Academic literature on the topic 'Committee of Allocation'

Background Funding committees, comprising members with a range of knowledge, skills, and experience, are considered integral to the decision-making process of funding organisations for recommending or allocating research funding. However, there is limited research investigating the decision-making processes, the role of members and their social interactions during funding committee meetings conducted both virtually and face-to-face. Methods Using a mixed-methods design and following netnography principles, the study observed nine National Institute for Health and Care Research programmes funding committee meetings conducted virtually during October 2020 to December 2021; complemented by interviews with committee chairs and members (18 interviews) and NIHR staff (12 interviews); an online survey (50 responses); and documentary analysis. Personal reflections through immersive journals also formed part of the analysis. Results Three main themes were identified from the observations, interviews, and online survey: efficiency of virtual committee meetings (importance of preparation, and the role of formality, process, and structure); understanding the effect of virtual committee meetings on well-being (effects of fatigue and apprehension, and the importance of work life balance); understanding social interactions and engagement (levels of engagement, contribution and inclusivity, awareness of unconscious bias and the value of social networking). Conclusions Examining the decision-making practices of one funding organisation across several research programmes, across multiple committee meetings over one year has generated new insights around funding committee practices that previous studies have not been able to explore or investigate. Overall, it was observed that fair and transparent funding recommendations and outcomes can be achieved through virtual funding committees. However, whilst virtual funding committees have many benefits and opportunities, such as the potential to increase membership diversity and inclusivity, and be more environmentally sustainable, more evidence is needed to evaluate their effectiveness, with particular focus on issues of fatigue, engagement, and committee cohesion, especially when new committee members join.

Background Funding committees, comprising members with a range of knowledge, skills, and experience, are considered integral to the decision-making process of funding organisations for recommending or allocating research funding. However, there is limited research investigating the decision-making processes, the role of members and their social interactions during funding committee meetings conducted both virtually and face-to-face. Methods Using a mixed-methods design and following netnography principles, the study observed nine National Institute for Health and Care Research programmes funding committee meetings conducted virtually during October 2020 to December 2021; complemented by interviews with committee chairs and members (18 interviews) and NIHR staff (12 interviews); an online survey (50 responses); and documentary analysis. Personal reflections through immersive journals also formed part of the analysis. Results Three main themes were identified from the observations, interviews, and online survey: efficiency of virtual committee meetings (importance of preparation, and the role of formality, process, and structure); understanding the effect of virtual committee meetings on well-being (effects of fatigue and apprehension, and the importance of work life balance); understanding social interactions and engagement (levels of engagement, contribution and inclusivity, awareness of unconscious bias and the value of social networking). Conclusions Examining the decision-making practices of one funding organisation across several research programmes, across multiple committee meetings over one year has generated new insights around funding committee practices that previous studies have not been able to explore or investigate. Overall, it was observed that fair and transparent funding recommendations and outcomes can be achieved through virtual funding committees. However, whilst virtual funding committees have many benefits and opportunities, such as the potential to increase membership diversity and inclusivity, and be more environmentally sustainable, more evidence is needed to evaluate their effectiveness, with particular focus on issues of fatigue, engagement, and committee cohesion, especially when new committee members join.

Weak allocation and procurement of funds in educational institutions, affects the educational process. The reason is that the budget is the main means of supporting and carrying out activities in education. The school committee is an organizational body that is held to support solutions, provide considerations, and complete the results of coordination through its role in communicating the institution by providing a positive image to the community and partners. One of the committee's roles as a supporting agency is to support procurement activities and the allocation of school budgets. The research approach used is descriptive qualitative, which then uses interview and observation data analysis techniques. The purpose of the study focused on social conditions in the role of the school committee's supporting agency in financing education. Research that has been carried out at Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Swasta Al-Ittihadiyah Al-Islamiyah (MIS AIAI) identified the following results: 1) the role of mobilizing the education financing budget with good management functions, 2) the committee carries out monitoring and evaluation to determine the level of effectiveness of the implementation of activities carried out, 3) Monitoring and evaluation is carried out by the committee (MIS AIAI) by holding committee meetings between the community and the school, and 4) The role in organizing the education budget is also pursued through visits to people who are in the capable category to support the education process.

Dealing with relationships on farmland is one of the most important issues in China. Since its reform and opening up, the policies of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers” have been embodied in the Central No. 1 document. The documents, which represent the purpose of China, reveal the strategic direction and development ideas of the state. Based on Central No. 1 documents published by the Central Committee of the CPC, and using the attention theory from psychology, we proposed PAI and PAD indicators to express the Central Committee of the CPC’s concern and direction on agriculture, and then measured the change in attention allocation of the Central Committee of the CPC’s land policy, as well as what is “new” in the land policy system. Results showed that: First, the attention allocation of the Central Committee of the CPC’s land policy (PAI) shows a wave-like upward trend from 3.9% to 5%, and has gone through the stage of contracting management to benefit people’s livelihoods and liberate productivity, the stage of allocating land resource elements under scientific use control, and the stage of expanding power and enabling capacity to promote the modernization of land management. Second, the policy attention direction (PAD) has experienced a process from the early focus on the release of land factor productivity to the optimal allocation of land factor resources and then to the modernization of land management. Third, the scope of attention allocation is gradually expanding, especially for the construction of ecological civilization and promotion of the modernization of land management. To be specific, it is necessary to reasonably arrange the overall planning of China’s land policy system based on the actual situation, and to clarify and optimize the development direction and the proportion of attention allocation in its subdivision fields. The intention to be the first to push forward the implementation of the relevant policies and pilot issues of land governance modernization will become the new trend of the future research. Based on the actual situation, we should continue to emancipate prevailing perceptions and combine the focus of rural land reform to inject vitality into rural development and into the development of the whole economy and society.

