ADMINISTRATIVE CONVERGENCE AND REFORMS IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPEAN STATES - Analyses, models and comparative studies

The fundamental idea of the current publication emphasizes the characteristics of the processes related to administrative convergence and reform in the South-Eastern European states. Of course the area under review is quite wide and complex and therefore our approach aims to comprise only a few characteristics. Encompassing various geo-political aspects, political heritages enhancing that diversity as well as endemic socio-cultural traditions, the public administrations in the South-Eastern European states have faced a definite option for restoring democracy and accomplishing reforms according to the principles and values of the European Administrative Space, in the past two decades. For the time being other questions emerge and others remain still open. Which is the most adequate model for the administrative reform, which are the most efficient mechanisms and tools triggering its accomplishment and implementation? Lacking a formalized acquis communautaire on the processes related to administrative reform, their diversity has enhanced and the conditions for so called administrative convergence have multiplied. The research reports achieved and presented in the current publication emphasise the progress in implementing the democratic processes of central and local governance which do not lead however to convergence, being definitely relevant for the processes related to administrative dynamics. Various political experiences undergone by the states under review in the second half of the 20th century have induced attitudes and behaviours mainly of subordination and loss of identity of the organizations in national public administrations. That situation persisting in the South-Eastern European space creates difficulties and unbalances in the dialogue and cooperation with the public administrations of Western European states. The state itself is weak, determining a lack of finality for the administrative reforms. The processes of administrative convergence have become more complex and complicate as the EU administration is searching a model and it is attempting to define an identity. The traditional models of administration, based on a hierarchic bureaucracy are overcome and the model of EU administration could not be found by a transfer or enlargement of an administrative model belonging to one or several states. Therefore, we should acknowledge that the processes related to administrative convergence and reform are profoundly integrated in a complex context, with globalizing valences, benefiting of profound mechanisms, enhancing the interdependence and systemic character of the developments of national public administrations. The current volume incorporates contributions of South-Eastern European universities (National School of Political Studies and Public Administration – Romania, New Bulgarian University – Bulgaria, University of the Aegean - Greece or University of Rijeka – Croatia, as well as of international organizations – European Public Law Organization – Greece. In the above briefly described context, the studies reveal both comparative aspects, strategies of administrative reform or significant developments of administrative convergence and conceptual models aimed to contribute to the debates on EU administrative and organizational future or contemporary developments of EU administrative law. The reports were achieved in the framework of Jean Monnet project “South-Eastern European developments on the administrative convergence and enlargement of the European Administrative Space in Balkan states“ and provide an overview close to the realities on specificity of administrative processes in South-Eastern European states.administrative convergence, balkans, public administration reforms, european administrative studies, South-Eastern European States

Methodological, theoretical and empirical considerations in the analysis of the determinants of aggregate health care expenditures in OECD countries, 1960-1997

Health care now accounts for just under 10% of national income in most developed OEeD countries. Yet, despite its importance in the overall economy, the factors that drive health care expenditure remain only imperfectly understood. This thesis shows that the determinants of health care expenditures are simply too diverse amongst different countries to be brought within a common denominator such as GDP, as it has been argued for decades. It also shows that the assumption that health care is a homogeneous good across countries is over-simplistic and arbitrary, and finds ample evidence showing that health care is not a luxury good, as widely suggested. The contribution of the thesis is on methodological, theoretical and empirical grounds. In terms of methodology, the thesis shows that there are significant flaws in several areas that influence our thinking concerning the determinants of health care expenditures and offers alternative ways of analysis and appraisal. Flaws were shown in: the relationship between health expenditure and GDP; the importance of factors such as ageing; the macroeconomic context and the burden of disease; the measurement of key variables used in empirical analysis such as health spending, national income, technology, and health prices; the method of analysis that has been pursued; and the conversion factors used to translate prices and monetary variables across countries into a single and comparable denominator. The thesis makes a theoretical contribution of the analysis of health care expenditures, assuming that health care is at least a quasi-public good. The proposed conceptual framework explicitly links the determinants of health care expenditures to the theory of public finance and allows flexible adjustments by decision-makers to account for changes in technology, prices, and the macroeconomic environment. The impact of the macroeconomy on health spending is assessed by evaluating whether the rate of growth of income has any influence on the demand for health and whether the fiscal deficit impacts on health spending and to what extent. The proposed framework incorporates technology and this is an advance from the published literature, which has almost invariably considered technology to be a residual factor. Finally, the thesis recognises that the lag structure of the model, the availability of data, and knowledge of the relationship between disease and need for services are not sufficient to test for the impact of lifestyle and disease factors on health spending. The empirical investigation provides conclusive evidence of the non-importance of GOP in explaining health care spending trends over time. Consumption is shown to be a predictor of health expenditures; technology is an important cost-push factor across countries; the macroeconomy exerts, in general, significant pressure on health care expenditure; however, the impact of health care reforms does not show any significant impact on health care expenditures; and the number of doctors per capita has little or no association with health care expenditures

