scholarly journals Policy windows and multiple streams: an analysis of alcohol pricing policy in England

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 315-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Hawkins ◽  
Jim McCambridge
Keyword(s):  
Complex Nature ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Pricing Policy ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Policy Windows ◽  
Unit Pricing ◽  
High Level ◽  
Heuristic Devices

This article adopts a multiple streams approach to examine the failure to implement minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol in England. It demonstrates that the multiple streams model provides a valuable conceptual tool for explaining how and why policies are, and are not, enacted. However, it finds that while problem streams and policy streams are useful heuristic devices, in practice they may overlap and be mutually constitutive. The case of MUP also highlights the potential for policy spillover between jurisdictions and different policy contexts, showing both limits to, and the complex nature of, these processes. It shows the need for high level political commitment in order to implement controversial policies, even when they are backed by strong supporting evidence. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of civil society actors not just in bringing policy issues onto the agenda, but in supporting governments in adopting measures to address them.

COVID-19 Outbreak Prediction with Machine Learning

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sina Faizollahzadeh Ardabili ◽  
Amir Mosavi ◽  
Pedram Ghamisi ◽  
Filip Ferdinand ◽  
Annamaria R. Varkonyi-Koczy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Fuzzy Inference ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Inference System ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Standard Models ◽  
High Level

Several outbreak prediction models for COVID-19 are being used by officials around the world to make informed-decisions and enforce relevant control measures. Among the standard models for COVID-19 global pandemic prediction, simple epidemiological and statistical models have received more attention by authorities, and they are popular in the media. Due to a high level of uncertainty and lack of essential data, standard models have shown low accuracy for long-term prediction. Although the literature includes several attempts to address this issue, the essential generalization and robustness abilities of existing models needs to be improved. This paper presents a comparative analysis of machine learning and soft computing models to predict the COVID-19 outbreak as an alternative to SIR and SEIR models. Among a wide range of machine learning models investigated, two models showed promising results (i.e., multi-layered perceptron, MLP, and adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system, ANFIS). Based on the results reported here, and due to the highly complex nature of the COVID-19 outbreak and variation in its behavior from nation-to-nation, this study suggests machine learning as an effective tool to model the outbreak. This paper provides an initial benchmarking to demonstrate the potential of machine learning for future research. Paper further suggests that real novelty in outbreak prediction can be realized through integrating machine learning and SEIR models.

Methodical approaches to managing economic safety of tourism enterprises

2020 ◽  
pp. 160-164
Author(s):  
Leonid Tsubov ◽  
Oresta Shcherban
Keyword(s):  
Safety Management ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Small Enterprise ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Efficient Management ◽  
Tourism Enterprises ◽  
High Level ◽  
Functional Components ◽  
Stimulation Control

The set of scientific-methodological tools to secure the mechanism of economic safety management of tourism entrepreneurship is examined as an aggregate of methods, tools, and conceptual activities directed at maintaining the high level of economic safety of tourism entrepreneurship. The features of managing the tourism enterprise and economic safety are analyzed. The basic valuation principles of the reliability and efficiency of the economic safety of the tourism enterprise are determined. The basic tasks of ensuring the economic safety of a small enterprise are outlined. The need to use the integrated approach that secures more opportunities to avoid threats and limits the danger of their emergence is emphasized. The most important principles for securing the economic safety of the tourism enterprise on the microeconomic level are described. Possible practical methods of risk management for the implementation of adopted decisions are proposed. The paper proves the fact that the complex nature of the management of the economic safety of the tourism enterprise and securing the sufficiently efficient management system of detecting and eliminating the threats are provided by the establishment of the management of the economic safety system of the tourism enterprise and its functional components. Research of the methodical approaches to the management of the tourism enterprises’ economic safety allows building and describing the functional structure of the mechanism of management of the tourist enterprise’s economic safety (it is formalized and described by 5 functions: determination of aims; planning; organization and adjusting; motivation and stimulation; control and monitoring).

scholarly journals Understanding Policy Change: Multiple Streams and National Education Curriculum Policy in Hong Kong

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Chow
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Curriculum Policy ◽  
Education Curriculum ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
National Education ◽  
Policy Problem ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
Multiple Streams Framework ◽  
Policy Windows ◽  
Policy Solutions

