning that priority is given to wood mobilisation, mainly for biomass uses. In addition, our findings suggest that the political authority wielded by the state over forest policy has shifted from forest administrative services to energy agencies and local authorities. Finally, we show that, although implementation of the harvesting turn is a cause of sectoral and inter-sectoral tensions, energy transition challenge also contributes to a process of (re)institutionalisation of mediation relationships among forestry stakeholders and wood-based industries representatives. The article concludes by arguing that sectors should retain relevant institutional frameworks for actors when choosing political arrangements required for implementing energy transition policy. - Highlights: • Implementing energy transition policy potentially challenges sector-based politics. • We propose a policy regime framework and socio-political investigations. • We analyse the political impact of energy transition policy on French forest sector. • Shifts occur in sectoral policy framework, authority, and mediation relationships

Perception, acquisition and use of ecosystem services: human behavior, and ecosystem management and policy implications

Science.gov (United States)

Stanley T. Asah; Anne D. Guerry; Dale J. Blahna; Joshua J. Lawler

2014-01-01

Ecosystem services, fundamental to livelihoods and well-being, are reshaping environmental management and policy. However, the behavioral dimensions of ecosystem services and the responses of ordinary people to the management of those services, is less well understood. The ecosystem services framework lends itself to understanding the relationship between ecosystems...

A family-centered, community-based system of services for children and youth with special health care needs.

Science.gov (United States)

Perrin, James M; Romm, Diane; Bloom, Sheila R; Homer, Charles J; Kuhlthau, Karen A; Cooley, Carl; Duncan, Paula; Roberts, Richard; Sloyer, Phyllis; Wells, Nora; Newacheck, Paul

2007-10-01

To present a conceptual definition of a family-centered system of services for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN). Previous work by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau to define CYSHCN has had widespread program effects. This article similarly seeks to provide a definition of a system of services. Comprehensive literature review of systems of services and consensus panel organized to review and refine the definition. Policy research group and advisors at multiple sites. Policy researchers, content experts on CYSHCN, family representatives, and state program directors. Definition of a system of services for CYSHCN. This article defines a system of services for CYSHCN as a family-centered network of community-based services designed to promote the healthy development and well-being of these children and their families. The definition can guide discussion among policy makers, practitioners, state programs, researchers, and families for implementing the "community-based systems of services" contained in Title V of the Social Security Act. Critical characteristics of a system include coordination of child and family services, effective communication among providers and the family, family partnership in care provision, and flexibility. This definition provides a conceptual model that can help measurement development and assessment of how well systems work and achieve their goals. Currently available performance objectives for the provision of care for CYSHCN and national surveys of child health could be modified to assess systems of services in general.

Availability of tobacco cessation services in substance use disorder treatment programs: Impact of state tobacco control policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Abraham, Amanda J; Bagwell-Adams, Grace; Jayawardhana, Jayani

2017-08-01

Given the high prevalence of smoking among substance use disorder (SUD) patients, the specialty SUD treatment system is an important target for adoption and implementation of tobacco cessation (TC) services. While research has addressed the impact of tobacco control on individual tobacco consumption, largely overlooked in the literature is the potential impact of state tobacco control policies on availability of services for tobacco cessation. This paper examines the association between state tobacco control policy and availability of TC services in SUD treatment programs in the United States. State tobacco control and state demographic data (n=51) were merged with treatment program data from the 2012 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (n=10.413) to examine availability of TC screening, counseling and pharmacotherapy services in SUD treatment programs using multivariate logistic regression models clustered at the state-level. Approximately 60% of SUD treatment programs offered TC screening services, 41% offered TC counseling services and 26% offered TC pharmacotherapy services. Results of multivariate logistic regression showed the odds of offering TC services were greater for SUD treatment programs located in states with higher cigarette excise taxes and greater spending on tobacco prevention and control. Findings indicate cigarette excise taxes and recommended funding levels may be effective policy tools for increasing access to TC services in SUD treatment programs. Coupled with changes to insurance coverage for TC under the Affordable Care Act, state tobacco control policy tools may further reduce tobacco use in the United States. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Anti-piracy policy and quality differential in markets for information goods

OpenAIRE

Francisco Martínez-Sánchez; Javier M. López Cuñat

2011-01-01

In this paper we analyze the strategic decisions of the government, the incumbent and the pirate in a market where the good is piratable. We show that deterred or accommodated piracy can occur in equilibrium, but pure monopoly cannot occur for any anti-piracy policy. We also show that the initial quality differential between the original and the pirated product is essential to explain the effects of an increase in the quality of pirated product on both the level of piracy and the optimal moni...

Agricultural policies exacerbate honeybee pollination service supply-demand mismatches across Europe

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Breeze, T.; Vaissiere, B.E.; Bommarco, R.; Petanidou, T.; Seraphides, N.; Kozak, L.; Scheper, J.A.; Biesmeijer, J.C.; Kleijn, D.; Gyldenkaerne, S.

2014-01-01

Declines in insect pollinators across Europe have raised concerns about the supply of pollination services to agriculture. Simultaneously, EU agricultural and biofuel policies have encouraged substantial growth in the cultivated area of insect pollinated crops across the continent. Using data from

Evaluating the impact of regional development policies on future landscape services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Willemen, L.; Hein, L.; Verburg, P.H.

2010-01-01

In this paper we analyse the potential impact of an integrated policy package for the Gelderse Vallei region in the Netherlands on seven landscape services (residential use, intensive livestock husbandry, drinking water supply, attractiveness for overnight tourism, habitat provision for rare,

An Attribute-Based Access Control with Efficient and Secure Attribute Revocation for Cloud Data Sharing Service

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Nyamsuren Vaanchig; Wei Chen; Zhi-Guang Qin

2017-01-01

Nowadays, there is the tendency to outsource data to cloud storage servers for data sharing purposes. In fact, this makes access control for the outsourced data a challenging issue. Ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) is a promising cryptographic solution for this challenge. It gives the data owner (DO) direct control on access policy and enforces the access policy cryptographically. However, the practical application of CP-ABE in the data sharing service also has its own inherent challenge with regard to attribute revocation. To address this challenge, we proposed an attribute-revocable CP-ABE scheme by taking advantages of the over-encryption mechanism and CP-ABE scheme and by considering the semi-trusted cloud service provider (CSP) that participates in decryption processes to issue decryption tokens for authorized users. We further presented the security and performance analysis in order to assess the effectiveness of the scheme. As compared with the existing attribute-revocable CP-ABE schemes, our attribute-revocable scheme is reasonably efficient and more secure to enable attribute-based access control over the outsourced data in the cloud data sharing service.

Health services analysis as a tool for evidence-based policy decisions: the case of the Ministry of Health and Social Security in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Kroeger, Axel; Hernandez, Juan Manuel

2003-12-01

To describe the strengths and weaknesses of two Mexican health care providers for poor populations [Ministry of Health (MoH) and Social Security (SS)] in order to facilitate policy decisions about the future of the two systems. In four Mexican states we conducted (i) a household interview survey in 10 724 households; (ii) a user satisfaction survey in 1319 households; (iii) a satisfaction survey of 236 health workers; (iv) in-depth interviews with 190 health workers; (v) 188 focus-group discussions with different population groups; (vi) a document analysis. Both systems serve populations with similar characteristics of poverty. The availability of resources was better in the MoH system; SS care was better concerning process indicators (family planning, antenatal care; in-service delivery of drugs, staff productivity, user satisfaction and staff motivation), efficiency and effectiveness (reduction of morbidity and mortality). Possible explanatory factors for the better performance of the SS system were strong supervision, regular communication, joint data analysis and annual population surveys. Better service organization makes a difference regarding efficiency and effectiveness. Policy-makers, deciding on which kind of health services are best for the poor, should take into account health services' analyses.

International competition in vertically differentiated markets with innovation and imitation: trade policy versus free trade

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kováč, E.; Žigić, Krešimir

-, č. 336 (2007), s. 1-51 ISSN 1211-3298 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LC542 Institutional research plan: CEZ:MSM0021620846 Keywords : vertical differentiation * free trade * strategic trade policy Subject RIV: AH - Economics http://www.cerge-ei.cz/pdf/wp/Wp336.pdf

How Biodiversity Conservation Policy Accelerates Agrarian Differentiation: The Account of an Upland Village in Vietnam

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dressler, W.H.; Xuan To, P.; Mahanty, S.

2013-01-01

This paper shows how the implementation of Vietnam«SQ»s recent biodiversity conservation policy in Ba Vi National Park has increased the economic value of nature, created sustained conflict, and exacerbated agrarian differentiation in an upland village in northern Vietnam. Increased global and

Combining Ecosystem Service and Critical Load Concepts for Resource Management and Public Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Timothy J. Sullivan

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Land management and natural resource public policy decision-making in the United States can benefit from two resource damage/recovery concepts: ecosystem service (ES and critical load (CL. The purpose of this paper is to suggest an integrated approach to the application of ES and CL principles for public land management and natural resource policy decision-making. One well known example that is appropriate for ES and CL evaluation is examined here: the acidification of soil and drainage water by atmospheric deposition of acidifying sulfur and nitrogen compounds. A conceptual framework illustrates how the ES and CL approaches can be combined in a way that enhances the strengths of each. This framework will aid in the process of translating ES and CL principles into land management and natural resource policy decision-making by documenting the impacts of pollution on environmental goods and services that benefit humans.

Ecosystem services as a common language for coastal ecosystem-based management.

Science.gov (United States)

Granek, Elise F; Polasky, Stephen; Kappel, Carrie V; Reed, Denise J; Stoms, David M; Koch, Evamaria W; Kennedy, Chris J; Cramer, Lori A; Hacker, Sally D; Barbier, Edward B; Aswani, Shankar; Ruckelshaus, Mary; Perillo, Gerardo M E; Silliman, Brian R; Muthiga, Nyawira; Bael, David; Wolanski, Eric

2010-02-01

Ecosystem-based management is logistically and politically challenging because ecosystems are inherently complex and management decisions affect a multitude of groups. Coastal ecosystems, which lie at the interface between marine and terrestrial ecosystems and provide an array of ecosystem services to different groups, aptly illustrate these challenges. Successful ecosystem-based management of coastal ecosystems requires incorporating scientific information and the knowledge and views of interested parties into the decision-making process. Estimating the provision of ecosystem services under alternative management schemes offers a systematic way to incorporate biogeophysical and socioeconomic information and the views of individuals and groups in the policy and management process. Employing ecosystem services as a common language to improve the process of ecosystem-based management presents both benefits and difficulties. Benefits include a transparent method for assessing trade-offs associated with management alternatives, a common set of facts and common currency on which to base negotiations, and improved communication among groups with competing interests or differing worldviews. Yet challenges to this approach remain, including predicting how human interventions will affect ecosystems, how such changes will affect the provision of ecosystem services, and how changes in service provision will affect the welfare of different groups in society. In a case study from Puget Sound, Washington, we illustrate the potential of applying ecosystem services as a common language for ecosystem-based management.

Point of Care Testing Services Delivery: Policy Analysis using a ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Annals of Biomedical Sciences ... The service providers (hospital management) and the testing personnel are faced with the task of trying to explain these problems. Objective of the study: To critically do a policy analysis of the problems of point of care testing with the aim of identifying the causes of these problems and ...

The ecosystem services agenda: bridging the worlds of natural science and economics, conservation and development, and public and private policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Braat, L.C.; Groot, de R.S.

2012-01-01

The Ecosystem Services Journal starts in 2012 with a formidable basis in the reports and books from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and TEEB projects. Following a half-century history of growing awareness and associated scientific based policy development a bridging concept with natural and

Farmers’ Awareness of Ecosystem Services and the Associated Policy Implications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fangfang Xun

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This study analyzes the primary factors influencing farmers’ awareness of ecosystem services. This study, through questionnaires, conducts research on farmers’ awareness of and demand for ecosystem service functions. The research encapsulates 156 households from 21 groups of villagers in the Guangxi Karst Ecological Immigration District in China. The results of the factors influencing farmers’ awareness of ecosystem services, analyzed using a regression model, show that: (1 Farmers are concerned with ecosystem service functions that directly benefit them; however, they do not sufficiently understand the ecosystem’s ecological security maintenance or cultural landscape functions; (2 Farmers’ awareness of ecosystem service functions is not consistent with their corresponding demand, including the ecosystem’s leisure and entertainment, social security, disaster prevention and water purification services; (3 Education level, land area cultivated by the household, proportion of the household’s income from agriculture and immigration status directly affect farmers’ awareness of ecosystem services; (4 Farmers’ personal characteristics, family characteristics and subjective attitudes have different effects on the level of ecological service cognition. Understanding farmers’ awareness of ecosystem services, and the influencing factors can help policymakers and development managers plan local development and policies, and enable harmonious development of the human-earth system in immigration regions of China.

Combining service marketing and strategic alliances in health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Lazarus, I R

1993-11-01

With or without federal health care reform to impact the delivery of health care services in the U.S., hospitals must commit to service marketing and strategic alliances as a fundamental business strategy. Service marketing not only differentiates the provider, but with the proper programs in place, it may actually facilitate the formation of strategic alliances. The combination of these strategies will be particularly effective in preparing for any health care policy change.

International competition in vertically differentiated markets with innovation and imitation: trade policy versus free trade

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kováč, Eugen; Žigić, K.

-, č. 336 (2007), s. 1-51 ISSN 1211-3298 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LC542 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z70850503 Keywords : vertical differentiation * free trade * strategic trade policy Subject RIV: AH - Economics http://www.cerge-ei.cz/pdf/wp/Wp336.pdf

Challenges in implementing individual placement and support in the Australian mental health service and policy context.

Science.gov (United States)

Stirling, Yolande; Higgins, Kate; Petrakis, Melissa

2018-02-01

Objective Although Australia's service and policy context differs from that of the US, studies have highlighted potential for individual placement and support (IPS) to support competitive employment outcomes for people with severe and persistent mental illness. The aim of the present study was to explore why the model is not yet widely available. Methods A document analysis was conducted to discern reasons for challenges in implementation of IPS practice principles within the Australian service context. Results The document analysis illustrated that although policy acknowledges the importance of increasing employment rates for people with severe and persistent mental illness, consistent measures, change indicators, direction and time frames are lacking in policy and strategy documentation. Further, IPS principles are not consistently evident in guiding operational documentation that government-funded Disability Employment Services (DES) programs are mandated to adhere to. Conclusions For IPS to be readily implemented, it is necessary for government to offer support to agencies to partner and formal endorsement of the model as a preferred approach in tendering processes. Obligations and processes must be reviewed to ensure that model fidelity is achievable within the Australian Commonwealth policy and service context for programs to achieve competitive employment rates comparable to the most successful international programs. What is known about the topic? The IPS model has been established as the most efficacious approach to support people with severe and persistent mental ill health to gain and sustain employment internationally, yet little is known as to why this model has had very limited uptake in the Australian adult mental health service and policy context. What does this paper add? This paper provides an investigation into the achievability of IPS within DES philosophical and contractual arrangements. What are the implications for practitioners? Mental

Green Data Gathering under Delay Differentiated Services Constraint for Internet of Things

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mingfeng Huang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Energy-efficient data gathering techniques play a crucial role in promoting the development of smart portable devices as well as smart sensor devices based Internet of Things (IoT. For data gathering, different applications require different delay constraints; therefore, a delay Differentiated Services based Data Routing (DSDR scheme is creatively proposed to improve the delay differentiated services constraint that is missed from previous data gathering studies. The DSDR scheme has three advantages: first, DSDR greatly reduces transmission delay by establishing energy-efficient routing paths (E2RPs. Multiple E2RPs are established in different locations of the network to forward data, and the duty cycles of nodes on E2RPs are increased to 1, so the data is forwarded by E2RPs without the existence of sleeping delay, which greatly reduces transmission latency. Secondly, DSDR intelligently chooses transmission method according to data urgency: the direct-forwarding strategy is adopted for delay-sensitive data to ensure minimum end-to-end delay, while wait-forwarding method is adopted for delay-tolerant data to perform data fusion for reducing energy consumption. Finally, DSDR make full use of the residual energy and improve the effective energy utilization. The E2RPs are built in the region with adequate residual energy and they are periodically rotated to equalize the energy consumption of the network. A comprehensive performance analysis demonstrates that the DSDR scheme has obvious advantages in improving network performance compared to previous studies: it reduces transmission latency of delay-sensitive data by 44.31%, reduces transmission latency of delay-tolerant data by 25.65%, and improves network energy utilization by 30.61%, while also guaranteeing the network lifetime is not lower than previous studies.

28 CFR 20.35 - Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Criminal Justice Information Services Advisory Policy Board. 20.35 Section 20.35 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL JUSTICE..., concept, and operational principles of various criminal justice information systems managed by the FBI's...

Budget, fiscal and monetary policy in Poland and demand for transport – forwarding – logistics industry services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ryszard Rolbiecki

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Macroeconomic policy of a country does not always have an effect on the demand for transport. The lack of a clear relation between the nature of macroeconomic policy and changes in demand for transport services is a consequence of the overall complexity of the economic system. It can also be a result of the lack of consistency between budget and monetary policy. Macroeconomic policy as a tool to control global demand only indirectly affects the changes in demand for transport. Transport activity is in fact determined by changes in the real economy, which directly influence the increase or decrease in demand for transport services.

PREREQUISITES FOR CREATING A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN NATURE PARKS THROUGH DIFFERENTIATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vesna Vučemilović

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Differentiation is a way for gaining a sustainable competitive advantage or achieving a market position which enables companies to satisfy customers’ needs better than the competition. Differentiation can manifest itself through four dimensions: product, services, personnel and image. Nature parks, national parks, strict reserves and special reserves are categories of protected areas of national importance. Nature parks and national parks have exceptional potential for visiting system development, but are also responsible for the management of these activities. There are numerous nature protection restrictions arising from legislation and management documents. The principal task is to protect and preserve the natural and landscape values and ecological characteristics. Creating and realizing visiting activities as a part of tourist services supplied trough Public institutions are also specific. These services must be differentiated on the market in relation to the competition. Income generated from tourist services in the income structure of nature parks, will be even more important in the future, because of self-financing development and central budget dependency reduction. It must be emphasized that nature parks help the larger community through development of complementary economic activities. This paper is based on market research conducted in the period from 16 May to 10 June 2016 in Nature Park Kopački rit, which is one of the most visited nature parks in the Republic of Croatia. A poll survey was carried out among 300 randomly selected visitors. The research results may be used for policy suggestions for how to create adequate products, services and promotional activities, ensure quality education for visitors about natural, historical and cultural protected area values and minimize visitors’ impact on natural resources.

An Evaluation of the Cybersecurity Policies for the United States Health & Human Services Department: Criteria, Regulations, and Improvements

OpenAIRE

Derek Mohammed; Ronda Mariani

2014-01-01

This paper examines the criteria necessary for the evaluation of the cybersecurity policies for the United States Health and Human Services Department of the Federal Government. The overall purpose of cybersecurity policies and procedures is supported through compliance with Federal mandated regulation and standards, which serve to protect the organizational services and goals of the United States Health and Human Services Department, and to promote the best possible security practices in the...

An intersectionality-based policy analysis framework: critical reflections on a methodology for advancing equity.

Science.gov (United States)

Hankivsky, Olena; Grace, Daniel; Hunting, Gemma; Giesbrecht, Melissa; Fridkin, Alycia; Rudrum, Sarah; Ferlatte, Olivier; Clark, Natalie

2014-12-10

In the field of health, numerous frameworks have emerged that advance understandings of the differential impacts of health policies to produce inclusive and socially just health outcomes. In this paper, we present the development of an important contribution to these efforts - an Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis (IBPA) Framework. Developed over the course of two years in consultation with key stakeholders and drawing on best and promising practices of other equity-informed approaches, this participatory and iterative IBPA Framework provides guidance and direction for researchers, civil society, public health professionals and policy actors seeking to address the challenges of health inequities across diverse populations. Importantly, we present the application of the IBPA Framework in seven priority health-related policy case studies. The analysis of each case study is focused on explaining how IBPA: 1) provides an innovative structure for critical policy analysis; 2) captures the different dimensions of policy contexts including history, politics, everyday lived experiences, diverse knowledges and intersecting social locations; and 3) generates transformative insights, knowledge, policy solutions and actions that cannot be gleaned from other equity-focused policy frameworks. The aim of this paper is to inspire a range of policy actors to recognize the potential of IBPA to foreground the complex contexts of health and social problems, and ultimately to transform how policy analysis is undertaken.

A security modeling approach for web-service-based business processes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Meiko; Feja, Sven

2009-01-01

a transformation that automatically derives WS-SecurityPolicy-conformant security policies from the process model, which in conjunction with the generated WS-BPEL processes and WSDL documents provides the ability to deploy and run the complete security-enhanced process based on Web Service technology.......The rising need for security in SOA applications requires better support for management of non-functional properties in web-based business processes. Here, the model-driven approach may provide valuable benefits in terms of maintainability and deployment. Apart from modeling the pure functionality...... of a process, the consideration of security properties at the level of a process model is a promising approach. In this work-in-progress paper we present an extension to the ARIS SOA Architect that is capable of modeling security requirements as a separate security model view. Further we provide...

Resource management and scheduling policy based on grid for AIoT

Science.gov (United States)

Zou, Yiqin; Quan, Li

2017-07-01

This paper has a research on resource management and scheduling policy based on grid technology for Agricultural Internet of Things (AIoT). Facing the situation of a variety of complex and heterogeneous agricultural resources in AIoT, it is difficult to represent them in a unified way. But from an abstract perspective, there are some common models which can express their characteristics and features. Based on this, we proposed a high-level model called Agricultural Resource Hierarchy Model (ARHM), which can be used for modeling various resources. It introduces the agricultural resource modeling method based on this model. Compared with traditional application-oriented three-layer model, ARHM can hide the differences of different applications and make all applications have a unified interface layer and be implemented without distinction. Furthermore, it proposes a Web Service Resource Framework (WSRF)-based resource management method and the encapsulation structure for it. Finally, it focuses on the discussion of multi-agent-based AG resource scheduler, which is a collaborative service provider pattern in multiple agricultural production domains.

A test of the California competency-based differentiated role model.

Science.gov (United States)

Keating, Sarah B; Rutledge, Dana N; Sargent, Arlene; Walker, Polly

2003-01-01

To address the incongruence between the expectations of nursing service and education in California, the Education Industry Interface Task Force of the California Strategic Planning Committee for Nursing developed descriptions to assist employers and educators in clearly differentiating practice and educational competencies. The completion of the Competency-Based Role Differentiation Model resulted in the need to test the model for its utility in the service setting, in education, and for career planning for nurses. Three alpha demonstration sites were selected based on representative geographical regions of California. The sites were composed of tri-partnerships consisting of a medical center, an associate degree in nursing program, and a baccalaureate nursing program. Observers rated senior students and new graduates in medical-surgical units on their behaviors in teacher and leadership care provider and care coordinator roles. The alpha demonstration study results were as expected. That is, senior students practice predominantly at a novice level in teacher and management/leadership care provider functions and new graduates practice predominately at the competent level. New graduates are more likely to take on novice and competent care coordinator roles. The CBRDM may be useful for practice and education settings to evaluate student and nurse performance, to define role expectations, and to identify the preparation necessary for the roles. It is useful for all of nursing as it continues to define its levels of practice and their relationship to on-the-job performance, curriculum development, and carrier planning.

47 CFR 64.401 - Policies and procedures for provisioning and restoring certain telecommunications services in...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Policies and procedures for provisioning and restoring certain telecommunications services in emergencies. 64.401 Section 64.401 Telecommunication... procedures for provisioning and restoring certain telecommunications services in emergencies. The...

An African account of ecosystem service provision: Use, threats and policy options for sustainable livelihoods

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Egoh, Benis N

2012-12-01

Full Text Available -1 Ecosystem Services December 2012/ Vol. 2 An African account of ecosystem service provision: Use, threats and policy options for sustainable livelihoods Benis N. Egoh a, , , , Patrick J. O'Farrellb, Aymen Charefa, Leigh Josephine Gurney a...

Evaluating indirect and direct effects of eco-restoration policy on soil conservation service in Yangtze River Basin.