« Parents » et « affins » de combat

Cet article s’inscrit dans une recherche historique plus étendue sur les représentations combattantes grecques de la période de guerre 1912-1923. Rédigé à partir des matériaux telles les lettres du front, il aborde l’usage « métaphorique » de certains termes de parenté/affinité transposés à l’univers de la guerre. Les deux exemples les plus significatifs sont d’une part la relation entre les soldats et leurs correspondantes « soeurs de guerre » de l’arrière – « consanguinité » – et d’autre part le rapprochement établi par les soldats eux-mêmes entre leur relation avec l’ennemi fait prisonnier et les rapports issus de l’affinité. Cette irruption sur le champ de bataille de la consanguinité/affinité qui véhicule un excellent support métaphorique pour qualifier les rapports avec l’extérieur, et notamment avec les ennemis, peut être interprétée comme une tentative pour ramener, ne serait-ce que symboliquement, la violence absolue du champ de bataille à des seuils plus acceptables, plus contrôlables. Tout en (re)doublant les lignes de fracture et d’agressivité, puis celles de la solidarité (ennemi/affin, camarade/frère), le discours combattant grec tente une (ré)organisation du combat, par la métaphore, vers un système mieux intériorisé et donc plus familier, celui de la parenté.“Consanguines” and “Affines” in War: Thoughts about Wartime Letter-Writing, 1918-1923. – Based on material from the front lines, this article is part of a larger research project in history on the cognitive representations of Greek troops during the period of war from 1912 to 1923. It focuses on how certain terms of kinship and affinity were “metaphorically” transposed to the field of warfare. The two most significant examples involve battlefield metaphors based on consanguinity and affinity, respectively: the relation between soldiers and their letter-writing “war sisters” in the rear and the similarity that soldiers drew be-tween their relations with enemy prisoners and affinal relations. These metaphors, which aptly served to qualify relations with the outside, in particular with the enemy, can be interpreted as an attempt to bring, at least symbolically, the absolute violence on the front down to more acceptable, controllable proportions. By doubling lines of fracture and of aggressiveness and, too, lines of solidarity (enemy/affine, comrade/brother), Greek troops tried, through their metaphors, to reorganize combat and turn it into the more familiar, internalized kinship system

Grecs d’Asie mineure - Grecs du continent. Altérité et identités durant la guerre gréco-turque en Asie mineure (1919-1922)

Sur la base notamment de lettres ou de carnets, conservés aux Archives Littéraires et Historiques de Grèce (ELIA),  écrits par des soldats envoyés de Grèce sur le front micrasiatique, il est possible de jauger de la disparité qui existait entre ressortissants d’un État national balkanique établi dès le début du XIXe siècle et les sujets d’une société impériale multiple encore sur la voie d’une modernisation selon d’autres schémas. La grécité unitaire exacerbée par le discours nationaliste de la Grande Idée en marche sous la direction d’Elefthéros Vénizélos se heurte aux multiples différences culturelles, politiques, sociales et économiques entre les deux groupes. Loin d’être arriérés, les frères irrédimés pouvaient souvent en remontrer aux soldats fraîchement débarqués en matière d’éducation ou de fortune. L’environnement naturel anatolien est aussi perçu comme fondamentalement étranger aux petits paysages de Grèce laissés derrière soi, par-delà l’« Océan » égéen. Les modestes documents de soldats sans gloire particulière pour la macro-histoire permettent de saisir les altérités constitutives de la Grèce moderne, le plus souvent passées sous silence.On the basis of, among others, letters and notebooks, stored at the Greek Literary and Historical Archives (ELIA) written by soldiers sent from Greece on the Asia Minor front, one can measure the difference that used to exist between citizens of a National State on the Balkan, already established at the beginning of the 19th century and the subjects of an imperial and thus multiple society that was still experiencing modernization along other lines. The unitary Greekness sharpened by the national discourse of the Megali Idea, marching under the aegis of Elefthéros Vénizélos encounters multiple cultural, political, social and economic differences between the two groups under scrutiny. Far from being underdeveloped, the unredeemed brothers could teach the newly disembarked soldiers one thing or two in educational and economic matters. Anatolian Nature was too perceived as fundamentally alien to the small landscapes left behind in Greece, over the Aegean “Ocean”. The modest documents of soldiers without special fame according to macro-history enable readers to grasp the constituent “Othernesses” of Modern Greece which are elsewhere most often silenced

Methodological, theoretical and empirical considerations in the analysis of the determinants of aggregate health care expenditures in OECD countries, 1960-1997