Background: Evidence-based policy making is increasingly used for better resource allocation. Queensland Department of Health has developed a new model to introduce innovative health technologies through a health technology assessment (HTA) program.Structure: A state-wide committee and several sub-committees at health service district level were established to oversee the HTA program and to monitor the uptake of technologies. The committees are supported by a multidisciplinary secretariat comprising staff with key HTA skills.Process: The process starts with HTA applications, which are then shortlisted according to prespecified criteria. A due diligence process adopting a rapid evidence assessment approach is used to evaluate the applications. Based on the assessment, recommendations are made using a deliberative decision-making process guided by well-recognized tools. With positive recommendation, a technology is piloted in constrained local setting before its system-wide diffusion.Outcome: The HTA program has assisted health administrators in prioritizing their health technology agendas. It has gained trust and wide support from policy makers and is increasingly used to support funding allocations, indicating the increasing awareness of and confidence in the program.Conclusions: The HTA program is a valuable process to assist evidence-based policy development and to guide better resource allocation.

Allocation of health resources has an irreducible ethical dimension, thus cannot be decided only technically, but must be ethically weighed, what paradigmatic experiences of macro (Oregon Basic Health Services Act, 1989) and micro allocation (God’s Committee, 1962) have shown. Justice is required in the enunciation of prioritization criteria, and transparency in its application. In situations of aggravated resource scarcity, it is common to take ‘allocate’ and ‘rationing’ as synonyms or claim that ‘allocate’ is always ‘rationing’. Rejecting these positions, there is a distinction between 'allocating' (resource management) from 'rationing' (allocation of limited resources to a limited number of persons) and 'rationalizing' (optimization of available resources). These distinctions are ethically pertinent, showing how only 'rationalization' respects justice, transparency and human dignity.

Replacement of traditional land administration institutions with modern institutions has been one of the strategies used by the Lesotho Government to solve land management problems. This thesis uses a case study approach to analyze the effectiveness of one modern institution, the Village Land Allocation Committees (VLAC), at the community level in Lesotho. Customarily, land in Lesotho was allocated by traditional chiefs who could for various purposes revoke it. The system was allegedly open to abuse and under the Land Act 1979, the authority to allocate land was shifted from traditional chiefs to the VLAC, which is partly elected and partly nominated by the government. The thinking behind this change was that VLAC would be more democratic and efficient, representing local as well as national interests. The study consists of three stages: a) review of background literature on Lesotho; b) a comparison of land tenure reforms in Tanzania, Kenya and Botswana; and c) field research carried out through questionnaires administered to VLAC members, community members and government officials responsible for land administration at the community level in Lesotho. Conclusions drawn from this study are that lack of clear policy guidelines, lack of connection between land allocation and the overall planning and lack of meaningful community participation in the land allocation process, are among the major problems in the operation of VLAC. The study's major recommendations are: a) integrating land allocation with the overall land use planning; b) recognizing the continuing influence of traditional institutions and incorporating them into VLAC activities; c) providing VLAC with clearer goals and necessary resources; and d) building a planning and evaluation component into VLAC procedures. The need for further research on the composition and election process of VLAC is identified.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of
Graduate

Cette thèse porte sur les mécanismes d’allocation de biens indivisibles en présence d’externalités dans les préférences individuelles. Ces externalités rendent difficile en pratique la collecte d’une information complète sur les préférences. Aussi, l’analyse normative des mécanismes d’allocation requiert de formuler des hypothèses sur la manière d’étendre l’information collectée aux préférences sur les allocations. Cette approche revient à définir des restrictions sur le domaine de préférences admissibles, une démarche bien connue de la théorie du choix social. Les trois premiers chapitres portent sur l’analyse du marché de Shapley-Scarf dans lequel les échanges sont organisés entre coalitions. Les chapitres 1 et 2 établissent des restrictions de domaine garantissant l’existence de différents types d’équilibre concurrentiel. Dans le chapitre 3, l’ensemble des biens est muni d’une géographie, ce qui permet de définir la distance entre partenaires comme source d’externalité. Nous identifions certains domaines de préférences qui assurent la non-vacuité de différents types de Coeur. Le chapitre 4 porte sur le cas de biens indivisibles publics purs. Nous montrons que le problème est formellement équivalent à celui du choix d’un comité dont les membres sont choisis dans des ensembles distincts. Nous caractérisons certains domaines de préférences sur les comités pour lesquels le choix majoritaire membre par membre est cohérent avec le choix majoritaire du comité dans son ensemble
This thesis focuses on the allocation of indivisible goods in presence of externality in individual preferences. This externality creates a difficulty with collecting full information about preferences. Therefore, conducting a normative analysis of allocation mechanisms requires assumptions on how reported preferences can be extended to preferences over outcomes. This approach is in line with the literature on preference domain restriction well-known in Social Choice theory. The first three chapters focus on Shapley-Scarf markets where trades are organized among coalitions. Coalitional trade generates externalities in individual valuations of allocations. Chapters 1 and 2 investigate domain restrictions ensuring the existence of various types of competitive equilibrium. Chapter 3 endows the set of goods with a geographical structure and considers distance to partners as a source of externality in preference. We identify domains of preference extensions which guarantee the existence of various types of core allocations. Chapter 4 focuses the case of pure public indivisible goods, which is formally identical to choosing a committee formed by several members, each selected from a specific set. We characterize preference domains over committees for which a well-defined seat-wise choice procedure based on majority voting is consistent with choosing a committee at once from majority voting