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Lingqiao; Zheng, Hua; Rao, Enming; Xiao, Yi; Ouyang, Zhiyun; Li, Cong

2018-08-01

The conservation impacts of policies that promote large-scale ecological restoration of ecosystem services and socio-economic development are well documented around the world. However, the effect of socio-economic development resulting from such policies on ecosystem services is rarely analysed, although it is important to do so if these policies are to be sustainable. We analysed the socio-economic impacts of soil conservation services from 2000 to 2015 in the Yangtze River Basin under the Grain to Green Programme (GTGP). Also we assessed the driving forces behind the programme: conservation policies, urbanization, agricultural development, and population growth. Our results show that during 2000-2015, cultivated area decreased by 7.5%, urban area increased by 67.5%, forest area increased by 2.1%, and soil erosion was reduced by 19.5%. The programme not only contributed significantly to an improvement in soil conservation services but also enhanced them significantly through faster urbanization. Furthermore, vegetation cover and crop yields increased synergistically, mainly due to high-efficiency agriculture that reduced the negative effect of the GTGP on agricultural production. Overall determining the indirect and direct effects of the GTGP on soil conservation and agricultural production are important for furthering our understanding of the long-term effects of ecological restoration policies, and the present study offers practical insights for ecological restoration of other watersheds. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Information for mental health systems: an instrument for policy-making and system service quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Lora, A; Lesage, A; Pathare, S; Levav, I

2017-08-01

Information is crucial in mental healthcare, yet it remains undervalued by stakeholders. Its absence undermines rationality in planning, makes it difficult to monitor service quality improvement, impedes accountability and human rights monitoring. For international organizations (e.g., WHO, OECD), information is indispensable for achieving better outcomes in mental health policies, services and programs. This article reviews the importance of developing system level information with reference to inputs, processes and outputs, analyzes available tools for collecting and summarizing information, highlights the various goals of information gathering, discusses implementation issues and charts the way forward. Relevant publications and research were consulted, including WHO studies that purport to promote the use of information systems to upgrade mental health care in high- and low-middle income countries. Studies have shown that once information has been collected by relevant systems and analyzed through indicator schemes, it can be put to many uses. Monitoring mental health services, represents a first step in using information. In addition, studies have noted that information is a prime resource in many other areas such as evaluation of quality of care against evidence based standards of care. Services data may support health services research where it is possible to link mental health data with other health and non-health databases. Information systems are required to carefully monitor involuntary admissions, restrain and seclusion, to reduce human rights violations in care facilities. Information has been also found useful for policy makers, to monitor the implementation of policies, to evaluate their impact, to rationally allocate funding and to create new financing models. Despite its manifold applications, Information systems currently face many problems such as incomplete recording, poor data quality, lack of timely reporting and feedback, and limited

Ecosystem services from a degraded peatland of Central Kalimantan: implications for policy, planning, and management.

Science.gov (United States)

Law, Elizabeth A; Bryan, Bretr A; Meijaard, Erik; Mallawaarachchi, Thilak; Struebig, Matthew; Wilson, Kerrie A

2015-01-01

Increasingly, landscapes are managed for multiple objectives to balance social, economic, and environmental goals. The Ex-Mega Rice Project (EMRP) peatland in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia provides a timely example with globally significant development, carbon, and biodiversity concerns. To inform future policy, planning, and management in the EMRP, we quantified and mapped ecosystem service values, assessed their spatial interactions, and evaluated the potential provision of ecosystem services under future land-use scenarios. We focus on key policy-relevant regulating (carbon stocks and the potential for emissions reduction), provisioning (timber, crops from smallholder agriculture, palm oil), and supporting (biodiversity) services. We found that implementation of existing land-use plans has the potential to improve total ecosystem service provision. We identify a number of significant inefficiencies, trade-offs, and unintended outcomes that may arise. For example, the potential development of existing palm oil concessions over one-third of the region may shift smallholder agriculture into low-productivity regions and substantially impact carbon and biodiversity outcomes. While improved management of conservation zones may enhance the protection of carbon stocks, not all biodiversity features will be represented, and there will be a reduction in timber harvesting and agricultural production. This study highlights how ecosystem service analyses can be structured to better inform policy, planning, and management in globally significant but data-poor regions.

Using public policy to improve outcomes for asthmatic children in schools.

Science.gov (United States)

Lynn, Jewlya; Oppenheimer, Sophie; Zimmer, Lorena

2014-12-01

School-based services to improve asthma management need to be accompanied by public policies that can help sustain services, scale effective interventions, create greater equity across schools, and improve outcomes for children. Several national organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have recommended specific public policies the adoption of which in school settings can improve asthma outcomes for children. Although many states and school districts have adopted some of these policies, adoption is not universal, and implementation is not always successful, leaving inequities in children's access to asthma services and supports. These issues can be addressed by changing public policy. Policy change is a complex process, but it is one that will benefit from greater involvement by asthma experts, including the researchers who generate the knowledge base on what services, supports, and policies have the best outcomes for children. Asthma experts can participate in the policy process by helping to build awareness of the need for school-based asthma policy, estimating the costs associated with policy options and with inaction, advocating for the selection of specific policies, assisting in implementation (including providing feedback), conducting the research that can evaluate the effectiveness of implementation, and ultimately providing information back into the policy process to allow for improvements to the policies. Copyright © 2014 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Consumer attitudes towards evidence based mental health services among American mental health consumers.

Science.gov (United States)

Teh, Lisa B; Hayashi, Kentaro; Latner, Janet; Mueller, Charles W

2016-10-01

The Consumer Attitudes towards Evidence Based Services (CAEBS) scale is a 29-item questionnaire designed to assess public views on the role of science in helping to guide mental health treatment. The aim of the current study was to assess the Factor structure the CAEBS in an online sample of adults seeking information about mental health services. The CAEBS was administered to a nationwide sample of participants from websites offering classified advertisements for mental health related study participation (n = 312). An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) suggested four factors based on 26 of the items: Beliefs Regarding Therapists' Practices, Attitudes about Mental Health Policy, Negative Personal-Level Attitudes toward EBPs, and Negative Societal-Level Attitudes towards EBPs. In order to increase consumer empowerment within the mental health-care system and develop policies supporting EBP usage, mental health professionals need to increase communication with the public to address these concerns and leverage positive attitudes. © 2016 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Public Policy Instruments and Their Impact: From Analogue to Electronic Government in the Bus Services of São Paulo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcos Lopes Campos

2018-04-01

Full Text Available This article deals with the relations between public policy instruments and production practices of objects related to government action. It demonstrates that the materiality of the instruments built to make a public policy object legible to its operators has independent effects on the relations among private operators, bureaucrats, and the public sector. Based on the bus service provision policies in the city of São Paulo between the 1980s and the 2000s, it shows that transportation policies are structured around the dilemmas and conflicts associated with the production of reports and databases. This article suggests that everyday practices and instruments, especially those associated with the documentation of operational performance, are key dimensions to understand the limits and potential of both state capacities and the regulation of companies’ profits. Because of its materiality, documentation practices and document pathways, operate as devices and artifacts which structure opacities, asymmetries of information, and power struggles between the state bureaucrats and private companies in the construction of service legibility. This article concludes that the transition from the governance through analogue instruments to the governance through electronic instruments is characterized by more transparency and greater regulatory potential over the private sector.

Contribution of ecosystem services to air quality and climate change mitigation policies: The case of urban forests in Barcelona, Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Francesc Baró; Lydia Chaparro; Erik Gómez-Baggethun; Johannes Langemeyer; David J. Nowak; Jaume. Terradas

2014-01-01

Mounting research highlights the contribution of ecosystem services provided by urban forests to quality of life in cities, yet these services are rarely explicitly considered in environmental policy targets. We quantify regulating services provided by urban forests and evaluate their contribution to comply with policy targets of air quality and climate change...

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Provincial Policies Impacting Shelter Service Delivery to Women Exposed to Violence.

Science.gov (United States)

Burnett, Camille; Ford-Gilboe, Marilyn; Berman, Helene; Ward-Griffin, Cathy; Wathen, Nadine

2015-01-01

Shelters for abused women function within a broad context that includes intersecting social structures, policies, and resources, which may constrain and limit the options available to abused women and tacitly reinforce the cycle of abuse. This feminist, qualitative study combined in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted with 37 staff and four executive directors from four shelters in Ontario, Canada, along with a critical discourse analysis of salient policy texts. Together, the interviews and critical discourse analysis formed an integrated analysis of the dialectic between policy as written and enacted. The study findings illuminate the complexity of the system and its impact on women, shelters, and the community and highlight how specific types of social policies and various social system subsystems and structures, and system configuration, shape the day to day reality of shelter service delivery and impact outcomes for abused women and their children. Collectively, these findings offer direction regarding where these policies could be improved and provide a basis for shelters, policy makers, advocates, and the community to strengthen current services and policies, potentially enhancing outcomes for women. © The Author(s) 2015.

Payment for Environmental Services: mobilising an epistemic community to construct dominant policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rodriguez de Francisco, J.C.; Boelens, R.A.

2015-01-01

The alleged capacity of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) to reach conservation policy goals, while reducing poverty in a cost-effective manner, makes it an extremely attractive development instrument for policymakers and international funding agencies. This article reconstructs the process

An Evaluation of the Cybersecurity Policies for the United States Health & Human Services Department: Criteria, Regulations, and Improvements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Derek Mohammed

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the criteria necessary for the evaluation of the cybersecurity policies for the United States Health and Human Services Department of the Federal Government. The overall purpose of cybersecurity policies and procedures is supported through compliance with Federal mandated regulation and standards, which serve to protect the organizational services and goals of the United States Health and Human Services Department, and to promote the best possible security practices in the protection of information systems from unauthorized actors and cyber-threats. The criteria of the cybersecurity evaluation is identified and analyzed for quality, strengths, weaknesses, and future applicability. Topics within the criteria include organizational operation, regulations and industrial standards compliance, service delivery to national customers, and the prevention and mitigation of IT system and security failure. This analysis determines the strengths and weaknesses, and makes recommendations for revising the cybersecurity policies within the United States Health and Human Services Department.

Emergence of a rehabilitation medicine model for low vision service delivery, policy, and funding.

Science.gov (United States)

Stelmack, Joan

2005-05-01

A rehabilitation medicine model for low vision rehabilitation is emerging. There have been many challenges to reaching consensus on the roles of each discipline (optometry, ophthalmology, occupational therapy, and vision rehabilitation professionals) in the service delivery model and finding a place in the reimbursement system for all the providers. The history of low vision, legislation associated with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services coverage for vision rehabilitation, and research on the effectiveness of low vision service delivery are reviewed. Vision rehabilitation is now covered by Medicare under Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation codes by some Medicare carriers, yet reimbursement is not available for low vision devices or refraction. Also, the role of vision rehabilitation professionals (rehabilitation teachers, orientation and mobility specialists, and low vision therapists) in the model needs to be determined. In a recent systematic review of the scientific literature on the effectiveness of low vision services contracted by the Agency for Health Care Quality Research, no clinical trials were found. The literature consists primarily of longitudinal case studies, which provide weak support for third-party funding for vision rehabilitative services. Providers need to reach consensus on medical necessity, treatment plans, and protocols. Research on low vision outcomes is needed to develop an evidence base to guide clinical practice, policy, and funding decisions.

Approaches to Risk and Consumer Policy in Financial Service Regulation in the UK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Lunt

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The financial service and communication sectors in the UK have been subject to radical re-organisation, involving the formation of sector-wide regulatory bodies (FSA and Ofcom with wide-ranging powers and statutory obligations. Although both have responsibilities for assessment and management of risk, their remits go beyond traditional approaches to regulation. Hence, although primarily oriented to economic policy, both regulators address questions of corporate responsibility, balance of stakeholder interests, the public good, consumer representation and public participation. Accordingly, they are undertaking a range of activities, including consumer education and research, public consultation and the involvement of stakeholders in policy review. Focusing on the case of financial services, this paper presents an analysis of two early speeches by FSA directors, one focused on the approach to risk adopted by the regulator and the other on consumer policy. The second part of the paper considers the conceptual issues regarding different modes of risk management in the new regulators, requiring an account of the various levels and forms of involvement by stakeholders and publics in the identification and management of risk. It follows on from the analysis of the speeches to examine the relationship between risk and consumer policy in the practices of the FSA. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0601323

Food Service and Foods and Beverages Available at School: Results from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000.

Science.gov (United States)

Wechsler, Howell; Brener, Nancy D.; Kuester, Sarah; Miller, Clare

2001-01-01

Presents School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000 findings about state- and district-level policies and practices regarding various school food service issues, e.g., organization and staffing, food service and child nutrition requirements and recommendations, menu planning and food preparation, and collaboration. Also addressed are food…

Trialling an electronic decision aid for policy developers to support ageing well.

Science.gov (United States)

Cummings, Elizabeth; Ellis, Leonie; Tin, Eh Eh; Boyer, Kim; Orpin, Peter

2015-01-01

The complex process of developing policies and planning services requires the compilation and collation of evidence from multiple sources. With the increasing numbers of people living longer there will be a high demand for a wide range of aged care services to support people in ageing well. The premise of ageing well is based on providing an ageing population with quality care and resources that support their ongoing needs. These include affordable healthcare, end of life care improvement, mental health services improvement, care and support improvement for people with dementia, and support for healthy ageing. The National Health and Medical Research Council funded a research project to develop a policy tool to provide a framework to assist policy makers and service planners in the area of ageing well in rural and regional Australia. It was identified that development of an electronic version of the policy tool could be useful resulting in a small pilot development being undertaken and tested with policy makers and service planners. This paper describes the development and trialling of a tablet based application used to assess the acceptability of computerised forms for participants actively involved in policy development. It reports on the policy developer's experience of the electronic tool to support ageing well policy making based on evidence.

A Service Differentiated MAC Protocol for OFDM/TDMA Wireless Systems

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

WANG Ying; ZHANG Ping

2005-01-01

This paper proposes a Service Differentiated-Dynamic Slotted Multiple Access (SD-DSMA) protocol with QoS guarantee. The Media Access Control (MAC) frame format is variable according to the traffic of uplink and downlink and the traffic of control and data. In addition, the services are divided into two categories, Guaranteed Bandwidth (GB) and Best Effort (BE). Uplink control message slots are designed for the GB users to reduce contention. Taking into consideration the techniques in physical layer, a two-Dimensional Radio Resource Allocation (2-D RRA) method is proposed. The 2-D RRA is an efficient way to allocate radio resources for multi-cell, multi-user OFDM/TDMA system as it takes into consideration both the channel condition and the co-channel interference. The piggyback mechanism and fair scheduling algorithm are adopted for GB services, and the max C/I scheduling algorithm is used for BE services. The simulation results show that the proposed MAC protocol has better performance in terms of delay, probability of successful access request.

Universalization of access to modern energy services in Indian households. Economic and policy analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reddy, B. Sudhakara; Nathan, Hippu Salk Kristle; Balachandra, P.

2009-01-01

Provision of modern energy services for cooking (with gaseous fuels) and lighting (with electricity) is an essential component of any policy aiming to address health, education or welfare issues; yet it gets little attention from policy-makers. Secure, adequate, low-cost energy of quality and convenience is core to the delivery of these services. The present study analyses the energy consumption pattern of Indian domestic sector and examines the urban-rural divide and income energy linkage. A comprehensive analysis is done to estimate the cost for providing modern energy services to everyone by 2030. A public-private partnership-driven business model, with entrepreneurship at the core, is developed with institutional, financing and pricing mechanisms for diffusion of energy services. This approach, termed as EMPOWERS (entrepreneurship model for provision of wholesome energy-related basic services), if adopted, can facilitate large-scale dissemination of energy-efficient and renewable technologies like small-scale biogas/biofuel plants, and distributed power generation technologies to provide clean, safe, reliable and sustainable energy to rural households and urban poor. It is expected to integrate the processes of market transformation and entrepreneurship development involving government, NGOs, financial institutions and community groups as stakeholders. (author)

Implementing evidence-based policy in a network setting: road safety policy in the Netherlands.

Science.gov (United States)

Bax, Charlotte; de Jong, Martin; Koppenjan, Joop

2010-01-01

In the early 1990s, in order to improve road safety in The Netherlands, the Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) developed an evidence-based "Sustainable Safety" concept. Based on this concept, Dutch road safety policy, was seen as successful and as a best practice in Europe. In The Netherlands, the policy context has now changed from a sectoral policy setting towards a fragmented network in which safety is a facet of other transport-related policies. In this contribution, it is argued that the implementation strategy underlying Sustainable Safety should be aligned with the changed context. In order to explore the adjustments needed, two perspectives of policy implementation are discussed: (1) national evidence-based policies with sectoral implementation; and (2) decentralized negotiation on transport policy in which road safety is but one aspect. We argue that the latter approach matches the characteristics of the newly evolved policy context best, and conclude with recommendations for reformulating the implementation strategy.

Health services financing and delivery: analysis of policy options for Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamidi S

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Samer Hamidi School of Health and Environmental Studies, Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Introduction: A national health account (NHA provides a systematic approach to mapping the flow of health sector funds within a specified health system over a defined time period. This article attempts to present a profile of health system financing in Dubai, United Arab Emirates using data from NHAs, and to compare the functional structures of financing schemes in Dubai with schemes in Qatar and selected member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD. Methods: The author analyzed secondary data published in NHAs of Dubai and Qatar and data collected by the OECD countries and publicly available from Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Union of 25 OECD countries for comparative analysis. All health financing indicators used were as defined in the international System of Health Accounts (SHA. Results: In Dubai, spending on inpatient care was the highest-costing component, with 30% of current health expenditures (CHE. Spending on outpatient care was the second highest-costing component and accounted for about 23% of the CHE. Household spending accounted for about 22% of CHE (equivalent to US$187 per capita, compared to an average of 20% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent 0.02% of CHE on long-term care, compared to an average of 11% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent about 6% of CHE on prevention and public health services, compared to an average of 3.2% of CHE of OECD countries. Conclusion: The findings point to potential opportunities for growth and improvement in several health policy issues in Dubai, including increasing focus and funding of preventive services; shifting from inpatient care to day surgery, outpatient, and home-based services and strengthening long-term care; and introducing cost-containment measures for pharmaceuticals. More investment in the translation of

How do Policy and Institutional Settings Shape Opportunities for Community-Based Primary Health Care? A Comparison of Ontario, Québec and New Zealand

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Tim Tenbensel

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Community-based primary health care describes a model of service provision that is oriented to the population health needs and wants of service users and communities, and has particular relevance to supporting the growing proportion of the population with multiple chronic conditions. Internationally, aspirations for community-based primary health care have stimulated local initiatives and influenced the design of policy solutions. However, the ways in which these ideas and influences find their way into policy and practice is strongly mediated by policy settings and institutional legacies of particular jurisdictions. This paper seeks to compare the key institutional and policy features of Ontario, Québec and New Zealand that shape the ‘space available’ for models of community-based primary health care to take root and develop. Our analysis suggests that two key conditions are the integration of relevant health and social sector organisations, and the range of policy levers that are available and used by governments. New Zealand has the most favourable conditions, and Ontario the least favourable. All jurisdictions, however, share a crucial barrier, namely the ‘barbed-wire fence’ that separates funding of medical and ‘non-medical’ primary care services, and the clear interests primary care doctors have in maintaining this fence. Moves in the direction of system-wide community-based primary health care require a gradual dismantling of this fence.

Spreading the rooftop revolution: What policies enable solar-as-a-service?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Overholm, Harald

2015-01-01

Firms using third-party-ownership (TPO) business models transform solar rooftop installations into a simple service. TPO firms sign long-term agreements with building owners or users to install, finance and manage locally sited solar panels. Customers simply buy solar electricity. The business model can increase total PV market demand by removing central barriers to PV adoption including technology risk, financing needs, and learning costs. TPO is now the dominant US model for residential solar and attempts to use the business model are underway in Europe and Asia. This study discusses how policy makers can enable emergence of solar TPO business models in new markets, a theme novel to extant literature. The paper is based on a comprehensive study of the US solar TPO ecosystem including 50 interviews with key market actors. A downside to the TPO model is potential lock-out of innovative solar technology. Crucial policy actions to enable TPO emergence in new markets are to ensure the legality of the TPO model and to facilitate solar self-consumption (the ability of customers to offset grid electricity costs by using locally generated solar electricity). -- Highlights: •Solar third-party ownership (TPO) firms can boost solar rooftop growth. •5 in-depth cases of US TPO firms and their ecosystem of partners are analyzed. •Policy options to enable solar TPO emergence in new markets are suggested. •Avoiding prohibitive rules and facilitating solar self-consumption are key measures. •Lock-out of new and innovative solar technology is a downside to the TPO model

The cost of policy simplification in conservation incentive programs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Armsworth, Paul R.; Acs, Szvetlana; Dallimer, Martin

2012-01-01

of biodiversity. Common policy simplifications result in a 49100% loss in biodiversity benefits depending on the conservation target chosen. Failure to differentiate prices for conservation improvements in space is particularly problematic. Additional implementation costs that accompany more complicated policies......Incentive payments to private landowners provide a common strategy to conserve biodiversity and enhance the supply of goods and services from ecosystems. To deliver cost-effective improvements in biodiversity, payment schemes must trade-off inefficiencies that result from over-simplified policies...... with the administrative burden of implementing more complex incentive designs. We examine the effectiveness of different payment schemes using field parameterized, ecological economic models of extensive grazing farms. We focus on profit maximising farm management plans and use bird species as a policy-relevant indicator...

Ecosystem service value assessment in temporal and spatial scales in Dalian, China: implications for urban development policy

Science.gov (United States)

Xin, Z.; Chen, X.; Fu, G.; Li, C.

2017-12-01

Landscapes differ in their capacities to provide ecosystem good and services, which are the benefits humans obtain from nature. Valuation of ecosystem services is recognized as one effective way for improving the recognition and implementation for disposition of land resource and ecosystem protection. In this content, this study aims to reveal the changes in provision of ecosystem services induced by land use changes in both temporal and spatial scales in Dalian, China. Land use changes were firstly characterized based on Landsat TM images from 1984 to 2013. Results showed a severe increase in urban area, with an average increasing rate of 39.5%. Dry land occupied the largest portion of the total area which is mainly developed on the expenses of forest loss; meanwhile, policies of water-saving irrigation has promoted a conversion of paddy fields to dry land. Other categories including water, wetland, brush grass and salting were found to have relative small contrition to the total area. Assigning ecosystem service value (ESV) coefficient to each land use category, changes in ESV of the study area were assessed. Results indicated that the total ESV decreased by 21 billion from 1984 to 2013. Forest, dry land and water are the primary contributors. As for ecosystem functions, the regulation service is the most prominent which contributed to 60% of the total ESV, followed by support, supply and culture services. In addition, ESV changes were found to have a spatial variability, which shows a maximum decreasing rate in the central city, and a highest net value in the surrounding islands. The changes and distributions in land use pattern and ESV were further linked with the local city landscape planning, which has provided implications on city landscape policy making for sustaining the provision of ecosystem services and achieving sustainable development goals.

Preconception care policy, guidelines, recommendations and services across six European countries: Belgium (Flanders), Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Science.gov (United States)

Shawe, Jill; Delbaere, Ilse; Ekstrand, Maria; Hegaard, Hanne Kristine; Larsson, Margareta; Mastroiacovo, Pierpaolo; Stern, Jenny; Steegers, Eric; Stephenson, Judith; Tydén, Tanja

2015-04-01

Preconception care is important for the screening, prevention and management of risk factors that affect pregnancy outcomes. We aimed to investigate pre-pregnancy care policies, guidelines, recommendations and services in six European countries. In 2013, an electronic search and investigation was undertaken of preconception policy, guidelines, recommendations and services available to healthcare professionals and the general public in six European countries: Belgium (Flanders), Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Findings were compared within five categories: Governmental policy and legislation; Professional bodies and organisations; Healthcare providers; Charitable organisations; Web-based public information and internet sites. All countries had preconception recommendations for women with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and epilepsy. Recommendations for healthy women and men were fragmented and inconsistent. Preconception guidance was often included in antenatal and pregnancy guidelines. Differences between countries were seen with regard to nutritional and lifestyle advice particularly in relation to fish, caffeine and alcohol consumption, and vitamin supplementation. Current guidelines are heterogeneous. Collaborative research across Europe is required in order to develop evidence-based guidelines for preconception health and care. There is a need to establish a clear strategy for promoting advice and guidance within the European childbearing population.

