Accountability of Social Economy Organizations: Challenges and Conflicts

The provision of public services has changed significantly over the years. One of the more recent changes has involved the increased delivery of public services by non-governmental organizations, whether these organizations be private in nature or belong to the so-called third sector. The third sector is known by a number of different terms, including the non-profit sector, the voluntary sector, civil society, and the social economy. Of particular interest in this study are those social economy organizations (SEOs) that receive the whole or a part of their revenue from the government. These organizations must be accountable to the government for the funds that government provides to them. The purpose of this accountability is to ensure SEOs undertake their obligations to use public resources effectively and to deliver quality public services. One potential accountability challenge involves the limitations associated with the performance evaluation of SEOs, since performance is often not easily observable. Performance is comprised of two parts: the work done by the organization (output) and the impact of this work (outcome). The difficulty in the observation of both outputs and outcomes may result in a conflict for the SEOs between focusing on observable parts of their work that can be more readily measured and reported to meet accountability requirements versus work with less tangible outputs and outcomes. In a funding agreement between an SEO and government, the SEO might have to agree with government requirements, for instance, to follow standardized procedures so that the government can monitor the observable aspects of its work. This requirement may conflict with the SEO’s desire to focus on things that are not observable, and consequently not funded by the government, but are important to the SEO’s mission and social goals. The goal of this research study is to examine the challenges that arise in the operation of SEOs, given that they need to be responsive to government’s expectations and at the same time follow their mission requirements. In-depth interviews were used to examine the extent to which outputs and outcomes are unobservable in SEOs as well as the possible conflicts that might arise between competing objectives within SEOs. Interview participants are three SEO executive directors and one manager, each of whom is responsible for the work carried out by his or her respective SEO. A government employee involved in providing funding to one of the SEOs was also interviewed. The results of this study suggest that the SEOs that were examined have varying degrees of unobservable outputs and outcomes. This study also found that organizations with a greater percentage of unobservable outputs and outcomes experienced a greater degree of conflict in their relationships with government. One of the reasons for the conflict is that the SEO personnel felt that the government focused its attention too much on the observable outputs/outcomes and not enough on outputs and outcomes that, although unobservable, were nevertheless important to clients and the public. Moreover, the SEOs examined in this study that serve specific groups of clients, such as seniors or immigrants, experienced less conflict than those whose services (e.g., increasing environmental sustainability) target the general public. The results of this research have implications for the way in which government structures its activities. Over the last 25-30 years, governments have, through New Public Management (NPM), privatized the provision of public services and encouraged greater competition in the delivery of public services. The results of the analysis carried out in this thesis suggest that this restructuring may not be as effective in situations where the services are directed toward the general public and/or where the services provided involve unobservable outputs and outcomes. The added conflict that appears to accompany these situations suggests that there may be goals and objectives that are important to society but are not being met through the contractual relationship established between the government and the SEO. Since NPM is expected to remain in place, government may wish to find ways of better addressing important unobservable outputs and outcomes. One suggestion, drawn from the interviews with SEOs, is that the government officials who are assigned to work with SEOs should have a good knowledge of the SEOs and be familiar with their missions and functions. This knowledge and familiarity might enable the government officials to evaluate the degree to which non-observable outputs and outcomes are being provided, which in turn might reduce conflict and ensure a better provision of services to clients and the public

Dominant protozoan’s in Karoon River Water, Ahwaz city, Iran

Karoon River is the main source of drinking, industrial and agricultural utility in Ahwaz city. Protozoans are useful indicators for river water pollution. The aim of this study was to identify and enumerate Dominant protozoans in Karoon Water River, Ahwaz city. In this descriptive study, we took samples from 3 points of karoon river in Ahwaz city boundaries (upstream- uptake point for water treatment plant, middle and downstream) in two seasons (dry and wet). Samples prepared and examined by optic microscope. The results showed 6 species of mastigophora and ciliophora. Most prevalent species were Monosiga fusiformis, Bodocaudatus ، Cercomonas Longicauda، Cercomonas Crassicauda، Tetramitus descissus And Stalked Ciliate. The seasonal variation difference was statistically significant. Minimum concentration was in January (less than 1 cell /lit) and maximum was in October (1600 cell/ lit). The average concentration of protozoans was 129.68 cells/ lit. Protozoans in 3 sampling stations were statistically different, where in 2 and 3 stations Bodocaudatus, Cercomonas Longicauda, Cercomonas Crassicauda, and Tetramitusdescissus were dominant. Identified protozoan species indicate pollution of Karoon River by sewage discharge

