452 research outputs found
Koreas Experiences with Development: Revisiting MDGs from a Time Perspective
As interest in Millennium Development Goals surges, criticism targeting
their applicability to developing and underdeveloped countries has also
sharply increased. While Millennium Development Goals highlight important
development goals, targets, and indices, they lack a time perspective. Koreas
experience suggests that it is impractical to pursue all developmental goals
simultaneously. Instead, prioritizing goals based on country-specific contexts
and approaching them sequentially is an approach better suited to underdeveloped
and developing countries, because of their limited resources and underdeveloped
social conditions, and can be more effective in achieving multiple goals
in the long term
Time Factors in Policy Performance: The Korean Governments Economic Crisis Management in 2008
This paper assesses the Korean governments management of the
recent economic crisis by focusing on time factors. The events that occurred
from March 2008 to October 2009 and the governments corrective actions are
interpreted through a time lens that accounts for the temporal constraints in
terms of objective time as well as perceptive time. These two time domains have
significant effects on the management of public policies, especially economic
policies that require government interventions that affect the complex interactions
of economic factors from both the fiscal policy and market perspectives. In
order to illustrate the importance of long-term strategy, this study reviews the
evolution of the economic situation following the onset of the financial crisis.
Our retrospective analysis does not find that the Lee Myung-Bak government
deployed strategies relevant for the long term, but rather that President Lees
authoritarian attitude itself may help him fuel the economy for a long time.
Regardless of the causes, this case emphasizes the need for consistency in policy
making, especially when the policy areas particularities require it.This was supported by Seoul National University Foundation in 2009
Public attitudes towards alcohol control policies in Scotland and England: Results from a mixed-methods study
The harmful effects of heavy drinking on health have been widely reported, yet public opinion on governmental responsibility for alcohol control remains divided. This study examines UK public attitudes towards alcohol policies, identifies underlying dimensions that inform these, and relationships with perceived effectiveness. A cross-sectional mixed methods study involving a telephone survey of 3477 adult drinkers aged 16-65 and sixteen focus groups with 89 adult drinkers in Scotland and England was conducted between September 2012 and February 2013. Principal components analysis (PCA) was used to reduce twelve policy statements into underlying dimensions. These dimensions were used in linear regression models examining alcohol policy support by demographics, drinking behaviour and perceptions of UK drinking and government responsibility. Findings were supplemented with a thematic analysis of focus group transcripts. A majority of survey respondents supported all alcohol policies, although the level of support varied by type of policy. Greater enforcement of laws on under-age sales and more police patrolling the streets were strongly supported while support for pricing policies and restricting access to alcohol was more divided. PCA identified four main dimensions underlying support on policies: alcohol availability, provision of health information and treatment services, alcohol pricing, and greater law enforcement. Being female, older, a moderate drinker, and holding a belief that government should do more to reduce alcohol harms were associated with higher support on all policy dimensions. Focus group data revealed findings from the survey may have presented an overly positive level of support on all policies due to differences in perceived policy effectiveness. Perceived effectiveness can help inform underlying patterns of policy support and should be considered in conjunction with standard measures of support in future research on alcohol control policies
Investment strategies and compensation of a mean-variance optimizing fund manager
This paper introduces a general continuous-time mathematical framework for solution of dynamic mean–variance control problems. We obtain theoretical results for two classes of functionals: the first one depends on the whole trajectory of the controlled process and the second one is based on its terminal-time value. These results enable the development of numerical methods for mean–variance problems for a pre-determined risk-aversion coefficient. We apply them to study optimal trading strategies pursued by fund managers in response to various types of compensation schemes. In particular, we examine the effects of continuous monitoring and scheme’s symmetry on trading behavior and fund performance
Role of vitamin D supplementation in modifying outcomes after surgery:a systematic review of randomised controlled trials
Background: There is increasing evidence to suggest vitamin D plays a role in immune and vascular function; hence, it may be of biological and clinical relevance for patients undergoing major surgery. With a greater number of randomised studies being conducted evaluating the impact of vitamin D supplementation on surgical patients, it is an opportune time to conduct further analysis of the impact of vitamin D on surgical outcomes. Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Trials Register were interrogated up to December 2023 to identify randomised controlled trials of vitamin D supplementation in surgery. The risk of bias in the included studies was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. A narrative synthesis was conducted for all studies. The primary outcome assessed was overall postoperative survival. Results: We screened 4883 unique studies, assessed 236 full-text articles and included 14 articles in the qualitative synthesis, comprising 1982 patients. The included studies were highly heterogeneous with respect to patient conditions, ranging from open heart surgery to cancer operations to orthopaedic conditions, and also with respect to the timing and equivalent daily dose of vitamin D supplementation (range: 0.5–7500 mcg; 20–300 000 IU). No studies reported significant differences in overall survival or postoperative mortality with vitamin D supplementation. There was also no clear evidence of benefit with respect to overall or intensive care unit length of stay. Discussion: Numerous studies have reported the benefits of vitamin D supplementation in different surgical settings without any consistency. However, this systematic review found no clear evidence of benefit, which warrants the supposition that a single biological effect of vitamin D supplementation does not exist. The observed improvement in outcomes in low vitamin D groups has not been convincingly proven beyond chance findings. Trial registration number: CRD42021232067
Assisted reproductive technology in the USA: is more regulation needed?
The regulation of assisted reproductive technologies is a contested area. Some jurisdictions, such as the UK and a number of Australian states, have comprehensive regulation of most aspects of assisted reproductive technologies; others, such as the USA, have taken a more piecemeal approach and rely on professional guidelines and the general regulation of medical practice to govern this area. It will be argued that such a laissez-faire approach is inadequate for regulating the complex area of assisted reproductive technologies. Two key examples, reducing multiple births and registers of donors and offspring, will be considered to illustrate the effects of the regulatory structure of assisted reproductive technologies in the USA on practice. It will be concluded that the regulatory structure in the USA fails to provide an adequate mechanism for ensuring the ethical and safe conduct of ART services, and that more comprehensive regulation is required
Open Problems in DAOs
Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are a new, rapidly-growing
class of organizations governed by smart contracts. Here we describe how
researchers can contribute to the emerging science of DAOs and other
digitally-constituted organizations. From granular privacy primitives to
mechanism designs to model laws, we identify high-impact problems in the DAO
ecosystem where existing gaps might be tackled through a new data set or by
applying tools and ideas from existing research fields such as political
science, computer science, economics, law, and organizational science. Our
recommendations encompass exciting research questions as well as promising
business opportunities. We call on the wider research community to join the
global effort to invent the next generation of organizations
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