Handling uncertainty in bioenergy policy design – A case study analysis of UK and German bioelectricity policy instruments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Purkus, Alexandra; Röder, Mirjam; Gawel, Erik; Thrän, Daniela; Thornley, Patricia

2015-01-01

In designing policies to promote bioenergy, policy makers face challenges concerning uncertainties about the sustainability of bioenergy pathways (including greenhouse gas balances), technology and resource costs, or future energy market framework conditions. New information becomes available with time, but policy adjustments can involve high levels of adaptation costs. To enable an effective steering of technology choices and innovation, policies have to strike a balance between creating a consistent institutional framework, which establishes planning security for investors, and sufficient flexibility to adapt to new information. This paper examines implications of economic theory for handling cost and benefit uncertainty in bioelectricity policy design, focussing on choices between price and quantity instruments, technology differentiation, and policy adjustment. Findings are applied to two case studies, the UK's Renewables Obligation and the German feed-in tariff/feed-in premium scheme. Case study results show the trade-offs that are involved in instrument choice and design – depending on political priorities and a country's specific context, different options can prove more adequate. Combining market-based remuneration with sustainability criteria results in strong incentives for bioenergy producers to search for low-cost solutions; whereas cost-based price instruments with centrally steered technology and feedstock choices offer higher planning security for investors and more direct control for policy makers over what pathways are implemented. Independent of the choice of instrument type and technology differentiation mechanism, findings emphasise the importance of a careful policy design, which determines the exact balance between performance criteria such as cost control, incentive intensity, planning security and adaptive efficiency. - Highlights: • Bioelectricity policy design must deal with simultaneous cost and benefit uncertainty. �

Analysis of RDSS positioning accuracy based on RNSS wide area differential technique

Science.gov (United States)

Xing, Nan; Su, RanRan; Zhou, JianHua; Hu, XiaoGong; Gong, XiuQiang; Liu, Li; He, Feng; Guo, Rui; Ren, Hui; Hu, GuangMing; Zhang, Lei

2013-10-01

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) provides Radio Navigation Service System (RNSS) as well as Radio Determination Service System (RDSS). RDSS users can obtain positioning by responding the Master Control Center (MCC) inquiries to signal transmitted via GEO satellite transponder. The positioning result can be calculated with elevation constraint by MCC. The primary error sources affecting the RDSS positioning accuracy are the RDSS signal transceiver delay, atmospheric trans-mission delay and GEO satellite position error. During GEO orbit maneuver, poor orbit forecast accuracy significantly impacts RDSS services. A real-time 3-D orbital correction method based on wide-area differential technique is raised to correct the orbital error. Results from the observation shows that the method can successfully improve positioning precision during orbital maneuver, independent from the RDSS reference station. This improvement can reach 50% in maximum. Accurate calibration of the RDSS signal transceiver delay precision and digital elevation map may have a critical role in high precise RDSS positioning services.

Interim policy on establishment and operation of internet open, anonymous information servers and services

OpenAIRE

Acting Dean of Computer and Information Services

1995-01-01

Purpose. To establish interim NPS general policy regarding establishment and operation of Open, Anonymous Information Servers and Services, such as World Wide Web (http), Gopher, Anonymous FTP, etc...

Making health policy: networks in research and policy after 1945.

Science.gov (United States)

Berridge, Virginia

2005-01-01

Science and policy in health and medicine have interacted in new ways in Britain since 1945. The relationship between research and policy has a history. The changing role of social medicine, the rise of health services research and "customer contractor" policies in government have been important. The relationship between research and policy has been analysed by different schools of thought. This chapter categorises them as several groups: "evidence-based", "journalism", "sociology of scientific knowledge" and "science policy studies". The chapters in the book illuminate aspects of these changing relationships. The role of chronic disease epidemiology, of new networks in public health, of media-focussed activism, and of health technology and its advocates have been more important than political interest.

LOCATION-BASED SERVICES USING SIP

OpenAIRE

Abdullah Azfar,; Md. Sakhawat Hossen,; María José Peroza Marval; Razib Hayat Khan

2010-01-01

Due to the popularity of Location-Based Services and IP telephony, we decided to review a number of different proposals to implement Location-Based Services over a SIP-based mobile network. The result is an interesting overview about the potential functionalities of Location-Based Services and the capabilities of SIP for implementingthese services.

Enhancing Evidence-Based Public Health Policy: Developing and Using Policy Narratives.

Science.gov (United States)

Troy, Lisa M; Kietzman, Kathryn G

2016-06-01

Academic researchers and clinicians have a critical role in shaping public policies to improve the health of an aging America. Policy narratives that pair personal stories with research statistics are a powerful tool to share knowledge generated in academic and clinical settings with policymakers. Effective policy narratives rely on a trustworthy and competent narrator and a compelling story that highlights the personal impact of policies under consideration and academic research that bolsters the story. Awareness of the cultural differences in the motivations, expectations, and institutional constraints of academic researchers and clinicians as information producers and U.S. Congress and federal agencies as information users is critical to the development of policy narratives that impact policy decisions. The current article describes the development and use of policy narratives to bridge cultures and enhance evidence-based public health policies that better meet the needs of older adults. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 42(6), 11-17.]. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

Reconcilable Differences: Standards-based Teaching and Differentiation.

Science.gov (United States)

Tomlinson, Carol Ann

2000-01-01

There is no contradiction between effective standards-based instruction and differentiation. Curriculum tells teachers what to teach; differentiation tells how. Teachers can challenge all learners by providing standards-based materials and tasks calling for varied difficulty levels, scaffolding, instructional styles, and learning times. (MLH)

Addressing refugee health through evidence-based policies: a case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Thiel de Bocanegra, Heike; Carter-Pokras, Olivia; Ingleby, J David; Pottie, Kevin; Tchangalova, Nedelina; Allen, Sophia I; Smith-Gagen, Julie; Hidalgo, Bertha

2017-05-12

The cumulative total of persons forced to leave their country for fear of persecution or organized violence reached an unprecedented 24.5 million by the end of 2015. Providing equitable access to appropriate health services for these highly diverse newcomers poses challenges for receiving countries. In this case study, we illustrate the importance of translating epidemiology into policy to address the health needs of refugees by highlighting examples of what works as well as identifying important policy-relevant gaps in knowledge. First, we formed an international working group of epidemiologists and health services researchers to identify available literature on the intersection of epidemiology, policy, and refugee health. Second, we created a synopsis of findings to inform a recommendation for integration of policy and epidemiology to support refugee health in the United States and other high-income receiving countries. Third, we identified eight key areas to guide the involvement of epidemiologists in addressing refugee health concerns. The complexity and uniqueness of refugee health issues, and the need to develop sustainable management information systems, require epidemiologists to expand their repertoire of skills to identify health patterns among arriving refugees, monitor access to appropriately designed health services, address inequities, and communicate with policy makers and multidisciplinary teams. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The Influence Of Policy Implementation From The Change Of Institutional Status Toward Quality Of Patient Service In Hospital

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dadang Kusnadi

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Fenomenon and comunity problem in goverment hospital management not aware to wont and need public. Silent safety and consumen satisfaction is fenomenon lack quallity care. Goal this research goal for analysis about influence of policy implementation of hospital change institution status to the quality of patien service in Hospital. Kind of reserch is the quantity desain on approach the eksplanatory survey research analysis regresi linier multipel with analysis method validitas product moment pearson exam and reliability exam is alpha cronbach technique to hypotesis exam is path analysis and statistic exam t. Datum transformation is Skala Likert with measurement the method succesive interval. The population one thausand seventh two person with sample technique stratified random sampling the instrument research is quesioner and interview patien on caunter imforman. The result of assuming research that it is anticipated that implementation of change policy of institution status of hospital X there is significant influence to quality of service of patient Y is 66.31 and the other factor e is 33.69. In the implementation factor is significant to positif influence to quality service is communication X1 is 049 human resources X2 is 025 disposition X3 is 032 and structure birocratic X4 is 033. The conculsion from four factor independen variable X is the implementation of policy to quality service patient Y to influence and can receive in knowledge. To concept the development in implementation of policy need culture job factor because every product policy to contac direct with the community as to basic public policy.

Human Trafficking in Ethiopia: A Scoping Review to Identify Gaps in Service Delivery, Research, and Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Beck, Dana C; Choi, Kristen R; Munro-Kramer, Michelle L; Lori, Jody R

2017-12-01

The purpose of this review is to integrate evidence on human trafficking in Ethiopia and identify gaps and recommendations for service delivery, research and training, and policy. A scoping literature review approach was used to systematically search nursing, medical, psychological, law, and international databases and synthesize information on a complex, understudied topic. The search yielded 826 articles, and 39 met the predetermined criteria for inclusion in the review. Trafficking in Ethiopia has occurred internally and externally in the form of adult and child labor and sex trafficking. There were also some reports of organ trafficking and other closely related human rights violations, such as child marriage, child soldiering, and exploitative intercountry adoption. Risk factors for trafficking included push factors (poverty, political instability, economic problems, and gender discrimination) and pull factors (demand for cheap labor). Trafficking was associated with poor health and economic outcomes for victims. Key recommendations for service delivery, research and training, and policy are identified, including establishing comprehensive services for survivor rehabilitation and reintegration, conducting quantitative health outcomes research, and reforming policy around migration and trafficking. Implementing the recommendations identified by this review will allow policy makers, researchers, and practitioners to take meaningful steps toward confronting human trafficking in Ethiopia.

Unofficial policy: access to housing, housing information and social services among homeless drug users in Hartford, Connecticut

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Corbett A Michelle

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Much research has shown that the homeless have higher rates of substance abuse problems than housed populations and that substance abuse increases individuals' vulnerability to homelessness. However, the effects of housing policies on drug users' access to housing have been understudied to date. This paper will look at the "unofficial" housing policies that affect drug users' access to housing. Methods Qualitative interviews were conducted with 65 active users of heroin and cocaine at baseline, 3 and 6 months. Participants were purposively sampled to reflect a variety of housing statuses including homeless on the streets, in shelters, "doubled-up" with family or friends, or permanently housed in subsidized, unsubsidized or supportive housing. Key informant interviews and two focus group interviews were conducted with 15 housing caseworkers. Data were analyzed to explore the processes by which drug users receive information about different housing subsidies and welfare benefits, and their experiences in applying for these. Results A number of unofficial policy mechanisms limit drug users' access to housing, information and services, including limited outreach to non-shelter using homeless regarding housing programs, service provider priorities, and service provider discretion in processing applications and providing services. Conclusion Unofficial policy, i.e. the mechanisms used by caseworkers to ration scarce housing resources, is as important as official housing policies in limiting drug users' access to housing. Drug users' descriptions of their experiences working with caseworkers to obtain permanent, affordable housing, provide insights as to how access to supportive and subsidized housing can be improved for this population.

[European integration and health policies: repercussions of the internal European Market on access to health services].

Science.gov (United States)

Guimarães, Luisa; Giovanella, Lígia

2006-09-01

This article explores the health policy repercussions of countries' regional integration into the European Union. The aim is to review the regulation of access in other countries, with the conclusion of the single European market and the free circulation of persons, services, goods, and capital. The article begins by reviewing the various forms of integration and describes the expansion and institutionalization of Community agencies. The repercussions of European integration on health policies and regulation of access are analyzed. Market impacts on health result from Treaty directives and internal policy adjustments to free circulation. Health services access is gradually regulated and granted by rulings. Projects along borders illustrate the dynamics where differences are used to achieve comprehensive care. In the oldest integration experience, the market regulation has generated intentional and non-intentional impacts on the health policies of member states, regardless of the organizational model. Knowledge and analysis of this experience signals challenges for the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur) and adds to future debates and decisions.

Designing a New Car Rental Service Using Location-Based Services

OpenAIRE

Dessie, Solomon

2015-01-01

This thesis concentrates on improving the car rental services offered by the case company by introducing location-based services. For many years, the company has conducted a rental business in a similar manner with other car rental companies, and now it is introducing a new service system based on online interaction and location-based services. The outcome of the study is a blueprint for the case company regarding the design of a car rental service using location-based services. This stud...

Disability Policy Implementation From a Cross-Cultural Perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Verdugo, Miguel A; Jenaro, Cristina; Calvo, Isabel; Navas, Patricia

2017-07-01

Implementation of disability policy is influenced by social, political, and cultural factors. Based on published work, this article discusses four guidelines considered critical for successful policy implementation from a cross-cultural perspective. These guidelines are to: (a) base policy implementation on a contextual analysis, (b) employ a value-based approach, (c) align the service delivery system both vertically and horizontally, and (d) engage in a partnership in policy implementation. Public policy should be understood from a systems perspective that includes cross-cultural issues, such as how different stakeholders are acting and the way they plan and implement policy.

The Value of Qualitative Description in Health Services and Policy Research

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Health services and policy (HSP) researchers have long used qualitative research methodologies to explore health system issues. However, the appropriateness of one approach, qualitative description, for HSP research is still often overlooked. In this article, I discuss the role that qualitative description can play in HSP research, and argue for its greater acceptance as a valid form of academic scholarship. PMID:28277201

Service quality in healthcare institutions: establishing the gaps for policy action.

Science.gov (United States)

Abuosi, Aaron A; Atinga, Roger A

2013-01-01

The authors seek to examine two key issues: to assess patients' hospital service quality perceptions and expectation using SERVQUAL; and to outline the distinct concepts used to assess patient perceptions. Questionnaires were administered to 250 patients on admission and follow-up visits. The 22 paired SERVQUAL expectation and perception items were adopted. Repeated t-measures and factor analysis with Varimax rotation were used to analyse data. Results showed that patient expectations were not being met during medical treatment. Perceived service quality was rated lower than expectations for all variables. The mean difference between perceptions and expectations was statistically significant. Contrary to the SERVQUAL five-factor model, four service-quality factors were identified in the study. Findings have practical implications for hospital managers who should consider stepping up staffing levels backed by client-centred training programmes to help clinicians deliver care to patients' expectations. Limited studies are tailored towards patients' service-quality perception and expectation in Ghanaian hospitals. The findings therefore provide valuable information for policy and practice.

UNPACKING THE DIFFERENTIAL IMPACT OF FAMILY PLANNING POLICIES IN CHINA: ANALYSIS OF PARITY PROGRESSION RATIOS FROM RETROSPECTIVE BIRTH HISTORY DATA, 1971-2005.

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Min; Falkingham, Jane; Padmadas, Sabu S

2018-01-10

Although China's family planning programme is often referred to in the singular, most notably the One-Child policy, in reality there have been a number of different policies in place simultaneously, targeted at different sub-populations characterized by region and socioeconomic conditions. This study attempted to systematically assess the differential impact of China's family planning programmes over the past 40 years. The contribution of Parity Progression Ratios to fertility change among different sub-populations exposed to various family planning policies over time was assessed. Cross-sectional birth history data from six consecutive rounds of nationally representative population and family planning surveys from the early 1970s until the mid-2000s were used, covering all geographical regions of China. Four sub-populations exposed to differential family planning regimes were identified. The analyses provide compelling evidence of the influential role of family planning policies in reducing higher Parity Progression Ratios across different sub-populations, particularly in urban China where fertility dropped to replacement level even before the implementation of the One-Child policy. The prevailing socioeconomic conditions in turn have been instrumental in adapting and accelerating family planning policy responses to reducing fertility levels across China.

Differential Game Analyses of Logistics Service Supply Chain Coordination by Cost Sharing Contract

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Haifeng Zhao

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Cooperation of all the members in a supply chain plays an important role in logistics service. The service integrator can encourage cooperation from service suppliers by sharing their cost during the service, which we assume can increase the sales by accumulating the reputation of the supply chain. A differential game model is established with the logistics service supply chain that consists of one service integrator and one supplier. And we derive the optimal solutions of the Nash equilibrium without cost sharing contract and the Stackelberg equilibrium with the integrator as the leader who partially shares the cost of the efforts of the supplier. The results make the benefits of the cost sharing contract in increasing the profits of both players as well as the whole supply chain explicit, which means that the cost sharing contract is an effective coordination mechanism in the long-term relationship of the members in a logistics service supply chain.

The teaching of Education Policy and Administration in pre-service teacher education courses

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Ranilce Guimarães-Iosif

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This article discusses the teaching of education policy and administration in pre-service teacher education courses from a theoretical-critical and non-linear perspective of education policy study. The data was collected during a semester in two mixed classes totaling 65 students from the Physical Education, Literature, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics undergraduate courses. As part of the integration project of the graduate program in education with the undergraduate program, the professor of the policy line of the program in education began using methodologies focused on research activities in their undergraduate classes, aiming to broaden learning and to familiarize students with themes related to education policies. The research results indicate that the learning process in the area goes from the initial rejection to the construction of a critical position on political and governance issues surrounding Brazilian education.

Understanding the differentiating impacts of the communication strategies of a high involvement service (investment advisory services) and a high involvement product (precious jewellery) on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

OpenAIRE

Gupta, Gauri

2009-01-01

While marketing literature has largely focused on high and low involvement purchases and the positive relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty; the differentiating impacts of communication strategies for a high involvement service and a high involvement product on customer satisfaction and loyalty has received little academic attention. Consequently, this study examines the differentiating impacts of the communication strategies for investment advisory services and precious jewe...

Assessment of policy and access to HIV prevention, care, and treatment services for men who have sex with men and for sex workers in Burkina Faso and Togo.

Science.gov (United States)

Duvall, Sandra; Irani, Laili; Compaoré, Cyrille; Sanon, Patrice; Bassonon, Dieudonne; Anato, Simplice; Agounke, Jeannine; Hodo, Ama; Kugbe, Yves; Chaold, Gertrude; Nigobora, Berry; MacInnis, Ron

2015-03-01

In Burkina Faso and Togo, key populations of men who have sex with men (MSM) and sex workers (SW) have a disproportionately higher HIV prevalence. This study analyzed the 2 countries' policies impacting MSM and SW; to what extent the policies and programs have been implemented; and the role of the enabling environment, country leadership, and donor support. The Health Policy Project's Policy Assessment and Advocacy Decision Model methodology was used to analyze policy and program documents related to key populations, conduct key informant interviews, and hold stakeholder meetings to validate the findings. Several policy barriers restrict MSM/SW from accessing services. Laws criminalizing MSM/SW, particularly anti-solicitation laws, result in harassment and arrests of even nonsoliciting MSM/SW. Policy gaps exist, including few MSM/SW-supportive policies and HIV prevention measures, e.g., lubricant not included in the essential medicines list. The needs of key populations are generally not met due to policy gaps around MSM/SW participation in decision-making and funding allocation for MSM/SW-specific programming. Misaligned policies, eg, contradictory informed consent laws and protocols, and uneven policy implementation, such as stockouts of sexually transmitted infection kits, HIV testing materials, and antiretrovirals, undermine evidence-based policies. Even in the presence of a supportive donor and political community, public stigma and discrimination (S&D) create a hostile enabling environment. Policies are needed to address S&D, particularly health care provider and law enforcement training, and to authorize, fund, guide, and monitor services for key populations. MSM/SW participation and development of operational guidelines can improve policy implementation and service uptake.

Evidence for Policy Making: Health Services Access and Regional Disparities in Kerman

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Mina Anjomshoa

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Background and purpose: Health indices, regarding to their role in the development of society, are one of the most important indices at national level. Success of national development programs is largely dependent on the establishment of appropriate goals at the health sector, among which access to healthcare facilities is an essential requirement. The aim of this study was to examine the disparities in health services access across the Kerman province. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Study sample included the cities of Kerman province, ranked based on 15 health indices. Data was collected from statistical yearbook. The indices were weighted using Shannon entropy, then using the TOPSIS technique and the result were classified into three categories in terms of the level of development across towns. Results: The findings showed distinct regional disparities in health services across Kerman province and the significant difference was observed between the cities in terms of development. Shannon entropy introduced the number of pharmacologist per 10 thousand people as the most important indicator and the number of rural active health center per 1000 people as the less important indicator. According to TOPSIS, Kerman town (0.719 and Fahraj (0.1151 ranked the first and last in terms of access to health services respectively. Conclusion: There are significant differences between cities of Kerman province in terms of access to health care facilities and services. Therefore, it is recommended that officials and policy-makers determine resource allocation priorities according to the degree of development for a balanced and equitable distribution of health care facilities.

Preparedness of NGO Health Service Providers in Bangladesh about Distance Based Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

AKM ALAMGIR

2006-07-01

Full Text Available This cross-sectional survey was conducted countrywide from 15 January to 01 March 2004 to explore the potentials of health care service providers (physicians, nurses, paramedics etc. for using distance-based learning materials. Face-to-face in-depth interview was taken from 99 randomly selected direct service providers, 45 midlevel clinic mangers/physicians and 06 administrators or policy planners. Quasi-open questionnaire was developed for three different levels. Pre-trained interviewer team assisted data collection at field level. Total procedure was stringently monitored for completeness and consistency to ensure quality data. SPSS software was used to process and analyze both univariate and multivariate multiple responses. Identified need for training areas were- STD/HIV, tuberculosis updates, family planning, treatment of locally endemic diseases, behavioral change communication & marketing and quality management system for managers. About 76.7% clinic managers and 89.1% service providers had primary information about distance-based learning in spite showed interest. About 51.5% desired monthly, 20.6% biweekly and 26.8% wanted bimonthly circulation of the distance-based study materials. About 35.1% expected print materials with regular facilitators while 58.8% demanded stand-by facilitators. The study suggested wide acceptance of distance-based learning methods as supplementary to the continuing medical education among the countrywide health service providers.

Solar-Based Boost Differential Single Phase Inverter | Eya | Nigerian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Solar-Based Boost Differential Single Phase Inverter. ... Solar-based boost differential inverter is reduced down to 22.37% in closed loop system with the aid of Proportional –integral-Differential (PID) ... The dc power source is photovoltaic cell.

A policy-driven large scale ecological restoration: quantifying ecosystem services changes in the Loess Plateau of China.

Science.gov (United States)

Lü, Yihe; Fu, Bojie; Feng, Xiaoming; Zeng, Yuan; Liu, Yu; Chang, Ruiying; Sun, Ge; Wu, Bingfang

2012-01-01

As one of the key tools for regulating human-ecosystem relations, environmental conservation policies can promote ecological rehabilitation across a variety of spatiotemporal scales. However, quantifying the ecological effects of such policies at the regional level is difficult. A case study was conducted at the regional level in the ecologically vulnerable region of the Loess Plateau, China, through the use of several methods including the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), hydrological modeling and multivariate analysis. An assessment of the changes over the period of 2000-2008 in four key ecosystem services was undertaken to determine the effects of the Chinese government's ecological rehabilitation initiatives implemented in 1999. These ecosystem services included water regulation, soil conservation, carbon sequestration and grain production. Significant conversions of farmland to woodland and grassland were found to have resulted in enhanced soil conservation and carbon sequestration, but decreased regional water yield under a warming and drying climate trend. The total grain production increased in spite of a significant decline in farmland acreage. These trends have been attributed to the strong socioeconomic incentives embedded in the ecological rehabilitation policy. Although some positive policy results have been achieved over the last decade, large uncertainty remains regarding long-term policy effects on the sustainability of ecological rehabilitation performance and ecosystem service enhancement. To reduce such uncertainty, this study calls for an adaptive management approach to regional ecological rehabilitation policy to be adopted, with a focus on the dynamic interactions between people and their environments in a changing world.

Can European sustainability and innovation policies accelerate the uptake of product-service systems?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tan, A.R.; Diaz Lopez, F.J.; Mudgal, S.; Tukker, A.

2013-01-01

This review paper presents preliminary results from on-going research on PSS policies in Europe. Despite the apparent potential of product-service systems (PSS) as more profitable, resource efficient and socially responsible, there has seemingly been limited uptake of this type of business model. A

Health service planning contributes to policy dialogue around strengthening district health systems: an example from DR Congo 2008-2013.

Science.gov (United States)

Rajan, Dheepa; Kalambay, Hyppolite; Mossoko, Mathias; Kwete, Dieudonné; Bulakali, Joseph; Lokonga, Jean-Pierre; Porignon, Denis; Schmets, Gerard

2014-10-31

This case study from DR Congo demonstrates how rational operational planning based on a health systems strengthening strategy (HSSS) can contribute to policy dialogue over several years. It explores the operationalization of a national strategy at district level by elucidating a normative model district resource plan which details the resources and costs of providing an essential health services package at district level. This paper then points to concrete examples of how the results of this exercise were used for Ministry of Health (MoH) decision-making over a time period of 5 years. DR Congo's HSSS and its accompanying essential health services package were taken as a base to construct a normative model health district comprising of 10 Health Centres (HC) and 1 District Hospital (DH). The normative model health district represents a standard set by the Ministry of Health for providing essential primary health care services. The minimum operating budget necessary to run a normative model health district is $17.91 per inhabitant per year, of which $11.86 is for the district hospital and $6.05 for the health centre. The Ministry of Health has employed the results of this exercise in 4 principal ways: 1.Advocacy and negotiation instrument; 2. Instrument to align donors; 3. Field planning; 4. Costing database to extract data from when necessary. The above results have been key in the policy dialogue on affordability of the essential health services package in DR Congo. It has allowed the MoH to provide transparent information on financing needs around the HSSS; it continues to help the MoH negotiate with the Ministry of Finance and bring partner support behind the HSSS.

A qualitative study of junior high school principals' and school food service directors' experiences with the Texas school nutrition policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberts, Stephen M; Pobocik, Rebecca S; Deek, Rima; Besgrove, Ashley; Prostine, Becky A

2009-01-01

The objective of this study was to learn about the experiences of principals and school food service directors with the Texas Public School Nutrition Policy. Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted to gain first hand reactions to the new nutrition policy. Data were gathered from Texas middle schools. Principals and food service directors from 24 schools randomly selected from 10 Texas Education regions were interviewed. Participants were interviewed about their reactions to the implementation of the Texas School Nutrition Policy. Two researchers, using thematic analysis, independently analyzed each interview. Differences in coding were reconciled and themes were generated. The themes that surfaced included resistance to the policy, policy development process, communication, government role, parental role, food rewards, fund raising, and leadership. Resistance to the policy was not extreme. In the future a wider array of school personnel who are affected by school food regulations should be included in the development of new policies. It is critical to communicate with all concerned parties about the policy.