Le changement climatique est devenu aujourd’hui le fléau environnemental qui préoccupe etmobilise le plus la communauté internationale. L’aboutissement de cette mobilisation générale reste sansdoute la mise en place du régime international de lutte contre le changement climatique dont la Conventioncadredes Nations Unies sur le changement climatique et le Protocole de Kyoto constituent les basesjuridiques. Ce régime innove en ce qu’il fixe des engagements quantifiés de réduction des émissions de gaz àeffet de serre pour les États pollueurs, mais aussi en ce qu’il instaure des mécanismes dits de « flexibilité »dont la mise en oeuvre est assortie d’un contrôle original basé sur un Comité dit de « l’observance ». Mais, endépit de toute cette production normative, il est regrettable de constater aujourd’hui que le régimeinternational du climat est un véritable échec. En effet, si la mobilisation des États ne fait aucun doute, enrevanche, les mêmes États qui ont volontairement accepté de s’engager refusent délibérément d’honorer leursengagements pour des raisons essentiellement politiques, économiques et stratégiques. Ce travail ambitionnedonc de lever le voile sur les causes de cet échec en dressant un bilan mitigé de la première périoded’engagement de Kyoto qui a pris fin en 2012, et propose des perspectives pour un régime juridique duclimat post-Kyoto efficient et efficace, en mesure d’être à la hauteur des enjeux
Climate change has become the scourge environmental concern and mobilizes more theinternational community. The outcome of this mobilization remains probably the implementation ofinternational climate change regime for which the Climate Convention and the Kyoto Protocol are the legalbases. This system is innovative in that it sets quantified emission reduction commitments for greenhouse gasemissions (GHG) for polluters States, but also in that it establishes mechanisms known as of “flexibility”whose implementation is accompanied by a control based on a Committee known as of “compliance”. Butdespite all this normative production, it is regrettable that today the international climate regime is a realfailure. Indeed, if the mobilization of states is no doubt, however, the same states that have voluntarily agreedto engage deliberately refuse to honour their commitments for essentially political, economic and strategicreasons. This work therefore aims to shed light on the causes of this failure by developing a mixed record ofthe first Kyoto commitment ended period in 2012, and offers prospects for a legal regime of the post-Kyotoclimate and efficient, able to be up to the challenges