Health care now accounts for just under 10% of national income in most developed OEeD countries. Yet, despite its importance in the overall economy, the factors that drive health care expenditure remain only imperfectly understood. This thesis shows that the determinants of health care expenditures are simply too diverse amongst different countries to be brought within a common denominator such as GDP, as it has been argued for decades. It also shows that the assumption that health care is a homogeneous good across countries is over-simplistic and arbitrary, and finds ample evidence showing that health care is not a luxury good, as widely suggested. The contribution of the thesis is on methodological, theoretical and empirical grounds. In terms of methodology, the thesis shows that there are significant flaws in several areas that influence our thinking concerning the determinants of health care expenditures and offers alternative ways of analysis and appraisal. Flaws were shown in: the relationship between health expenditure and GDP; the importance of factors such as ageing; the macroeconomic context and the burden of disease; the measurement of key variables used in empirical analysis such as health spending, national income, technology, and health prices; the method of analysis that has been pursued; and the conversion factors used to translate prices and monetary variables across countries into a single and comparable denominator. The thesis makes a theoretical contribution of the analysis of health care expenditures, assuming that health care is at least a quasi-public good. The proposed conceptual framework explicitly links the determinants of health care expenditures to the theory of public finance and allows flexible adjustments by decision-makers to account for changes in technology, prices, and the macroeconomic environment. The impact of the macroeconomy on health spending is assessed by evaluating whether the rate of growth of income has any influence on the demand for health and whether the fiscal deficit impacts on health spending and to what extent. The proposed framework incorporates technology and this is an advance from the published literature, which has almost invariably considered technology to be a residual factor. Finally, the thesis recognises that the lag structure of the model, the availability of data, and knowledge of the relationship between disease and need for services are not sufficient to test for the impact of lifestyle and disease factors on health spending. The empirical investigation provides conclusive evidence of the non-importance of GOP in explaining health care spending trends over time. Consumption is shown to be a predictor of health expenditures; technology is an important cost-push factor across countries; the macroeconomy exerts, in general, significant pressure on health care expenditure; however, the impact of health care reforms does not show any significant impact on health care expenditures; and the number of doctors per capita has little or no association with health care expenditures.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

A variant of the double gallbladder. A possible cause of cholelithiasis?

Congenital duplication of the gallbladder is a rare anatomical malformation, which is usually discovered as an incidental finding during cholecystectomy. We report a case of a double gallbladder in a 45-year-old woman, which was discovered during laparoscopic cholecystectomy for symptomatic cholelithiasis. As it was not possible to identify the anatomical structures safely, the procedure was converted to open cholecystectomy. Inspection of the resected gallbladder showed that it consisted of 2 chambers with separate cystic ducts, which communicated through an ostium. Both chambers contained multiple gallstones. The inadequate drainage of the second chamber could be considered as a predisposing factor for the development of cholelithiasis in this case

IDS for industrial applications : a federated learning approach with active personalization

Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept adopted in nearly every aspect of human life, leading to an explosive utilization of intelligent devices. Notably, such solutions are especially integrated in the industrial sector, to allow the remote monitoring and control of critical infrastructure. Such global integration of IoT solutions has led to an expanded attack surface against IoT-enabled infrastructures. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have demonstrated their ability to resolve issues that would have been impossible or difficult to address otherwise; thus, such solutions are closely associated with securing IoT. Classical collaborative and distributed machine learning approaches are known to compromise sensitive information. In our paper, we demonstrate the creation of a network flow-based Intrusion Detection System (IDS) aiming to protecting critical infrastructures, stemming from the pairing of two machine learning techniques, namely, federated learning and active learning. The former is utilized for privately training models in federation, while the latter is a semi-supervised approach applied for global model adaptation to each of the participant’s traffic. Experimental results indicate that global models perform significantly better for each participant, when locally personalized with just a few active learning queries. Specifically, we demonstrate how the accuracy increase can reach 7.07% in only 10 queries

Centre d’études byzantines, néo-helléniques et sud-est européennes

Georges Drettas, chargé de recherche au CNRS Dans le prolongement de la réflexion commencée l’année précédente, nous avons examiné les ensembles dialectaux de notre zone. L’introduction méthodologique a eu pour objet de faire le point sur la place de la dialectologie dans la linguistique moderne. L’examen s’est focalisé sur l’origine et le développement de certaines représentations des faits linguistiques. L’histoire qui commence à la fin du XIXe siècle reflète l’influence de modèles emprunté..

Kaposi's sarcoma of the hand mimicking squamous cell carcinoma in a woman with no evidence of HIV infection: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Kaposi's sarcoma is a vascular neoplasm mainly affecting the skin of the lower extremities. Although it is the most common neoplasm affecting patients with AIDS, sporadic cases in HIV-negative people have been reported. It is a lesion mainly affecting men and its clinical presentation presents a challenge, as it can resemble other benign or malignant skin lesions.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a rare case of Kaposi's sarcoma presenting in a 68-year-old Mediterranean woman with no evidence of HIV infection. The patient had a 6-month history of a slowly progressing pigmented lesion on the dorsum of her left hand. The lesion clinically resembled a squamous cell carcinoma. The patient was treated with a wide excision of the lesion and primary reconstruction with a full thickness skin graft. Histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis of the excised lesion revealed the presence of Kaposi's sarcoma. Serologic investigation for HIV was negative but polymerase chain reaction for human herpes virus type 8 infection was positive. Thorough clinical and imaging investigation of the abdomen and chest were both negative for loci of disease.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Kaposi's sarcoma, although rare in its sporadic form, should be considered in the differential diagnosis of indeterminate skin lesions, especially those affecting the extremities.</p