scholarly journals A study on the perception of the corruption phenomenon within the Inland Revenue

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Maurizio Longhi

In spite of many national and international studies on the causes of corruption, it is rarely investigated in which terms the criminological theories can provide useful suggestions to better understand the etiology of this form of criminality. The present work aimed to study how the corruption phenomenon is perceived by the employees of the Inland Revenue. The research was conducted on a sample of 50 subjects between 30 and 65 years old. For the purposes of the research, a questionnaire consisting of 19 items was distributed to them. It was significantly found that the subjects did not have problems to respond to general questions, despite particular questions, where instead the sampling found considerable difficulties. Therefore the knowledge is resulted in general terms and not in specific terms. A limitation of this study is that perceptions can rapidly change as a result of political scandals or different cultural settings. The different answers can be influenced by both the quality in the formulation of the application and the little experience of the interviewed subjects. Given the found data we can consider that this study confirms what is already evident in the literature. Corruption is the result of contacts with criminal patterns and the removal from anti-criminal patterns, since each individual assimilates the culture surrounding him.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Castillo ◽  
Daniel Miranda ◽  
Angelica Bonillla

Large scale international studies focus a great deal on measuring knowledge as academic achievement, leaving sidelined the study of students, parents and teachers’ attitudes. In the case of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS 2009), along with civic knowledge there are a series of relevant instruments for measuring citizenship related concepts as attitudes, beliefs and behavior. In order to facilitate and estimulate the use of these questionnaires, this database incorporates variables constructed on the basis of compound indices (estimated with IRT) of those scales that address the same topic, such as trust in institutions, participation, school climate, attitudes towards minorities and ethnic groups, among others. Many times these variables are used as they come in the database, without stopping to analyze or problematize the validity of these measurements and their consequences in terms of analysis and contrast of hypotheses. Using as an example the scale of attitudes regarding equality of rights between men and women, this chapter begins by describing in general terms the characteristics of ICCS and then implements factor analyzes that show the possible problems of validity that can lead to the use of the ICCS proposed scores.The implications in terms of validity are addressed in the conclusions.


Crisis ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie De Munck ◽  
Gwendolyn Portzky ◽  
Kees Van Heeringen

Background: Notwithstanding the epidemiological studies indicating an increased risk of attempted suicide among adolescents and young adults, there is a scarcity of international studies that examine long-term epidemiological trends in rates and characteristics of this vulnerable group. Aims: This article describes the results of a 9-year monitoring study of suicide attempts in adolescents and young adults referred to the Accident and Emergency Department of the Gent University Hospital (Belgium). Methods: Between January 1996 and December 2004, trends, sociodemographic, and methodrelated characteristics of suicide attempts were assessed by a psychiatrist on data sheets. Results: Attempted suicide rates declined from 1996 to 2001 and then rose until 2004, but did not exceed previous rates. During the 9 years of monitoring, there was a preponderance of female suicide attempters, except for 1997. Rates of attempts and of fatal suicide were negatively correlated. Significantly more males than females deliberately injured themselves. Younger attempters, especially females, significantly more often poisoned themselves with analgesics. In nearly one in five attempts, alcohol was used in combination with other methods, and alcohol intake was more commonly observed in older suicide attempters. Nearly half of the adolescents were identified as repeaters. Conclusions: The results of this study warrant further monitoring of trends and characteristics of young suicide attempters.


2015 ◽  
pp. 116-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Kuznetsov

The article deals with Russian traditions of studies of foreign countries which have become an intellectual pillar for Russian economic expertise. The modern application of experience of Soviet scientific schools in international studies is shown, especially in the fields of world development forecasts, analysis of Russian foreign economic relations and research of economic policy abroad. The article is based on open sources with publications, reports and presentations about expert and analytical activities of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) and other institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, VNIKI-Institute, MGIMO-University and some other centers. It is explained that results of international studies have become a necessary element for consulting of governmental bodies and businessmen in the epoch of globalization.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-101
Author(s):  
Cameron McKay

