Academic literature on the topic 'Cost and standard of living – Uzbekistan – Case studies'

As an effort to optimize the transparent and measurable zakat management, BAZNAS Center of Strategic Studies has been developing several instruments, including the Had Kifayah measure. The measurement is the standard limit of basic needs of a Muslim, which is helpful to consider the requirements of zakat recipients. By employing Had Kifayah, this paper performs a case study from Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) Province in 2018 and finds that NTT had the highest cost of living of IDR3,363,105.00 per family (monthly). This paper covers the preliminary study verifying the categorization pyramid as in Had Kifayah standard to investigate the changes of a mustahik income and expenditure before and after the productive zakat program of BAZNAS. The results show that the program conducted by BAZNAS-NTT from 2016 to 2017 is found to be in the fourth priority on the Had Kifayah pyramid. Keyword: Had Kifayah, priority pyramid of Had Kifayah, Mustahik of Productive Zakat Program, Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT)

Index numbers are indirect measurements as well as composite quantities that present particular inferential challenges to the measurer and their intended audiences. The early history of the use of index numbers in British economics (ca. 1860–1914) shows that making inferences using this measuring instrument was rife with problems. Economists grappled with multiple “inferential gaps” in order to make inferences from index numbers. The extent to which these gaps could be bridged depended on the theoretical frameworks and measurement strategies used. However, it is also evident that some inferential issues confronting economists were ideological or political in nature. Two case studies are examined, Stanley Jevons’s price index and the Board of Trade’s cost-of-living index, that sharpen the focus on the accuracy of index numbers. What did index numbers really capture about the deterioration of the monetary standard or standard of living of the working classes? By situating the index numbers within the broader ecology in which they were constructed, the article shows that making inferences was not just a heuristic process (one that eliminated gaps by getting the estimations right) but a cognitive one as well (one that people could accept as being “fit for purpose”).

In order to reduce the increasing energy consumption for the domestic demands of existing single-family housing and take advantage of frequent building enlargements, this paper presents a methodology and supporting software tool for determining the optimal design configuration of an attic with integrated solar collectors. The analysis procedure is based on parametric modeling, energy simulation and the use of evolutionary algorithms for finding optimal designs. It has been implemented as a Web-platform for public use that provides users with a proposal of an attic shape with maximum solar energy collection, maximum living space and minimum construction envelope for each house according its size and orientation. The attic integrates PV, thermal and hybrid solar panels on one side of the roof. This paper describes the methodology and software design, assessment of the Web-platform usage and case-studies to verify its behavior. In a matter of minutes, the Web-platform enables users to select a specific attic design for each house that has integrated solar collectors that can produce energy to cover almost 100% of domestic energy consumption. The attics designed provide a nearly 30% increase in living space through the extension of one to four rooms, and the construction cost of the envelope is similar to that of a standard housing extension.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges of an old low-standard urban district with a strong historical and cultural heritage and propose more sustainable renovation solutions, acceptable for the residents and municipality. The challenges of physical renovation or refurbishment are complex due to poor condition of the buildings, municipal ownership and governance, mixed management with community and low rents, which are insufficient to cover the costs. The paper discusses the proposed solutions of living standards, supported by the research in two directions: (i) available resources and reuse of materials, (ii) developing a renovation guidance for inhabitants from the building physics perspective, including indoor environment quality. Challenges related to energy efficiency are addressed from the decision-making perspective to overcome the barrier of lack of motivation to invest in energy-efficient measures at the individual and community level. The interdisciplinary approach complements engineering-focused studies with a focus on the comfort conditions and the influence of occupant habits in sustainable buildings. The methods used were literature review, case studies with observations and survey, looking to cover all technical, social, and historical aspects of sustainable renovation of cultural heritage buildings with the same level of importance. Results show that to keep a sustainable, low-cost urban living model, instructions for self-renovation are a valuable guidance for non-professional actors to make more sustainable choices. In conclusion, we can emphasize that inhabitants are accustomed to lower living standards, so the project is aimed to present the proper solutions for improvement as a balance between new sustainable technical solutions, personal self-renovation skills, habits, and health.

Regulators around the world are dealing with a fundamental dilemma. Clearly, modern economic activity raises the standard of living but, on the other hand, it creates many environmental hazards that harm our quality of life. To balance these conflicting effects, they are interested in bringing about social equilibrium and for the value of marginal damage to be equal to the cost of reducing it. Excessive investment will result in too much damage to the standard of living, while under-investment carries with it excessive risks. There are two primary ways to approach these concerns regulatorily: through direct command-and-control regulation or through the development and promotion of market-based economic tools (other essential components, such as education and information, will not be covered in this article). Over the years, in many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, the use of economic tools increased at the expense of direct regulation but, in Israel, there is still a tendency to use direct regulation. Since the beginning of the 21st century, however, Israel too has seen an increase in the use of economic tools. The article considers whether it is better to increase the use of economic tools at the expense of direct regulation. Its examination is based on six case studies from various environmental fields in Israel. The results of the research reinforce the argument that economic tools can achieve policy objectives more effectively while driving the market toward environmental improvement. However, it is almost impossible to clearly attribute other achievements, such as the achievement of advanced environmental goals, the development of environmental awareness or the strengthening of environmental regulation, to a particular regulatory approach. Therefore, the results should be seen as supporting evidence and not as absolute proof of the value of economic instruments.