Implementation of New Multiple Access Technique Encoder for 5G Wireless Telecomunication Networks

RÉSUMÉ Les exigences de la connectivité mobile massive de différents appareils et de diverses applications déterminent les besoins des prochaines générations de technologies mobiles (5G) afin de surmonter les demandes futures. L'expansion significative de la connectivité et de la densité du trafic caractérisent les besoins de la cinquième génération de réseaux mobiles. Par conséquent, pour la 5G, il est nécessaire d'avoir une densité de connectivité beaucoup plus élevée et une plus grande portée de mobilité, un débit beaucoup plus élevé et une latence beaucoup plus faible. En raison de l'exigence d'une connectivité massive, de nombreuses nouvelles technologies doivent être améliorées: le codage des canaux, la technique d'accès multiple, la modulation et la diversité, etc. Par conséquent, compte tenu de l'environnement 5G, surcoût de signalisation et de la latence devrait être pris en compte [1]. En outre, l'application de la virtualisation des accès sans fil (WAV) devrait également être considérée et, par conséquent, il est également nécessaire de concevoir la plate-forme matérielle prenant en charge les nouvelles normes pour la mise en œuvre des émetteurs-récepteurs virtuels. L'une des nouvelles technologies possibles pour la 5G est l'accès multiple pour améliorer le débit. Par conséquent, au lieu d'OFDMA utilisé dans la norme LTE (4G), l'application d'une nouvelle technique d'accès multiple appelée Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) est investiguée dans cette dissertation. SCMA est une nouvelle technique d'accès multiple non orthogonale du domaine fréquentiel proposée pour améliorer l'efficacité spectrale de l'accès radio sans fil [2]. L'encodage SCMA est l'un des algorithmes les plus simples dans les techniques d'accès multiple qui offre l'opportunité d'expérimenter des méthodes génériques de mise en oeuvre. En outre, la nouvelle méthode d'accès multiple est supposée fournir un débit plus élevé. Le choix du codage SCMA avec moins de complexité pourrait être une approche appropriée. La cible fixée pour cette recherche était d'atteindre un débit d’encodage de plus de 1 Gbps pour le codeur SCMA. Les implémentations de codage SCMA ont été effectuées à la fois en logiciel et en matériel pour permettre de les comparer. Les implémentations logicielles ont été développées avec le langage de programmation C. Parmi plusieurs conceptions, la performance a été améliorée en utilisant différentes méthodes pour augmenter le parallélisme, diminuer la complexité de calcul et par conséquent le temps de traitement.----------ABSTRACT The demands of massive mobile connectivity of different devices and diverse applications at the same time set requirments for next generations of mobile technology (5G). The significant expansion of connectivity and traffic density characterize the requirements of fifth generation mobile. Therefore, in 5G, there is a need to have much higher connectivity density, higher mobility ranges, much higher throughput, and much lower latency. In pursuance of the requirement of massive connectivity, numerous technologies must be improved: channel coding, multiple access technique, modulation and diversity, etc. For instance, with 5G, the cost of signaling overhead and latency should be taken into account [1]. Besides, applying wireless access virtualization (WAV) should be considered and there is also a need to have effective implementations supporting novel virtual transceiver. One of the possible new technologies for 5G is exploiting multiple access techniques to improve throughput. Therefore, instead of OFDMA in LTE (4G), applying a new multiple access technique called Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA) is an approach considered in this dissertation. SCMA is a new frequency domain non-orthogonal multiple access technique proposed to improve spectral efficiency of wireless radio access [2]. SCMA encoding is one of the simplest multiple access technique that offers an opportunity to experiment generic implementation methods. In addition, the new multiple access method is supposed to provide higher throughput, thus choosing SCMA encoding with less complexity could be an appropriate approach. The target with SCMA was to achieve an encoding throughput of more that 1Gbps. SCMA encoding implementations were done both in software and hardware to allow comparing them. The software implementations were developed with the C programing language. Among several designs, the performance was improved by using different methods to increase parallelism, decrease the computational complexity and consequently the processing time. The best achieved results with software implementations offer a 3.59 Gbps throughput, which is 3.5 times more that the target. For hardware implementation, high level synthesis was experimented. In order to do that, the C based functions and testbenches which were developed for software implementations, were used as inputs to Vivado HLS

