Telecommunication reform in Ghana

In 1996 Ghana privatized its incumbent telecommunications firm by selling 30 percent of Ghana Telecom to Telekom Malaysia, licensing a second network operator, and allowing multiple mobile firms to enter the market. The reforms yielded mixed results. Landline telephone penetration increased dramatically while the number of mobile subscribers surpassed even this higher level of fixed line subscribers. On the other hand, the network did not reach the levels the government hoped, the second network operator never really got off the ground, and the regulator remained weak and relatively ineffective. The sustainability of competition is unclear. The government ended Telekom Malaysia's management of Ghana Telecom and has invited Norway's Telenor as a strategic partner. What this means in practice remains unclear, and the process for selecting Telenor lacked any transparency. Meanwhile, some of the mobile firms are in precarious financial positions. Competition is still relatively strong, but its sustainability will depend on the government's future commitment to ensuring it.Economic Theory&Research,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Rural Communications,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies

Data Envelopment Analysis (D.E.A.) for urban road system performance assessment

Improving the efficiency of transport networks by enhancing road system performance, lays the foundations for the positive change process within a city, achieving good accessibility to the area and optimizing vehicle flows, both in terms of cost, management and attenuation of environmental impacts. The performance of an urban road system can be defined according to different thematic areas such as traffic flow, accessibility, maintenance and safety, for which the scientific literature proposes different measurement indicators. However variations in performance are influenced by interventions which differ from one another, such as infrastructure, management, regulation or legislation, etc.. Therefore sometimes it is not easy to understand which areas to act on and what type of action to pursue to improve road network performance. Of particular interest are the tools based on the use of synthetic macro-indicators that are representative of the individual thematic areas and are able to describe the behavior of the entire network as a function of its characteristic elements. These instruments are of major significance when they assess performance not so much in absolute terms but in relative terms, i.e. in relation to other urban areas comparable to the one being examined. Therefore the objective of the proposed paper is to compare performances of different urban networks, using a non-parametric linear programming technique such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Farrel (1957), in order to provide technical support to the policy maker in the choice of actions to be implemented to make urban road systems efficient. This work is the conclusive study of road system performance analysis using DEA. The study forms part of a research project supported by grant. PRIN-2009 prot. 2009EP3S42_003, in which the University di Cagliari is a partner with a research team comprising the authors of this paper, and which addresses performance assessment of road networks, Fancello, Uccheddu and Fadda (2013a),(2013b)

Midwest Transportation Consortium Annual Report, 2007-2008

The Midwest Transportation Consortium (MTC) recently completed its sixth year of operation. The MTC has become an established portion of the research and educational programs at ISU and its partner universities. The MTC continues to emphasize its primary focus of developing human capital. For example, this semester, Fall, 2005, ISU has graduate scholars in its educational program. However, we also recognize that the federal grant is an opportunity to build programs at our respective universities that continue after the U.S. DOT UTCP may end. An example of building a long lasting program is the University of Missouri – St. Louis’ (UMSL) and its development of a transportation Ph.D. program in their business college. Admittedly, this program could have been started regardless, but Dr. Ray Mundy, Director of UMSL’s Transportation Scholars Program, believes that the MTC support of the transportation educational program at UMSL was the essential component in establishing a Ph.D. program. At ISU, the MTC has been instrumental in establishing two research and outreach programs, and both have themes that are related to the MTC’s theme of “Transportation System Management and Operation.” The Center for Weather Impacts on Mobility and Safety (C-WIMS) was recently established, and the Center for Road Infrastructure Management and Operations (RIMO) is in the process of being established. The MTC has a critical role in establishing each of these two programs. As part of the on-going MTC program, we have established an effective network that promotes the education of future transportation professionals and the development of new knowledge on how to manage transportation infrastructure and services in a more sustainable manner. The MTC has a track record of developing outstanding students; these students are now becoming leaders in the private sector, government, and academia. The MTC has also supported the development of an extensive research portfolio related to sustainable transportation asset management. More research projects are in the pipeline. Finally, the MTC has dedicated itself to the dissemination of asset management research results through an ongoing technology transfer program. This document provides a progress for the latest fiscal year of operation of the MTC, which ran from October 2004 through September 2005

Transport mode and network architecture : carbon footprint as a new decision metric

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-133).This thesis examines the tradeoffs between carbon footprint, cost, time and risk across three case studies of United States' perishable or consumer packaged goods firms and their transportation partners. Building upon previous research, and utilizing an Institute of Management and Administration (IOMA) and MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL) survey of supply chain professionals, the goal of this thesis is to better understand the decision process and motivations of our case study companies with regard to carbon footprint and implications for transport mode and network architecture, and the tradeoffs involved in making these decisions. We examine: (1) An expedited refrigerated rail service providing coast-to-coast shipment of produce for a major retailer, in lieu of its prior trucking arrangement; (2) A dairy producer which with the help of its trucking partner switched from less-than-truckload (LTL) to full truckload (FTL) and currently explore the possibility to re-organize its distribution network; and (3) A bottled water firm which created an additional container shipping route to reduce the volume of water it ships via truck. Comparisons and contrasts are made between case study firms. Findings from these case studies are used to make forward-looking recommendations for companies interested in altering transport mode and/or network architecture as a means of reducing the carbon footprint of their operations.by Nelly Andrieu and Lee Weiss.M.Eng.in Logistic

Crossing Organizational Boundaries in Palliative Care: The Promise and Reality of Community Partnerships

This report presents the first of a series of findings from the Community-Oriented Palliative Care Initiative (COPCI), an innovative program testing new approaches to caring for individuals with progressive, life threatening illness. Developed and supported by the United Hospital Fund, the project was designed to initiate collaborations among health care and social service organizations, with the goal of reaching seriously ill individuals and their caregivers earlier in the course of illness and providing a broad range of coordinated services. Six such networks of diverse partners received a total of $2.1 million in grants over the two-year period from mid-2000 into 2002.The urgency to provide alternatives to current standard practice is underscored by the number of individuals affected: in New York City alone, in the year 2000, some 46,000 people died of diseases typically marked by a lengthy course from diagnosis to death. While many could have benefited from appropriate and timely palliative care services, most did not receive them.The Fund reasoned that networks including not only hospitals and hospices but also social services agencies and other community resources could collectively respond, earlier and more fully, to the complex combination of medical, social, psychological, and spiritual needs that typify the months and years leading to death. Local expertise and resources should determine the structure of each network, the partners involved, and the specific model for service delivery. Drawing on the experiences of the six pioneering projects, this report focuses on the challenges of creating such new networks

Bellerbys Educational Services Ltd embedded college review for educational oversight by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education

Annex 1: Heriot-Watt University International Study Centre Annex 2: University of Huddersfield International Study Centre Annex 3: Keele University International Study Centre Annex 4: Kingston University, London International Study Centre Annex 5: Lancaster University International Study Centre Annex 6: University of Leicester International Study Centre Annex 7: University of Lincoln International Study Centre Annex 8: Liverpool John Moores University International Study Centre Annex 9: Royal Holloway, University of London International Study Centre Annex 10: University of Surrey International Study Centre Annex 11: University of Sussex International Study Centre Annex 12: University of Stirling International Study Centre Annex 13: Wales International Study Centr