Programme financing and public budgets: new instruments and starting-points of development policy

Im Zeitraum 2001/2002 ist im Sektor der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit eine Reform der wichtigsten Instrumente eingeläutet worden. Dabei spielen die staatlichen Budgets und ihre Finanzierung von außen eine entscheidende Rolle. Somit bilden die Budget-Unterstützung und andere Formen der Programmfinanzierung (programmbasierte Herangehensweisen) einen bedeutenden Block bei der neuen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit. Nach einer einführenden Darstellung der konstitutiven Elemente der programmorientierten Entwicklungszusammenarbeit diskutiert der Beitrag zunächst die notwendigen Ausrichtungen auf der Geberseite, um programmatische Ansätze so effektiv wie möglich zu unterstützen. Hier stehen die Bedingungen, welche die Finanzierung dieser Vorhaben begleiten, im Mittelpunkt des Interesses. Im Anschluss werden die zentralen Anforderungen an die Strukturen und Prozesse für eine erfolgreiche Einführung von programmbasierten Ansätzen in den Entwicklungsländern erörtert. Dabei fokussieren die Ausführungen auf die Budgets, deren Strukturierung und Qualität für die Implementierung von armutsreduzierenden Strategien entscheidend sind. Abschließend werden die bisherigen Erfahrungen mit den neuen Instrumenten der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit zusammengefasst und beschrieben. (ICG2

Memorandum zur Neubegründung der deutschen Afrikapolitik - Frieden und Entwicklung durch strukturelle Stabilität

Thesen: These 1: Afrika südlich der Sahara hat sich in den letzten 40 Jahren politisch, ökonomisch und sozial erheblich differenziert. These 2: Für eine wachsende Zahl von Staaten wird "Entwicklung" im Sinne nachhaltiger Entwicklung und von Armutsminderung über einen sehr langen Zeitraum unmöglich bleiben. These 3: Entwicklungspolitik allein ist mit den Herausforderungen Afrikas überfordert; deutsche Politik im nationalen Alleingang ist dies auch. These 4: Ein radikales Nachdenken über die politischen Implikationen dieser Einsichten kann nur zu folgender Schlussfolgerung führen: Eine neue deutsche Afrikapolitik muss kohärent politisiert und konsequent europäisiert werden. These 5: Eine neu begründete deutsche Afrikapolitik sollte sich dem Ziel der strukturellen Stabilität verschreiben

Progettazione e realizzazione di un sistema di refertazione specialistico-ambulatoriale

Come per tutte le strutture che erogano servizi sanitari, lo scopo di un ospedale è quello di soddisfare il bisogno di cure degli assistiti, nel rispetto della loro persona, offrendo un servizio di qualità. Nel caso di strutture private o enti ecclesiastici, che non sono supportate da finanziamenti dello Stato, l’attività di assistenza è inoltre organizzata in maniera tale da ottimizzare i costi, cercare di rendere sempre più efficienti le risorse a disposizione e quindi ridurre gli sprechi. I sistemi informativi ospedalieri hanno certamente contribuito al supporto delle operazioni svolte nei percorsi assistenziali e della comunicazione di informazioni cliniche dei pazienti all'interno della struttura tra il personale sanitario. Attualmente anche il web può essere considerata una risorsa e come tale può essere sfruttata per migliorare il servizio offerto, creare valore per i pazienti e ridurre lo spreco di risorse. Proprio grazie a questa consapevolezza, l’Agenzia per l’Italia Digitale ha stabilito un piano di intervento per promuovere le tecnologie ICT a supporto della pubblica amministrazione, e quindi anche in ambito sanitario. Il lavoro di questa tesi è stato svolto, in convenzione con l’Università di Pisa, presso l'Ospedale Card. G. Panico di Tricase, un ente ecclesiastico classificato come Azienda Ospedaliera, desideroso di allinearsi agli obiettivi proposti da tali piani di intervento. La prima fase si è focalizzata su una panoramica delle azioni previste dall’AgID e sull’analisi del contatto aziendale e in particolare del SIO esistente a supporto dei processi nell’assistenza ai pazienti. Da tale analisi sono emerse delle criticità nella gestione attuale dei dati clinici ed è stato quindi proposto di intervenire realizzando un dossier sanitario digitale, prerogativa assoluta per contribuire a realizzare il Fascicolo Sanitario Elettronico. Dopo aver definito l’oggetto dell’intervento, si è passati ad una fase di analisi del contesto di lavoro, che ha incluso lo studio dei requisiti funzionali e non funzionali da soddisfare, delle risorse a disposizione, dei sistemi esistenti coi quali interagirà, degli standard internazionali usati in tale ambito, dei vincoli tecnici e giuridici, delle architetture impiegate in questo settore. Sulla base di tali analisi e ricerche, e considerate le esigenze aziendali esposte dalla Direzione Sanitaria e dal personale medico coinvolto, è stato possibile procedere alla progettazione dell’applicazione e del database a supporto; per poi completare il lavoro con lo sviluppo del progetto tramite strumenti validi e consolidati. Il frutto del lavoro di tesi è rappresentato da un'applicazione java enterprise, basata su web services, organizzata secondo il pattern architetturale MVVM col supporto del framework open-source ZK. Il lavoro svolto è strutturato in più capitoli, i quali ripercorrono le fasi di analisi, progettazione e sviluppo sopra descritte, e si conclude con alcune considerazioni finali su impieghi futuri e possibili estensioni dell'applicazione creata

