Guns and butter? Military expenditure and health spending on the eve of the Arab Spring

We examine the validity of the guns-versus-butter hypothesis in the pre-Arab Spring era. Using panel data from 1995 to 2011–the eve of the Arab uprisings–we find no evidence that increased security needs as measured by the number of domestic terrorist attacks are complemented by increased military spending or more importantly ‘crowd out’ government expenditure on key public goods such as health care. This suggests that both expenditure decisions were determined by other considerations at the government level

Designing Guidelines to Discover Causes of Delays in Construction Projects: The Case of Lebanon

Construction projects in developing countries have the priority among other projects as they are considered safe investments in an unpredictable market. Due to this prioritization, it has become increasingly important that such projects are managed in accordance with internationally accepted management best practice. Project managers of construction projects in developing countries face difficulties in effectively monitoring the progress of projects they are responsible for due to many variables. The purpose of this study is to investigate the causes of delays in the construction projects that were covered in the considered literature and conduct qualitative research to investigate their relevance by interviewing project managers of actual projects in Lebanon. Based on the literature review and from the recommendations recorded during interviews, the researcher aims to create a set of guidelines that will improve the manner in which project managers can adapt to, discover and deal with project delays. These guidelines can be utilized as an early warning system concerning delays in construction projects

Persepsi Birokrasi Terhadap Kepemimpinan Bupati Ahmad Marzuqi Di Kabupaten Jepara

The purpose of this study was to determine the perception of the bureaucracy against the district head Ahmad Marzuqi in Jepara district, with indicators; 1) the perception of bureaucracy to figure Ahmad Marzuqi regent; 2) perception of the bureaucracy against the Regent Ahmad Marzuqi ability to communicate; 3) perceptions of ability in the ability to take policy; 4) perceptions of the ability to excite or motivate subordinates; and 5) the perception of the ability to establish cooperation with outside parties. This type of research is descriptive analysis and used a qualitative approach because it only intends to describe the leadership of Ahmad Marzuqi Jepara regent in perspective, so it does not require a quantitative approach requires standard size.The results showed that the leadership of Regent Ahmad Marzuqi period served as Regent of Jepara between 2012 s / d 2017 is quite good, because its action can be perceived in a positive way for the majority of the people of Jepara, good development in infrastructure, health, education and public policy developed. Based on data analysis are built according to information sources and documentation, then it is understood that: 1) The Regent Ahmad Marzuki figure Jepara Regent known as the most popular over-the regent of Jepara Regent before, as evidenced by the survey results of the Office of Information and Communications; 2) Before serving, Regent Ahmad Marzuqi has completed a Master degree as the level of formal education. Phenomena such as these have at least been able to justify their pernyaataan that higher levels of formal education a person, the higher the level of social status were successfully acquired, so the expectation is led by the mayor, with formal education, it will be able to bring a breakthrough policy of positive and innovative ; 3) Regent Ahmad Marzuki from among noble families with socio-economic tingakat high enough, so in this case can be expected to be able to create a pattern of obedience to the community leaders. It is based on the feudalistic system is quite thick and thrive in Jepara society, which regards the social status and economic status of a person is one of the references; 4) Profession of Ahmad Marzuki before this was teak furniture entrepreneurs who reside in District Keling, so sociologically have a level of social closeness (proximity) to build Jepara regency to be similar or parallel to the district / city to the other; and 5) Figure Regent Ahmad Marzuqi very popular in the public eye today Jepara, where the provision of such popularity in the elections simultaneously, the later Regent still have a high level of elektabilitas anyway

Experimental and quantum chemical calculations on corrosion inhibition of mild steel by two furan derivatives

Two furan derivatives namely 5-methylfurfurylamine (MFA) and furfurylamine (FAM) were investigated as corrosion inhibitors for mild steel in 1 M HCl. The corrosion inhibition efficiencies (IE) were measured at 0.005M of the inhibitors using electrochemical potentiodynamic polarization measurements. The studied furan derivatives inhibit mild steel corrosion in acidic medium. The MFA shows higher inhibition efficiency of 84.77% compared to FAM of 41.75%. Quantum chemical calculations were performed at the B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of density functional theory (DFT). Several quantum parameters were calculated to study the correlation between the molecular structures and the corrosion inhibition performance of the inhibitors. The MFA inhibitor shows higher HOMO energy, softness (S), fraction of electrons transferred (ΔN), and lower energy gap (ΔE) compared to the FAM. This result indicates a better corrosion inhibition performance of the MFA inhibitor. The results show that the calculated values of the quantum parameters using DFT calculations are consistent with the experimental findings