A MIDEAST VIEW OF THE ENERGY CRISIS

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Public schools' characteristics and teacher turnover in Oman.

Teachers are the backbone of the educational systems and their turnover may threaten the whole educational system in any country. In Oman, teacher turnover is a neglected area of study and this article may help in shedding some light on teacher turnover phenomenon in Oman. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of school characteristics (e.g., school size, gender, time-shift, education type, and school location) on the turnover intentions of teachers in public schools in Oman. Survey questionnaires were used to collect data from 214 public schools in Oman. 142 schools from all educational regions in Oman were participated in this study. Data analyses tools for this study were descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation, in addition to independents t-test and analysis of variance. The study revealed that teacher intentions to transfer to other schools are influenced by almost all the studied school characteristics. Policy makers and human resource recruiters in Ministry of Education should be aware of teachers’ preferences for certain schools to avoid teachers’ shortage in non-preferred schools. Further studies about the influence of school time-shift and teachers’ intentions to quit or transfer are needed to affirm the results in this study. This is the first study about the influence of school characteristics on teacher turnover in public schools in Oman. Thus, the value of this study stems from the uniqueness of this study which may serve as an eye opening indicator about teacher turnover in Oman

Reclassification of ICD-9 Codes into Meaningful Categories for Oncology Survivorship Research

Background. The International Classification of Disease, ninth revision (ICD-9) is designed to code disease into categories which are placed into administrative databases. These databases have been used for epidemiological studies. However, the categories used in the ICD9-codes are not always the most effective for evaluating specific diseases or their outcomes, such as the outcomes of cancer treatment. Therefore a re-classification of the ICD-9 codes into new categories specific to cancer outcomes is needed. Methods. An expert panel comprised of two physicians created broad categories that would be most useful to researchers investigating outcomes and morbidities associated with the treatment of cancer. A Senior Data Coordinator with expertise in ICD-9 coding, then joined this panel and each code was re-classified into the new categories. Results. Consensus was achieved for the categories to go from the 17 categories in ICD-9 to 39 categories. The ICD-9 Codes were placed into new categories, and subcategories were also created for more specific outcomes. The results of this re-classification is available in tabular form. Conclusions. ICD-9 codes were re-classified by group consensus into categories that are designed for oncology survivorship research. The novel re-classification system can be used by those involved in cancer survivorship research

Charge-spin interconversion in graphene-based systems from density functional theory

We present a methodology to address, from first principles, charge-spin interconversion in two-dimensional materials with spin-orbit coupling. Our study relies on an implementation of density functional theory based quantum transport formalism adapted to such purpose. We show how an analysis of the k-resolved spin polarization gives the necessary insight to understand the different charge-spin interconversion mechanisms. We have tested it in the simplest scenario of isolated graphene in a perpendicular electric field where effective tight-binding models are available to compare with. Our results show that the flow of an unpolarized current across a single layer of graphene produces, as expected, a spin separation perpendicular to the current for two of the three spin components (out-of-plane and longitudinal), which is the signature of the spin Hall effect. Additionally, it also yields an overall spin accumulation for the third spin component (perpendicular to the current), which is the signature of the Rashba-Edelstein effect. Even in this simple example, our results reveal an unexpected competition between the Rashba and the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling. Remarkably, the sign of the accumulated spin density does not depend on the electron or hole nature of the injected current for realistic values of the Rashba couplin

An introduction to the civil registration and vital statistics systems with applications in low- and middle-income countries

In collaboration with development partners, the World Bank Group (WBG) has been working to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems in low- and middle-income countries through lending operations, technical assistance projects, advisory services and analytics, and knowledge sharing at various international, regional, and national conferences and fora and through publications. In 2017, it launched a comprehensive CRVS eLearning course, which provides practical tools and approaches to achieving twenty-first-century state-of-the-art CRVS systems that are linked to identity management systems and are tailored to local contexts. Some of the key lessons learned from the various initiatives and projects are presented in the eight peer-reviewed manuscripts included in this issue

Benefits of linking civil registration and vital statistics with identity management systems for measuring and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 indicators

A complete civil registration and vital statistics system is the best source of data for measuring most of the Sustainable Development Goal 3 indicators. However, civil registration does not include migration data, which are necessary for calculating the actual number of people living in a given area and their characteristics such as age and sex. This information is needed to facilitate planning, for example, for school places, health care, infrastructure, etc. It is also needed as the denominator for the calculation of a range of health and socioeconomic indicators. Obtaining and using these data can be particularly beneficial for measuring and achieving universal health coverage (Target 3.8), because civil registration can help to identify persons in need of health care and enable decision-makers to plan for the delivery of essential services to all persons in the country, including the most disadvantaged populations. By assigning unique identification numbers to individuals, for example, at birth registration, then using these numbers to link the individuals\u2019 data from civil registration, national identification, and other functional registers, including registers for migration and health care, more accurate and disaggregated population values can be obtained. This is also a key to improving the effectiveness of and access to social services such as education, health, social welfare, and financial services. When civil registration system in a country is linked with its national identification system, it benefits both the government and its citizens. For the government, having reliable and up-to-date vital events information on its citizens supports making informed program and policy decisions, ensuring the accurate use of funds and monitoring of development programs at all levels. For individuals, it makes it easier to prove one\u2019s identity and the occurrence of vital events to claim public services such as survivor benefits or child grants

A multisectoral institutional arrangements approach to integrating civil registration, vital statistics, and identity management systems

This paper reviews the essential components of a recommended institutional arrangements framework of integrated civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) and civil identification systems. CRVS typically involves several ministries and institutions, including health institutions that notify the occurrence of births and deaths; the judicial system that records the occurrence of marriages, divorces, and adoptions; the national statistics office that produces vital statistics reports; and the civil registry, to name a few. Considering the many stakeholders and close collaborations involved, it is important to establish clear institutional arrangements\u2014\u201cthe policies, practices and systems that allow for effective functioning of an organization or group\u201d (United Nations Development Programme, Capacity development: a UNDP primer. New York: United Nations Development Programme, 2009). An example of a component of institutional arrangements is the establishment of a multisectoral national CRVS coordination committee consisting of representatives from key stakeholder groups that can facilitate participatory decision-making and continuous communication. Another important component of institutional arrangements is to create a linkage between CRVS and the national identity management system using unique identification numbers, enabling continuously updated vital events data to be accessible to the civil identification agency. By using birth registration in the civil registry to trigger the generation of a new identification and death registration to close it, this link accounts for the flow of people into and out of the identification management system. Expanding this data link to enable interoperability between different databases belonging to various ministries and agencies can enhance the efficiency of public and private services, save resources, and improve the quality of national statistics which are useful for monitoring the national development goals and the Sustainable Development Goals. Examples from countries that have successfully implemented the recommended components of an integrated CRVS and national identity management system are presented in the paper