The Fiscal Burden of the Legacy of the Civil Service Pension Systems in Northern Cyprus

This paper estimates the fiscal burden of the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) civil service pension systems that were closed in 2008 to new members in North Cyprus. At that time, a new pension system was introduced for the newly hired government employees and new private sector workers. Estimates are made of the difference between the present values of future contributions and the pension benefits. This approach measures the government’s net liabilities related to the accruals of the pension rights received by the individuals covered through these plans for the period from 2009 to the death of the last member in the system. The estimated unfunded cost of these civil service pension plans is 7.3 billion euros or 276% of GDP. This amount of implicit debt is significantly higher than 5.8 billion euros that has been estimated as the amount of cash compensation for land and property that would need to be paid in order to reach an agreement for a solution to the Cyprus conflict.civil service pensions, pension liabilities, implicit pension debt, pension indexing, North Cyprus

Produksi Dan Karakterisasi Antibodi Anti Fim-c Salmonella Typhi Pada Mencit Ddy

Tifus merupakan penyakit yang banyak diderita oleh masyarakat di negara berkembang termasuk Indonesia. Sampai saat ini vaksin tifus masih terus dikembangkan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memproduksi dan mengkarakterisasi antibodi anti Fim-C S. typhi secara in vivo sebagai kandidat vaksin pada mencit galur ddY. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian adalah metode eksperimen. Antigen yang digunakan adalah Protein rekombinan Fim-C S. typhi dalam bentuk murni hasil penelitian sebelumnya. Mencit ddY sebagai hewan coba dikelompokkan menjadi 4, yaitu: Kelompok uji I (protein Fim-C+Freund\u27s Complete/incomplete Adjuvant), Kelompok uji 2 (protein Fim-C S. typhi), kelompok kontrol sakit 1 (FCA/FIA adjuvant), kelompok kontrol sakit 2 (PBS1x). Hasil penelitian dengan metode ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay) menunjukkan adanya respon antibodi yang diproduksi oleh mencit ddY setelah injeksi subkutan dengan protein Fim-C+adjuvant maupun tanpa adjuvant. Respon antibodi dengan antigen Fim-C+adjuvant memberikan nilai yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan antigen Fim-C tanpa adjuvant. Hal tersebut dibuktikan dengan adanya kenaikan titer antibodi dari penyuntikan ke-1 hingga penyuntikan ke-4. Pada hasil penelitian dengan metode Western Blot menunjukkan terjadinya interaksi antigen spesifik Fim-C terhadap Antibodi anti Fim-C. Dari kedua metode tersebut, data ini mengkonfirmasi bahwa Protein Fim-C S. typhi memiliki imunogenisitas yang tinggi. Sehingga dapat disimpulkan bahwa protein Fim-C S. typhi dapat dijadikan sebagai kandidat vaksin rekombinan yang potensial untuk melawan penyakit tifus

Public bus transport service satisfaction: Understanding its value to urban passengers towards improved uptake

To accurately direct investments towards sustainable transit, current transport status and factors driving passengers towards private cars instead of public transport (PT) should be identified first. Past research advocated improvements in PT to shift mode-usage but has yet to model the different causal effects that direct bus users to cars in rapidly developing yet congested areas. On-board questionnaire survey data from intra-city Abu Dhabi bus passengers (n = 1520, variables = 31) over a month were gathered in this study during both weekends and weekdays. The study modelled existing bias of travellers and quality attributes as antecedents of bus service's perceived value for money (VfM) and satisfaction from level of service (LoS) and mode choice (car vs. bus) as the ultimate consequence. Findings revealed that any previous biased opinions of travellers adversely affected satisfaction and perceived value, while quality attributes had a positive effect. Mode use was influenced by satisfaction from LoS (frequency of buses and network coverage), which was a positive consequence of perceived VfM (quality of ride and level of fare trade-off). Journey time and bus-stop waiting area quality also positively influenced satisfaction from fare level while passenger sociodemographic distribution showed that most respondents travelled more than five times a week by bus and were full-time workers and transport agencies may target service improvements around office-hours

Peran Diversifikasi terhadap Ketahanan Pangan di Sumatera Utara

This study aims to determine the development of rice consumption in North Sumatra and to knew the role of diversification of rice, corn, cassava for food security in North Sumatra. This study uses secondary data by the method of data collection through documentation method, articles, and journals. The analysis technique which is used in this study is a descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression analysis (Ordinary Least Square). This data is processed by using Eviews 5.0. The results of this study indicated that the development of rice consumption has changed throughout the years during the period, this is caused by the change of agricultural land. Based on the results of multiple linear regressions to the consumption of rice and corn showed a significant effect in the consumption of rice, while cassava was no significant impact in the consumption of rice. However, for the diversification of food consumption has very important role, but difficult to done. Efforts are needed to support food security in community is related with diversification of food consumption, set the amount of land, infrastructure development, so that land conversion can be controlled in the next few years can be accomplished along with the increasing of population growth

Life-cycle asset management in residential developments building on transport system critical attributes via a data-mining algorithm

Public transport can discourage individual car usage as a life-cycle asset management strategy towards carbon neutrality. An effective public transport system contributes greatly to the wider goal of a sustainable built environment, provided the critical transit system attributes are measured and addressed to (continue to) improve commuter uptake of public systems by residents living and working in local communities. Travel data from intra-city travellers can advise discrete policy recommendations based on a residential area or development's public transport demand. Commuter segments related to travelling frequency, satisfaction from service level, and its value for money are evaluated to extract econometric models/association rules. A data mining algorithm with minimum confidence, support, interest, syntactic constraints and meaningfulness measure as inputs is designed to exploit a large set of 31 variables collected for 1,520 respondents, generating 72 models. This methodology presents an alternative to multivariate analyses to find correlations in bigger databases of categorical variables. Results here augment literature by highlighting traveller perceptions related to frequency of buses, journey time, and capacity, as a net positive effect of frequent buses operating on rapid transit routes. Policymakers can address public transport uptake through service frequency variation during peak-hours with resultant reduced car dependence apt to reduce induced life-cycle environmental burdens of buildings by altering residents' mode choices, and a potential design change of buildings towards a public transit-based, compact, and shared space urban built environment