Country Concepts and the Rational Actor Trap: Limitations to Strategic Management of International NGOs

Growing criticism of inefficient development aid demanded new planning instruments of donors, including international NGOs (INGOs). A reorientation from isolated project-planning towards holistic country concepts and the increasing rationality of a result-orientated planning process were seen as answer. However, whether these country concepts - newly introduced by major INGOs too - have increased the efficiency of development cooperation is open to question. Firstly, there have been counteracting external factors, like the globalization of the aid business, that demanded structural changes in the composition of INGO portfolios towards growing short-term humanitarian aid; this was hardly compatible with the requirements of medium-term country planning. Secondly, the underlying vision of rationality as a remedy for the major ills of development aid was in itself a fallacy. A major change in the methodology of planning, closely connected with a shift of emphasis in the approach to development cooperation, away from project planning and service delivery, towards supporting the socio-cultural and political environment of the recipient communities, demands a reorientation of aid management: The most urgent change needed is by donors, away from the blinkers of result-orientated planning towards participative organizational cultures of learning.Des critiques croissantes de l'aide au développement inefficace exigent de nouveaux instruments de planification des bailleurs de fonds, y compris les ONG internationales (ONGI). Une réorientation de la planification des projets isolés vers des concepts holistiques de la planification de l’aide par pays ainsi que la rationalité croissante d'un processus de planification orientée vers les résultats ont été considérés comme réponse. Toutefois, si ces concepts de pays - nouvellement introduites par les grandes OING eux aussi - ont augmenté l'efficacité de la coopération au développement est ouvert à la question. Tout d'abord, il y a eu l’impact des facteurs externes, comme la mondialisation de l'entreprise de l'aide, qui a exigé des changements structurels dans la composition des portefeuilles des OING vers la croissance de l'aide humanitaire à court terme. Cela était difficilement compatible avec les exigences de l'aménagement du territoire à moyen terme. Deuxièmement, la vision sous-jacente de la rationalité accrue de la planification, concentré sur les resultats, comme un remède pour les grands maux de l'aide au développement était en soi une erreur. Un changement majeur dans la méthodologie de la planification, étroitement liée à un changement d'orientation dans l'approche de la coopération au développement, qui n’est pas concentrer sur planification du projet et la prestation de services, mais qui soutienne l'environnement socio-culturel et politique des communautés bénéficiaires, exige une réorientation de la gestion de l’aide: Le changement le plus urgent est un changement par les donateurs eux-mêmes, qui devrait implanter des cultures de collaboration étroit avec les partenaires et la population locale

Sarcoma classification by DNA methylation profiling

Sarcomas are malignant soft tissue and bone tumours affecting adults, adolescents and children. They represent a morphologically heterogeneous class of tumours and some entities lack defining histopathological features. Therefore, the diagnosis of sarcomas is burdened with a high inter-observer variability and misclassification rate. Here, we demonstrate classification of soft tissue and bone tumours using a machine learning classifier algorithm based on array-generated DNA methylation data. This sarcoma classifier is trained using a dataset of 1077 methylation profiles from comprehensively pre-characterized cases comprising 62 tumour methylation classes constituting a broad range of soft tissue and bone sarcoma subtypes across the entire age spectrum. The performance is validated in a cohort of 428 sarcomatous tumours, of which 322 cases were classified by the sarcoma classifier. Our results demonstrate the potential of the DNA methylation-based sarcoma classification for research and future diagnostic applications

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio

Search for stop and higgsino production using diphoton Higgs boson decays

Results are presented of a search for a "natural" supersymmetry scenario with gauge mediated symmetry breaking. It is assumed that only the supersymmetric partners of the top-quark (stop) and the Higgs boson (higgsino) are accessible. Events are examined in which there are two photons forming a Higgs boson candidate, and at least two b-quark jets. In 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, recorded in the CMS experiment, no evidence of a signal is found and lower limits at the 95% confidence level are set, excluding the stop mass below 360 to 410 GeV, depending on the higgsino mass

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good