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the policymaking process of the Moral and National Education (MNE) curriculum in Hong Kong by employing Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework. The aim of the paper is threefold. First, it will describe the policy process of the national education curriculum policy as a foundation for the analysis. Second, the author will critically evaluate and apply Kingdon’s MSF to examine the policymaking process, both to analyse how such policy came to be constructed as a problem and to consider the proposed policy solutions, as well as the surrounding political forces. Third, the analysis will identify the possible coupling of these lines of thought and the notions of “policy entrepreneurs” and “policy windows.”The MNE policy provided a good example of how a policy problem is constructed in various policy contexts, as well as how the solution is matched to the problem. Although the policy outcome is not entirely predictable, Kingdon’s framework is excellent for explaining the likely outcomes.This paper contributes to the wider policy literature by bridging the East-West gap in policy analysis. It provides a better understanding of the policymaking process in Asian countries, and it should also prove useful to both education policy scholars and policymakers. Finally it suggests further research is needed on how social media affects each of Kingdon’s streams in Hong Kong.

Web-Mediated Problem-Based Learning and Computer Programming: Effects of Study Approach on Academic Achievement and Attitude

2017 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Yağcı
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Problem Based Learning ◽  
Semiempirical Method ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Thinking Styles ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
High Level

In the relevant literature, it is often debated whether learning programming requires high-level thinking skills, the lack of which consequently results in the failure of students in programming. The complex nature of programming and individual differences, including study approaches, thinking styles, and the focus of supervision, all have an effect on students’ achievement in programming. How students learn programming and the relationships between their study approaches and their achievement in programming have not yet been adequately illuminated. In this regard, the present study aims to investigate the effect of the study approach used on students’ attitudes toward programming and on their academic achievement within an online problem-based learning environment. In this study, a single-factor, pretest posttest single group and semiempirical method was utilized. The study was conducted on 41 students from a public university in Turkey. To implement problem-based learning activities, a teaching environment was created with the Moodle platform, allowing for group work and discussions. Seven status of the problems were prepared exclusively for the 12-week application period so that students could make suggestions about how to solve them. In the data collection phase, the Study Approach Scale, the Attitude Towards Programming Scale, and the Academic Achievement Test were employed. T-test and covariance analyses were carried out in the statistical analysis phase. According to the findings of the present study, students adopting the “deep” study approach were more successful than the students adopting a “superficial” approach. Moreover, it was determined that the problem-based learning application had a positive effect on students’ attitudes toward programming and that the study approach did not significantly affect the students’ attitude toward programming.

scholarly journals The Urgency of Political Commitment in Formulation Reproductive Health Education Policy

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Margareth Christine ◽  
Caroline Paskarina
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Maternal Mortality Ratio ◽  
Public Health Education ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Reproductive Health Education ◽  
Mortality Ratio ◽  
High Level ◽  
Special Region

Kulon Progo is the first area to have a local content of Reproductive Health Education in the curriculum, that is, since 2014. This was motivated by the high rate of underage marriage and the high level of maternal mortality ratio in the Special Region of Yogyakarta at that time. The Regent of Kulon Progo who served during that period, Hasto Wardoyo, was the party who initiated and directly led this policy-making process. This study seeks to analyze the form of political commitment from Hasto Wardoyo in the policy on Public Health Education by using Boli’s theory of political will criteria, in which political commitment is broadly divided into three groups, namely verbal will, institutional will, and budgetary will. Researchers used qualitative research methods supported by interview data with parties directly involved in the process of making and implementing policies, including the Chair of the Indonesia Union of Teachers, the Chair of the Indonesia Association of Family Planning, the Head of the Education Office, and the Head of the Health Office in the regency. The results of this study indicate that the Regent has shown his political commitment in the sense of verbal and regulation dimensions. However, in terms of institutional and budgetary will, the Regent did not show any form of political commitment, which resulted in the neglect of this policy on Reproductive Health Education after it had been launched.   Received: 20 May 2021 / Accepted: 10 July 2021 / Published: 5 November 2021

Hardware Context Switch-based Cryptographic Accelerator for Handling Multiple Streams

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Arif Sasongko ◽  
I. M. Narendra Kumara ◽  
Arief Wicaksana ◽  
Frédéric Rousseau ◽  
Olivier Muller
Keyword(s):  
Computation Time ◽  
Multiple Streams ◽  
Original Algorithm ◽  
Context Switching ◽  
Mode Of Operation ◽  
Synthesis Tool ◽  
Block Level ◽  
Key Block ◽  
Symmetric Key ◽  
High Level

