Chapter 6 Norwegian–Russian political relations and Barents oil and gas developments

The political relationship between Norway and Russia will influence the development of Barents Sea oil and gas. The state plays a decisive role in both the Norwegian and Russian parts of the sea. It does so as a regulator, through taxation, and through the national oil and gas companies, Gazprom, Rosneft, and Statoil. Thus, if the two states have a good relationship characterized by mutual trust, they can coordinate, search for complementarities, and mitigate issues that arise. Furthermore, due to the rising cost of oil and gas production in the Arctic, many oil and gas fields there may deliver small returns on investments. Scale economies brought about by coordinated development, joint infrastructure, and information sharing can tip projects from being commercially unviable to viable. But this depends on the ability and willingness of the two states to actively work together

Political Instability and Growth in Dictatorships

We model growth in dictatorships facing each period an endogenous probability of ``political catastrophe'' that would extinguish the regime's wealth extraction ability. Domestic capital exhibits a bifurcation point determining economic growth or shrinkage. With low initial domestic capital the dictator plunders the country's resources and the economy shrinks. With high initial domestic capital the economy eventually grows faster than is socially optimal.dictatorship, growth, political economy, bifurcation

Communications and tracking expert systems study

The original objectives of the study consisted of five broad areas of investigation: criteria and issues for explanation of communication and tracking system anomaly detection, isolation, and recovery; data storage simplification issues for fault detection expert systems; data selection procedures for decision tree pruning and optimization to enhance the abstraction of pertinent information for clear explanation; criteria for establishing levels of explanation suited to needs; and analysis of expert system interaction and modularization. Progress was made in all areas, but to a lesser extent in the criteria for establishing levels of explanation suited to needs. Among the types of expert systems studied were those related to anomaly or fault detection, isolation, and recovery

Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: Consequences for Global Decarbonization

Russia is the world's largest energy exporter by a wide margin. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Western sanctions against Russia will therefore affect many parts of the global energy system. Worldwide investments in renewable energy will be incentivized by the higher fossil fuel prices. Petrostates will likely benefit from higher oil and gas prices for a few years, only to eventually experience a steeper decline than previously foreseen. Germany and other European countries may find that they are no longer suitable locations for energy-intensive industries. China might find itself in an advantageous position, importing fossil fuels cheaply from Russia even as international demand for clean energy equipment made in China skyrockets. The outlook for blue hydrogen has worsened, while that for green hydrogen has improved

ILCP: Enhancing Your Students\u27 Authentic Leadership Potential through Building Emotional Intelligence

Did you know there is a resource on campus that will help your students enhance their emotional intelligence quotient resulting in expanded authentic value based leadership skill development? The Inspiring Leaders Certificate Program (ILCP), has provided values-based leadership development courses in seven certificate levels to more than 9,342 participants since 2006. Come learn how ILCP can work with you to be a resource for you and your students to build emotional intelligence resulting in more authentic values-based leadership capacity as our students leave CSB/SJU to make a difference

A Dynamic Model of Differential Human Capital and Criminal Activity

This paper presents a new, dynamic economic model of criminal activity. Individuals are endowed with legal and criminal human capital. Potential incomes in legal and criminal sectors depend on the level of the relevant human capital, the rate of return, and random shocks. Both types of human capital can be enhanced by participating in the relevant sector. Legal human capital can also be enhanced through savings. Each type of human capital is subject to depreciation. Individuals maximize expected discounted lifetime utility, which depends on consumption. In this two-stage dynamic stochastic model, in each period the individual decides in which sector to participate (legal or illegal), and after the realization of income in that period, he decides on the optimal amount of consumption. A particular decision (e.g. participation in the criminal sector) has implications both for future decisions as well as the choices available to the individual in later periods. The model allows analyses of the effects of recessions, neighborhood effects, various imprisonment/rehabilitation scenarios, risk aversion, and time preferences on criminal behavior. It provides new insights, which are different from existing models, and it is able to explain the declining propensity of individuals to commit crimes over time.

Comparison of Effects of Change from 8 to 12 Hour Shifts on Air Force Aircraft Maintenance Workers

This study examined the effects of converting from an 8 hour shift system to a 12 hour system on aircraft maintenance personnel. The squadron had converted its 24 hour operations from an 8 hour shift schedule to a 12 hour shift schedule in stages, changing one group first and then another. A smaller third group of workers remained on 8 hour shifts. Individual differences in job related outcomes and situational constraints were measured for all three groups. Results showed that changing from 8 to 12 hour shifts affected worker well-being and morale, as indicated by an increase in hospital visits after the switch to 12 hour shifts and the difference in levels of morale between 12 hour shift personnel and those remaining on 8 hour shifts

Factors that affect the delivery of diabetes care.