Transformative Empowerment in the Lagos State Civil Service: A Gender Policy Discourse

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Felicia A.D. Oyekanmi

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Transformation means positive change to new values and direction. This research is concerned with the relationship between empowerment processes that are transformatory and gender equality in the workplace. Its scope includes integrating a transformatory view into women’s and men’s consciousness and autonomy over their career, education and health. This research adopted a case-study approach by using the Ministries of Education, Health, Establishment, Training and Pensions and the Civil Service Commission in Lagos State, employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods as its empirical research methodology. The field work was carried out in Lagos State in the months of June and July, 2014 while the interview was in July and August, 2014. This study demonstrated that gender-blind policies disempower women and perpetuate gender inequalities in the Lagos State Civil Service. Further, it shows that the manifestation of transformatory empowerment is jeopardised by women and men's compliance with the existing expectations and inaction to bring about changes in policies and practices that are detrimental to the attainment of gender equality in the work place.

Health services financing and delivery: analysis of policy options for Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Science.gov (United States)

Hamidi, Samer

2015-01-01

Introduction A national health account (NHA) provides a systematic approach to mapping the flow of health sector funds within a specified health system over a defined time period. This article attempts to present a profile of health system financing in Dubai, United Arab Emirates using data from NHAs, and to compare the functional structures of financing schemes in Dubai with schemes in Qatar and selected member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Methods The author analyzed secondary data published in NHAs of Dubai and Qatar and data collected by the OECD countries and publicly available from Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Union) of 25 OECD countries for comparative analysis. All health financing indicators used were as defined in the international System of Health Accounts (SHA). Results In Dubai, spending on inpatient care was the highest-costing component, with 30% of current health expenditures (CHE). Spending on outpatient care was the second highest-costing component and accounted for about 23% of the CHE. Household spending accounted for about 22% of CHE (equivalent to US$187 per capita), compared to an average of 20% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent 0.02% of CHE on long-term care, compared to an average of 11% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent about 6% of CHE on prevention and public health services, compared to an average of 3.2% of CHE of OECD countries. Conclusion The findings point to potential opportunities for growth and improvement in several health policy issues in Dubai, including increasing focus and funding of preventive services; shifting from inpatient care to day surgery, outpatient, and home-based services and strengthening long-term care; and introducing cost-containment measures for pharmaceuticals. More investment in the translation of NHA data into policy is suggested for future researchers. PMID:25750545

Health services financing and delivery: analysis of policy options for Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamidi, Samer

2015-01-01

A national health account (NHA) provides a systematic approach to mapping the flow of health sector funds within a specified health system over a defined time period. This article attempts to present a profile of health system financing in Dubai, United Arab Emirates using data from NHAs, and to compare the functional structures of financing schemes in Dubai with schemes in Qatar and selected member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The author analyzed secondary data published in NHAs of Dubai and Qatar and data collected by the OECD countries and publicly available from Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Union) of 25 OECD countries for comparative analysis. All health financing indicators used were as defined in the international System of Health Accounts (SHA). In Dubai, spending on inpatient care was the highest-costing component, with 30% of current health expenditures (CHE). Spending on outpatient care was the second highest-costing component and accounted for about 23% of the CHE. Household spending accounted for about 22% of CHE (equivalent to US$187 per capita), compared to an average of 20% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent 0.02% of CHE on long-term care, compared to an average of 11% of CHE of OECD countries. Dubai spent about 6% of CHE on prevention and public health services, compared to an average of 3.2% of CHE of OECD countries. The findings point to potential opportunities for growth and improvement in several health policy issues in Dubai, including increasing focus and funding of preventive services; shifting from inpatient care to day surgery, outpatient, and home-based services and strengthening long-term care; and introducing cost-containment measures for pharmaceuticals. More investment in the translation of NHA data into policy is suggested for future researchers.

Internationalisation of information services for publishers' open access policies: the DINI multilingual integration layer

Science.gov (United States)

Scholze, Frank

2008-01-01

It is essential for the strategy of open access self-archiving that scientific authors are given comprehensive information on publisher copyright policies. DINI, the German Initiative for Networked Information, has developed a German (and potentially multilingual) interface to the English SHERPA/RoMEO service to provide additional information on German publishers' open access policies. As a next step, this interface was enhanced to an integration layer combining different sources on publisher copyright policies. This integration layer can be used in many different contexts. Together with the SHERPA/RoMEO team, DINI aims to build an international support structure for open access information. PMID:18662383

Impact of free delivery policy on utilization of maternal health services in county referral hospitals in Kenya.

Science.gov (United States)

Njuguna, John; Kamau, Njoroge; Muruka, Charles

2017-06-21

Kenya has a high maternal mortality rate. Provision of skilled delivery plays a major role in reducing maternal mortality. Cost is a hindrance to the utilization of skilled delivery. The Government of Kenya introduced a policy of free delivery services in government facilities beginning June 2013. We sought to determine the impact of this intervention on facility based deliveries in Kenya. We compared deliveries and antenatal attendance in 47 county referral hospitals and 30 low cost private hospitals not participating in the free delivery policy for 2013 and 2014 respectively. The data was extracted from the Kenya Health Information System. Multiple regression was done to assess factors influencing increase in number of deliveries among the county referral hospitals. The number of deliveries and antenatal attendance increased by 26.8% and 16.2% in county referral hospitals and decreased by 11.9% and 5.4% respectively in low cost private hospitals. Increase in deliveries among county referral hospitals was influenced by population size of county and type of county referral hospital. Counties with level 5 hospitals recorded more deliveries compared to those with level 4 hospitals. This intervention increased the number of facility based deliveries. Policy makers may consider incorporating low cost private hospitals so as to increase the coverage of this intervention.

Privacy-Preserving Location-Based Service Scheme for Mobile Sensing Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qingqing Xie

2016-11-01

Full Text Available With the wide use of mobile sensing application, more and more location-embedded data are collected and stored in mobile clouds, such as iCloud, Samsung cloud, etc. Using these data, the cloud service provider (CSP can provide location-based service (LBS for users. However, the mobile cloud is untrustworthy. The privacy concerns force the sensitive locations to be stored on the mobile cloud in an encrypted form. However, this brings a great challenge to utilize these data to provide efficient LBS. To solve this problem, we propose a privacy-preserving LBS scheme for mobile sensing data, based on the RSA (for Rivest, Shamir and Adleman algorithm and ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE scheme. The mobile cloud can perform location distance computing and comparison efficiently for authorized users, without location privacy leakage. In the end, theoretical security analysis and experimental evaluation demonstrate that our scheme is secure against the chosen plaintext attack (CPA and efficient enough for practical applications in terms of user side computation overhead.

Privacy-Preserving Location-Based Service Scheme for Mobile Sensing Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Qingqing; Wang, Liangmin

2016-11-25

With the wide use of mobile sensing application, more and more location-embedded data are collected and stored in mobile clouds, such as iCloud, Samsung cloud, etc. Using these data, the cloud service provider (CSP) can provide location-based service (LBS) for users. However, the mobile cloud is untrustworthy. The privacy concerns force the sensitive locations to be stored on the mobile cloud in an encrypted form. However, this brings a great challenge to utilize these data to provide efficient LBS. To solve this problem, we propose a privacy-preserving LBS scheme for mobile sensing data, based on the RSA (for Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) algorithm and ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) scheme. The mobile cloud can perform location distance computing and comparison efficiently for authorized users, without location privacy leakage. In the end, theoretical security analysis and experimental evaluation demonstrate that our scheme is secure against the chosen plaintext attack (CPA) and efficient enough for practical applications in terms of user side computation overhead.

Policy-Based Management Natural Language Parser

Science.gov (United States)

James, Mark

2009-01-01

The Policy-Based Management Natural Language Parser (PBEM) is a rules-based approach to enterprise management that can be used to automate certain management tasks. This parser simplifies the management of a given endeavor by establishing policies to deal with situations that are likely to occur. Policies are operating rules that can be referred to as a means of maintaining order, security, consistency, or other ways of successfully furthering a goal or mission. PBEM provides a way of managing configuration of network elements, applications, and processes via a set of high-level rules or business policies rather than managing individual elements, thus switching the control to a higher level. This software allows unique management rules (or commands) to be specified and applied to a cross-section of the Global Information Grid (GIG). This software embodies a parser that is capable of recognizing and understanding conversational English. Because all possible dialect variants cannot be anticipated, a unique capability was developed that parses passed on conversation intent rather than the exact way the words are used. This software can increase productivity by enabling a user to converse with the system in conversational English to define network policies. PBEM can be used in both manned and unmanned science-gathering programs. Because policy statements can be domain-independent, this software can be applied equally to a wide variety of applications.

Periodic dynamics of delayed Lotka–Volterra competition systems with discontinuous harvesting policies via differential inclusions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cai, Zuowei; Huang, Lihong

2013-01-01

Highlights: • A more practical form of harvesting management policy (DHP) has been proposed. • We analyze the periodic dynamics of a class of discontinuous and delayed Lotka–Volterra competition systems. • We present a new method to obtain the existence of positive periodic solutions via differential inclusions. • The global convergence in measure of harvesting solution is discussed. -- Abstract: This paper considers a general class of delayed Lotka–Volterra competition systems where the harvesting policies are modeled by discontinuous functions or by non-Lipschitz functions. By means of differential inclusions theory, cone expansion and compression fixed point theorem of multi-valued maps and nonsmooth analysis theory with generalized Lyapunov approach, a series of useful criteria on existence, uniqueness and global asymptotic stability of the positive periodic solution is established for the delayed Lotka–Volterra competition systems with discontinuous right-hand sides. Moreover, the global convergence in measure of harvesting solution is discussed. Our results improve and extend previous works on periodic dynamics of delayed Lotka–Volterra competition systems with not only continuous or even Lipschitz continuous but also discontinuous harvesting functions. Finally, we give some corollaries and numerical examples to show the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed criteria

Using conflict theory to explore the role of nursing home social workers in home- and community-based service utilization.

Science.gov (United States)

Fogler, Sarah

2009-11-01

Nursing home social work (NHSW) practitioners are central to home- and community-based service (HCBS) utilization. They assist residents with long-term care (LTC) decision-making and coordinate community-based LTC supports and services for older adults transitioning back into the community after a rehabilitative nursing home (NH) stay. As members of multiple groups, they must simultaneously balance the needs of NH residents, the NH organization, and social policies related to LTC. To date, policy research on HCBS has been atheoretical in that it has not accounted for the possible inherent conflicts that adversely affect the discharge planning practices of NHSW practitioners. This article applies the Conflict Theory to (a) explore the competing interests of the NH industry and the nation's government, (b) examine the potential effect of these competing interests on the effectiveness of NHSW discharge planning practices, and (c) present a conceptual framework to further investigate the relationship between NHSW and both individual LTC outcomes and national policy initiatives aimed at increasing HCBS utilization.

Colombian ancillary services and international connections: Current weaknesses and policy challenges

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carvajal, S.X.; Serrano, J.; Arango, S.

2013-01-01

Ancillary services are required to maintain the unity, stability, and quality of power systems. In Colombia these services are required to operate the national power system and the international connections with the neighboring countries. The system is influenced by factors ranging from system's topology to social and political aspects, such as the large number of terrorist attacks. In light of these particularities, we consider Colombia as a learning lab for ancillary services in the region. Colombia's power system relies on three ancillary services for its operation, namely frequency regulation, voltage control, and blackstart service. From 2010 Special Protection Systems were also added. In this paper we first analyze the technical aspects, operational restrictions, financial management, and the most relevant regulatory conditions of these ancillary services of the SIN. We also take into consideration the main regulatory characteristics and statistical data related to energy exchanges that have taken place between Colombia and Venezuela and Ecuador. Thereafter, we depict the main weaknesses and policy challenges that Colombia must address in order to increase the effectiveness and coverage of ancillary services in both the SIN and in the international interconnections. Finally, we propose new market oriented regulations to encourage investments and new tools for international connections. - Highlights: ► Blackout of 2007 forces Colombian regulator to improve security of power system. ► Four ancillary services are currently used for secure operation of Colombian system. ► Special Protection Systems service added in 2010. ► Frequency control is the only remunerated service in Colombia. ► Legislation should exist for remuneration of voltage control and black start services.

FEATURES OF MARKETING POLICY OF THE COMPANIES IN THE MARKET OF CONSULTING SERVICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Timur A. Tultaev

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Dynamic development of the market of consulting services against progressing competitive fight promoted strengthening of a role of marketing in the activity of the consultant companies. The given article is devoted to the analysis of marketing policy and features of its application in consulting business.

Bringing the ecosystem services concept into marine management decisions, supporting ecosystems-based management.

Science.gov (United States)

Tweddle, J. F.; Byg, A.; Davies, I.; Gubbins, M.; Irvine, K.; Kafas, A.; Kenter, J.; MacDonald, A.; Murray, R. B. O.; Potts, T.; Slater, A. M.; Wright, K.; Scott, B. E.

2016-12-01

The marine environment is under increasing use, putting pressure on marine ecosystems and increasing competition for space. New activities (e.g. renewable energy developments), evolving marine policies (e.g. implementation of marine protected areas), and climate change may drive changes in biodiversity and resulting ecosystem services (ES) that society and business utilise from coastal and marine systems. A process is needed that integrates ecological assessment of changes with stakeholder perceptions and valuation of ES, whilst balancing ease of application with the ability to deal with complex social-economic-ecological issues. The project "Cooperative participatory assessment of the impact of renewable technology on ecosystem services: CORPORATES" involved natural and social scientists, law and policy experts, and marine managers, with the aim of promoting more integrated decision making using ES concepts in marine management. CORPORATES developed a process to bring ES concepts into stakeholders' awareness. The interactive process, involving 2 workshops, employs interludes of knowledge exchange by experts on ecological processes underpinning ES and on law and policy. These enable mapping of benefits linked to activities, participatory system modelling, and deliberation of policy impacts on different sectors. The workshops were attended by industry representatives, regulatory/advisory partners, and other stakeholders (NGOs, SMEs, recreationalists, local government). Mixed sector groups produced new insights into links between activities and ES, and highlighted cross-sector concerns. Here we present the aspects of the process that successfully built shared understanding between industry and stakeholders of inter-linkages and interactions between ES, benefits, activities, and economic and cultural values. These methods provide an ES-based decision-support model for exchanging societal-ecological knowledge and providing stakeholder interaction in marine planning

A comparative analysis of early child health and development services and outcomes in countries with different redistributive policies.

Science.gov (United States)

van den Heuvel, Meta; Hopkins, Jessica; Biscaro, Anne; Srikanthan, Cinntha; Feller, Andrea; Bremberg, Sven; Verkuijl, Nienke; Flapper, Boudien; Ford-Jones, Elizabeth Lee; Williams, Robin

2013-11-06

The social environment is a fundamental determinant of early child development and, in turn, early child development is a determinant of health, well-being, and learning skills across the life course. Redistributive policies aimed at reducing social inequalities, such as a welfare state and labour market policies, have shown a positive association with selected health indicators. In this study, we investigated the influence of redistributive policies specifically on the social environment of early child development in five countries with different political traditions. The objective of this analysis was to highlight similarities and differences in social and health services between the countries and their associations with other health outcomes that can inform better global early child development policies and improve early child health and development. Four social determinants of early child development were selected to provide a cross-section of key time periods in a child's life from prenatal to kindergarten. They included: 1) prenatal care, 2) maternal leave, 3) child health care, and 4) child care and early childhood education. We searched international databases and reports (e.g. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Bank, and UNICEF) to obtain information about early child development policies, services and outcomes. Although a comparative analysis cannot claim causation, our analysis suggests that redistributive policies aimed at reducing social inequalities are associated with a positive influence on the social determinants of early child development. Generous redistributive policies are associated with a higher maternal leave allowance and pay and more preventive child healthcare visits. A decreasing trend in infant mortality, low birth weight rate, and under five mortality rate were observed with an increase in redistributive policies. No clear influence of redistributive policies was observed on breastfeeding and immunization

Evidence-based policymaking is not like evidence-based medicine, so how far should you go to bridge the divide between evidence and policy?

Science.gov (United States)

Cairney, Paul; Oliver, Kathryn

2017-04-26

There is extensive health and public health literature on the 'evidence-policy gap', exploring the frustrating experiences of scientists trying to secure a response to the problems and solutions they raise and identifying the need for better evidence to reduce policymaker uncertainty. We offer a new perspective by using policy theory to propose research with greater impact, identifying the need to use persuasion to reduce ambiguity, and to adapt to multi-level policymaking systems.We identify insights from secondary data, namely systematic reviews, critical analysis and policy theories relevant to evidence-based policymaking. The studies are drawn primarily from countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. We combine empirical and normative elements to identify the ways in which scientists can, do and could influence policy.We identify two important dilemmas, for scientists and researchers, that arise from our initial advice. First, effective actors combine evidence with manipulative emotional appeals to influence the policy agenda - should scientists do the same, or would the reputational costs outweigh the policy benefits? Second, when adapting to multi-level policymaking, should scientists prioritise 'evidence-based' policymaking above other factors? The latter includes governance principles such the 'co-production' of policy between local public bodies, interest groups and service users. This process may be based primarily on values and involve actors with no commitment to a hierarchy of evidence.We conclude that successful engagement in 'evidence-based policymaking' requires pragmatism, combining scientific evidence with governance principles, and persuasion to translate complex evidence into simple stories. To maximise the use of scientific evidence in health and public health policy, researchers should recognise the tendency of policymakers to base judgements on their beliefs, and shortcuts based on their emotions

iRODS-Based Climate Data Services and Virtualization-as-a-Service in the NASA Center for Climate Simulation

Science.gov (United States)

Schnase, J. L.; Duffy, D. Q.; Tamkin, G. S.; Strong, S.; Ripley, D.; Gill, R.; Sinno, S. S.; Shen, Y.; Carriere, L. E.; Brieger, L.; Moore, R.; Rajasekar, A.; Schroeder, W.; Wan, M.

2011-12-01

Scientific data services are becoming an important part of the NASA Center for Climate Simulation's mission. Our technological response to this expanding role is built around the concept of specialized virtual climate data servers, repetitive cloud provisioning, image-based deployment and distribution, and virtualization-as-a-service. A virtual climate data server is an OAIS-compliant, iRODS-based data server designed to support a particular type of scientific data collection. iRODS is data grid middleware that provides policy-based control over collection-building, managing, querying, accessing, and preserving large scientific data sets. We have developed prototype vCDSs to manage NetCDF, HDF, and GeoTIF data products. We use RPM scripts to build vCDS images in our local computing environment, our local Virtual Machine Environment, NASA's Nebula Cloud Services, and Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud. Once provisioned into these virtualized resources, multiple vCDSs can use iRODS's federation and realized object capabilities to create an integrated ecosystem of data servers that can scale and adapt to changing requirements. This approach enables platform- or software-as-a-service deployment of the vCDSs and allows the NCCS to offer virtualization-as-a-service, a capacity to respond in an agile way to new customer requests for data services, and a path for migrating existing services into the cloud. We have registered MODIS Atmosphere data products in a vCDS that contains 54 million registered files, 630TB of data, and over 300 million metadata values. We are now assembling IPCC AR5 data into a production vCDS that will provide the platform upon which NCCS's Earth System Grid (ESG) node publishes to the extended science community. In this talk, we describe our approach, experiences, lessons learned, and plans for the future.

LHCb: A Policy System for Grid Management and Monitoring

CERN Multimedia

Stagni, F; Sapunov, M

2010-01-01

Organizations using a Grid computing model are faced with non-traditional administrative challenges: the heterogeneous nature of the underlying resources requires professionals acting as Grid Administrators. Members of a Virtual Organization (VO) can use a mask composed by services exposed b y local resources. In an ideal world, the more services in a mask, the better. In the real world, the less faulty services, the better: experienced Grid administrators apply procedures for adding and removing services, based on their status, as it is reported by an ever-growing set of monitoring tools. When a procedure is agreed and well-exercised, a formal policy could be derived. For this reason, using the DIRAC framework in the LHCb collaboration, we developed a policy system that can enforce management and operational policies, in a VO-specific fashion. A single policy makes an assessment on the status of a subject, relative to one or more monitoring information. Subjects of the policies are monitored entities of an e...

Disability Policy Evaluation: Combining Logic Models and Systems Thinking

Science.gov (United States)

Claes, Claudia; Ferket, Neelke; Vandevelde, Stijn; Verlet, Dries; De Maeyer, Jessica

2017-01-01

Policy evaluation focuses on the assessment of policy-related personal, family, and societal changes or benefits that follow as a result of the interventions, services, and supports provided to those persons to whom the policy is directed. This article describes a systematic approach to policy evaluation based on an evaluation framework and an…

SAFAX - An Extensible Authorization Service for Cloud Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samuel Paul Kaluvuri

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Cloud storage services have become increasingly popular in recent years. Users are often registered to multiple cloud storage services that suit different needs. However, the ad-hoc manner in which data sharing between users is implemented leads to issues for these users. For instance, users are required to define different access control policies for each cloud service they use and are responsible for synchronizing their policies across different cloud providers. Users do not have access to a uniform and expressive method to deal with authorization. Current authorization solutions cannot be applied as-is, since they cannot cope with challenges specific to cloud environments. In this paper, we analyze the challenges of data sharing in multi-cloud environments and propose SAFAX, an XACML based authorization service designed to address these challenges. SAFAX's architecture allows users to deploy their access control policies in a standard format, in a single location, and augment policy evaluation with information from user selectable external trust services. We describe the architecture of SAFAX, a prototype implementation based on this architecture, illustrate the extensibility through external trust services and discuss the benefits of using SAFAX from both the user's and cloud provider's perspectives.

Solar-based rural electrification policy design: The Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) model in Fiji

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dornan, M. [Resource Management in Asia-Pacific Program, The Crawford School of Economics and Government, The Australian National University, Acton ACT 2601 (Australia)

2011-02-15

Solar photovoltaic technologies have for some time been promoted as a cost effective means of rural electrification in developing countries. However, institutional structures resulting in poor maintenance have adversely affected the sustainability of past solar projects. In Fiji, the Renewable Energy Service Company (RESCO) program is the latest attempt to promote solar-based rural electrification in a fee-for-service model, aiming to remove the high upfront capital costs associated with solar technologies and using a public-private sector partnership for maintenance. This paper assesses the program using survey and interview data. Major flaws are identified, relating to incorrect treatment of principal-agent problems, information asymmetries, motivational problems, and resourcing of government agencies. General lessons for fee-for-service solar home system models emerge, including that incentives for stakeholders must take centre stage in designing and administering such programs, and that active government support and ownership are required to make programs sustainable. (author)

QUANTIFYING BARRIERS TO TRADE IN SERVICES THROUGHCOMMERCIAL PRESENCE: SELECTED SERVICES IN MALAYSIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nirwan Noh

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The services sector in Malaysia is slowlyliberalising in terms of equityownership. However, trade and investment barriers in the services sector aredifficult to measure since it is not easily quantifiable. Previous studies weremainly macro-level, multi-country cross-sectional assessments while there are nocountry level studies over time. This paper has two objectives. The first is tomeasure barriers to trade in services carried out through commercial presence(Mode 3 in Malaysia in several industries over time. The second objective is toassess the policy implications of the measurement obtained.Based on availabledata, the industries covered in this study include communications, construction,distribution, higher education, financial, healthcare, tourism and transportationand logistics services from 2001-2010.This assessment is important asMalaysiahopes to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI intoitsservices sector.Information is gathered throughsurveys, focus group discussions andcontentanalysis ofsecondary sources.Restrictive policies on FDI aretransformed intoanindex to measure the extent of liberalisation for each subsector.Based on theindex, it can be seen that theliberalisationprocessis still slow. To facilitatefurther progress inliberalising the services sector, it is important toliberalisebarriersbeyond mere equityownership.

Pricing for Efficiency, Equity, and Simplicity: A Model Policy for an Interlibrary Courier Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Gassler, Robert Scott

1985-01-01

Presents an example of a pricing policy for any interlibrary courier service which (1) calculates fixed, travelling, and stopping costs; (2) charges by how often the courier stops at each participating library; and (3) uses any subsidies for costs libraries cannot control. (CDD)

The experiences of survivors and trauma counselling service providers in northern Uganda: Implications for mental health policy and legislation.