The conclusion of contracts was known in ancient times and is still relevant today. Shares that are not distributed in kind can cause certain difficulties that force the interested parties to decide on distribution.Joint ownership of inherited property received from a family member necessitates joint decision-making on its maintenance, ownership, use, and disposal, and it is difficult to achieve such a consensus on all issues. Therefore, quite often a certain period may pass from the acquisition of the right to a share in the joint property to its distribution, but due to conflicts regarding the use of the property or in the case of the need to receive funds or for other reasons, the joint property is divided by the co-owners. That is, the reasons may even be questions of how to use agricultural land, for example, to rent it out, sow it yourself, plant a garden, etc. However, the complexity of the division of land plots is because it is difficult to «divide» agricultural lands at least. After all, their intended use depends on the size, etc. Quite often, disputes also arise regarding the use of residential buildings, since the size and location of the rooms make their use impossible or difficult, as well as the distribution in kind according to the inherited shares. In other words, there is a certain «trading» of assets. If the situation is related to the distribution of a small plot of land where the house is located, then questions also arise regarding the establishment of an easement, as well as mutual concessions for the compensation of a part of the house in exchange for most of the land. In general, there are protracted negotiations, from the point of view of which these parties, who are still in a family relationship, agree on the division of property.Factors that can affect the outcome of property division include unique family circumstances, the specific nature of assets, and traditional legal practices. The parties will use different mechanisms for the division of joint assets: sale, donation, or exchange, under the terms of which they «trade» with the consent of others their rights as co-owners of jointly owned objects. The various evolutionary stages of the agreement on the division of property by the testator’s family culminate in the final stage of agreeing. The agreement on the division of inheritance is a complex legal process. Potentially, in a single transaction, the beneficiaries can choose and implement the division by sale, exchange, or donation. These different legal constructions reflect the uniqueness of the decisions in each agreement and to some extent demonstrate the specific legal practice of the individual Old Babylonian city-state and the particular circumstances of each family.However, in addition to the division of property, there are other agreements regarding the division of inheritance. For example, an agreement on quasi-partition upon adoption (quasi-adoption), an agreement on the division of residential property by the owner between its future beneficiaries.The need to conclude such agreements arises when an agreement on the division of property is required, which differs from such concepts as sale, donation, exchange, etc.Domestic scientists consider the agreement on the distribution of joint property very broadly and include other types of agreements in the list of such agreements, establishing that the agreement on changing the succession of the right to inheritance by law is atypical. It was determined that the contract under investigation belongs to contracts on the distribution of inheritance. Agreements on the distribution of inheritance are concluded in the field of inheritance, which indicates that they belong to inheritance agreements. It is proposed to supplement the existing classifications of civil law contracts by distinguishing a new type of civil law contracts – contracts in the law of inheritance on the level with the selection of a new type of inheritance contracts – contracts on the distribution of inheritance.» This is a bold hypothesis, but it is difficult to agree with it for various reasons, not least because the distribution of inheritance has been known since ancient times.The factor that the term «distribution» of inheritance and giving it a broad legal meaning is analyzed is an interesting author’s hypothesis. At the same time, according to our position, the term «distribution of inheritance» is more balanced, since in Art. 1278 of the Civil Code does not quite successfully use the term «division», when in the content of this norm it is about the equality of shares in the inheritance and the allocation of a share in kind, and not about division. However, in Part 1 of Art. 1280 of the Civil Code, the term «distribution» is used with a direct meaning and «redistribution» as an opportunity to review the results of the distribution under new circumstances – in the case of acceptance of the inheritance by other heirs. In essence, the obvious meaning of the term «distribution» follows from this norm as the initial determination of the ownership of the share of each of the heirs. In this sense, the redistribution of the inheritance should be connected with the possible introduction of changes to the previously made distribution, that is, in this case, we do not limit the number of subsequent redistributions of the inheritance. This hypothesis is related to the fact that the number of heirs who missed the deadline for valid reasons is not limited by legislation and cannot be limited, but is determined by various legal circumstances.Therefore, it is hardly expedient and possible, to apply in Art. 1280 of the Civil Code, the concept of «distribution» should be given a wider meaning than it has in the Civil Code, as this would lead to its ambiguous perception and application both in theory and in legislation and practice. Usually, theoretical terms should be distinguished by being original and should accurately reflect the legal meaning of actions, events, or conditions.But an important element of the procedure for the distribution of common inheritance property or its redistribution are the subjects who must fix the relevant agreement or carry out such distribution according to their conviction.It is indicated that the practice of concluding contracts by the living owner with his future heirs is widespread in foreign countries. At the same time, German experts equate inheritance with what they consider to be contractual inheritance.It should be noted that the practice of concluding contracts on the distribution of inheritance in the practice of the Ukrainian notary is relatively new and does not have clear boundaries in regulation, which complicates the activity of notaries in certifying such contracts. There are several difficulties in the application of relevant legal norms in practice, as there is a lack of understanding of the legal nature and essence of the conclusion of contracts, the term of conclusion, and the procedure for notarization.The opinions of individual authors are studied, about legal relations regarding the division of inheritance characterized by a weak state policy, this obliges the participants of such relations to draw up the content of agreements on the division of inheritance independently. For agreements between heirs on the distribution of inheritance to be valid regulators of the relations of its participants (heirs), conditions (clauses) must be clarified and formulated, which will be disclosed with sufficient completeness and consistency of the content of the relevant agreement and the purpose of its conclusion.We do not agree with this point of view of the scientist regarding «weak state policy», since the Central Committee of Ukraine was not created by politicians or the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, but by leading scientists of Ukraine. It is also difficult to agree with the statement that the lack of clear regulation of the terms of inheritance contracts «obliges the participants of such relationships to independently draw up the content of inheritance distribution contracts.» In Ukraine, some good notaries and lawyers can draw up high-quality contracts for the distribution of inheritance. Moreover, according to Art. 4 of the Law of Ukraine «On Notaries», notaries have the right to draw up relevant draft contracts. In our opinion, it is worth emphasizing here that this is a right, not a duty of a notary public. That is, the notary may not undertake the drafting of the relevant project, but this provision is positive for interested parties since the lack of experience in drafting original contracts will most likely lead to the drafting of a low-quality draft contract. Indeed, in this case, it is worth looking for an experienced notary who will be able to draw up a draft contract, but this will make it possible to prevent errors in its drafting with a high probability.Thus, the agreement on the distribution of inheritance enters into force if the parties reach an agreement in the proper form on all the essential terms of the agreement. The main essential condition for agreeing on the division of inheritance is the subject of the agreement. However, either party may consider this condition insufficient and propose to include additional conditions in the contract. In this case, these conditions become essential. In connection with the instability of the regulation of the content of contracts between heirs on the distribution of inheritance, it can be concluded that the inclusion of normal conditions in the contract is currently impossible. We believe that such a general scheme of perception of contract terms is not entirely rational, since how to perceive ordinary terms or essential terms of a contract quite often in practice depends on the judgments of the parties to the contract unless otherwise regulated by legislation. This issue can be approached more precisely if we take into account the possibility of interpreting transactions and contracts (Article 213 of the Civil Code).So, based on the essence of the process of concluding contracts, it should be taken into account that the notary who drafts the contract can edit it, therefore it is worth recognizing the right of the notary to interpret it, since according to Art. 5 of the Law of Ukraine «On Notaries», he is obliged to clarify the legal consequences that will arise for persons after his certification. It follows from this that the notary must be given the official right to interpret the contract upon its certification, then it will be clear that after its certification, the court can interpret the content of the contract. In this regard, Art. 213 of the Civil Code is proposed to be supplemented with a corresponding provision regarding the powers of the notary, namely: his duty to interpret the content of the deed or contract before and during its certification.The Inheritance Regulation, which envisages wide acceptance of the inheritance contract, is considered. It is noted that it is worth revising Ukrainian inheritance law in advance for compliance with European standards since after Ukraine accedes to the EU it will be necessary to inform all EU countries about what types of contracts in Ukraine will be related to the issuance of the European Certificate of Succession.This is also important for inheritance by law, because, in case of non-fulfillment of the terms of the lifetime maintenance (care) agreement and the inheritance agreement, they will have to be terminated or recognized as invalid or unfulfilled by the acquirer, so the property that was the subject of this agreement will be inherited by law. At the same time, if the terms of these agreements are fulfilled, the part of the property that belonged to the testator will not be inherited but will become the property of the acquirers.The process of accepting the inheritance is quite long, and the inheritance law allows for several agreements between the heirs, which can significantly affect the size of the inheritance shares and the real things in each share in the inheritance. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the possibility of agreements between the heirs at different stages of accepting or not accepting the inheritance. From communication with one of the clients, the author learned that the notary unofficially advised the heirs to agree on the distribution of the inheritance, as well as for certain heirs to waive the right to inheritance, but to receive a proper share of the inheritance in household items. When the author was informed of all the circumstances of the inheritance case, it became clear that the notary could not solve the complex inheritance problem, since the inheritance took place based on a will and some heirs had the right to a mandatory share, as well as part of the property remained. So, in such a situation, it was necessary to solve an arithmetical and at the same time legal problem, the complexity of which was determined by the complex subject composition of numerous heirs. Therefore, the notary tried to simplify its solution by artificially «transforming» the heirs who have the right to a mandatory share into ordinary heirs who claim property that is not subject to recording in the certificate of the right to inheritance.A natural will was considered, when the testator bequeathed the specific property to each of the heirs, namely: a house to a daughter, a factory to one son, and a yacht to another let’s say. In such a case, the will of the testator is formulated in the Shodo of the objects of inheritance, so it is difficult to perceive the consequences of the refusal of one of the heirs to inherit, when the yacht will be divided into equal shares between the son and the daughter, because: firstly, the value of the factory and the house will be different, so someone from the testator gave the children a larger inheritance than the other. Secondly, in the case of the existence of a part of the inheritance not covered by the will, it can be assumed with a high degree of probability that the will of the testator was formulated about a certain property and nothing more. Therefore, in case of refusal of one of the heirs to inherit under the will, the property bequeathed to him should be considered as not covered by the will and should be inherited according to the law. That is, if the will of the testator regarding the entire property is revealed, it can be assumed that he thus intended to deprive one of the heirs of the right to inheritance.At the same time, the will must be interpreted not only by the heirs under the will but also by the heirs under the law, when its content concerns the right to a mandatory share in the inheritance, which belongs to the heirs under the law of the first rank, who due to incapacity have the right to claim it, as well as the recipients of the response. With a high degree of probability, it can be assumed that the inheritance, which consists of household items, will be divided even without a written agreement. However, the interpretation of a will, which concerns a substantial inheritance between a significant number of heirs, requires not only a written form of recording of agreements – a contract, but also, in our opinion, a notarial form that will allow recording the agreement more reliably, to explain to the parties to the contract the consequences of its conclusion. If all interested parties sign the agreement, and the notary recognizes it as legal, then it will be difficult to recognize it as illegal or invalid in the next one. Therefore, the agreement on the interpretation of the will, which will establish the specific rights of the heirs and their obligations regarding the coverage of the testator’s debts, is a rational form of specification of the terms of the inheritance, which will allow establishing the executor of the will, if he was not determined by the testator.We can assume with a high degree of probability that similar «simplified calculations» are made by other notaries, as well as directly by the heirs, and certain agreements are not necessary here.