Diabetes is emerging as a major threat to health, with global economic and social implications. Recent research has shown that the morbidity and mortality associated with diabetes can be reduced by timely and effective treatment. However, unless people with diabetes have access to this treatment, the impact of diabetes will continue to rise. This thesis therefore explores the current standards of care which people with diabetes receive. It also looks at factors likely to impact on delivery of diabetes care. Studies were conducted at two levels. In the studies described in Chapters 2 and 3, general data applicable to all or nearly all patients with diabetes were collected. This approach substantially eliminates selection bias but precludes the ability to examine clinical outcomes. In the other studies, detailed in Chapters 4, 5 and 6, specific aspects of diabetes care pertaining to more select groups of diabetic subjects were examined. This approach allows clinical parameters to be examined in more detail but is more subject to selection bias. It is hoped that the combination of these two approaches provides a more balanced view of the topic under examination. In Australia, the Medicare Program, a single government controlled universal health insurance fund, provides access to medical services for all residents. Medicare occasions of service data therefore represent the most comprehensive source of information regarding health service utilisation in Australia. The data does not account for people receiving diabetes care through public hospital based services. However, a survey of public hospitals within NSW (n=198), described in Chapter 2, showed that the number of individuals in this category is relatively small and represents only 5.2% of the diabetic population. Using Medicare item codes, and with the permission and assistance of the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, data were extracted on attendance to medical practitioners and utilisation of diabetes related procedures for people living in New South Wales (NSW) for the individual years between 1993 to 1997. All data were stratified by the presence of diabetes, gender and age group. Individuals were deemed to have diabetes if an HbA1c, which can only be ordered for a person with known diabetes, had been performed over the 5-year period and the sample size adjusted for the incidence of diabetes. Once adjusted, the number of people with diabetes in NSW for the individual years 1993 to 1997 were 143,920, 156,234, 168,216, 177,280 and 185,780. Comparison with 1996 census data confirmed a 91.7% capture of the total NSW population (5,495,900/5,995,545 individuals). The data were retrieved for NSW as a whole and for individual postcodes. Postcodes were then classified by population density as either major urban, urban or rural. On average over the study period, persons with diabetes accounted for 3.1% of the population but they used 5.5% of general practitioner services. As seen in Chapter 2, a large proportion of people with diabetes were also under the care of specialists and consultant physicians, up to 51.2% and 41.8% respectively, a 3 to 4 fold increase when compared with their non-diabetic counterparts. In regard to geographical location, once adjusted for age and gender, the odds ratio of attending a specialist was only slightly higher for people with diabetes living in areas of high population density when compared to people with diabetes living in rural areas. This ratio reached as high as 1.85 in regard to attendance to consultant physicians (Chapter 3). The odds ratio for the non-diabetic population was similar indicating that the difference in access to consultant physicians was not disease specific. Analysis of results showed that despite the increase in service utilisation, large proportions of people with diabetes were not routinely monitored in regard to diabetes and its complications across the State. By 1997, HbA1c was still not performed in over 40% of people with diabetes each year and only 11.6% of the diabetic population had undergone microalbuminuria estimation. Interestingly, the differences in levels of monitoring between rural and urban areas were surprisingly small. Monitoring of diabetes and its complications did improve in all parts of the State over the study period. However, the greatest improvement was seen in rural areas, despite rural patients having fewer attendances to general practitioners and fewer patients attending specialist care. In the face of finite resources and the rising prevalence of diabetes, an increasing number of patients will need to rely on general practitioners to provide diabetes care regardless of where they live. A 'shared care' approach which encourages and supports general practitioners to manage patients with diabetes, while giving them access to specialist services for those patients that require them, is increasingly being advocated as a way of maximising efficacy while minimising costs. Yet if health care professionals leave undone what they think is done by others, shared care can become neglected care. Chapter 4 reports a detailed audit of 200 randomly selected shared care patients who were assessed on two or more occasions. This study showed that the majority of specialist treatment recommendations are implemented by general practitioners. Doctors formally registered with the Diabetes Shared Care Programme and those who write longer referral letters were more likely to implement recommendations than their counterparts. Moreover, the average HbA1c and the complication profile of these patients were similar to those found in various studies around the world. This suggests that diabetes can be well managed by a shared care approach that is adequately integrated. To overcome the problem that data is lacking on those patients that did not return for specialist review, a further 200 shared care patients who were lost to follow up from the shared care system were traced. Information regarding whether treatment recommendations had been implemented was sought from both the referring doctor and the patient. Overall, information on 182 of the 200 patients could be obtained. As discussed in Chapter 5, comparison of the returned and non returned patients' demographic and clinical profiles at time of their initial specialist review showed that general practitioners differentiated between the 'more complicated' patients, choosing to re-refer those with macrovascular disease, while maintaining the care of 'less complicated' patients. Re-referral for specialist review was also dependent on the patient remaining under the care of their original doctor. Encouragingly, general practitioners seemed to take a more active role in the non-returned group. They included more details regarding type and duration of diabetes in the referral letters of patients who were not re-referred for specialist review. They also implemented more treatment recommendations in the non-returned group, with the difference in implementation rate for metabolic recommendations reaching statistical significance. This study also showed that movement of patients between doctors raises concern regarding continuity of care. The multi-factorial nature of diabetes means that best practice is not easily accommodated within a single appointment. Thus continuity of care becomes an important issue. To assess the current status, 479 consecutive patients referred to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Diabetes Centre in a 6-month period were recruited and underwent a detailed clinical assessment. They were also questioned regarding the number of general practitioners they attended and the length of time they had been under the care of the referring doctor. The results outlined in Chapter 6 showed that the majority of people with diabetes (87.7%) attended only one general practitioner and had been under the care of that doctor medium to long term. Younger patients, who were relatively healthy apart from the presence of diabetes, were more likely to attend several general practitioners or have changed their general practitioner within the last year. This lack of continuity had little difference on acute outcomes such as glycaemic and blood pressure control. Appropriately, continuity of care increased with increasing age and the increasing prevalence of diabetes complications, mainly macrovascular disease. These studies indicate that further efforts are required to improve the overall standard of diabetes care within Australia. At present there is a heavy dependency on specialist services. As the population ages and the number of people with diabetes increases, much of this burden will fall on general practitioners, as is already evident in rural areas. When provided with appropriate support and infrastructure, general practitioners are able to maintain standards of care through referral of patients with more complex medical problems and by maintaining the degree of continuity appropriate to the patient's needs. However, the collection of relevant information to monitor future trends in diabetes services provision is important. As shown in this thesis, Medicare data represents an easy and cost effective method with which to do so