Science.gov (United States)

Liebling, H; Davidson, L; Akello, G F; Ochola, G

Previous research in northern Uganda found high levels of trauma-related difficulties amongst the conflict-affected population. There is international evidence that psychological therapy can reduce depression, as one of the psychological effects of trauma, but very limited literature regarding the experiences of trauma counselling in Sub-Saharan Africa. The current British Academy and Leverhulme-funded research investigated the experiences of service users and providers of trauma services in Kitgum and Gulu, northern Uganda. It also examined their implications for mental health policy and legislation. A decision was made to utilise qualitative methodology to highlight the in-depth experiences of participants. The researcher's carried out interviews with 10 women and 10 men survivors attending trauma services in Kitgum and Gulu. The researchers also interviewed 15 key informants in Kitgum, Gulu and Kampala including trauma counselling service providers, ministers, cultural leaders and mental health professionals. The authors report the findings of the research based on thematic analysis of the interviews. Themes included the experiences of survivors, bearing witness and instilling hope, constraints to service provision, stigma and abuse, holistic approach, service providers doing their best, specialist populations, limited understanding, training and skills development, gaps in service provision and mental health policy and legislation. The interviews resulted in a clear indication that counselling and medication was valued by service users, and that service providers felt the treatments that were provided improved depression, and increased empowerment and engagement in social activities. However, the authors argue that there was a limit to the benefits that could be achieved without using the holistic approach that the survivors requested. Thus, in cases of trauma arising from conflict, there is a clear need for the state to ensure reparation and/or justice for the

Single Mothers' Experiences with Pregnancy and Child Rearing in Korea: Discrepancy between Social Services/Policies and Single Mothers' Needs.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jung-Eun; Lee, Jin Yong; Lee, Sang Hyung

2018-05-10

This study aims to explore single mothers’ experiences with social services/policies for their independent living and to identify gaps between these experiences and the needs of single mothers. A focus group discussion was performed to collect data. Seven single mothers discussed their experiences in significant periods of their lives: pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting. Findings from the qualitative thematic analysis show discrepancies between the direction of social services/policies and single mothers’ needs, in terms of difficulties in healthcare, childcare, housing, employment, and income security. To the single mothers in this study, the social safety net is not inclusive, compared to that which is available to two-parent families or adoptive families. It is necessary to intervene in current blind spots of services/policies for single mothers, and to provide a social safety net to strengthen single mothers’ self-reliance and their children’s social security in the long term.

Introduction to Mobile Trajectory Based Services: A New Direction in Mobile Location Based Services

Science.gov (United States)

Khokhar, Sarfraz; Nilsson, Arne A.

The mandate of E911 gave birth to the idea of Location Based Services (LBS) capitalizing on the knowledge of the mobile location. The underlying estimated location is a feasible area. There is yet another class of mobile services that could be based on the mobility profiling of a mobile user. The mobility profile of a mobile user is a set of the routine trajectories of his or her travel paths. We called such services as Mobile Trajectory Based Services (MTBS). This paper introduces MTBS and functional architecture of an MTBS system. Suitability of different location estimation technologies for MTBS has been discussed and supported with simulation results.

Resource Management in Differentiated Services : A Prototype Implementation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jacobsson, Martin; Oosthoek, Simon; Karagiannis, Georgios

The wide deployment of IP technologies has driven the development of IP-based solutions for wireless networks, like the IP-based Radio Access Networks (RAN). Such wireless networks have different characteristics than traditional IP networks, imposing very strict requirements on Quality of Service

Skilled delivery care service utilization in Ethiopia: analysis of rural-urban differentials based on national demographic and health survey (DHS) data.

Science.gov (United States)

Fekadu, Melaku; Regassa, Nigatu

2014-12-01

Despite the slight progress made on Antenatal Care (ANC) utilization, skilled delivery care service utilization in Ethiopia is still far-below any acceptable standards. Only 10% of women receive assistance from skilled birth attendants either at home or at health institutions, and as a result the country is recording a high maternal mortality ratio (MMR) of 676 per 100,000 live births (EDHS, 2011). Hence, this study aimed at identifying the rural-urban differentials in the predictors of skilled delivery care service utilization in Ethiopia. The study used the recent Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS 2011) data. Women who had at least one birth in the five years preceding the survey were included in this study. The data were analyzed using univariate (percentage), bivariate (chi-square) and multivariate (Bayesian logistic regression). The results showed that of the total 6,641 women, only 15.6% received skilled delivery care services either at home or at health institution. Rural women were at greater disadvantage to receive the service. Only 4.5% women in rural areas received assistance from skilled birth attendants (SBAs) compared to 64.1 % of their urban counter parts. Through Bayesian logistic regression analysis, place of residence, ANC utilization, women's education, age and birth order were identified as key predictors of service utilization. The findings highlight the need for coordinated effort from government and stakeholders to improve women's education, as well as strengthen community participation. Furthermore, the study recommended the need to scale up the quality of ANC and family planning services backed by improved and equitable access, availability and quality of skilled delivery care services.

25 CFR 20.102 - What is the Bureau's policy in providing financial assistance and social services under this part?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

..., DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HUMAN SERVICES FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE AND SOCIAL SERVICES PROGRAMS Definitions... this part to eligible Indians when comparable financial assistance or social services are either not... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What is the Bureau's policy in providing financial...

Differential utilization of primary health care services among older immigrants and Norwegians: a register-based comparative study in Norway.

Science.gov (United States)

Diaz, Esperanza; Kumar, Bernadette N

2014-11-26

Aging in an unfamiliar landscape can pose health challenges for the growing numbers of immigrants and their health care providers. Therefore, better understanding of how different immigrant groups use Primary Health Care (PHC), and the underlying factors that explain utilization is needed to provide adequate and appropriate public health responses. Our aim is to describe and compare the use of PHC between elderly immigrants and Norwegians. Registry-based study using merged data from the National Population Register and the Norwegian Health Economics Administration database. All 50 year old or older Norwegians with both parents from Norway (1,516,012) and immigrants with both parents from abroad (89,861) registered in Norway in 2008 were included. Descriptive analyses were carried out. Immigrants were categorised according to country of origin, reason for migration and length of stay in Norway. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted to study the utilization of PHC comparing Norwegians and immigrants, and to assess associations between utilization and both length of stay and reason for immigration, adjusting for other socioeconomic variables. A higher proportion of Norwegians used PHC services compared to immigrants. While immigrants from high-income countries used PHC less than Norwegians disregarding age (OR from 0.65 to 0.92 depending on age group), they had similar number of diagnoses when in contact with PHC. Among immigrants from other countries, however, those 50 to 65 years old used PHC services more often (OR 1.22) than Norwegians and had higher comorbidity levels, but this pattern was reversed for older adults (OR 0.56 to 0.47 for 66-80 and 80+ years respectively). For all immigrants, utilization of PHC increased with longer stay in Norway and was higher for refugees (1.67 to 1.90) but lower for labour immigrants (0.33 to 0.45) compared to immigrants for family reunification. However, adjustment for education and income levels reduced most

Freshwater Ecosystem Services in Mining Regions: Modelling Options for Policy Development Support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniel Mercado-Garcia

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The ecosystem services (ES approach offers an integrated perspective of social-ecological systems, suitable for holistic assessments of mining impacts. Yet for ES models to be policy-relevant, methodological consensus in mining contexts is needed. We review articles assessing ES in mining areas focusing on freshwater components and policy support potential. Twenty-six articles were analysed concerning (i methodological complexity (data types, number of parameters, processes and ecosystem–human integration level and (ii potential applicability for policy development (communication of uncertainties, scenario simulation, stakeholder participation and management recommendations. Articles illustrate mining impacts on ES through valuation exercises mostly. However, the lack of ground- and surface-water measurements, as well as insufficient representation of the connectivity among soil, water and humans, leave room for improvements. Inclusion of mining-specific environmental stressors models, increasing resolution of topographies, determination of baseline ES patterns and inclusion of multi-stakeholder perspectives are advantageous for policy support. We argue that achieving more holistic assessments exhorts practitioners to aim for high social-ecological connectivity using mechanistic models where possible and using inductive methods only where necessary. Due to data constraints, cause–effect networks might be the most feasible and best solution. Thus, a policy-oriented framework is proposed, in which data science is directed to environmental modelling for analysis of mining impacts on water ES.

Mental health services for black and minority ethnic elders in the United Kingdom: a systematic review of innovative practice with service provision and policy implications.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhattacharyya, Sarmishtha; Benbow, Susan Mary

2013-03-01

The proportion of older people from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups in the United Kingdom (UK) is increasing steadily as the population ages. The numbers with dementia, depression, and other mental health problems are predicted to increase. Government policy documents have highlighted gaps in services for BME elders and/or the need to develop culturally appropriate services, in order to prevent people from BME communities from becoming socially excluded and finding services hard to access. This paper reviews published examples of innovative services and key learning points from them. A search was carried out on Pubmed, Medline, and Google Scholar for service developments aimed at BME elders in the UK. Sixteen relevant papers and reports were identified and were analysed to identify learning points and implications for clinical practice and policy. Commissioning issues included were forward planning for continuing funding and mainstreaming versus specialist services. Provider management issues included were employing staff from the communities of interest, partnership, and removing language barriers. Provider service issues included were education for service provider staff on the needs of BME elders, making available information in relevant languages, building on carers' and users' experiences, and addressing the needs of both groups. A model for structuring understanding of the underutilisation of services by BME elders is suggested. The main emphasis in future should be to ensure that learning is shared, disseminated, and applied to the benefit of all communities across the whole of the UK and elsewhere. Person-centred care is beneficial to all service users.

Local variability in long-term care services: local autonomy, exogenous influences and policy spillovers.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez, José-Luis; Forder, Julien

2015-03-01

In many countries, public responsibility over the funding and provision of long-term care services is held at the local level. In such systems, long-term care provision is often characterised by significant local variability. Using a panel dataset of local authorities over the period 2002-2012, the paper investigates the underlying causes of variation in gross social care expenditure for older people in England. The analysis distinguishes between factors outside the direct control of policy makers, local preferences and local policy spillovers. The results indicate that local demand and supply factors, and to a much lesser extent local political preferences and spatial policy spillovers, explain a large majority of the observed variation in expenditure. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[The Marketing of Healthcare Services in ENT-Clinics].

Science.gov (United States)

Teschner, M; Lenarz, T

2016-07-01

The provision of healthcare services in Germany is based on fundamental principles of solidarity and is highly regulated. The question arises which conditions exist for marketing for healthcare services in ENT-clinics in Germany. The marketing options will be elicited using environmentally analytical considerations. The objectives can be achieved using measures derived from external instruments (service policy, pricing policy, distribution policy or communications policy) or from an internal instrument (human resources policy). The policy environment is particularly influenced by the regulatory framework, which particularly restricts the scope for both the pricing and communications policies. All measures must, however, reflect ethical frameworks, which are regarded as the fundamental premise underlying healthcare services and may be at odds with economic factors. Scope for flexibility in pricing exists only within the secondary healthcare market, and even there only to a limited extent. The significance of price in the marketing of healthcare services is thus very low. If marketing activities are to succeed, a market analysis must be carried out exploring the relevant factors for each individual provider. However, the essential precondition for the marketing of healthcare services is trust. The marketing of healthcare services differs from that of business management-oriented enterprises in other branches of economy. In the future the importance of marketing activities will increase. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

The EU electricity production structure requires a differentiated energy policy; Die Stromerzeugungsstruktur der EU erfordert eine differenzierte Energiepolitik

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Anon.

2016-04-15

For the electricity production of the EU there are differentiated structures which are based on different natural conditions, political decisions and investments of past decades. It has long been struggled committed to the ''one and correct'' energy policy. But precisely because of the differences in the individual countries, a unified energy and climate policy for the EU is not the right way. Diversity is a strength, which quite the EU Commission considered. Increased understanding of the specifics in other countries should just apply the German politics and the public that all too often judges from their own perspective. [German] Bei der Stromerzeugung in der EU bestehen differenzierte Strukturen, die auf unterschiedlichen natuerlichen Gegebenheiten, politischen Entscheidungen und Investitionen vergangener Jahrzehnte beruhen. Seit langem wird engagiert um die ''eine und richtige'' Energiepolitik gerungen. Doch gerade wegen der Unterschiede in den einzelnen Laendern kann eine vereinheitlichte Energie- und Klimapolitik fuer die EU nicht der richtige Weg sein. Vielfalt ist eine Staerke, was die EU-Kommission durchaus beruecksichtigt. Mehr Verstaendnis fuer die Spezifika in anderen Laendern sollte daher gerade die deutsche Politik und Oeffentlichkeit aufbringen, die allzu oft aus eigener Perspektive heraus urteilt.

Persistent misunderstandings about evidence-based (sorry: informed!) policy-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Bédard, Pierre-Olivier; Ouimet, Mathieu

2016-01-01

The field of research on knowledge mobilization and evidence-informed policy-making has seen enduring debates related to various fundamental assumptions such as the definition of 'evidence', the relative validity of various research methods, the actual role of evidence to inform policy-making, etc. In many cases, these discussions serve a useful purpose, but they also stem from serious disagreement on methodological and epistemological issues. This essay reviews the rationale for evidence-informed policy-making by examining some of the common claims made about the aims and practices of this perspective on public policy. Supplementing the existing justifications for evidence-based policy making, we argue in favor of a greater inclusion of research evidence in the policy process but in a structured fashion, based on methodological considerations. In this respect, we present an overview of the intricate relation between policy questions and appropriate research designs. By closely examining the relation between research questions and research designs, we claim that the usual points of disagreement are mitigated. For instance, when focusing on the variety of research designs that can answer a range of policy questions, the common critical claim about 'RCT-based policy-making' seems to lose some, if not all of its grip.

Privacy-Preserving Location-Based Service Scheme for Mobile Sensing Data †

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Qingqing; Wang, Liangmin

2016-01-01

With the wide use of mobile sensing application, more and more location-embedded data are collected and stored in mobile clouds, such as iCloud, Samsung cloud, etc. Using these data, the cloud service provider (CSP) can provide location-based service (LBS) for users. However, the mobile cloud is untrustworthy. The privacy concerns force the sensitive locations to be stored on the mobile cloud in an encrypted form. However, this brings a great challenge to utilize these data to provide efficient LBS. To solve this problem, we propose a privacy-preserving LBS scheme for mobile sensing data, based on the RSA (for Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) algorithm and ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) scheme. The mobile cloud can perform location distance computing and comparison efficiently for authorized users, without location privacy leakage. In the end, theoretical security analysis and experimental evaluation demonstrate that our scheme is secure against the chosen plaintext attack (CPA) and efficient enough for practical applications in terms of user side computation overhead. PMID:27897984

Implications of State Policy Changes on Mental Health Service Models for Students with Disabilities

Science.gov (United States)

Lawson, Janelle E.; Cmar, Jennifer L.

2016-01-01

For over 25 years, students with disabilities in California received educationally related mental health services through interagency collaboration between school districts and county mental health agencies. After a major change in state policy that eliminated state-mandated interagency collaboration, school districts in California are now solely…

Optical spatial differentiator based on subwavelength high-contrast gratings

Science.gov (United States)

Dong, Zhewei; Si, Jiangnan; Yu, Xuanyi; Deng, Xiaoxu

2018-04-01

An optical spatial differentiator based on subwavelength high-contrast gratings (HCGs) is proposed experimentally. The spatial differentiation property of the subwavelength HCG is analyzed by calculating its spatial spectral transfer function based on the periodic waveguide theory. By employing the FDTD solutions, the performance of the subwavelength HCG spatial differentiator was investigated numerically. The subwavelength HCG differentiator with the thickness at the nanoscale was fabricated on the quartz substrate by electron beam lithography and Bosch deep silicon etching. Observed under an optical microscope with a CCD camera, the spatial differentiation of the incident field profile was obtained by the subwavelength HCG differentiator in transmission without Fourier lens. By projecting the images of slits, letter "X," and a cross on the subwavelength HCG differentiator, edge detections of images were obtained in transmission. With the nanoscale HCG structure and simple optical implementation, the proposed optical spatial differentiator provides the prospects for applications in optical computing systems and parallel data processing.

A scoping study: children, policy and cultural shifts in homelessness services in South Australia: are children still falling through the gaps?

Science.gov (United States)

Parry, Yvonne Karen; Grant, Julian; Burke, Lynette

2016-09-01

Homeless families are the fastest growing segment of the homelessness population. Homelessness services are often the first to know when children are at risk of disengagement with health, welfare and education services. Changes to Australian policy to explicitly attend to the needs of children are attempts to address the complexity of, and provide better outcomes for, homeless children. There are mounting levels of evidence describing some of the needs of children who are homeless. Using the scoping study methodological framework, this review of academic and grey literature identified the extent to which service providers provide for the needs of homeless children. The literature search was conducted from September 2012 to April 2013 using ProQuest, Science Direct, Sage and OVID databases. Therefore, the objectives of this scoping study were to: (i) identify the specific needs of children in homelessness; (ii) describe recent changes in policy relating to care for children in homelessness services; (iii) explore the evidence on how service providers can enact care for children in homelessness services; (iv) identify the types of practice changes that are needed to optimise outcomes for children; and (v) identify the gaps in service delivery. This article describes the Australian policy changes and explores the potential impact of subsequent sector reforms on the internal practices in front-line homelessness services, in order to overcome structural and systemic barriers, and promote opportunities for children in homeless families. This scoping study literature review contributes to the understanding of the impact of policy change on front-line staff and suggests possible practice changes and future research options. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services Based Climate Change Adaptation (EbA in Bangladesh: Status, Challenges and Opportunities

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nazmul Huq

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The paper aims to analyze the extent of Ecosystem Service (ESS based Adaptation (EbA to climate change in the policy-making process of Bangladesh. The paper is based on a three stage hybrid policy-making cycle: (i agenda setting; (ii policy formulation; and (iii policy implementation stage, where the contributions of EbA can horizontally (on the ground or vertically (strategic stage be mainstreamed and integrated. A total of nine national and sectoral development and climate change policies, and 329 climate change adaptation projects are examined belonging to different policy-making stages. The major findings include that the role of ESS is marginally considered as an adaptation component in most of the reviewed policies, especially at the top strategic level (vertical mainstreaming. However, at the policy formulation and implementation stage (horizontal mainstreaming, they are largely ignored and priority is given to structural adaptation policies and projects, e.g., large scale concrete dams and embankments. For example, ESS’s roles to adapt sectors such as urban planning, biodiversity management and disaster risk reduction are left unchecked, and the implementation stage receives overwhelming priorities and investments to undertake hard adaptation measures such that only 38 projects are related to EbA. The paper argues that: (i dominant structural adaptation ideologies; (ii the expert and bureaucracy dependent policy making process; and (iii the lack of adaptive and integration capacities at institutional level are considerably offsetting the EbA mainstreaming process that need to be adequately addressed for climate change adaptation.

Mapping Ecosystem Services

OpenAIRE

Georgiev,Teodor; Burkhard,Benjamin; Maes,Joachim

2017-01-01

Ecosystem services are the contributions of ecosystem structure and function (in combination with other inputs) to human well-being. That means, humankind is strongly dependent on well-functioning ecosystems and natural capital that are the base for a constant flow of ecosystem services from nature to society. Therefore ecosystem services have the potential to become a major tool for policy and decision making on global, national, regional and local scales. Possible applications are manifold:...

South African HIV self-testing policy and guidance considerations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francois Venter

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The gap in HIV testing remains significant and new modalities such as HIV self-testing (HIVST have been recommended to reach key and under-tested populations. In December 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO released the Guidelines on HIV Self-Testing and Partner Notification: A Supplement to the Consolidated Guidelines on HIV Testing Services (HTS and urged member countries to develop HIVST policy and regulatory frameworks. In South Africa, HIVST was included as a supplementary strategy in the National HIV Testing Services Policy in 2016, and recently, guidelines for HIVST were included in the South African National Strategic Plan for HIV, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis 2017–2022. This document serves as an additional guidance for the National HIV Testing Services Policy 2016, with specific focus on HIVST. It is intended for policy advocates, clinical and non-clinical HTS providers, health facility managers and healthcare providers in private and public health facilities, non-governmental, community-based and faith-based organisations involved in HTS and outreach, device manufacturers, workplace programmes and institutes of higher education.

Translating knowledge into practice: An exploratory study of dementia-specific training for community-based service providers.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Sullivan, Grace; Hocking, Clare; McPherson, Kathryn

2017-08-01

Objective To develop, deliver, and evaluate dementia-specific training designed to inform service delivery by enhancing the knowledge of community-based service providers. Methods This exploratory qualitative study used an interdisciplinary, interuniversity team approach to develop and deliver dementia-specific training. Participants included management, care staff, and clients from three organizations funded to provide services in the community. Data on the acceptability, applicability, and perceived outcomes of the training were gathered through focus group discussions and individual interviews. Transcripts were analyzed to generate open codes which were clustered into themes and sub-themes addressing the content, delivery, and value of the training. Findings Staff valued up-to-date knowledge and "real stories" grounded in practice. Clients welcomed the strengths-based approach. Contractual obligations impact on the application of knowledge in practice. Implications The capacity to implement new knowledge may be limited by the legislative policies which frame service provision, to the detriment of service users.

Personalization of Rule-based Web Services.

Science.gov (United States)

Choi, Okkyung; Han, Sang Yong

2008-04-04

Nowadays Web users have clearly expressed their wishes to receive personalized services directly. Personalization is the way to tailor services directly to the immediate requirements of the user. However, the current Web Services System does not provide any features supporting this such as consideration of personalization of services and intelligent matchmaking. In this research a flexible, personalized Rule-based Web Services System to address these problems and to enable efficient search, discovery and construction across general Web documents and Semantic Web documents in a Web Services System is proposed. This system utilizes matchmaking among service requesters', service providers' and users' preferences using a Rule-based Search Method, and subsequently ranks search results. A prototype of efficient Web Services search and construction for the suggested system is developed based on the current work.

The Nordic approach to market-based provision of ancillary services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kristiansen, Tarjei

2007-01-01

This paper presents an overview of the markets for ancillary services, which are regulated and traded differently within and across borders in the Nordic countries. We describe the services provided and their characteristics in terms of definition, participation, contracting approach and duration, selection of offers, and dispatch criteria. Further, we assess the costs, specify the payments, and discuss cost allocation, and we conclude with a policy discussion of ancillary services in the Nordic countries. (author)

Policy Research Using Agent-Based Modeling to Assess Future Impacts of Urban Expansion into Farmlands and Forests

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael R. Guzy

2008-06-01

Full Text Available The expansion of urban land uses into farmlands and forests requires an assessment of future ecological impacts. Spatially explicit agent-based models can represent the changes in resilience and ecological services that result from different land-use policies. When modeling complex adaptive systems, both the methods used to interpret results and the standards of rigor used to judge adequacy are complicated and require additional research. Recent studies suggest that it would be appropriate to use these models as an extension of exploratory analysis. This type of analysis generates ensembles of alternate plausible representations of future system conditions. User expertise steers interactive, stepwise system exploration toward inductive reasoning about potential changes to the system. In this study, we develop understanding of the potential alternative futures for a social-ecological system by way of successive simulations that test variations in the types and numbers of policies. The model addresses the agricultural-urban interface and the preservation of ecosystem services. The landscape analyzed is at the junction of the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers adjacent to the cities of Eugene and Springfield in Lane County, Oregon. Our exploration of alternative future scenarios suggests that policies that constrain urban growth and create incentives for farming and forest enterprises to preserve and enhance habitat can protect ecosystem resilience and services.

Strengthening Research Capacity and Evidence-Based Policy ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

... wider Central Asian region lack capacity to conduct empirical analysis and create policies based on research evidence. To address government priorities, the region needs quality research driven by local demands and analytical skills that can inform effective development responses through policy. This 39-month project, ...

Role of ideas and ideologies in evidence-based health policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Prinja, S

2010-01-01

Policy making in health is largely thought to be driven by three 'I's namely ideas, interests and institutions. Recent years have seen a shift in approach with increasing reliance being placed on role of evidence for policy making. The present article ascertains the role of ideas and ideologies in shaping evidence which is used to aid in policy decisions. The article discusses different theories of research-policy interface and the relative freedom of research-based evidence from the influence of ideas. Examples from developed and developed countries are cited to illustrate the contentions made. The article highlights the complexity of the process of evidence-based policy making, in a world driven by existing political, social and cultural ideologies. Consideration of this knowledge is paramount where more efforts are being made to bridge the gap between the 'two worlds' of researchers and policy makers to make evidence-based policy as also for policy analysts.

Service- and population-based exemptions: are these the way forward for equity and efficiency in health financing in low-income countries?

