Federated Robust Embedded Systems: Concepts and Challenges

The development within the area of embedded systems (ESs) is moving rapidly, not least due to falling costs of computation and communication equipment. It is believed that increased communication opportunities will lead to the future ESs no longer being parts of isolated products, but rather parts of larger communities or federations of ESs, within which information is exchanged for the benefit of all participants. This vision is asserted by a number of interrelated research topics, such as the internet of things, cyber-physical systems, systems of systems, and multi-agent systems. In this work, the focus is primarily on ESs, with their specific real-time and safety requirements. While the vision of interconnected ESs is quite promising, it also brings great challenges to the development of future systems in an efficient, safe, and reliable way. In this work, a pre-study has been carried out in order to gain a better understanding about common concepts and challenges that naturally arise in federations of ESs. The work was organized around a series of workshops, with contributions from both academic participants and industrial partners with a strong experience in ES development. During the workshops, a portfolio of possible ES federation scenarios was collected, and a number of application examples were discussed more thoroughly on different abstraction levels, starting from screening the nature of interactions on the federation level and proceeding down to the implementation details within each ES. These discussions led to a better understanding of what can be expected in the future federated ESs. In this report, the discussed applications are summarized, together with their characteristics, challenges, and necessary solution elements, providing a ground for the future research within the area of communicating ESs

Federated Embedded Systems – a review of the literature in related fields

This report is concerned with the vision of smart interconnected objects, a vision that has attracted much attention lately. In this paper, embedded, interconnected, open, and heterogeneous control systems are in focus, formally referred to as Federated Embedded Systems. To place FES into a context, a review of some related research directions is presented. This review includes such concepts as systems of systems, cyber-physical systems, ubiquitous computing, internet of things, and multi-agent systems. Interestingly, the reviewed fields seem to overlap with each other in an increasing number of ways

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ACCOUNTING THEORY: BANKS’ LOAN LOSS PROVISIONS AND TAX LEGISLATION IN ALBANIA

Tax authorities often are doubtful on the regulation of accounting and they fear to accept the tax treatment of bank loan losses which it reduces income taxes paid by banks. The banks and bank regulators generally want the tax rules for recognizing loan losses to conform closely to regulatory accounting in order to encourage banks not to under-provision for loan losses and to ensure a current tax benefit from loss provisions. In recent years, a sharp increase in the level of Non Performing Loans (NPL) in the banking system triggered mainly by the effects of the economic crisis but also emphasized by other internal and external factors. Other problems are present in the environment such as: lack of reliable financial information, clients’ poor business planning and execution, inefficient collateral collection processes etc. (Deloitte-Albania, 2013) In this paper, accounting theory will help us to understand and evaluate better the actual practice of loan loss provisions and their tax treatment in Albania. Also it will show us the way how to address for the actual debate between the banks and tax authority regarding the fiscal treatment of loan loss provisions. This paper aims to explain, when and how loan losses provisions should be recognized as a deductible expense for tax purposes by using the accounting theory. To address these issues financial accounting, according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and regulatory accounting, according to central bank in Albania, Bank of Albania (BoA) of loan losses provisions must be considered

Cost-effectiveness analysis comparing integrated and malaria-only social and behavior change programming in Nigeria: Initial costing data

Breakthrough RESEARCH is conducting an effectiveness evaluation of social and behavior change (SBC) programming implemented by Breakthrough ACTION in Nigeria, comparing an integrated SBC program in Kebbi and Sokoto states with a malaria-only SBC program in Zamfara state. Using these results on impact, a cost-effectiveness analysis will determine which approach is more cost-effective in achieving improvements in health. This report presents estimated costs for the initial stage of the project, from April 2018 through December 2019, in the three northern states where the study is being conducted

From the Perspectives of Macroeconomic Factors: The Past and Future of Problematic Loans in Albania

There are a lot of risks that influence the ongoing performance in banking system and especially commercial banks, but, the credit risk is one of the highest one. The most important factor that indicates this performance is the level of nonperforming loans. It highly affects the bank stability each year. So, for this reason it is very important to manage them in the most effective way possible. For being able to manage these loans we must understand and know what are the main factors that indicate them are. There are different factors, such as macroeconomic and banking factors. The purpose of this paper is to analyze these factors in order to maintain the bank stability in the right way. This analyze is done for the Albanian banking system during the years 2000-2012. Factors included are the GDP rate, Real Interest Rate, Inflation Rate, Money Supply Growth Rate, and Unemployment Rate. The relation between these factors and NPLs show us the ongoing growth of the NPLs and how are affected. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v4n1p3

Cost-effectiveness analysis comparing integrated and malaria-only social and behavior change programming in Nigeria: Final report

In Nigeria, the Breakthrough ACTION project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Nigeria, is working closely with the Nigerian government to improve the practice of priority health behaviors, with a focus on maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition, family planning and reproductive health, malaria, and tuberculosis. Within the broader program, Breakthrough ACTION uses different social and behavior change (SBC) approaches in different states. In northern Nigeria, Breakthrough RESEARCH compared the cost-effectiveness of the integrated SBC approach addressing multiple health areas in Kebbi and Sokoto states to a malaria-only approach in Zamfara. This cost-effectiveness study examined whether the additional cost required for an integrated SBC approach (as compared to a malaria-only approach) is a cost-effective investment. Additionally, this study examined malaria-specific impacts within an integrated SBC program compared to a malaria-only program

Forced Tax Collection: Bank Accounts` Blockage and Its Impact on Taxpayers` Fiscal Behaviour in Albania

One of the big reforms in Albania regarding Tax issues was the abrogation of Law no. 8560, of 22 December 22, 1999 “For Tax Procedure in the Republic of Albania'' and the approval of new Law no. 9920, of May 19, 2008 with the same name and the Instruction no.24, date 02.09.2008 on “Tax Procedure in the Republic of Albania'' which both have the purpose to reduce informal economy and to improve the business climate in the country. By way of providing details on some issues, we will focus on the part of how this law determines the procedure of constringent precautions for a forced tax collection and mainly that of taxpayers` bank accounts blockage. The paper aims to shed light on if this procedure of constringent precautions help the purpose of this Law to reduce informal economy and to improve the business climate in the country or not. As a methodology we are going to give the evaluation of Albanian application of the above mentioned Law and Instruction, being in incompliance with other parts of regulations and blocking orders themselves. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n3p31

Cost-effectiveness analysis comparing integrated and malaria-only social and behavior change programming in Nigeria: Midline analysis

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Nigeria is working closely with the Nigerian government to improve the practice of priority health behaviors through the Breakthrough ACTION project. Breakthrough RESEARCH is leading an evaluation of Breakthrough ACTION’s program comparing the integrated social and behavior change (SBC) program (malaria, family planning, maternal and child health, and nutrition) in Kebbi and Sokoto states and vertical SBC program (malaria-only) in Zamfara state. While the first initial cost report covered the time frame from program initiation in April 2018 through December 2019, this midline report covers January 2020 through December 2021. This report examines four important areas: 1) program expenditures and cumulative expenditures during this time period; 2) COVID-19 related expenditures; 3) unit costs for SBC interventions; and 4) program impact in integrated Kebbi state from the baseline to midline behavioral sentinel surveillance (BSS) survey

Documenting the costs of social behavior change interventions for health in low- and middle-income countries

Understanding the costs associated with social and behavior change (SBC) interventions for health is critical for budgeting, price setting, program planning, and economic analysis. Breakthrough RESEARCH performed a literature review and analysis to identify, classify, and synthesize published costs associated with SBC programming in low- and middle-income countries