The confidentiality and integrity of a stream has become one of the biggest issues in telecommunication. The best available algorithm handling the confidentiality of a data stream is the symmetric key block cipher combined with a chaining mode of operation such as cipher block chaining (CBC) or counter mode (CTR). This scheme is difficult to accelerate using hardware when multiple streams coexist. This is caused by the computation time requirement and mainly by management of the streams. In most accelerators, computation is treated at the block-level rather than as a stream, making the management of multiple streams complex. This article presents a solution combining CBC and CTR modes of operation with a hardware context switching. The hardware context switching allows the accelerator to treat the data as a stream. Each stream can have different parameters: key, initialization value, state of counter. Stream switching was managed by the hardware context switching mechanism. A high-level synthesis tool was used to generate the context switching circuit. The scheme was tested on three cryptographic algorithms: AES, DES, and BC3. The hardware context switching allowed the software to manage multiple streams easily, efficiently, and rapidly. The software was freed of the task of managing the stream state. Compared to the original algorithm, about 18%–38% additional logic elements were required to implement the CBC or CTR mode and the additional circuits to support context switching. Using this method, the performance overhead when treating multiple streams was low, and the performance was comparable to that of existing hardware accelerators not supporting multiple streams.

Transparency and Accountability in Public Procurement of Essential Medicines in Developing Countries

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 15-30
Author(s):  
Anita Kotwani
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Essential Medicine ◽  
Access To Medicines ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
International Agencies ◽  
High Level ◽  
Procurement System

Pharmaceuticals are an integral component of a health care system; any weakness in governance of the pharmaceutical system negatively impacts health outcomes, especially in developing countries. It is believed that procurement on the concept of essential medicine list and transparency leads to improved efficiency and access to medicines, as has been described for the Delhi model. However, transparency is only the first step; accountability and sustainability are also needed. Information systems create opportunities for transparency and openness through the disclosure of information and improve decision-making and efficiency along the medicine supply chain. With the lessons learned from experiences of many developing countries, technical guidance and tools developed by international agencies, a transparent, accountable, sustainable public procurement system is possible but high-level political commitment is needed to mandate and enforce the system.

scholarly journals Global e-government development: besides the relative wealth of countries, do policies matter?

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonçalo Paiva Dias
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Relative Wealth ◽  
Innovative Thinking ◽  
High Level ◽  
Government Development

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether, discounting the effect of the relative wealth of countries, it is possible to observe the relevance of policies for e-government development. Design/methodology/approach The deviations of countries' results from what could be expected, considering their relative wealth is calculated by using the residuals of a linear regression using the Gross Domestic Product per capita as the independent variable and the UN E-Government Development Index as the dependent variable. The countries that achieve better and worse results than expected are then identified and their cases are analyzed by resorting to secondary sources, namely, published research referring to their cases. Those research documents were identified by successively searching the Scopus database, the Google Scholar database and the Web of Science. Findings The existence of formal e-government strategies and plans and the capacity to implement them can make a difference, allowing countries to achieve better results than expected or, in their absence, to perform worse than expected. Research limitations/implications The proposed methodology can be useful to e-government researchers, particularly as a basis for deeper and more detailed studies. Practical implications Countries should invest in well-developed and focused strategies and continuity of public policies and their capacity to deliver results. For that purpose, political commitment and high-level coordination are key factors. For low-income countries, long-lasting cooperation with external experienced partners is crucial. For high-income countries, innovative thinking is a key enabler. Originality/value This study uses an innovative method to look beyond the effect of the relative wealth of countries and investigate the relevance of public policies for e-government development.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol: A Mixed Method Natural Experiment in Scotland

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 3394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Beeston ◽  
Mark Robinson ◽  
Lucie Giles ◽  
Elinor Dickie ◽  
Jane Ford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Final Decision ◽  
Pricing Policy ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Licensed Premises ◽  
Alcoholic Drinks ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Unit Pricing ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Important Evidence

In May 2018, Scotland became the first country in the world to implement minimum unit pricing (MUP) for all alcoholic drinks sold in licensed premises in Scotland. The use of a Sunset Clause in the MUP legislation was a factor in successfully resisting legal challenges by indicating that the final decision on a novel policy would depend on its impact. An overarching evaluation has been designed and the results will provide important evidence to inform the parliamentary vote on the future of MUP in Scotland. The evaluation uses a mixed methods portfolio of in-house, commissioned, and separately funded studies to assess the impact of MUP across multiple intended and unintended outcomes related to compliance, the alcoholic drinks industry, consumption, and health and social harms. Quantitative studies to measure impact use a suitable control where feasible. Qualitative studies assess impact and provide an understanding of the lived experience and mechanism of change for key sub-groups. As well as providing important evidence to inform the parliamentary vote, adding to the international evidence on impact and experience of alcohol pricing policy across a broad range of outcomes, this approach to evaluating novel policy interventions may provide guidance for future policy innovations.

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