Science.gov (United States)

Witter, Sophie

2009-01-01

The first wave of experiences of exemptions policies suggested that poverty-based exemptions, using individual targeting, were not effective, for practical and political economic reasons. In response, many countries have changed their approach in recent years--while maintaining user fees as a necessary source of revenue for facilities, they have been switching to categorical targeting, offering exemptions based on high-priority services or population groups. This chapter aims to examine the impact and conditions for effectiveness of this recent health finance modality. The chapter is based on a literature review and on data from two complex evaluations of national fee exemption policies for delivery care in West Africa (Ghana and Senegal). A conceptual framework for analysing the impact of exemption policies is developed and used. Although the analysis focuses on exemption for deliveries, the framework and findings are likely to be generalisable to other service- or population-based exemptions. The chapter presents background information on the nature of delivery exemptions, the drivers for their use, their scale and common modalities in low-income countries. It then looks at evidence of their impact, on utilisation, quality of care and equity and investigates their cost-effectiveness. The final section presents lessons on implementation and implications for policy-makers, including the acceptability and sustainability of exemptions and how they compare to other possible mechanisms. The chapter concludes that funded service- or group-based exemptions offer a simple, potentially effective route to mitigating inequity and inefficiency in the health systems of low-income countries. However, there are a number of key constraints. One is the fungibility of resources at health facility level. The second is the difficulty of sustaining a separate funding stream over the medium to long term. The third is the arbitrary basis for selecting high-priority services for

A national survey of health service infrastructure and policy impacts on access to computerised CBT in Scotland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenicer David

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background NICE recommends computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT for the treatment of several mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. cCBT may be one way that services can reduce waiting lists and improve capacity and efficiency. However, there is some doubt about the extent to which the National Health Service (NHS in the UK is embracing this new health technology in practice. This study aimed to investigate Scottish health service infrastructure and policies that promote or impede the implementation of cCBT in the NHS. Methods A telephone survey of lead IT staff at all health board areas across Scotland to systematically enquire about the ability of local IT infrastructure and IT policies to support delivery of cCBT. Results Overall, most of the health boards possess the required software to use cCBT programmes. However, the majority of NHS health boards reported that they lack dedicated computers for patient use, hence access to cCBT at NHS sites is limited. Additionally, local policy in the majority of boards prevent staff from routinely contacting patients via email, skype or instant messenger, making the delivery of short, efficient support sessions difficult. Conclusions Conclusions: Overall most of the infrastructure is in place but is not utilised in ways that allow effective delivery. For cCBT to be successfully delivered within a guided support model, as recommended by national guidelines, dedicated patient computers should be provided to allow access to online interventions. Additionally, policy should allow staff to support patients in convenient ways such as via email or live chat. These measures would increase the likelihood of achieving Scottish health service targets to reduce waiting time for psychological therapies to 18 weeks.

Web-based Analysis Services Report

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(CDS)2108758; Canali, Luca; Grancher, Eric; Lamanna, Massimo; McCance, Gavin; Mato Vila, Pere; Piparo, Danilo; Moscicki, Jakub; Pace, Alberto; Brito Da Rocha, Ricardo; Simko, Tibor; Smith, Tim; Tejedor Saavedra, Enric; CERN. Geneva. IT Department

2017-01-01

Web-based services (cloud services) is an important trend to innovate end-user services while optimising the service operational costs. CERN users are constantly proposing new approaches (inspired from services existing on the web, tools used in education or other science or based on their experience in using existing computing services). In addition, industry and open source communities have recently made available a large number of powerful and attractive tools and platforms that enable large scale data processing. “Big Data” software stacks notably provide solutions for scalable storage, distributed compute and data analysis engines, data streaming, web-based interfaces (notebooks). Some of those platforms and tools, typically available as open source products, are experiencing a very fast adoption in industry and science such that they are becoming “de facto” references in several areas of data engineering, data science and machine learning. In parallel to users' requests, WLCG is considering to c...

Pharmaceutical services cost analysis using time-driven activity-based costing: A contribution to improve community pharmacies' management.

Science.gov (United States)

Gregório, João; Russo, Giuliano; Lapão, Luís Velez

2016-01-01

The current financial crisis is pressing health systems to reduce costs while looking to improve service standards. In this context, the necessity to optimize health care systems management has become an imperative. However, little research has been conducted on health care and pharmaceutical services cost management. Pharmaceutical services optimization requires a comprehensive understanding of resources usage and its costs. This study explores the development of a time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) model, with the objective of calculating the cost of pharmaceutical services to help inform policy-making. Pharmaceutical services supply patterns were studied in three pharmacies during a weekday through an observational study. Details of each activity's execution were recorded, including time spent per activity performed by pharmacists. Data on pharmacy costs was obtained through pharmacies' accounting records. The calculated cost of a dispensing service in these pharmacies ranged from €3.16 to €4.29. The cost of a counseling service when no medicine was supplied ranged from €1.24 to €1.46. The cost of health screening services ranged from €2.86 to €4.55. The presented TDABC model gives us new insights on management and costs of community pharmacies. This study shows the importance of cost analysis for health care services, specifically on pharmaceutical services, in order to better inform pharmacies' management and the elaboration of pharmaceutical policies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Globalisation, rural restructuring and health service delivery in Australia: policy failure and the role of social work?

Science.gov (United States)

Alston, Margaret

2007-05-01

The impacts of globalisation and rural restructuring on health service delivery in rural Australia have been significant. In the present paper, it is argued that declining health service access represents a failure of policy. Rural communities across the world are in a state of flux, and Australia is no different: rural communities are ageing at faster rates than urban communities and young people are out-migrating in large numbers. During the past 5 years, rural Australia has also experienced a severe and widespread drought that has exacerbated rural poverty, and impacted on the health and well-being of rural Australians. Australian governments have responded to globalising forces by introducing neoliberal policy initiatives favouring market solutions and championing the need for self-reliance among citizens. The result for rural Australia has been a withdrawal of services at a time of increased need. This paper addresses the social work response to these changes.

Reviewing and reforming policy in health enterprise information security

Science.gov (United States)

Sostrom, Kristen; Collmann, Jeff R.

2001-08-01

Health information management policies usually address the use of paper records with little or no mention of electronic health records. Information Technology (IT) policies often ignore the health care business needs and operational use of the information stored in its systems. Representatives from the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center, TRICARE and Offices of the Surgeon General of each Military Service, collectively referred to as the Policies, Procedures and Practices Work Group (P3WG), examined military policies and regulations relating to computer-based information systems and medical records management. Using a system of templates and matrices created for the purpose, P3WG identified gaps and discrepancies in DoD and service compliance with the proposed Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Standard. P3WG represents an unprecedented attempt to coordinate policy review and revision across all military health services and the Office of Health Affairs. This method of policy reform can identify where changes need to be made to integrate health management policy and IT policy in to an organizational policy that will enable compliance with HIPAA standards. The process models how large enterprises may coordinate policy revision and reform across broad organizational and work domains.

Forest biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem goods and services: translating science into policy

Science.gov (United States)

Ian Thompson; Kimiko Okabe; Jason Tylianakis; Pushpam Kumar; Eckehard G. Brockerhoff; Nancy Schellhorn; John A. Parrotta; Robert Nasi

2011-01-01

Biodiversity is integral to almost all ecosystem processes, with some species playing key functional roles that are essential for maintaining the value of ecosystems to humans. However, many ecosystem services remain nonvalued, and decisionmakers rarely consider biodiversity in policy development, in part because the relationships between biodiversity and the provision...

STS pricing policy

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, C. M.; Stone, B.

1982-01-01

In 1977 NASA published Shuttle Reimbursement Policies for Civil U.S. Government, DOD and Commercial and Foreign Users. These policies were based on the principle of total cost recovery over a period of time with a fixed flat price for initial period to time to enhance transition. This fixed period was to be followed with annual adjustments thereafter, NASA is establishing a new price for 1986 and beyond. In order to recover costs, that price must be higher than the initial fixed price through FY 1985. NASA intends to remain competitive. Competitive posture includes not only price, but other factors such as assured launch, reliability, and unique services. NASA's pricing policy considers all these factors.

A policy system for Grid Management and Monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stagni, Federico; Santinelli, Roberto

2011-01-01

Organizations using a Grid computing model are faced with non-traditional administrative challenges: the heterogeneous nature of the underlying resources requires professionals acting as Grid Administrators. Members of a Virtual Organization (VO) can use a subset of available resources and services in the grid infrastructure and in an ideal world, the more resources are exploited the better. In the real world, the less faulty services, the better: experienced Grid administrators apply procedures for adding and removing services, based on their status, as it is reported by an ever-growing set of monitoring tools. When a procedure is agreed and well-exercised, a formal policy could be derived. For this reason, using the DIRAC framework in the LHCb collaboration, we developed a policy system that can enforce management and operational policies, in a VO-specific fashion. A single policy makes an assessment on the status of a subject, relative to one or more monitoring information. Subjects of the policies are monitored entities of an established Grid ontology. The status of a same entity is evaluated against a number of policies, whose results are then combined by a Policy Decision Point. Such results are enforced in a Policy Enforcing Point, which provides plug-ins for actions, like raising alarms, sending notifications, automatic addition and removal of services and resources from the Grid mask. Policy results are shown in the web portal, and site-specific views are provided also. This innovative system provides advantages in terms of procedures automation, information aggregation and problem solving.

A policy system for Grid Management and Monitoring

Science.gov (United States)

Stagni, Federico; Santinelli, Roberto; LHCb Collaboration

2011-12-01

Organizations using a Grid computing model are faced with non-traditional administrative challenges: the heterogeneous nature of the underlying resources requires professionals acting as Grid Administrators. Members of a Virtual Organization (VO) can use a subset of available resources and services in the grid infrastructure and in an ideal world, the more resoures are exploited the better. In the real world, the less faulty services, the better: experienced Grid administrators apply procedures for adding and removing services, based on their status, as it is reported by an ever-growing set of monitoring tools. When a procedure is agreed and well-exercised, a formal policy could be derived. For this reason, using the DIRAC framework in the LHCb collaboration, we developed a policy system that can enforce management and operational policies, in a VO-specific fashion. A single policy makes an assessment on the status of a subject, relative to one or more monitoring information. Subjects of the policies are monitored entities of an established Grid ontology. The status of a same entity is evaluated against a number of policies, whose results are then combined by a Policy Decision Point. Such results are enforced in a Policy Enforcing Point, which provides plug-ins for actions, like raising alarms, sending notifications, automatic addition and removal of services and resources from the Grid mask. Policy results are shown in the web portal, and site-specific views are provided also. This innovative system provides advantages in terms of procedures automation, information aggregation and problem solving.

Do smoke-free environment policies reduce smoking on hospital grounds? Evaluation of a smoke-free health service policy at two Sydney hospitals.

Science.gov (United States)

Poder, Natasha; Carroll, Therese; Wallace, Cate; Hua, Myna

2012-05-01

To evaluate the compliance of hospital staff, inpatients and visitors with Sydney South West Area Health Service's Smoke-free Environment Policy. Six sites were observed at two Sydney hospitals 2 weeks before implementation of the policy and at 2 weeks, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months and 2 years after implementation. There was an overall significant 36% (P≤0.05) reduction in observed smoking incidents on hospital grounds 2 years after implementation. Two years after implementation, observed smoking incidents reduced by 44% (P≤0.05) in staff, 37% (P≤0.05) in visitors and remained unchanged among inpatients. The Smoke-free Environment Policy was effective in reducing visitors and staff observed smoking on hospital grounds, but had little effect on inpatients' smoking. Identifying strategies to effectively manage nicotine addiction and promote cessation amongst hospital inpatients remains a key priority.

Motorcycles as public transport service based on smart phone android applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dwijoko Ansusanto

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Growth of traffic in the city of Yogyakarta is dominated by private vehicle, while the urban public transport service is not satisfactory for consumer. In November 2015 the transport service based application called Go-Jek began operation in Yogyakarta. This service offers a transportation service that is safe, convenient, fast, cheap and more attractive the interest of consumers to use. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the operating system Go-Jek services, the public interest to this service, the feasibility of Go-Jek services as a mode of transportation in Yogyakarta. This research was conducted in the city of Yogyakarta and Sleman. The research method is done by using a questionnaire to the respondents: the driver and the consumer of Go-Jek. The analysis was conducted to assess the level of satisfaction and expectations of respondents using Importance-Performance analysis methods. Operating system Go-Jek is currently quite good, but needs to be further improved. Ranges of Income from 843.300 3.243.300 Indonesian Rupiah per month be perceived by the driver is good enough, while minimum income of workers on average in 2017 amounted 1.337.645 Indonesian rupiah per month in Yogyakarta Special District. Recommendations to the Go-Jek company in order to implement transparency in setting policies and systems to avoids the problems to the driver Go-Jek

Differential Evolution for Many-Particle Adaptive Quantum Metrology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lovett, N.B.; Crosnier, C.; Perarnau- Llobet, M.; Sanders, B.

2013-01-01

We devise powerful algorithms based on differential evolution for adaptive many-particle quantum metrology. Our new approach delivers adaptive quantum metrology policies for feedback control that are orders-of-magnitude more efficient and surpass the few-dozen-particle limitation arising in methods

Database Aspects of Location-Based Services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Christian Søndergaard

2004-01-01

in the databases underlying high-quality services. Several integrated representations - which capture different aspects of the same infrastructure - are needed. Further, all other content that can be related to geographical space must be integrated with the infrastructure representations. The chapter describes...... the general concepts underlying one approach to data modeling for location-based services. The chapter also covers techniques that are needed to keep a database for location-based services up to date with the reality it models. As part of this, caching is touched upon briefly. The notion of linear referencing......Adopting a data management perspective on location-based services, this chapter explores central challenges to data management posed by location-based services. Because service users typically travel in, and are constrained to, transportation infrastructures, such structures must be represented...

12 CFR 614.4160 - Differential interest rate programs.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 12 Banks and Banking 6 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Differential interest rate programs. 614.4160... OPERATIONS General Loan Policies for Banks and Associations § 614.4160 Differential interest rate programs. Pursuant to policies approved by the board of directors, differential interest rates may be established for...

Role of Department of Defense Policies in Identifying Traumatic Brain Injuries Among Deployed US Service Members, 2001-2016.

Science.gov (United States)

Agimi, Yll; Regasa, Lemma Ebssa; Ivins, Brian; Malik, Saafan; Helmick, Katherine; Marion, Donald

2018-05-01

To examine the role of Department of Defense policies in identifying theater-sustained traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). We conducted a retrospective study of 48 172 US military service members who sustained their first lifetime TBIs between 2001 and 2016 while deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. We used multivariable negative binomial models to examine the changes in TBI incidence rates following the introduction of Department of Defense policies. Two Army policies encouraging TBI reporting were associated with an increase of 251% and 97% in TBIs identified following their implementation, respectively. Among airmen, the introduction of TBI-specific screening questions to the Post-Deployment Health Assessment was associated with a 78% increase in reported TBIs. The 2010 Department of Defense Directive Type Memorandum 09-033 was associated with another increase of 80% in the likelihood of being identified with a TBI among soldiers, a 51% increase among sailors, and a 124% increase among Marines. Department of Defense and service-specific policies introduced between 2006 and 2013 significantly increased the number of battlefield TBIs identified, successfully improving the longstanding problem of underreporting of TBIs.

41 CFR 302-15.70 - What governing policies must we establish for the allowance for property management services?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What governing policies must we establish for the allowance for property management services? 302-15.70 Section 302-15.70... TRANSACTION ALLOWANCES 15-ALLOWANCE FOR PROPERTY MANAGEMENT SERVICES Agency Responsibilities § 302-15.70 What...

Policy development and challenges of global mental health: a systematic review of published studies of national-level mental health policies.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Wei; Yu, Yu; Yang, Mei; Chen, Lizhang; Xiao, Shuiyuan

2018-05-18

Mental health policy can be an essential and powerful tool to improve a population's mental health. However, around one third of countries do not possess a mental health policy, and there are large disparities in population coverage rates between high- and low-income countries. The goal of this study is to identify the transition and implementation challenges of mental health policies in both high-income countries (HICs) as well as middle- and low-income countries (MLICs). PubMed, Cochrane Library and Campbell Library were searched from inception to 31 December 2017, for studies on implemented mental health policies at the national level. Abstracts and the main texts of papers were double screened, and extracted data were analysed through thematic synthesis. A total of 93 papers were included in this study, covering 24 HICs, 28 MLICs and 5 regions. Studies on mental health policies, especially those of MLICs, kept increasing, but MLICs were still underrepresented in terms of publication quantity and study frequency. Based on the included studies, nine policy domains were summarized: service organizing, service provision, service quality, human resources, legislation and human rights, advocacy, administration, surveillance and research, and financing and budgeting. HICs incrementally enriched their policy content in all domains over centuries of development; following HICs' experience, mental health policies in MLICs have boomed since the 1990s and quickly extended to all domains. Implementation problems in HICs were mainly related to service organizing and service provision; for MLICs, more severe implementation problems converged on financing and budgeting, administration and human resources. Mental health policy developments in both HICs and MLICs present a process of diversification and enrichment. In terms of implementation, MLICs are faced with more and greater challenges than HICs, especially in funding, human resources and administration. Therefore, future

Exploring changes in middle-school student lunch consumption after local school food service policy modifications.

Science.gov (United States)

Cullen, Karen Weber; Watson, Kathy; Zakeri, Issa; Ralston, Katherine

2006-09-01

This study assessed the impact of changes in school food policy on student lunch consumption in middle schools. Two years of lunch food records were collected from students at three middle schools in the Houston, Texas area. During the first year, no changes occurred in the school food environment. After that school year was completed, chips and dessert foods were removed from the snack bars of all schools by the Food Service Director. Students recorded the amount and source of food and beverage items consumed. Point-of-service purchase machines provided a day-by-day electronic data file with food and beverage purchases from the snack bars during the 2-year period. Independent t-tests and time series analyses were used to document the impact of the policy change on consumption and sales data between the two years. In general, student consumption of sweetened beverages declined and milk, calcium, vitamin A, saturated fat and sodium increased after the policy change. Snack chips consumption from the snack bar declined in year 2; however, consumption of snack chips and candy from vending increased and the number of vending machines in study schools doubled during the study period. Ice cream sales increased significantly in year 2. Policy changes on foods sold in schools can result in changes in student consumption from the targeted environments. However, if all environments do not make similar changes, compensation may occur.

A bulk queueing system under N-policy with bilevel service delay discipline and start-up time

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David C. R. Muh

1993-01-01

Full Text Available The author studies the queueing process in a single-server, bulk arrival and batch service queueing system with a compound Poisson input, bilevel service delay discipline, start-up time, and a fixed accumulation level with control operating policy. It is assumed that when the queue length falls below a predefined level r(≥1, the system, with server capacity R, immediately stops service until the queue length reaches or exceeds the second predefined accumulation level N(≥r. Two cases, with N≤R and N≥R, are studied.

CO-CD base management model of Universitas Terbuka community service program

Science.gov (United States)

Kridasakti, S. W.; Sudirah; Siregar, H.

2018-03-01

These studies were to respond whether the UT social-aid management had been executed under CO-CD principles (Ife J. 1995) and what CO-CD base community service management model can be built. The goals of these evaluational studies were UT social-aid managerial performance profile (2011-2013) and CO-CD management model development. The methods used were Survey and FGD. For data collection were involving the UT officers, the counterparts, and the documents. The analysis used combination between the Performance Analysis (Irawan P., 2003) and the CIPP (Stuffelbeam, D, L., & Shinkfield, A, J., 1985). The findings showed that the quantitative targeting in program completion was credible in achievement (85%). However, the “qulitative targeting” of the management goals was indicating far from a good-stage (≤5.0_Interval-Force: 1-10 Scale). The “Gap” was due to the absent of socialization_needs-analysis_maintenance_release factors on the UT social-service grand-policy. The trial of CO-CD Base Management Model had been imposed to the community that turned out to be very effective to self-help, and the ensuing SOP had been successfully defined. Conclusion, ‘CO-CD Principles’ were not designed in UT community service programs management. However, if efficiency and effectivity likely to be achieved, the SOP of ‘CO-CD Base Management Model has to be adopted.

Optimal (R, Q) policy and pricing for two-echelon supply chain with lead time and retailer's service-level incomplete information

Science.gov (United States)

Esmaeili, M.; Naghavi, M. S.; Ghahghaei, A.

2018-03-01

Many studies focus on inventory systems to analyze different real-world situations. This paper considers a two-echelon supply chain that includes one warehouse and one retailer with stochastic demand and an up-to-level policy. The retailer's lead time includes the transportation time from the warehouse to the retailer that is unknown to the retailer. On the other hand, the warehouse is unaware of retailer's service level. The relationship between the retailer and the warehouse is modeled based on the Stackelberg game with incomplete information. Moreover, their relationship is presented when the warehouse and the retailer reveal their private information using the incentive strategies. The optimal inventory and pricing policies are obtained using an algorithm based on bi-level programming. Numerical examples, including sensitivity analysis of some key parameters, will compare the results between the Stackelberg models. The results show that information sharing is more beneficial to the warehouse rather than the retailer.

Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Guidelines: Update of U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Policies and Procedures.

Science.gov (United States)

Ngo-Metzger, Quyen; Moyer, Virginia; Grossman, David; Ebell, Mark; Woo, Meghan; Miller, Therese; Brummer, Tana; Chowdhury, Joya; Kato, Elisabeth; Siu, Albert; Phillips, William; Davidson, Karina; Phipps, Maureen; Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten

2018-01-01

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) provides independent, objective, and scientifically rigorous recommendations for clinical preventive services. A primary concern is to avoid even the appearance of members having special interests that might influence their ability to judge evidence and formulate unbiased recommendations. The conflicts of interest policy for the USPSTF is described, as is the formal process by which best practices were incorporated to update the policy. The USPSTF performed a literature review, conducted key informant interviews, and reviewed conflicts of interest policies of ten similar organizations. Important findings included transparency and public accessibility; full disclosure of financial relationships; disclosure of non-financial relationships (that create the potential for bias and compromise a member's objective judgment); disclosure of family members' conflicts of interests; and establishment of appropriate reporting periods. Controversies in best practices include the threshold of financial disclosures, ease of access to conflicts of interest policies and declarations, vague definition of non-financial biases, and request for family members' conflicts of interests (particularly those that are non-financial in nature). The USPSTF conflicts of interest policy includes disclosures for immediate family members, a clear non-financial conflicts of interest definition, long look-back period and application of the policy to prospective members. Conflicts of interest is solicited from all members every 4 months, formally reviewed, adjudicated, and made publicly available. The USPSTF conflicts of interest policy is publicly available as part of the USPSTF Procedure Manual. A continuous improvement process can be applied to conflicts of interest policies to enhance public trust in members of panels, such as the USPSTF, that produce clinical guidelines and recommendations. Copyright © 2018 American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Router Agent Technology for Policy-Based Network Management

Science.gov (United States)

Chow, Edward T.; Sudhir, Gurusham; Chang, Hsin-Ping; James, Mark; Liu, Yih-Chiao J.; Chiang, Winston

2011-01-01

This innovation can be run as a standalone network application on any computer in a networked environment. This design can be configured to control one or more routers (one instance per router), and can also be configured to listen to a policy server over the network to receive new policies based on the policy- based network management technology. The Router Agent Technology transforms the received policies into suitable Access Control List syntax for the routers it is configured to control. It commits the newly generated access control lists to the routers and provides feedback regarding any errors that were faced. The innovation also automatically generates a time-stamped log file regarding all updates to the router it is configured to control. This technology, once installed on a local network computer and started, is autonomous because it has the capability to keep listening to new policies from the policy server, transforming those policies to router-compliant access lists, and committing those access lists to a specified interface on the specified router on the network with any error feedback regarding commitment process. The stand-alone application is named RouterAgent and is currently realized as a fully functional (version 1) implementation for the Windows operating system and for CISCO routers.

Time dependent policy-based access control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vasilikos, Panagiotis; Nielson, Flemming; Nielson, Hanne Riis

2017-01-01

also on other attributes of the environment such as the time. In this paper, we use systems of Timed Automata to model distributed systems and we present a logic in which one can express time-dependent policies for access control. We show how a fragment of our logic can be reduced to a logic......Access control policies are essential to determine who is allowed to access data in a system without compromising the data's security. However, applications inside a distributed environment may require those policies to be dependent on the actual content of the data, the flow of information, while...... that current model checkers for Timed Automata such as UPPAAL can handle and we present a translator that performs this reduction. We then use our translator and UPPAAL to enforce time-dependent policy-based access control on an example application from the aerospace industry....

Impact of policy support on uptake of evidence-based continuous quality improvement activities and the quality of care for Indigenous Australians: a comparative case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bailie, Ross; Matthews, Veronica; Larkins, Sarah; Thompson, Sandra; Burgess, Paul; Weeramanthri, Tarun; Bailie, Jodie; Cunningham, Frances; Kwedza, Ru; Clark, Louise

2017-10-05

To examine the impact of state/territory policy support on (1) uptake of evidence-based continuous quality improvement (CQI) activities and (2) quality of care for Indigenous Australians. Mixed-method comparative case study methodology, drawing on quality-of-care audit data, documentary evidence of policies and strategies and the experience and insights of stakeholders involved in relevant CQI programmes. We use multilevel linear regression to analyse jurisdictional differences in quality of care. Indigenous primary healthcare services across five states/territories of Australia. 175 Indigenous primary healthcare services. A range of national and state/territory policy and infrastructure initiatives to support CQI, including support for applied research. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: (i) Trends in the consistent uptake of evidence-based CQI tools available through a research-based CQI initiative (the Audit and Best Practice in Chronic Disease programme) and (ii) quality of care (as reflected in adherence to best practice guidelines). Progressive uptake of evidence-based CQI activities and steady improvements or maintenance of high-quality care occurred where there was long-term policy and infrastructure support for CQI. Where support was provided but not sustained there was a rapid rise and subsequent fall in relevant CQI activities. Health authorities should ensure consistent and sustained policy and infrastructure support for CQI to enable wide-scale and ongoing improvement in quality of care and, subsequently, health outcomes. It is not sufficient for improvement initiatives to rely on local service managers and clinicians, as their efforts are strongly mediated by higher system-level influences. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Aligning faith-based and national HIV/AIDS prevention responses? Factors influencing the HIV/AIDS prevention policy process and response of faith-based NGOs in Tanzania.