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century penologists began to explore the possibility that environment and upbringing, as opposed to individual choice, were the causes criminality. The Prison Commissioners for Scotland, the devolved body who administered prisons north of the border, were not immune to this wider trend. Smith has argued that from the 1890s onwards the Commissioners began to accept that criminality was caused by social problems, namely alcoholism, but also parental neglect, poor education and poverty. In their efforts to test these new criminological theories, the Commissioners began to make more careful enquiries into the backgrounds of their charges. From 1896 to 1931 the Commissioners interviewed a sample of prisoners each year and included the findings in their annual report. Although the main focus of these interviews was on the upbringing and drinking habits of prisoners; by the 1900s the Commissioners seem to have added irreligion to the growing list of etiological causes of crime, and from 1903 onwards prisoners were asked to give details on their religious habits. Although it is debateable how much the Prison Commissioners revealed about the relationship between religion and crime, they did however provide a useful insight into the religiosity of the average prisoner.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-66
Author(s):  
Anita Tolnay ◽  
András Koris ◽  
Robert Magda

Abstract The main objective of the current study is to highlight sustainable development from the perspective of the cosmetics industry producing ‘eco-friendly’ products. In the last decades an enhancing interest is being experienced towards sustainable development among cosmetics manufacturing companies, scientific research and development (R & D) laboratories as well as green consumers in the need for natural products safer for health and less toxic for the environment. Several international studies show that cosmetic products formulated with natural ingredients developed by cosmetic industry has a higher annual market growth than for synthetic products. R & D puts special focus on new innovative technologies in green cosmetic products to meet the frequently updated requirements of regulations in compliance with the current legislation. Scientific laboratory market has an increasing importance to evaluate natural and organic raw materials. In this work the authors attempt to focus on the growing importance of research activities to sustainable cosmetics production in life cycle assessment methodology. Naturally, the conceptual scope and extent of this study do not permit all the possible issues to be examined from every aspects due to lack of data, thus it will be endeavored to point out merely the most relevant considerations in the field of cosmetic industry.


Author(s):  
Markus Krötzsch

To reason with existential rules (a.k.a. tuple-generating dependencies), one often computes universal models. Among the many such models of different structure and cardinality, the core is arguably the “best”. Especially for finitely satisfiable theories, where the core is the unique smallest universal model, it has advantages in query answering, non-monotonic reasoning, and data exchange. Unfortunately, computing cores is difficult and not supported by most reasoners. We therefore propose ways of computing cores using practically implemented methods from rule reasoning and answer set programming. Our focus is on cases where the standard chase algorithm produces a core. We characterise this desirable situation in general terms that apply to a large class of cores, derive concrete approaches for decidable special cases, and generalise these approaches to non-monotonic extensions of existential rules.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoan Martínez Márquez ◽  
Yalice Gámez Batista ◽  
Norberto Valcárcel Izquierdo

Las TIC median las interacciones y la comunicación de los estudiantes a diario. Se conciben como mediado-ras de la reflexión y la autorregulación de la actividad del estudiante, resultante de la interacción consciente de la percepción que tiene el estudiante sobre si con la que negocia con el resto de los estudiantes, los ase-sores y la sociedad en general. En este contexto el aprovechamiento de las TIC debe promover una influen-cia formativa en los espacios formales y no formales. Las condicionantes de complementariedad de espa-cios y de unidad en la diversidad de recursos tecnológicos y didácticos deben guiar la actividad que tenga al estudiante como centro de la misma.Ya no se trata de integrar las TIC en el proceso de formación, haciéndolo formal y estandarizado. El reto está en que sean las características personales de los estudiantes, sus estilos de aprendizaje, sus conoci-mientos y experiencias previas, y sus esquemas afectivos los que marquen el aprovechamiento de las TIC en la evaluación del aprendizaje autónomo de inglés.En el presente trabajo se estructura el aprovechamiento de las TIC mediante un EPA base para la evalua-ción del aprendizaje autónomo de inglés. El EPA base constituye un andamiaje de personas, procedimien-tos, espacios de interacción, y de recursos tecnológicos y didácticos. Los componentes que lo conforman se encuentran débilmente acoplados por la tecnología y altamente cohesionados por la significatividad de las conexiones que el estudiante establece entre ellos. Palabras Clave: Aprendizaje, Autonomía, Entorno, Evaluación, Personal. ABSTRACT There is no doubt about the key role of ICT in the interaction and communication processes among students. ICT are thought as a mean for the reflection and self-regulation of students´ activity, which is in a permanent conscientious comparison between the perception a student has about him/herself and the one he/she nego-tiates with the rest of students, advisors and society in general terms. In this context, ICT should promote a positive influence on student formation in formal and non-formal spaces. The conditionals related to spaces combined support and union in the diversity of technological and didactical resources should guide every activity having students at the center of its conception.It is no longer about integrating ICT to the formation process making it formal and standardized. The chal-lenge on autonomous language learning evaluation with ICT has to do with making the differences through personal characteristics of students, their learning styles, previous experiences and affective schemas.In this paper the use of ICT is structured by means of a PLE frame for the evaluation of English autonomous language learning. It is a scaffolding of people, procedures, interaction spaces, and technological and didac-tical resources. Its components are weakly coupled by technologies and highly cohesive by the meaningful connections students establish among them. Keywords: Learning, Autonomy, Evaluation, Environment, Personal. Recibido: septiembre de 2016Aprobado: noviembre de 2016


