Pandemic will hit Costa Rica’s welfare systems

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Warning Sign ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
Public System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Funding ◽  
Early Implementation ◽  
High Infection ◽  
Welfare Systems

Significance A strong healthcare system together with early implementation of social distancing measures and social assistance support has kept contagion levels low. The crisis is nevertheless hitting health funding particularly hard as a result of growing unemployment and insufficient payroll contributions. Impacts Lack of regulation of private health provision could increase health inequalities and further erode the public system. High infection rates in Panama and likely under-reporting in Nicaragua will see Costa Rica maintain border restrictions for the time being. The country’s decision to slow down its economic re-opening is a warning sign for the rest of Latin America.

Access and exclusivity in nineteenth-century Victorian schools

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Hooper
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Local School ◽  
Public System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Educational Provision ◽  
Selective Basis ◽  
School Committees

Purpose – In the mid nineteenth-century Victorian government-aided schools were patronised by a broad spectrum of the community, many of whom sought a higher, or “middle-class”, education for their children. The various educational boards responsible for the administration of the public system, while not objecting to the provision of advanced tuition, were determined to ensure it was not offered on a socially selective basis. The purpose of this paper is to examine how accusations that some schools had engaged in socially selective practices led to the eventual removal of higher subjects from the curriculum. Design/methodology/approach – Documentary evidence, particularly the correspondence between the central educational boards and the local school committees, is examined to assess the validity of the claims and counter claims made by those involved. Findings – It appears that administrators used accusations of social exclusion to justify the removal of advanced subjects from the curriculum; with the result that it was not until state high schools were established early in the twentieth century that a higher education was again offered in the public sector. Originality/value – The paper looks at an area of educational provision that has attracted little attention from researchers.

Expert stakeholders’ expectations of how the public sector should act in place branding projects

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Sarabia-Sanchez ◽  
Maria. J. Cerda-Bertomeu
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Place Branding ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Territorial Development ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Strategic Design ◽  
Place Brand

Purpose A place brand is a public instrument for territorial development that needs a strategic design that is made by the public sector with the support of experts. To ensure that this design has the greatest chances, there should be an alignment between them regarding how the public sector should act when designing the place brand. This study aims to analyze the alignment and polarization among experts regarding this topic and whether experts with different place brand visions show different expectations in the public sector. Design/methodology/approach A Web survey was conducted using a sample (n = 260) of four types of experts (politicians, scholars, public managers and consultants) in Latin America and Spain. Findings First, there is high agreement that the public sector should have an active role and an open attitude to establish relationships with the private and voluntary sectors. This favors the dialogue among brand creators and generates a shared vision. Second, there is an elevated alignment with regards to which roles the public sector should play, independently of experts’ place brand visions. Finally, four aspects derived from the four place brand visions are detected that can favor different final approaches regarding the place brand strategic design. Research limitations/implications The study has been performed in Latin America and Spain. Other studies in other areas can complete the previous results. Originality/value The results show how experts perceive the desirables behaviors from the public sector, which is a missing topic in place brand literature.

PR, clientelism and economics: a comparison of southern Europe and Latin America

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
César García
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Empirical Survey ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
History Of

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between clientelist relationships and economics in public relations practice in European Mediterranean countries and Latin America. It considers the cases of Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a critical-conceptual method through a re-conceptualization of themes from secondary qualitative analyses of existing qualitative data sets and reviews of published qualitative papers. Findings – The public relations practice in these two regions is similar. The characteristics of the public relations landscape in these countries must be understood in relation to a broader history of clientelism and economics emphasizing government relationships at the expense of other publics, as well as the lack of scale economies. Persuasive models are prevalent, although a number of forces – including integration in supranational organizations, democratization, and globalization – have strengthened the use of symmetrical models. Research limitations/implications – This is not an empirical survey, there is a need of quantitative studies among practitioners and government officials that can measure empirically the nature of their relationships in a number of countries. This essay opens a door for future studies and cross-cultural comparisons about the role that clientelism plays in the PR practice of cultures and countries. Practical implications – The paper offers useful background information, such as the primacy that media relations still have in the public relations practice, for foreign public relations executives, agency heads, and managers of public relations who are directly involved with or managing international public relations campaigns in these countries. Social implications – Clientelism is a cultural concept that translates to the work of organizations and consequently public relations as a form of organizational behavior. Originality/value – This paper brings to the table the importance of the concept of clientelism in the PR practice as well as the existence of a similar PR culture between countries that are on different continents.

Growth of AI faces stiff challenges in Latin America

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Technology Adoption ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Informal Labour ◽  
Slow Technology

Significance As AI systems become increasingly central to the global economy, this poor performance risks further damaging the economic prospects of a region that has long struggled to achieve sustainable growth rates. Impacts Falling behind in the digital and AI ‘revolutions’ will likely hamper LAC’s development efforts for decades. LAC governments will increasingly draft AI strategies -- of varying levels of quality and effectiveness. The inscrutability of many AI-generated decisions may slow technology adoption, especially in the public sector. Some businesses and public agencies will jump at this opportunity, but the extent of informal labour in particular will limit its scope.