In this chapter, we describe the institutional setting of parliamentary debate in Stortinget and identify correlates of speech participation, drawing on a dataset of more than a quarter of a million speeches from 1998 to 2016. The key correlate of speech participation is committee membership in the committee responsible for preparing the report for the topic under discussion. However, that is not the whole story. Party elites speak more than backbenchers. As speaking time is allocated proportional to party size, MPs from the smaller parties speak more often than their counterparts in the larger parties. While we uncover a gender difference in the overall allocation of speeches, this is only present amongst parties on the right of the political spectrum. We do not find a similar difference in length of speech or allocation of speeches amongst members within the same committee. Hence, we ascribe the gender difference in speeches to gender differences in committee composition.

Abstract After the sterling balances ran out in 1957, ambitious investment plans, high inflation, and a fixed nominal exchange rate produced perpetual foreign-exchange shortages. This chapter discusses the complex approval processes for import licenses and foreign-exchange allocations that followed. The allocation system required the creation of specialized bureaucracies such as the CCIE, DGTD, and the Capital Goods Committee, as well as the participation of nearly all administrative ministries and multiple state agencies. The regime imposed serious economic costs. The industrial undertakings had to devote real resources to procure licenses and foreign exchange. They had to individually search for the needed raw materials and components in foreign markets, negotiate the prices, and arrange for delivery. The bureaucratic allocation system made no distinction between efficient and inefficient undertakings. With the entry of new undertakings constrained through investment licensing and output expansion of existing undertakings capped by restrictions on imports of raw materials and components, the competition was virtually eliminated.