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangwen Wang ◽  
Dimitrios Toroz ◽  
Seonmyeong Kim ◽  
Simon Clegg ◽  
Gun-Sik Park ◽  
...  

<div> <p>As natural aqueous solutions are far from being pure water, being rich in ions, the properties of solvated ions are of relevance for a wide range of systems, including biological and geochemical environments. We conducted ab initio and classical MD simulations of the alkaline earth metal ions Mg<sup>2+</sup> and Ca<sup>2+</sup> and of the alkali metal ions Li<sup>+</sup>, Na<sup>+</sup>, K<sup>+</sup> and Cs<sup>+</sup> in pure water and electrolyte solutions containing the counterions Cl<sup>–</sup> and SO<sub>4</sub><sup>2–</sup>. Through a detailed analysis of these simulations, this study reports on the effect of solution chemistry (composition and concentration of the solution) to the ion–water structural properties and interaction strength, and to the dynamics, hydrogen bond network, and low-frequency dynamics of the ionic solvation shell. Except for the ion–water radial distribution function, which is weakly dependent on the counter-ions and concentrations, we found that all other properties can be significantly influenced by the chemical characteristics of the solution. Calculation of the velocity autocorrelation function of magnesium ions, for example, shows that chlorine ions located in the second coordination shell of Mg<sup>2+</sup> weaken the Mg(H<sub>2</sub>O)<sub>6</sub><sup>2+</sup> hydration ‘cage’ of the cation. The result reported in this study suggest that ionic solvation shell can be significantly influenced by the interactions between other ions present in solution ions, especially those of opposite charge. In more general terms, the chemical characteristics of the solution, including the balance between ion-solvent and ion-ion interactions, could result in significant differences in behavior and function of the ionic solvation shell.</p> </div>


1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-222
Author(s):  
Khwaja Sarmad

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established In 1967 as a loosely structured inter-governmental organization, which provided a framework for discussing problems that required a regional solution. For a long time, the reduction of regional political tensions remained the main concern of ASEAN. Serious efforts towards promoting intra-regional co-operation began in 1976 with emphasis on trade liberalization and industrial co-operation. But apart from a few cases, involving the regional economies and collective external bargaining, the record of economic co-operation has been poor, because of different levels of economic development of the member countries, mutually competitive exports.. inward• looking industrial policies and heavy dependence on the industrialized countries for investment, technology and trade. So far, there have been only three intra-ASEAN agreements to promote market sharing and a pooling of resources: the preferential trade arrangements, the industrial complementation agreement, designed to develop links in certain industries to achieve greater economies of scale, and the industrial joint venture agreement, which provides preferential treatment for products of joint ventures involving the companies of at least two ASEAN member countries. However the joint venture scheme has had only limited success because of delays in implementation, while the scope of the preferential trading arrangements has been limited by the consensus approach in solving outstanding issues and by the concern of higher-tariff member countries to protect domestic production and employment. As a result, tariffs have been reduced only on intra-regional trade of selected non-sensitive items. Most of the items covered in the preferential trade agreements have low trade content and minimal trade potential. The arrangements have also been difficult to manage because of problems of administering the rules of origin.


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