Funding health in developing countries: foreign aid, FDI, or personal remittances?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Abraham ◽  
Zhi Tao
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Birth Rate ◽  
Health Plans ◽  
Public System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Health Funding

PurposeThis paper presents three models of funding health care in 130 developing countries, based upon a public system, a private system and personal remittances.Design/methodology/approachThe authors trace the funding of health from foreign aid to health funding and health outcomes in the public system, foreign direct investment to health funding in the private system, and personal remittances to health outcomes. This is followed by panel data, fixed effects models subjected to 2-, 3- and 4-stage least squares regressions.FindingsFindings from the first model were that aid in the form of Technical Cooperation Grants funded Infrastructure. Infrastructure Spending due to aid funds Government Health Plans, which reduced the Incidence of Tuberculosis, which in turn reduced Undernourishment and increases Life Expectancy. Other positive health outcomes included reduced Birth Rate and reduced Maternal Mortality. In the second model, Foreign Direct Investment increased Female Employment and GDP per Person, funding Private Health Plans, which increase Life Expectancy, reduced Undernourishment, increased Skilled Care at Birth, increased the Number of Hospital Beds, reduced Maternal Mortality and increased the Birth Rate. In the third model, Remittances influenced both Out-of-Pocket Medical Expenses and Private Plans.Social implicationsPublicly funded programs may be directed to nutrition, increasing life expectancy. Private funding may be directed to improving maternal conditions, with remittances removing the liquidity constraints.Originality/valueThis paper is the first attempt to trace health funding from its sources of foreign aid, foreign direct investment and personal remittances using three separate paths.

Modernization, Globalization, Trends, and Convergence in Health Expenditure in Latin America and the Caribbean

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiri Noy ◽  
Patricia A. McManus
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Health Care Systems ◽  
Health Care Financing ◽  
Health Spending ◽  
Modernization Theory ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Care Systems ◽  
Public Private Mix

Are health care systems converging in developing nations? We use the case of health care financing in Latin America between 1995 and 2009 to assess the predictions of modernization theory, competing strands of globalization theory, and accounts of persistent cross-national differences. As predicted by modernization theory, we find convergence in overall health spending. The public share of health spending increased over this time period, with no convergence in the public-private mix. The findings indicate robust heterogeneity of national health care systems and suggest that globalization fosters human investment health policies rather than neoliberal, “race to the bottom” cutbacks in public health expenditures.

Towards a Customized¬ Awareness Campaign to Educate the Public about COVID-19: Development and Validation of a Messaging Campaign to Promote Precautionary Behavior Using Geospatial Intelligence in Saudi Arabia (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayda Alrige ◽  
Hind Bitar Bitar ◽  
Maram Meccawi ◽  
Balakrishnan Mullachery
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Content Validity ◽  
Awareness Campaign ◽  
Artificial Intelligence Technique ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Infection ◽  
Local Map ◽  
The City ◽  
Intelligence Technique

BACKGROUND Designing a health promotion campaign is never an easy task, especially during a pandemic of a highly infectious disease, such as Covid-19. In Saudi Arabia, many attempts have been made toward raising the public awareness about Covid-19 infection-level and its precautionary health measures that have to be taken. Although this is useful, most of the health information delivered through the national dashboard and the awareness campaign are very generic and not necessarily make the impact we like to see on individuals’ behavior. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to build and validate a customized awareness campaign to promote precautionary health behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. The customization is realized by utilizing a geospatial artificial intelligence technique called Space-Time Cube (STC) technique. METHODS This research has been conducted in two sequential phases. In the first phase, an initial library of thirty-two messages was developed and validated to promote precautionary messages during the COVID-19 pandemic. This phase was guided by the Fogg Behavior Model (FBM) for behavior change. In phase 2, we applied STC as a Geospatial Artificial Intelligence technique to create a local map for one city representing three different profiles for the city districts. The model was built using COVID-19 clinical data. RESULTS Thirty-two messages were developed based on resources from the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia. The enumerated content validity of the messages was established through the utilization of Content Validity Index (CVI). Thirty-two messages were found to have acceptable content validity (I-CVI=.87). The geospatial intelligence technique that we used showed three profiles for the districts of Jeddah city: one for high infection, another for moderate infection, and the third for low infection. Combining the results from the first and second phases, a customized awareness campaign was created. This awareness campaign would be used to educate the public regarding the precautionary health behaviors that should be taken, and hence help in reducing the number of positive cases in the city of Jeddah. CONCLUSIONS This research delineates the two main phases to developing a health awareness messaging campaign. The messaging campaign, grounded in FBM, was customized by utilizing Geospatial Artificial Intelligence to create a local map with three district profiles: high-infection, moderate-infection, and low-infection. Locals of each district will be targeted by the campaign based on the level of infection in their district as well as other shared characteristics. Customizing health messages is very prominent in health communication research. This research provides a legitimate approach to customize health messages during the pandemic of COVID-19.