This chapter explores how to evaluate a hospital’s preparedness and response activities so that the facility and the staff are better prepared to deal with for the next pandemic. Surge capacity is defined as the maximum supply of resources that are available to address a given stage of the pandemic (conventional, contingency, and crisis). Potential actions associated with each of those levels are presented. The disaster committee should review its previous pandemic performance, noting what worked and what needs improvement in terms of equipment, personnel, training, communication, triage, infection control, and morale. A pandemic subcommittee within the disaster committee should be tasked with reviewing clinical, infection control, resources, personnel, structural, and ethical issues (such as resource allocation) for the next pandemic.

It is no longer disputable that the digitalisation and globalisation of the economy raises challenges for the current international tax framework. One of these tax challenges is that multinationals no longer require physical presence in a country to earn revenues, while physical presence is precisely what the current rules regarding the allocation of taxing powers are based on (i.e., the permanent establishment (PE) threshold as established in Article 5 of [model] tax treaties). The allocation of taxing powers between countries with respect to profits earned by companies providing services in a cross-border context, is regulated via the provisions of a double tax treaty. These bilateral tax treaties aim to avoid double taxation and are generally based on model tax conventions. The two most widely used model tax conventions are those drafted by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations (UN). Both conventions have great similarity but also diverge from one another as both organisations (i.e., the OECD and the UN) act with different interests. The OECD Model Tax Convention (MTC) tends to favour developed countries, whilst the UN MTC aims to protect developing countries. One example is the broader PE concept in the UN MTC compared to the PE treaty provision in the OECD MTC. By broadening the PE scope, more taxing rights are allocated to source states (which are often developing countries). In any case, the treaty provisions of both MTCs that define a permanent establishment, are based on the same basic principle that taxing rights are allocated to the country where companies physically operate. This fundamental rule is based on the characteristics of the economy at that time. Today, many businesses no longer require physical presence to generate income. Therefore, OECD countries expressed their dissatisfaction with the current allocation rules as they claim that such rules do not allow them to collect a ‘fair share’ of tax on the profits earned by (highly) digitalised businesses. As a response, the OECD/G20 launched the Pillar One proposal which includes the potential to achieve a fairer and more efficient allocation of taxing rights. However, whether a system with a ‘fairer allocation of taxing rights’ will truly be achieved for all stakeholders is questionable. Scholars have indeed been arguing that the concerns of developing countries have not (sufficiently) been taken into account. This is in line with the view of the UN Tax Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters (UN Tax Committee). For this purpose, the UN Tax Committee founded the so-called ‘Subcommittee on Tax Challenges Related to the Digitalization of the Economy’ at its 15th assembly, to capture the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy, and with special attention for the interests of developing countries. At its 20th assembly, the UN Tax Committee decided to establish a ‘Drafting Group’ to draft a new treaty provision to tackle the tax challenges of a digitalised economy. Their proposal eventually led to the inclusion of Article 12B into the UN MTC, entitled ‘Income from Automated Digital Services’. The introduction of Article 12B in the UN MTC was heavily critised, one scholar even questioned the raison d’être of the new treaty provision. In this article, we will briefly touch upon the Two-Pillar solution (in particular Pillar One) and the criticism of the UN that eventually led to the introduction of Article 12B into the UN MTC. Afterwards, we will discuss Article 12B UN MTC in more detail and compare the OECD’s and UN’s approaches, and finally we will discuss whether and how both approaches could be aligned.

Consensus, collegiality, and compromise still characterize Norwegian coalition governance, but important shifts in the formation, composition, and operation of Norwegian coalitions have taken place since the 1990s. An increasingly permissive Norwegian parliamentarism has facilitated the entry of previously non-coalitionable parties, such as the Socialist Left Party and the Progress Party, into government coalitions in 2005 and 2013, respectively. Also, small parties have begun to punch well above their weight in the allocation of ministerial portfolios, as in the case of the Liberal Party in 2001, which with only two MPs negotiated three cabinet seats. The chapter further demonstrates how Norwegian coalitions increasingly have appointed so-called cross-partisan junior ministers, mainly to provide cross-partisan advice, but also to be watchdogs for their respective parties. Finally, the use of the so-called cabinet sub-committee, normally comprising the leaders of each of the coalition parties, escalated in the 2000s. This sub-committee was designed to solve the most serious inter-party conflicts and became an important vehicle of conflict resolution under prime ministers Bondevik and Stoltenberg.

This chapter reviews the member organizations of the United States Intelligence Community, the strategic environment that has informed intelligence and accountability in the United States, including scandals as a key driver of innovation, and the current and future threat environment as seen by the United States. The chapter examines the US intelligence accountability architecture: the House of Representative Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Inspectors General, the Government Accountability Office, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Office, and the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board. The sheer number and complexity of accountability bodies in the US gives rise to inefficiencies, ineffectiveness, and duplication. The accountability system is replete with gaps and vulnerabilities: partisanship, collective-action problems, resource allocation, and inconsistent quality of review in congressional accountability; GAO’s limited authority to review the USIC and sensitive operations; the adequacy of the FISA court in adequately protecting the rights of Americans; and Presidential discretion in appointing and removing IGs. These issues have implications not just for the United States, but for allies, partners as well as regional and global stability.