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, Rosemary; Green, Andrew; Boesten, Jelke

2014-05-01

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have a long tradition of providing HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation services in Africa. The overall response of FBOs, however, has been controversial, particularly in regard to HIV/AIDS prevention and FBO's rejection of condom use and promotion, which can conflict with and negatively influence national HIV/AIDS prevention response efforts. This article reports the findings from a study that explored the factors influencing the HIV/AIDS prevention policy process within faith-based non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of different faiths. These factors were examined within three faith-based NGOs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania-a Catholic, Anglican and Muslim organization. The research used an exploratory, qualitative case-study approach, and employed a health policy analysis framework, examining the context, actor and process factors and how they interact to form content in terms of policy and its implementation within each organization. Three key factors were found to influence faith-based NGOs' HIV/AIDS prevention response in terms of both policy and its implementation: (1) the faith structure in which the organizations are a part, (2) the presence or absence of organizational policy and (3) the professional nature of the organizations and its actors. The interaction between these factors, and how actors negotiate between them, was found to shape the organizations' HIV/AIDS prevention response. This article reports on these factors and analyses the different HIV/AIDS prevention responses found within each organization. By understanding the factors that influence faith-based NGOs' HIV/AIDS prevention policy process, the overall faith-based response to HIV/AIDS, and how it corresponds to national response efforts, is better understood. It is hoped that by doing so the government will be better able to identify how to best work with FBOs to meet national HIV/AIDS prevention targets, improving the overall role of FBOs in the fight against

Professional Veterinary Programs' Perceptions and Experiences Pertaining to Emotional Support Animals and Service Animals, and Recommendations for Policy Development.

Science.gov (United States)

Schoenfeld-Tacher, Regina M; Kogan, Lori R

Given the unique nature of programs in professional veterinary medicine (PVM), the increasing numbers of students requesting accommodations for emotional support animals (ESAs) in higher education settings is of growing interest to student affairs and administrative staff in PVM settings. Since the legislation pertaining to this type of support animal differs from the laws governing disability service animals, colleges and universities now need to develop new policies and guidelines. Representatives from a sample of 28 PVM programs completed a survey about the prevalence of student requests for ESAs and service animals. PVM associate deans for academic affairs also reported their perceptions of this issue and the challenges these requests might pose within veterinary teaching laboratories and patient treatment areas. Responses indicated that approximately one third of PVM programs have received requests for ESAs (32.1%) in the last 2 years, 17.9% have had requests for psychiatric service animals, and 17.9% for other types of service animals. Despite this, most associate deans reported not having or not being aware of university or college policies pertaining to these issues. Most associate deans are interested in learning more about this topic. This paper provides general recommendations for establishing university or PVM program policies.

Project-Based Market Competition and Policy Implications for Sustainable Developments in Building and Construction Sectors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Min-Ren Yan

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Building and construction sectors are significant contributors to the global economy, but their energy consumption necessitates greater commitment to sustainable developments. There is therefore a growing demand for green innovation in the form of cleaner production and policies to meet the modern requirements of sustainability. However, the nature in which public work is undertaken is in an environment of project-based market competition, whereby contractors routinely bid for contracts under specific project awarding systems, and variations are accompanied with the unique scope of individual projects before the final goods or services are delivered. A comprehensive understanding of the characteristics and contractors’ behavior in systems could help to identify the leverage points of policies. This paper proposes a system dynamics model, with quantitative analysis and simulations, to demonstrate the problems of a system with different project awarding systems and ineffective market performance. The framework of market efficiency and performance measures has been proposed to evaluate the project-based competition mechanism. Managerial policy implications for market efficiency and sustainable developments can thus be systematically discussed and compared through iterative computer simulations and scenario analysis.

User-Generated Services Composition in Smart Multi-User Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vincenzo Catania

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The increasing complexity shown in Smart Environments, together with the spread of social networks, is increasingly moving the role of users from simple information and services consumers to actual producers. In this work, we focus on security issues raised by a particular kind of services: those generated by users. User-Generated Services (UGSs are characterized by a set of features that distinguish them from conventional services. To cope with UGS security problems, we introduce three different policy management models, analyzing benefits and drawbacks of each approach. Finally, we propose a cloud-based solution that enables the composition of multiple UGSs and policy models, allowing users’ devices to share features and services in Internet of Things (IoT based scenarios.

Policy administration in tag-based authorization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Etalle, Sandro; Hinrichs, Timothy L.; Lee, Adam J.; Trivellato, Daniel; Zannone, Nicola

2013-01-01

Tag-Based Authorization (TBA) is a hybrid access control model that combines the ease of use of extensional access control models with the expressivity of logic-based formalisms. The main limitation of TBA is that it lacks support for policy administration. More precisely, it does not allow

Combining rate-based and cap-and-trade emissions policies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fischer, Carolyn

2003-12-01

Rate-based emissions policies (like tradable performance standards, TPS) fix average emissions intensity, while cap-and-trade (CAT) policies fix total emissions. This paper shows that unfettered trade between rate-based and cap-and-trade programs always raises combined emissions, except when product markets are related in particular ways. Gains from trade are fully passed on to consumers in the rate-based sector, resulting in more output and greater emissions allocations. We consider several policy options to offset the expansion, including a tax, an 'exchange rate' to adjust for relative permit values, output-based allocation (OBA) for the rate-based sector, and tightening the cap. A range of combinations of tighter allocations could improve situations in both sectors with trade while holding emissions constant

Ultrasound speckle reduction based on fractional order differentiation.

Science.gov (United States)

Shao, Dangguo; Zhou, Ting; Liu, Fan; Yi, Sanli; Xiang, Yan; Ma, Lei; Xiong, Xin; He, Jianfeng

2017-07-01

Ultrasound images show a granular pattern of noise known as speckle that diminishes their quality and results in difficulties in diagnosis. To preserve edges and features, this paper proposes a fractional differentiation-based image operator to reduce speckle in ultrasound. An image de-noising model based on fractional partial differential equations with balance relation between k (gradient modulus threshold that controls the conduction) and v (the order of fractional differentiation) was constructed by the effective combination of fractional calculus theory and a partial differential equation, and the numerical algorithm of it was achieved using a fractional differential mask operator. The proposed algorithm has better speckle reduction and structure preservation than the three existing methods [P-M model, the speckle reducing anisotropic diffusion (SRAD) technique, and the detail preserving anisotropic diffusion (DPAD) technique]. And it is significantly faster than bilateral filtering (BF) in producing virtually the same experimental results. Ultrasound phantom testing and in vivo imaging show that the proposed method can improve the quality of an ultrasound image in terms of tissue SNR, CNR, and FOM values.

Web-Based Self-Service Systems for Managed IT Support: Service Provider Perspectives of Stakeholder-Based Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Vanessa A.; Lichtenstein, Sharman; Smith, Ross

This chapter explores the provision of after-sales information technology (IT) support services using Web-based self-service systems (WSSs) in a business-to-business (B2B) context. A recent study conducted at six large multi-national IT support organisations revealed a number of critical success factors (CSFs) and stakeholder-based issues. To better identify and understand these important enablers and barriers, we explain how WSSs should be considered within a complex network of service providers, business partners and customer firms. The CSFs and stakeholder-based issues are discussed. The chapter highlights that for more successful service provision using WSSs, IT service providers should collaborate more effectively with enterprise customers and business partners and should better integrate their WSSs.

SLA-aware differentiated QoS in elastic optical networks

Science.gov (United States)

Agrawal, Anuj; Vyas, Upama; Bhatia, Vimal; Prakash, Shashi

2017-07-01

The quality of service (QoS) offered by optical networks can be improved by accurate provisioning of service level specifications (SLSs) included in the service level agreement (SLA). A large number of users coexisting in the network require different services. Thus, a pragmatic network needs to offer a differentiated QoS to a variety of users according to the SLA contracted for different services at varying costs. In conventional wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical networks, service differentiation is feasible only for a limited number of users because of its fixed-grid structure. Newly introduced flex-grid based elastic optical networks (EONs) are more adaptive to traffic requirements as compared to the WDM networks because of the flexibility in their grid structure. Thus, we propose an efficient SLA provisioning algorithm with improved QoS for these flex-grid EONs empowered by optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (O-OFDM). The proposed algorithm, called SLA-aware differentiated QoS (SADQ), employs differentiation at the level of routing, spectrum allocation, and connection survivability. The proposed SADQ aims to accurately provision the SLA using such multilevel differentiation with an objective to improve the spectrum utilization from the network operator's perspective. SADQ is evaluated for three different CoSs under various traffic demand patterns and for different ratios of the number of requests belonging to the three considered CoSs. We propose two new SLA metrics for the improvement of functional QoS requirements, namely, security, confidentiality and survivability of high class of service (CoS) traffic. Since, to the best of our knowledge, the proposed SADQ is the first scheme in optical networks to employ exhaustive differentiation at the levels of routing, spectrum allocation, and survivability in a single algorithm, we first compare the performance of SADQ in EON and currently deployed WDM networks to assess the

Creating an innovative youth mental health service in the United Kingdom: The Norfolk Youth Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Jon; Clarke, Tim; Lower, Rebecca; Ugochukwu, Uju; Maxwell, Sarah; Hodgekins, Jo; Wheeler, Karen; Goff, Andy; Mack, Robert; Horne, Rebecca; Fowler, David

2017-08-04

Young people attempting to access mental health services in the United Kingdom often find traditional models of care outdated, rigid, inaccessible and unappealing. Policy recommendations, research and service user opinion suggest that reform is needed to reflect the changing needs of young people. There is significant motivation in the United Kingdom to transform mental health services for young people, and this paper aims to describe the rationale, development and implementation of a novel youth mental health service in the United Kingdom, the Norfolk Youth Service. The Norfolk Youth Service model is described as a service model case study. The service rationale, national and local drivers, principles, aims, model, research priorities and future directions are reported. The Norfolk Youth Service is an innovative example of mental health transformation in the United Kingdom, comprising a pragmatic, assertive and "youth-friendly" service for young people aged 14 to 25 that transcends traditional service boundaries. The service was developed in collaboration with young people and partnership agencies and is based on an engaging and inclusive ethos. The service is a social-recovery oriented, evidence-based and aims to satisfy recent policy guidance. The redesign and transformation of youth mental health services in the United Kingdom is long overdue. The Norfolk Youth Service represents an example of reform that aims to meet the developmental and transitional needs of young people at the same time as remaining youth-oriented. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

42 CFR 50.503 - Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Policy. 50.503 Section 50.503 Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GRANTS POLICIES OF GENERAL APPLICABILITY Maximum Allowable Cost for Drugs § 50.503 Policy. It is the policy of the Secretary that program funds which are...

An Automated End-To Multi-Agent Qos Based Architecture for Selection of Geospatial Web Services

Science.gov (United States)

Shah, M.; Verma, Y.; Nandakumar, R.

2012-07-01

Over the past decade, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web services have gained wide popularity and acceptance from researchers and industries all over the world. SOA makes it easy to build business applications with common services, and it provides like: reduced integration expense, better asset reuse, higher business agility, and reduction of business risk. Building of framework for acquiring useful geospatial information for potential users is a crucial problem faced by the GIS domain. Geospatial Web services solve this problem. With the help of web service technology, geospatial web services can provide useful geospatial information to potential users in a better way than traditional geographic information system (GIS). A geospatial Web service is a modular application designed to enable the discovery, access, and chaining of geospatial information and services across the web that are often both computation and data-intensive that involve diverse sources of data and complex processing functions. With the proliferation of web services published over the internet, multiple web services may provide similar functionality, but with different non-functional properties. Thus, Quality of Service (QoS) offers a metric to differentiate the services and their service providers. In a quality-driven selection of web services, it is important to consider non-functional properties of the web service so as to satisfy the constraints or requirements of the end users. The main intent of this paper is to build an automated end-to-end multi-agent based solution to provide the best-fit web service to service requester based on QoS.

Implementation of Fee-Free Maternal Health-Care Policy in Ghana: Perspectives of Users of Antenatal and Delivery Care Services From Public Health-Care Facilities in Accra.

Science.gov (United States)

Anafi, Patricia; Mprah, Wisdom K; Jackson, Allen M; Jacobson, Janelle J; Torres, Christopher M; Crow, Brent M; O'Rourke, Kathleen M

2018-01-01

In 2008, the government of Ghana implemented a national user fee maternal care exemption policy through the National Health Insurance Scheme to improve financial access to maternal health services and reduce maternal as well as perinatal deaths. Although evidence shows that there has been some success with this initiative, there are still issues relating to cost of care to beneficiaries of the initiative. A qualitative study, comprising 12 focus group discussions and 6 interviews, was conducted with 90 women in six selected urban neighborhoods in Accra, Ghana, to examine users' perspectives regarding the implementation of this policy initiative. Findings showed that direct cost of delivery care services was entirely free, but costs related to antenatal care services and indirect costs related to delivery care still limit the use of hospital-based midwifery and obstetric care. There was also misunderstanding about the initiative due to misinformation created by the government through the media.We recommend that issues related to both direct and indirect costs of antenatal and delivery care provided in public health-care facilities must be addressed to eliminate some of the lingering barriers relating to cost hindering the smooth operation and sustainability of the maternal care fee exemption policy.

CROWN: A service grid middleware with trust management mechanism

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

HUAI Jinpeng; HU Chunming; LI Jianxin; SUN Hailong; WO Tianyu

2006-01-01

Based on a proposed Web service-based grid architecture, a service grid middleware system called CROWN is designed in this paper. As the two kernel points of the middleware, the overlay-based distributed grid resource management mechanism is proposed, and the policy-based distributed access control mechanism with the capability of automatic negotiation of the access control policy and trust management and negotiation is also discussed in this paper. Experience of CROWN testbed deployment and application development shows that the middleware can support the typical scenarios such as computing-intensive applications, data-intensive applications and mass information processing applications.

Empirical Models of Demand for Out-Patient Physician Services and Their Relevance to the Assessment of Patient Payment Policies: A Critical Review of the Literature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olga Skriabikova

2010-06-01

Full Text Available This paper reviews the existing empirical micro-level models of demand for out-patient physician services where the size of patient payment is included either directly as an independent variable (when a flat-rate co-payment fee or indirectly as a level of deductibles and/or co-insurance defined by the insurance coverage. The paper also discusses the relevance of these models for the assessment of patient payment policies. For this purpose, a systematic literature review is carried out. In total, 46 relevant publications were identified. These publications are classified into categories based on their general approach to demand modeling, specifications of data collection, data analysis, and main empirical findings. The analysis indicates a rising research interest in the empirical micro-level models of demand for out-patient physician services that incorporate the size of patient payment. Overall, the size of patient payments, consumer socio-economic and demographic features, and quality of services provided emerge as important determinants of demand for out-patient physician services. However, there is a great variety in the modeling approaches and inconsistencies in the findings regarding the impact of price on demand for out-patient physician services. Hitherto, the empirical research fails to offer policy-makers a clear strategy on how to develop a country-specific model of demand for out-patient physician services suitable for the assessment of patient payment policies in their countries. In particular, theoretically important factors, such as provider behavior, consumer attitudes, experience and culture, and informal patient payments, are not considered. Although we recognize that it is difficult to measure these factors and to incorporate them in the demand models, it is apparent that there is a gap in research for the construction of effective patient payment schemes.

Empirical models of demand for out-patient physician services and their relevance to the assessment of patient payment policies: a critical review of the literature.

Science.gov (United States)

Skriabikova, Olga; Pavlova, Milena; Groot, Wim

2010-06-01

This paper reviews the existing empirical micro-level models of demand for out-patient physician services where the size of patient payment is included either directly as an independent variable (when a flat-rate co-payment fee) or indirectly as a level of deductibles and/or co-insurance defined by the insurance coverage. The paper also discusses the relevance of these models for the assessment of patient payment policies. For this purpose, a systematic literature review is carried out. In total, 46 relevant publications were identified. These publications are classified into categories based on their general approach to demand modeling, specifications of data collection, data analysis, and main empirical findings. The analysis indicates a rising research interest in the empirical micro-level models of demand for out-patient physician services that incorporate the size of patient payment. Overall, the size of patient payments, consumer socio-economic and demographic features, and quality of services provided emerge as important determinants of demand for out-patient physician services. However, there is a great variety in the modeling approaches and inconsistencies in the findings regarding the impact of price on demand for out-patient physician services. Hitherto, the empirical research fails to offer policy-makers a clear strategy on how to develop a country-specific model of demand for out-patient physician services suitable for the assessment of patient payment policies in their countries. In particular, theoretically important factors, such as provider behavior, consumer attitudes, experience and culture, and informal patient payments, are not considered. Although we recognize that it is difficult to measure these factors and to incorporate them in the demand models, it is apparent that there is a gap in research for the construction of effective patient payment schemes.

Strengthening vaccination policies in Latin America: an evidence-based approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Tapia-Conyer, Roberto; Betancourt-Cravioto, Miguel; Saucedo-Martínez, Rodrigo; Motta-Murguía, Lourdes; Gallardo-Rincón, Héctor

2013-08-20

Despite many successes in the region, Latin American vaccination policies have significant shortcomings, and further work is needed to maintain progress and prepare for the introduction of newly available vaccines. In order to address the challenges facing Latin America, the Commission for the Future of Vaccines in Latin America (COFVAL) has made recommendations for strengthening evidence-based policy-making and reducing regional inequalities in immunisation. We have conducted a comprehensive literature review to assess the feasibility of these recommendations. Standardisation of performance indicators for disease burden, vaccine coverage, epidemiological surveillance and national health resourcing can ensure comparability of the data used to assess vaccination programmes, allowing deeper analysis of how best to provide services. Regional vaccination reference schemes, as used in Europe, can be used to develop best practice models for vaccine introduction and scheduling. Successful models exist for the continuous training of vaccination providers and decision-makers, with a new Latin American diploma aiming to contribute to the successful implementation of vaccination programmes. Permanent, independent vaccine advisory committees, based on the US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), could facilitate the uptake of new vaccines and support evidence-based decision-making in the administration of national immunisation programmes. Innovative financing mechanisms for the purchase of new vaccines, such as advance market commitments and cost front-loading, have shown potential for improving vaccine coverage. A common regulatory framework for vaccine approval is needed to accelerate delivery and pool human, technological and scientific resources in the region. Finally, public-private partnerships between industry, government, academia and non-profit sectors could provide new investment to stimulate vaccine development in the region, reducing prices in the

From Early Childhood Development Policy to Sustainability: The Fragility of Community-Based Childcare Services in Malawi

Science.gov (United States)

Neuman, Michelle J.; McConnell, Christin; Kholowa, Foster

2014-01-01

Over the past 20 years, more than 6,000 community-based childcare centers (CBCCs) have been created in mostly rural areas of Malawi. Although the original purpose of these CBCCs was to meet the care needs of orphans and vulnerable children affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the services have since expanded their mandate to provide early…

Marketization of welfare services in Scandinavia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Ole Helby; Hjelmar, Ulf

2013-01-01

Scandinavian welfare states are undergoing a gradual transformation towards a more market-based mode of public service delivery. The results of these marketization reforms are, however, insufficiently documented in terms of their consequences for the price and quality of welfare services...... the evidence base and inform future policy-making on marketization in general and within the welfare areas in particular....

Combinational Services for NGN based IPTV

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mikóczy, E.; Schumann, S.; Stokking, H.M.; Deventer, M.O. van; Niamut, O.A.

2009-01-01

This paper describes the general concept of combinational/blended services for IP-based Television (IPTV) services in next generation networks towards its service oriented architecture concept (SOA). Besides introducing general approaches of service reusability (SOA concepts), the service enables

Privacy-Preserving Location-Based Services

Science.gov (United States)

Chow, Chi Yin

2010-01-01

Location-based services (LBS for short) providers require users' current locations to answer their location-based queries, e.g., range and nearest-neighbor queries. Revealing personal location information to potentially untrusted service providers could create privacy risks for users. To this end, our objective is to design a privacy-preserving…

Worship Discourse and White Race-based Policy Attitudes

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, R. Khari; Kaiser, Angela; Jackson, James S.

2014-01-01

The current study relies upon the 2004 National Politics Study to examine the association between exposure to race-based messages within places of worship and White race-based policy attitudes. The present study challenges the notion that, for White Americans, religiosity inevitably leads to racial prejudice. Rather, we argue, as others have, that religion exists on a continuum that spans from reinforcing to challenging the status quo of social inequality. Our findings suggests that the extent to which Whites discuss race along with the potential need for public policy solutions to address racial inequality within worship spaces, worship attendance contributes to support for public policies aimed at reducing racial inequality. On the other hand, apolitical and non-structural racial discussions within worship settings do seemingly little to move many Whites to challenge dominant idealistic perceptions of race that eschews public policy interventions as solutions to racial inequality. PMID:25324579

SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE DESIGN OF GIS WEB SERVICE AGGREGATION BASED ON SERVICE GROUP

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J.-C. Liu

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Based on the analysis of research status of domestic and international GIS web service aggregation and development tendency of public platform of GIS web service, the paper designed software architecture of GIS web service aggregation based on GIS web service group. Firstly, using heterogeneous GIS services model, the software architecture converted a variety of heterogeneous services to a unified interface of GIS services, and divided different types of GIS services into different service groups referring to description of GIS services. Secondly, a service aggregation process model was designed. This model completed the task of specific service aggregation instance, by automatically selecting member GIS Web services in the same service group. Dynamic capabilities and automatic adaptation of GIS Web services aggregation process were achieved. Thirdly, this paper designed a service evaluation model of GIS web service aggregation based on service group from three aspects, i.e. GIS Web Service itself, networking conditions and service consumer. This model implemented effective quality evaluation and performance monitoring of GIS web service aggregation. It could be used to guide the execution, monitor and service selection of aggregation process. Therefore, robustness of aggregated GIS web service was improved. Finally, the software architecture has been widely used in public platform of GIS web service and a number of geo-spatial framework constructions for digital city in Sichuan Province, and aggregated various GIS web services such as World Map(National Public Platform of Geo-spatial Service, ArcGIS, SuperMap, MapGIS, NewMap etc. Applications of items showed that this software architecture was practicability.

Biodiversity and Habitat Markets—Policy, Economic, and Ecological implications of Market-Based Conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Pindilli, Emily J.; Casey, Frank

2015-10-26

This report is a primer on market-like and market-based mechanisms designed to conserve biodiversity and habitat. The types of markets and market-based approaches that were implemented or are emerging to benefit biodiversity and habitat in the United States are examined. The central approaches considered in this report include payments for ecosystem services, conservation banks, habitat exchanges, and eco-labels. Based on literature reviews and input from experts and practitioners, the report characterizes each market-based approach including policy context and structure; the theoretical basis for applying market-based approaches; the ecological effectiveness of practices and tools for measuring performance; and the future outlook for biodiversity and habitat markets. This report draws from previous research and serves as a summary of pertinent information associated with biodiversity and habitat markets while providing references to materials that go into greater detail on specific topics.

Local government broadband policies for areas with limited Internet access

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yoshio Arai

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Despite their wide diffusion in developed countries, broadband services are still limited in areas where providing them is not profitable for private telecom carriers. To address this, many local governments in Japan have implemented broadband deployment projects subsidized by the national government. In this paper, we discuss local government broadband policies based on survey data collected from municipalities throughout the country. With the support of national promotion policies, broadband services were rapidly introduced to most local municipalities in Japan during the 2000s. Local government deployment policies helped to reduce the number of areas with no broadband access. A business model based on the Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU contract between a private telecom carrier and a local government has been developed in recent years. Even local governments without the technical capacity to operate a broadband business can introduce broadband services into their territory using the IRU business model.

Public economics of hitchhiking species and tourism-based risk to ecosystem services

Science.gov (United States)

Travis W. Warziniack; David Finnoff; Jason F. Shogren

2013-01-01

This paper is the first to examine the public economics of exportbased externalities arising within the provisioning of ecosystem services, with direct application to policies to prevent the spread of hitchhiking invasive species. We find when risk enters through exports, policy makers face a tradeoff between welfare improvements and reducing risk of invasion....