A benchmarking study of Indian seaports

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-102
Author(s):  
Sajeev Abraham George ◽  
Anurag C. Tumma
Keyword(s):  
Financial Performance ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Data Envelopment ◽  
Operational Parameters ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Port Authorities ◽  
Financial Performance Measures ◽  
The Government

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to benchmark the operational and financial performances of the major Indian seaports to help derive useful insights to improve their performance. Design/methodology/approach A two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology has been used with the help of data collected on the 13 major seaports of India. The first stage of the DEA captured the operational efficiencies, while the second stage the financial performance. Findings A window analysis over a period of three years revealed that no port was able to score an overall average efficiency of 100 per cent. The study identified the better performing units among their peers in both the stages. The contrasting results of the study with the traditional operational and financial performance measures used by the ports helped to derive useful insights. Research limitations/implications The data used in the study were majorly limited to the available sources in the public domain. Also, the study was limited to the major seaports which are under the Government of India and no comparisons were carried out with other local or international ports. Practical implications There is a need to prioritize investments and improvement efforts where they are most needed, instead of following a generalized approach. Once the benchmark ports are identified, the port authorities and other relevant stakeholders should work in detail on the factors causing inefficiencies, for possible improvements in performance. Originality/value This paper carried out a two-stage DEA that helped to derive useful insights on operational efficiency and financial performance of the India seaports. A combination of the financial and operational parameters, along with a comparison of the DEA results with the traditional measures, provided a different perspective on the Indian seaport performance. Considering the scarcity of research papers reported in the literature on DEA-based benchmarking studies of seaports in the Indian context, it has the potential to attract future research in this field.

scholarly journals COVID-19 in obstetrics 2020: the experience at a New York City medical center

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (9) ◽  
pp. 892-899
Author(s):  
Ashlesha K. Dayal ◽  
Armin S. Razavi ◽  
Amir K. Jaffer ◽  
Nishant Prasad ◽  
Daniel W. Skupski
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Medical Center ◽  
Severe Disease ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Asymptomatic Carriage ◽  
Global Spread ◽  
Workforce Flexibility

AbstractThe global spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the early months of 2020 was rapid and exposed vulnerabilities in health systems throughout the world. Obstetric SARS-CoV-2 disease was discovered to be largely asymptomatic carriage but included a small rate of severe disease with rapid decompensation in otherwise healthy women. Higher rates of hospitalization, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission and intubation, along with higher infection rates in minority and disadvantaged populations have been documented across regions. The operational gymnastics that occurred daily during the Covid-19 emergency needed to be translated to the obstetrics realm, both inpatient and ambulatory. Resources for adaptation to the public health crisis included workforce flexibility, frequent communication of operational and protocol changes for evaluation and management, and application of innovative ideas to meet the demand.

scholarly journals Dengue-2 and Guadeloupe Mosquito Virus RNA Detected in Aedes (Stegomyia) spp. Collected in a Vehicle Impound Yard in Santo André, SP, Brazil

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 248
Author(s):  
Marina E. O. Rangel ◽  
Luana P. R. Oliveira ◽  
Aline D. Cabral ◽  
Katharyna C. Gois ◽  
Marcos V. M. Lima ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Mosquito Species ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
Serra Do Mar ◽  
Virus Rna ◽  
High Infection ◽  
Human Landing ◽  
Environmental Protection Area ◽  
Protection Area ◽  
Minimum Infection Rate

In 2018–2019, we conducted mosquito collections in a municipal vehicle impound yard, which is 10 km from the Serra do Mar Environmental Protection Area in Santo André, SP, Brazil. Our aim is to study arboviruses in the impound yard, to understand the transmission of arboviruses in an urban environment in Brazil. We captured the mosquitoes using human-landing catches and processed them for arbovirus detection by conventional and quantitative RT-PCR assays. We captured two mosquito species, Aedes aegypti (73 total specimens; 18 females and 55 males) and Ae. albopictus (34 specimens; 27 females and 7 males). The minimum infection rate for DENV-2 was 11.5 per 1000 (CI95%: 1–33.9). The detection of DENV-2 RNA in an Ae. albopictus female suggests that this virus might occur in high infection rates in the sampled mosquito population and is endemic in the urban areas of Santo André. In addition, Guadeloupe mosquito virus RNA was detected in an Ae. aegypti female. To our knowledge, this was the first detection of the Guadeloupe mosquito virus in Brazil.

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