Evaluation of the Efficacy of Surgery for Treatment of Septal Perforation

Background: The majority of septal perforations are caused by trauma either with or without infection. In most of the cases trauma is related to the surgery.Methods:   Twenty patients with nasal perforation who underwent surgery from 2008 to 2011were retrospectively evaluated. Three different surgical approaches were used: bilateral rotational advancement flap of nose floor with fascia through open rhinoplasty, bilateral rotational advancement flap of nose floor with using cartilage through closed method and inferior turbinate rotational flap.Results: After the surgery, all symptoms disappeared and examinations of healing regions in fifteen patients showed that the perforation was completely healed. In five patients, the perforation size reduced.Conclusion: Inferior turbinate flap in small perforations would be a logical method with ideal results. In cases with perforation size of one centimeter or larger and in more posterior types, the external method is recommended for a better exposure

The Effect of Hemispheric Dominance on Learning Vocabulary Strategies among Iranian EFL Learners

Vocabulary is one of the skills that students need for success in their studies and as some teachers believe, the students have different vocabulary skills and they use different strategies when they try to recall new vocabularies. The purpose of the study is to investigate the variable impact of two types of vocabulary instruction including context clues, and word parts on adult students' competence in the first place and studying the relationship between the effect of left or right hemispheric dominance on teaching vocabulary leaning strategies. Ninety students from six intact classes were selected for the purpose of this study. The participants consist of female Iranian EFL learners at intermediate level. Each intact class was randomly selected as an experimental group and a control group. Their level of English proficiency was determined on the basis of their scores on the TOEFL proficiency test. After hemispheric dominance questionnaire was administered, the learners in experimental group were divided into right-hemisphere and left-hemisphere group. The experimental group were taught context clue and word part vocabulary strategy while it was not the case for the control group. The results showed that teaching vocabulary strategies play a significant role in developing the level of the learners’ vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, left-dominant learners had better performance in learning vocabulary after they were taught vocabulary strategies, in comparison to right-dominant learners. As a conclusion, it can be said that investigating hemispheric dominance and learning styles from the aspects of curriculum, teaching process and teachers will contribute significantly to the Iranian Education

The Effect of Hemispheric Dominance on Learning Vocabulary Strategies among Iranian EFL Learners

Vocabulary is one of the skills that students need for success in their studies and as some teachers believe, the students have different vocabulary skills and they use different strategies when they try to recall new vocabularies. The purpose of the study is to investigate the variable impact of two types of vocabulary instruction including context clues, and word parts on adult students' competence in the first place and studying the relationship between the effect of left or right hemispheric dominance on teaching vocabulary leaning strategies. Ninety students from six intact classes were selected for the purpose of this study. The participants consist of female Iranian EFL learners at intermediate level. Each intact class was randomly selected as an experimental group and a control group. Their level of English proficiency was determined on the basis of their scores on the TOEFL proficiency test. After hemispheric dominance questionnaire was administered, the learners in experimental group were divided into right-hemisphere and left-hemisphere group. The experimental group were taught context clue and word part vocabulary strategy while it was not the case for the control group. The results showed that teaching vocabulary strategies play a significant role in developing the level of the learners’ vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, left-dominant learners had better performance in learning vocabulary after they were taught vocabulary strategies, in comparison to right-dominant learners. As a conclusion, it can be said that investigating hemispheric dominance and learning styles from the aspects of curriculum, teaching process and teachers will contribute significantly to the Iranian Education

The Effect of Hemispheric Dominance on Learning Vocabulary Strategies among Iranian EFL Learners

Vocabulary is one of the skills that students need for success in their studies and as some teachers believe, the students have different vocabulary skills and they use different strategies when they try to recall new vocabularies. The purpose of the study is to investigate the variable impact of two types of vocabulary instruction including context clues, and word parts on adult students' competence in the first place and studying the relationship between the effect of left or right hemispheric dominance on teaching vocabulary leaning strategies. Ninety students from six intact classes were selected for the purpose of this study. The participants consist of female Iranian EFL learners at intermediate level. Each intact class was randomly selected as an experimental group and a control group. Their level of English proficiency was determined on the basis of their scores on the TOEFL proficiency test. After hemispheric dominance questionnaire was administered, the learners in experimental group were divided into right-hemisphere and left-hemisphere group. The experimental group were taught context clue and word part vocabulary strategy while it was not the case for the control group. The results showed that teaching vocabulary strategies play a significant role in developing the level of the learners’ vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, left-dominant learners had better performance in learning vocabulary after they were taught vocabulary strategies, in comparison to right-dominant learners. As a conclusion, it can be said that investigating hemispheric dominance and learning styles from the aspects of curriculum, teaching process and teachers will contribute significantly to the Iranian Education