Illicit Drugs, Policing and the Evidence-Based Policy Paradigm

Science.gov (United States)

Ritter, Alison; Lancaster, Kari

2013-01-01

The mantra of evidence-based policy (EBP) suggests that endeavours to implement evidence-based policing will produce better outcomes. However there is dissonance between the rhetoric of EBP and the actuality of policing policy. This disjuncture is critically analysed using the case study of illicit drugs policing. The dissonance may be ameliorated…

Forming Social Partnership Policy in Vocational Training of Service Sector Specialists in Germany and Austria

Science.gov (United States)

Kredenets, Nadiya

2016-01-01

The article deals with the problem of forming social partnership policy in vocational training of service sector specialists in Germany and Austria. The foreign and domestic pedagogical experience in establishing an effective system of social partnership in vocational education has been analyzed. The author has considered main factors of social…

On the Implications of Knowledge Bases for Regional Innovation Policies in Germany

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hassink Robert

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Regional innovation policies have been criticised for being too standardised, one-size-fits-all and place-neutral in character. Embedded in these debates, this paper has two aims: first, to analyse whether industries with different knowledge bases in regions in Germany have different needs for regional innovation policies, and secondly, to investigate whether knowledge bases can contribute to the fine-tuning of regional innovation policies in particular and to a modern, tailor-made, place-based regional innovation policy in general. It concludes that although needs differ due to differences in knowledge bases, those bases are useful only to a limited extent in fine-tuning regional innovation policies

17 CFR 229.1123 - (Item 1123) Servicer compliance statement.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 1934 AND ENERGY POLICY AND CONSERVATION ACT OF 1975-REGULATION S-K Asset-Backed Securities (Regulation... officer's knowledge, based on such review, the servicer has fulfilled all of its obligations under the... servicing the pool assets, a separate servicer compliance statement is required from each servicer that...

Implementation of a guideline for local health policy making by regional health services: exploring determinants of use by a web survey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuunders, T.J.M.; Jacobs, M.A.M.; Goor, I.A.M. van de; Bon-Martens, M.J.H. van; Oers, H.A.M. van; Paulussen, T.G.W.M.

2017-01-01

Background. Previous evaluation showed insufficient use of a national guideline for integrated local health policy by Regional Health Services (RHS) in the Netherlands. The guideline focuses on five health topics and includes five checklists to support integrated municipal health policies. This

Service quality, trust, and patient satisfaction in interpersonal-based medical service encounters.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Ching-Sheng; Chen, Su-Yueh; Lan, Yi-Ting

2013-01-16

Interaction between service provider and customer is the primary core of service businesses of different natures, and the influence of trust on service quality and customer satisfaction could not be ignored in interpersonal-based service encounters. However, lack of existing literature on the correlation between service quality, patient trust, and satisfaction from the prospect of interpersonal-based medical service encounters has created a research gap in previous studies. Therefore, this study attempts to bridge such a gap with an evidence-based practice study. We adopted a cross-sectional design using a questionnaire survey of outpatients in seven medical centers of Taiwan. Three hundred and fifty copies of questionnaire were distributed, and 285 valid copies were retrieved, with a valid response rate of 81.43%. The SPSS 14.0 and AMOS 14.0 (structural equation modeling) statistical software packages were used for analysis. Structural equation modeling clarifies the extent of relationships between variables as well as the chain of cause and effect. Restated, SEM results do not merely show empirical relationships between variables when defining the practical situation. For this reason, SEM was used to test the hypotheses. Perception of interpersonal-based medical service encounters positively influences service quality and patient satisfaction. Perception of service quality among patients positively influences their trust. Perception of trust among patients positively influences their satisfaction. According to the findings, as interpersonal-based medical service encounters will positively influence service quality and patient satisfaction, and the differences for patients' perceptions of the professional skill and communication attitude of personnel in interpersonal-based medical service encounters will influence patients' overall satisfaction in two ways: (A) interpersonal-based medical service encounter directly affects patient satisfaction, which represents a

Service quality, trust, and patient satisfaction in interpersonal-based medical service encounters

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Interaction between service provider and customer is the primary core of service businesses of different natures, and the influence of trust on service quality and customer satisfaction could not be ignored in interpersonal-based service encounters. However, lack of existing literature on the correlation between service quality, patient trust, and satisfaction from the prospect of interpersonal-based medical service encounters has created a research gap in previous studies. Therefore, this study attempts to bridge such a gap with an evidence-based practice study. Methods We adopted a cross-sectional design using a questionnaire survey of outpatients in seven medical centers of Taiwan. Three hundred and fifty copies of questionnaire were distributed, and 285 valid copies were retrieved, with a valid response rate of 81.43%. The SPSS 14.0 and AMOS 14.0 (structural equation modeling) statistical software packages were used for analysis. Structural equation modeling clarifies the extent of relationships between variables as well as the chain of cause and effect. Restated, SEM results do not merely show empirical relationships between variables when defining the practical situation. For this reason, SEM was used to test the hypotheses. Results Perception of interpersonal-based medical service encounters positively influences service quality and patient satisfaction. Perception of service quality among patients positively influences their trust. Perception of trust among patients positively influences their satisfaction. Conclusions According to the findings, as interpersonal-based medical service encounters will positively influence service quality and patient satisfaction, and the differences for patients’ perceptions of the professional skill and communication attitude of personnel in interpersonal-based medical service encounters will influence patients’ overall satisfaction in two ways: (A) interpersonal-based medical service encounter directly

Service quality, trust, and patient satisfaction in interpersonal-based medical service encounters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chang Ching-Sheng

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Interaction between service provider and customer is the primary core of service businesses of different natures, and the influence of trust on service quality and customer satisfaction could not be ignored in interpersonal-based service encounters. However, lack of existing literature on the correlation between service quality, patient trust, and satisfaction from the prospect of interpersonal-based medical service encounters has created a research gap in previous studies. Therefore, this study attempts to bridge such a gap with an evidence-based practice study. Methods We adopted a cross-sectional design using a questionnaire survey of outpatients in seven medical centers of Taiwan. Three hundred and fifty copies of questionnaire were distributed, and 285 valid copies were retrieved, with a valid response rate of 81.43%. The SPSS 14.0 and AMOS 14.0 (structural equation modeling statistical software packages were used for analysis. Structural equation modeling clarifies the extent of relationships between variables as well as the chain of cause and effect. Restated, SEM results do not merely show empirical relationships between variables when defining the practical situation. For this reason, SEM was used to test the hypotheses. Results Perception of interpersonal-based medical service encounters positively influences service quality and patient satisfaction. Perception of service quality among patients positively influences their trust. Perception of trust among patients positively influences their satisfaction. Conclusions According to the findings, as interpersonal-based medical service encounters will positively influence service quality and patient satisfaction, and the differences for patients’ perceptions of the professional skill and communication attitude of personnel in interpersonal-based medical service encounters will influence patients’ overall satisfaction in two ways: (A interpersonal-based medical

Pharmacies as providers of expanded health services for people who inject drugs: a review of laws, policies, and barriers in six countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Hammett, Theodore M; Phan, Son; Gaggin, Julia; Case, Patricia; Zaller, Nicholas; Lutnick, Alexandra; Kral, Alex H; Fedorova, Ekaterina V; Heimer, Robert; Small, Will; Pollini, Robin; Beletsky, Leo; Latkin, Carl; Des Jarlais, Don C

2014-06-17

People who inject drugs (PWID) are underserved by health providers but pharmacies may be their most accessible care settings. Studies in the U.S., Russia, Vietnam, China, Canada and Mexico employed a three-level (macro-, meso-, and micro-) model to assess feasibility of expanded pharmacy services for PWID. Studies employed qualitative and quantitative interviews, review of legal and policy documents, and information on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of key stakeholders. Studies produced a mixed assessment of feasibility. Provision of information and referrals by pharmacies is permissible in all study sites and sale and safe disposal of needles/syringes by pharmacies is legal in almost all sites, although needle/syringe sales face challenges related to attitudes and practices of pharmacists, police, and other actors. Pharmacy provision of HIV testing, hepatitis vaccination, opioid substitution treatment, provision of naloxone for drug overdose, and abscess treatment, face more serious legal and policy barriers. Challenges to expanded services for drug users in pharmacies exist at all three levels, especially the macro-level characterized by legal barriers and persistent stigmatization of PWID. Where deficiencies in laws, policies, and community attitudes block implementation, stakeholders should advocate for needed legal and policy changes and work to address community stigma and resistance. Laws and policies are only as good as their implementation, so attention is also needed to meso- and micro- levels. Policies, attitudes, and practices of police departments and pharmacy chains as well as knowledge, attitudes, and practices of individual PWID, individual pharmacies, and police officers should support rather than undermine positive laws and expanded services. Despite the challenges, pharmacies remain potentially important venues for delivering health services to PWID.

Policy-Based Negotiation Engine for Cross-Domain Interoperability

Science.gov (United States)

Vatan, Farrokh; Chow, Edward T.

2012-01-01

A successful policy negotiation scheme for Policy-Based Management (PBM) has been implemented. Policy negotiation is the process of determining the "best" communication policy that all of the parties involved can agree on. Specifically, the problem is how to reconcile the various (and possibly conflicting) communication protocols used by different divisions. The solution must use protocols available to all parties involved, and should attempt to do so in the best way possible. Which protocols are commonly available, and what the definition of "best" is will be dependent on the parties involved and their individual communications priorities.

Content-addressable memory based enforcement of configurable policies

Science.gov (United States)

Berg, Michael J

2014-05-06

A monitoring device for monitoring transactions on a bus includes content-addressable memory ("CAM") and a response policy unit. The CAM includes an input coupled to receive a bus transaction tag based on bus traffic on the bus. The CAM stores data tags associated with rules of a security policy to compare the bus transaction tag to the data tags. The CAM generates an output signal indicating whether one or more matches occurred. The response policy unit is coupled to the CAM to receive the output signal from the CAM and to execute a policy action in response to the output signal.

The Relationship between Sun Protection Policy and Associated Practices in a National Sample of Early Childhood Services in Australia

Science.gov (United States)

Ettridge, Kerry A.; Bowden, Jacqueline A.; Rayner, Joanne M.; Wilson, Carlene J.

2011-01-01

Limiting exposure to sunlight during childhood can significantly reduce the risk of skin cancer. This was the first national study to assess the sun protection policies and practices of early childhood services across Australia. It also examined the key predictors of services' sun protection practices. In 2007, 1017 respondents completed a…

The paradox of non-evidence based, publicly funded complementary alternative medicine in the English National Health Service: An explanation.

Science.gov (United States)

Sheppard, Maria K

2015-10-01

Despite the unproven effectiveness of many practices that are under the umbrella term 'complementary alternative medicine' (CAM), there is provision of CAM within the English National Health Service (NHS). Moreover, although the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence was established to promote scientifically validated medicine in the NHS, the paradox of publicly funded, non-evidence based CAM can be explained as linked with government policy of patient choice and specifically patient treatment choice. Patient choice is useful in the political and policy discourse as it is open to different interpretations and can be justified by policy-makers who rely on the traditional NHS values of equity and universality. Treatment choice finds expression in the policy of personalised healthcare linked with patient responsibilisation which finds resonance in the emphasis CAM places on self-care and self-management. More importantly, however, policy-makers also use patient choice and treatment choice as a policy initiative with the objective of encouraging destabilisation of the entrenched healthcare institutions and practices considered resistant to change. This political strategy of system reform has the unintended, paradoxical consequence of allowing for the emergence of non-evidence based, publicly funded CAM in the NHS. The political and policy discourse of patient choice thus trumps evidence based medicine, with patients that demand access to CAM becoming the unwitting beneficiaries. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

39 CFR 601.100 - Purchasing policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 39 Postal Service 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Purchasing policy. 601.100 Section 601.100 Postal Service UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE PROCUREMENT SYSTEM FOR THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OTHER THAN PATENTS PURCHASING OF PROPERTY AND SERVICES § 601.100 Purchasing policy. The Postal...

A Web service substitution method based on service cluster nets

Science.gov (United States)

Du, YuYue; Gai, JunJing; Zhou, MengChu

2017-11-01

Service substitution is an important research topic in the fields of Web services and service-oriented computing. This work presents a novel method to analyse and substitute Web services. A new concept, called a Service Cluster Net Unit, is proposed based on Web service clusters. A service cluster is converted into a Service Cluster Net Unit. Then it is used to analyse whether the services in the cluster can satisfy some service requests. Meanwhile, the substitution methods of an atomic service and a composite service are proposed. The correctness of the proposed method is proved, and the effectiveness is shown and compared with the state-of-the-art method via an experiment. It can be readily applied to e-commerce service substitution to meet the business automation needs.

General bulk service queueing system with N-policy, multiplevacations, setup time and server breakdown without interruption

Science.gov (United States)

Sasikala, S.; Indhira, K.; Chandrasekaran, V. M.

2017-11-01

In this paper, we have considered an MX / (a,b) / 1 queueing system with server breakdown without interruption, multiple vacations, setup times and N-policy. After a batch of service, if the size of the queue is ξ (customers in the queue. After a vacation, if the server finds at least N customers waiting for service, then the server needs a setup time to start the service. After a batch of service, if the amount of waiting customers in the queue is ξ (≥ a) then the server serves a batch of min(ξ,b) customers, where b ≥ a. We derived the probability generating function of queue length at arbitrary time epoch. Further, we obtained some important performance measures.

Implementation of a guideline for local health policy making by regional health services : Exploring determinants of use by a web survey

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kuunders, T.J.M.; Jacobs, M.A.M.; Paulussen, T.G.W.M.; van de Goor, L.A.M.; van Bon, M.J.H.; van Oers, J.A.M.

Background Previous evaluation showed insufficient use of a national guideline for integrated local health policy by Regional Health Services (RHS) in the Netherlands. The guideline focuses on five health topics and includes five checklists to support integrated municipal health policies. This study

The Evolution of Policy Enactment on Gender-Based Violence in Schools

Science.gov (United States)

Parkes, Jenny

2016-01-01

This article examines how policies and strategies to address school-related gender-based violence have evolved since 2000, when gender-based violence within education was largely invisible. Through an exploration of policy enactment in three countries--Liberia, South Africa, and Brazil--it traces remarkable progress in policy, programmes, and…

The Implementation of Minimum Service Standards (MMS on Public Service for Health Services Sector in Bondowoso, Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Untung Kuzairi

2018-04-01

Full Text Available One of heatlh policies implemented by the hospital is the minimum service standards (MSS. MSS is a benchmark of hospital service quality in providing services to the public. Talking about health service quality problem, it was found out as the field fact that the achievement of MSS indicator in General Hospital of Dr. H. Koesnadi Bondowoso, Indonesia in 2016 still did not fulfill target of standard hospital service (type B and  minimum service standard (MSS of hospital. This fact shows that the quality of health services in general hospital of  dr. H. Koesnadi Bondowoso is still low. So, this research aims to describe the policy implementation of minimum service standard and to analyze the obstacles in the implementation of MSS policy at general hospital of  dr. H. Koesnadi Bondowoso. So, this research would discuss the policy implementation of minimum service standards by using Edward III concept as a tool to analyze it. This research employed qualitative research with phenomenological approach. The results showed that the implementation of MSS policy of dr. H. Koesnadi Bondowoso general hospital still did not run well. This was due to several factors  such as communication, bureaucratic structure, sources, dispositions (attitude and leadership in sectoral ego control. Sectoral ego can be shaped from educational background of specialist doctors who still adhered seniority and lack of individual role of implementor in building interpersonal communication and conflict management.

Exploring interactions between payment for hydrologic service policies, landowner decisions, and ecohydrology in a Mexican cloud forest watershed: Is there a disconnect between the policy and the resource?

Science.gov (United States)

Asbjornsen, H.; Geissert, D.; Gomez-Tagle, A.; Holwerda, F.; Manson, R.; Perez-Maqueo, O.; Munoz-Villers, L.; Scullion, J.

2013-05-01

pasture evapotranspiration. Nevertheless, the pasture showed higher surface runoff for the most intense storms, indicating a diminished infiltration capacity. Young pine plantations and regenerating cloud forest had higher evapotranspiration and therefore higher water yield relative to mature cloud forest. Our analysis suggests a disconnect between PHS policies and the hydrological services provided through forest conservation and tree planting. The implications of this apparent disconnect are discussed within the context of designing effective policies for enhancing hydrologic services, and the importance of site-based research and monitoring to improve understanding of coupled social-ecohydrological systems.

Hidden policy ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption with keyword search against keyword guessing attack

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Shuo; QIU; Jiqiang; LIU; Yanfeng; SHI; Rui; ZHANG

2017-01-01

Attribute-based encryption with keyword search(ABKS) enables data owners to grant their search capabilities to other users by enforcing an access control policy over the outsourced encrypted data. However,existing ABKS schemes cannot guarantee the privacy of the access structures, which may contain some sensitive private information. Furthermore, resulting from the exposure of the access structures, ABKS schemes are susceptible to an off-line keyword guessing attack if the keyword space has a polynomial size. To solve these problems, we propose a novel primitive named hidden policy ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption with keyword search(HP-CPABKS). With our primitive, the data user is unable to search on encrypted data and learn any information about the access structure if his/her attribute credentials cannot satisfy the access control policy specified by the data owner. We present a rigorous selective security analysis of the proposed HP-CPABKS scheme, which simultaneously keeps the indistinguishability of the keywords and the access structures. Finally,the performance evaluation verifies that our proposed scheme is efficient and practical.

Municipal service provision in rural communities

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nørgaard, Helle

EU policies for rural development stress the importance of investments rather than subsidies and aim at integrating different sectoral policies in order to improve the coherence and effectiveness of public expenditure. Policies also emphasize a place-based approach for rural development and thereby...... hierarchies and considering local resources and place bound potentials.  This paper draws on a study of rural municipalities in Denmark examining how service adjustments e.g. closing of local schools are managed by rural municipalities and local communities. The paper further discusses whether rural...... municipalities can plan strategically, manage service provision and support place bound potential in rural communities in light of a competitive framework for local development....

Off-policy reinforcement learning for H∞ control design.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Biao; Wu, Huai-Ning; Huang, Tingwen

2015-01-01

The H∞ control design problem is considered for nonlinear systems with unknown internal system model. It is known that the nonlinear H∞ control problem can be transformed into solving the so-called Hamilton-Jacobi-Isaacs (HJI) equation, which is a nonlinear partial differential equation that is generally impossible to be solved analytically. Even worse, model-based approaches cannot be used for approximately solving HJI equation, when the accurate system model is unavailable or costly to obtain in practice. To overcome these difficulties, an off-policy reinforcement leaning (RL) method is introduced to learn the solution of HJI equation from real system data instead of mathematical system model, and its convergence is proved. In the off-policy RL method, the system data can be generated with arbitrary policies rather than the evaluating policy, which is extremely important and promising for practical systems. For implementation purpose, a neural network (NN)-based actor-critic structure is employed and a least-square NN weight update algorithm is derived based on the method of weighted residuals. Finally, the developed NN-based off-policy RL method is tested on a linear F16 aircraft plant, and further applied to a rotational/translational actuator system.

Universal service in Vietnam: An institutional approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Do Manh, Thai; Falch, Morten

2018-01-01

Applying institutional theory to look at the Program 74 (a universal service policy) in Vietnam, this paper concludes that the Vietnamese universal service policy was strongly affected by formal institutional factors (the international agreements and the directives of the Communist Party of Vietnam...... - CPV), in which the international agreements played a leading role and the CPV’s directives played a guarantee role. The formulation and implementation of the universal service policy in Vietnam were mainly concentrated on action at levels 2 and 3 (formal and informal institutional arrangement......, and formal institutional environment). The paper recommends that nations favouring a top-down approach not based on a market-oriented regime should deregulate and emphasize the role of provincial governments as well as encourage private sectors/social organizations and rural users to be more involved...

An assessment of market and policy barriers for demand response providing ancillary services in U.S. electricity markets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cappers, Peter; MacDonald, Jason; Goldman, Charles; Ma, Ookie

2013-01-01

An impact of increased variable renewable generation is the need for balancing authorities to procure more ancillary services. While demand response resources are technically capable of providing these services, current experience across the U.S. illustrates they are relatively minor players in most regions. Accessing demand response resources for ancillary services may require a number of changes to policies and common practices at multiple levels. Regional reliability councils must first define ancillary services such that demand response resources may provide them. Once the opportunity exists, balancing authorities define and promulgate rules that set the infrastructure investments and performance attributes of a resource wishing to provide such services. These rules also dictate expected revenue streams which reveal the cost effectiveness of these resources. The regulatory compact between utility and state regulators, along with other statutes and decisions by state policymakers, may impact the interest of demand response program providers to pursue these resources as ancillary service providers. This paper identifies within these broad categories specific market and policy barriers to demand response providing ancillary services in different wholesale and retail environments, with emphasis on smaller customers who must be aggregated through a program provider to meet minimum size requirements for wholesale transactions. - Highlights: • We identify barriers keeping demand response from providing ancillary services. • Institutional, financial and program provider business model barriers exist. • Product definitions and rules do not always accommodate demand response well. • Expected revenues are uncertain and may not exceed required investments costs. • Regulatory compact and state statutes limit opportunities for program providers

Income differential of female labor in Southern Brazil: dual approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rita de Cassia Garcia Margonato

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This study analyzes the formation and income differential of female labor in Southern Brazil in 2002 and 2009 based on microdata from the National Sample Survey (PNAD.The methodology is to estimate the selection and wages equations using the Heckman's Sample Selection Model (1979. For the measurement of the female income differential in commerce, industry and domestic service, compared to income of women in the service sector it is applied an adaptation of the Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition (1973 adapted by Jann (2008. It was confirmed the hypothesis that segmentation occurs in the female labor market in Southern Brazil because the income differential cannot be explained only by personal attributes (productive or not and by formal work. There are specificities in the sectors (sector effect determining the income differential of women´s income in the labor market, moreover the sector effect explained 33% of the wage differential observed in industry, also explained 29% in the commerce and 35% of the female income gaps when compared to the service sector, which is considered as in advantage.

Removing financial barriers to access reproductive, maternal and newborn health services: the challenges and policy implications for human resources for health.

Science.gov (United States)

McPake, Barbara; Witter, Sophie; Ensor, Tim; Fustukian, Suzanne; Newlands, David; Martineau, Tim; Chirwa, Yotamu

2013-09-22

The last decade has seen widespread retreat from user fees with the intention to reduce financial constraints to users in accessing health care and in particular improving access to reproductive, maternal and newborn health services. This has had important benefits in reducing financial barriers to access in a number of settings. If the policies work as intended, service utilization rates increase. However this increases workloads for health staff and at the same time, the loss of user fee revenues can imply that health workers lose bonuses or allowances, or that it becomes more difficult to ensure uninterrupted supplies of health care inputs.This research aimed to assess how policies reducing demand-side barriers to access to health care have affected service delivery with a particular focus on human resources for health. We undertook case studies in five countries (Ghana, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Zambia and Zimbabwe). In each we reviewed financing and HRH policies, considered the impact financing policy change had made on health service utilization rates, analysed the distribution of health staff and their actual and potential workloads, and compared remuneration terms in the public sectors. We question a number of common assumptions about the financing and human resource inter-relationships. The impact of fee removal on utilization levels is mostly not sustained or supported by all the evidence. Shortages of human resources for health at the national level are not universal; maldistribution within countries is the greater problem. Low salaries are not universal; most of the countries pay health workers well by national benchmarks. The interconnectedness between user fee policy and HRH situations proves difficult to assess. Many policies have been changing over the relevant period, some clearly and others possibly in response to problems identified associated with financing policy change. Other relevant variables have also changed.However, as is now well

Integration for coexistence? Implementation of intercultural health care policy in Ghana from the perspective of service users and providers.

Science.gov (United States)

Gyasi, Razak Mohammed; Poku, Adjoa Afriyie; Boateng, Simon; Amoah, Padmore Adusei; Mumin, Alhassan Abdul; Obodai, Jacob; Agyemang-Duah, Williams

2017-01-01

In spite of the World Health Organization's recommendations over the past decades, Ghana features pluralistic rather than truly integrated medical system. Policies about the integration of complementary medicine into the national health care delivery system need to account for individual-level involvement and cultural acceptability of care rendered by health care providers. Studies in Ghana, however, have glossed over the standpoint of the persons of the illness episode about the intercultural health care policy framework. This paper explores the health care users, and providers' experiences and attitudes towards the implementation of intercultural health care policy in Ghana. In-depth interviews, augmented with informal conversations, were conducted with 16 health service users, 7 traditional healers and 6 health professionals in the Sekyere South District and Kumasi Metropolis in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Data were thematically analysed and presented based on the a posteriori inductive reduction approach. Findings reveal a widespread positive attitude to, and support for integrative medical care in Ghana. However, inter-provider communication in a form of cross-referrals and collaborative mechanisms between healers and health professionals seldom occurs and remains unofficially sanctioned. Traditional healers and health care professionals are skeptical about intercultural health care policy mainly due to inadequate political commitment for provider education. The medical practitioners have limited opportunity to undergo training for integrative medical practice. We also find a serious mistrust between the practitioners due to the "diversity of healing approaches and techniques." Weak institutional support, lack of training to meet standards of practice, poor registration and regulatory measures as well as negative perception of the integrative medical policy inhibit its implementation in Ghana. In order to advance any useful intercultural health care policy in

10 CFR 1009.3 - Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Policy. 1009.3 Section 1009.3 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (GENERAL PROVISIONS) GENERAL POLICY FOR PRICING AND CHARGING FOR MATERIALS AND SERVICES SOLD BY DOE § 1009.3 Policy. (a) The Department's price or charge for materials and services sold to persons and...

32 CFR 96.4 - Policy.

Science.gov (United States)