This is a study protocol to evaluate the Impact of digital games on learning medical terminology of paramedical students. An unblinded randomized controlled trial (RCT) 2-arm, with 1:1 allocation ratio was randomized by 60 students at the faculty of paramedical science at Mashhad University of Medical Science(MUMS), Iran, who had their medical terminology course at the time of this study, would enter the study. To evaluate the game, Participants in both groups attended typical teaching in traditional instructional activities for two months; however, the intervention group played the smartphone-based digital game during the course. The knowledge level of students in the control and intervention group were measured before and immediately after the intervention using the pre-designed questionnaire. This study was approved by the ethical committee of MUMS (approval number IR.MUMS.REC.1400.336).

Matching problems with group-fairness constraints and diversity constraints have numerous applications such as in allocation problems, committee selection, school choice, etc. Moreover, online matching problems have lots of applications in ad allocations and other e-commerce problems like product recommendation in digital marketing. We study two problems involving assigning items to platforms, where items belong to various groups depending on their attributes; the set of items are available offline and the platforms arrive online. In the first problem, we study online matchings with proportional fairness constraints. Here, each platform on arrival should either be assigned a set of items in which the fraction of items from each group is within specified bounds or be assigned no items; the goal is to assign items to platforms in order to maximize the number of items assigned to platforms. In the second problem, we study online matchings with diversity constraints, i.e. for each platform, absolute lower bounds are specified for each group. Each platform on arrival should either be assigned a set of items that satisfy these bounds or be assigned no items; the goal is to maximize the set of platforms that get matched. We study approximation algorithms and hardness results for these problems. The technical core of our proofs is a new connection between these problems and the problem of matchings in hypergraphs. Our experimental evaluation shows the performance of our algorithms on real-world and synthetic datasets exceeds our theoretical guarantees.

Ensuring that civil society can monitor and supervise the actions of its representatives is essential to build strong democracies. Despite significant advances in transparency, Brazilian National Congress committees are presently complex to follow and monitor due to the lack of open structured data about their discussions and the sheer volume of activity in these committees. This work presents two contributions to this context. First, we create and present an open dataset including structured speeches of the 25 Chamber of Deputies' standing committees over the last two decades. Second, we use Natural Language Processing techniques - especially Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) - to identify themes addressed on these committees. Based on these latent topics, we explore similarities and differences between the standing committees, their relationships, and how their debates change over time. Our results show that committees accommodate conversations - including their main topic and opposing agendas - and describe how the topics discussed in the committees reverberate external events.

Abstract The abundance of resources is a blessing, but the price volatility of those resources is a curse (Luciani, 2011). Price variations and its corresponding impact on petroleum revenues is of great importance to industry players. This study adopted a quantitative approach to analyse secondary data collected from multiple sources including Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), Bank of Ghana and not limited to the Ministry of Finance to examine the extent to which crude oil fluctuations influence petroleum revenue collection and allocation in Ghana. The main statistical method employed for this research was regression and descriptive analysis. For robustness check, three post estimations were conducted. These are the Cameron and Trivedi test for heteroskedasticity, Ramsey test for omitted variables, and variance inflation factors (VIF). All three postestimation results showed that the regression estimates are robust. The study finds that at a 1% significance level, the Price of Crude Oil (PCO) and the Petroleum Revenues (PR) are statistically significant. This emphasises the crucial influence of oil prices on petroleum revenues to the state. The study also finds that factors, other than oil price, could to an extent affect petroleum revenues collection and allocation. Such includes allocations to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA), Ministerial discretions and volumes of crude oil produced and among others. Against these findings, the study recommends that some reforms be made to the PRMA to do away with ministerial discretions on capping the Ghana stabilization fund and also where necessary, consider hedging as a security against unexpected crude oil price falls.

Abstract Southern Area Oil Operations (SAOO) of Saudi Aramco Upstream Business line, where energy is harnessed to create a better tomorrow, is a crucial part of the company’s jigsaw puzzle of operations, and encompasses some of the largest hydrocarbon producing and processing facilities in the world, including numerous gas Oil Separation Plants (GOSPs). SAOO is spread over 200,000 Km2, and include Ghawar field, the world’s largest oil field, Abqaiq Plants, which are the world’s largest oil processing facilities, SWID, the world’s largest seawater treatment plant, and Khurais Central Processing Facility, which is the largest single increment oil project ever undertaken. Southern Area Oil Operations is on a continuous journey of sustainability, where every department works very hard to meet its production targets safely, while not over consuming resources and minimizing its impact on the environment. A continuous journey of sustainability means that SAOO strives to do its best with changing business demands, changing regulations and changing allocation of resources. It is a journey, since the dynamics of doing business change very frequently and where an agile and nimble business running model is a must for continuous success; and SAOO is successful. The world is witnessing a groundbreaking transformation as technology continues to revolutionize the globe around us. SAOO does not want to merely keep pace with this digital evolution, but rather aspire to be at the forefront and drive the change within the oil & gas industry. SAOO has established a strong digital strategy with well-defined strategic priority areas aligned with cooperate-wide goals. These strategic priority areas are aimed at addressing key operational challenges faced during SAOO digital transformation journey and ensuring that the utilized digital solutions work together seamlessly. SAOO leadership and workforce is actively engaged in the digital transformation journey, and has established a steering committee and developed a technology framework to ensure smooth strategy execution. SAOO strategy addresses four key challenges; technology deployments that are NOT Fit-For-Purpose, a lack of enablers, technologies’ duplication, and 4IR knowledge gap. The strategy will alleviate these challenges by creating a modular business-based digital model through a connected digital transformation approach, while building SAOO’s workforce digital skills and knowledge to become future-ready.

The purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of the conceptually supported view within European Union so far on the applicability of civil liability to operators and users of artificial intelligence-driven systems in the event that an artificial intelligence-driven system has caused negative consequences (damage) to another person’s legally protected interests. At the same time, particular attention will be paid to issues related to the standard of “due diligence” that must be carried out by intelligent system operators and the possibility to apply (and rebut) the presumption of causation, if the necessary preconditions can be established under the provisions stipulated by the currently proposed regulatory framework. It is undeniable that the use of such systems makes it possible to optimize the performance of a myriad of tasks and to monitor them more effectively as it would be possible, for example, with human supervision, but one thing is clear – there must be certainty about the way in which the allocation of the applicable civil liability takes place, that decision-making bodies of the European Union have committed to ensure, similar to what was done with the General Data Protection Regulation regarding the integrity and limits of processing of personal data within the borders of European Union.

The Federal Reserve holds two main sets of monetary policy meetings, the “Federal Open Market Committee” (FOMC) and the “Board Meetings”, which gather with sixweek and two week cadence respectively. Cieslak, Morse, and Vissing-Jorgensen (2019) show that the cadence of these meetings is associated with cycles of corresponding frequencies in stock markets. These can be fruitfully exploited through a portfolio strategy that invests in the whole market at alternate weeks (the even-week strategy). This simple investment rule is based on the cycles identified empirically but, so far, lacks a theoretical foundation. In this paper, we provide a rigorous framework to detect cycles in the stock market, and to determine optimal portfolio choices which profit from such cycles. We use the filtering approach for stationary time series of Ortu, Severino, Tamoni, and Tebaldi (2020) to isolate uncorrelated components of stock returns that are precisely associated with two- and six-week cycles. Then, we replicate these components using tradable assets from the U.S. market, and design an optimal portfolio strategy that maximizes the investor’s wealth and outperforms the even-week strategy.

This paper investigates the relationship between the views expressed in the minutes of the meetings of the Central Bank of Brazil’s Monetary Policy Committee (COPOM) and the real economy. It applies various computational linguistic machine learning algorithms to construct measures of the minutes of the COPOM. First, we create measures of the content of the paragraphs of the minutes using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Second, we build an uncertainty index for the minutes using Word Embedding and K-Means. Then, we combine these indices to create two topic-uncertainty indices. The first one is constructed from paragraphs with a higher probability of topics related to “general economic conditions”. The second topic-uncertainty index is constructed from paragraphs that have a higher probability of topics related to “inflation” and the “monetary policy discussion”. Finally, we employ a structural VAR model to explore the lasting effects of these uncertainty indices on certain Brazilian macroeconomic variables. Our results show that greater uncertainty leads to a decline in inflation, the exchange rate, industrial production and retail trade in the period from January 2000 to July 2019.

Malawi is one of the most committed countries in Africa to improving nutrition, yet it still has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the region and is struggling to turn commitments into action at scale. The advocacy component of the Afikepo project strengthened capacity of national and district government and Civil Society Organisation (CSO) representatives to plan, budget and advocate for scaling up nutrition commitments at national and in 10 districts. These actions improved awareness, coordination and commitment to prioritise nutrition across sectors, within government, and CSOs and a wide range of actors at national and district level, which in turn improved governance and accountability. However, these actions did not have a substantial effect on domestic funding allocations, which are still heavily reliant on external donors. This brief summarises lessons learned and recommendations from the various advocacy and capacity building efforts over the past four years.

This report details the findings of an Ontario-wide survey of 1194 school educators which is part of a larger study funded by funded by the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The survey was developed in consultation with trans educators, school board officials, and community members and included a mix of qualitative and quantitative questions. The report is structured according to educators’ responses to questions about trans-inclusive policies, self-rated knowledge, and understanding of trans inclusion and gender diversity, training received, use of resources and the barriers to fostering gender diversity in schools. Educators’ recommendations and advice on improving education about trans inclusivity in schools are also reported. Key findings revealed that there continue to be systemic and structural impediments to supporting trans inclusion and gender diversity in schools, in terms of both the failure to enact policy and to provide adequate support, education, and resourcing for educators. Recommendations are outlined which relate to the need for further development of policies that identify the allocation of resources for both professional development and curriculum development as central to the necessary provision of support for trans students and creating gender-affirming schools. The report also stipulates the necessity for sustained accountability measures to be established by governing bodies, such as the Ontario Ministry of Education, for supporting gender diversity and trans inclusion with the explicit objective of supporting school boards fiscally in the provision of professional development and development of resources. Teacher Education faculties also need to be committed to ensuring that teacher candidates are provided with the knowledge and understanding of trans inclusion and what trans affirmative education entails.