The public right-of-way has long been viewed as a space to move cars and a conduit for utilities. Traditional roadway practices have focused on maintaining vehicular levels of service, often at the cost of the pedestrian realm, and applying standard sections with little consideration for the context of the street or the community. However, this approach is changing as communities recognize the value and opportunity within the public right-of-way and along transportation corridors and become involved as stakeholders during the design process. Community-driven transportation projects are remaking streets in cities of all sizes, and new best practices are being implemented to reclaim and activate underutilized rights-of-way. As a result, public rights-of-way are increasingly recognized as environmental and economic assets that support active living and healthy environments. FHWA's Livability Initiative recommends design considerations such as complete streets, context-sensitive approaches, green infrastructure, and sustainable roadway design. A core principle of FHWA's context-sensitive solutions approach is to exercise flexibility and creativity to shape effective transportation solutions, while preserving and enhancing community and natural environments. This paper explores three case studies of varying street classifications, scales, and land uses to show how program needs and design approaches initiated the reallocation of space within the right-of-way to benefit all users and achieve social, economic, and environmental goals within an existing transportation network.

Background Delirium is a distressing, common and serious condition in older people in hospital. Evidence suggests that it could be prevented in about one-third of patients using multicomponent interventions targeting delirium risk factors, but these interventions are not yet routinely available in the NHS. Objective The objective was to improve delirium prevention for older people admitted to the NHS. Design Project 1 comprised case studies employing qualitative methods (observation, interviews, workshops) in three NHS hospitals to develop the Prevention of Delirium system of care. Project 2 comprised case studies using mixed methods in five NHS hospitals to test the Prevention of Delirium implementation, feasibility and acceptability, and to modify the Prevention of Delirium system of care. Project 3 comprised a multicentre, cluster randomised, controlled, pragmatic feasibility study in eight hospitals, with embedded economic evaluation, to investigate the potential clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Prevention of Delirium system of care, compared with standard care, among older patients admitted to hospital for emergency care. The primary objectives related to gathering information to design a definitive trial. Criteria for progression to a definitive trial were as follows: a minimum of six wards (75%) completing the Prevention of Delirium manual milestone checklist and an overall recruitment rate of at least 10% of the potential recruitment pool. Setting This study was set in NHS general hospitals. Participants In project 1, participants were staff, volunteers, and patient and carer representatives. In project 2, participants were staff, volunteers, patients and carers. In project 3, participants were older patients admitted to elderly care and orthopaedic trauma wards. Intervention The developed intervention (i.e. the Prevention of Delirium system of care). Main outcome measures For the feasibility study (project 3), the primary outcome measure was the Confusion Assessment Method. The secondary outcome measures were the Nottingham Extended Activities of Daily Living scale, the Clinical Anxiety Scale and the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form. Results Project 1: understanding of delirium prevention was poor. Drawing on evidence, and working with ward teams, we developed the Prevention of Delirium system of care, which targeted 10 delirium risk factors. This multicomponent intervention incorporated systems and mechanisms to introduce and embed delirium prevention into routine ward practices. Project 2: five out of six wards implemented or partially implemented the Prevention of Delirium intervention. A prominent role for hospital volunteers was intended, but most wards were unable to recruit or sustain the numbers needed. We identified four conditions necessary to implement and deliver the Prevention of Delirium intervention: (1) commitment of senior nurse, (2) a named person to drive implementation forward, (3) dedicated time (1 day per week) of an experienced nurse to lead implementation and (4) adequate ward staffing levels. Overall, the intervention was acceptable to staff, volunteers, patients and carers, and did not increase nursing staff workload. In the light of these findings, the Prevention of Delirium system of care was modified for use in project 3. Project 3: 16 wards in eight hospitals (two wards per hospital) were recruited. Out of 4449 patients screened, 3274 (73.6%) were eligible and 713 were registered, resulting in a recruitment rate of 16.0%. Thirty-three (4.6%) participants withdrew. The screened and registered participants were similar, but some between-treatment group imbalances were noted among those registered to the trial. All eight wards allocated to the intervention group completed the Prevention of Delirium manual milestone checklist and delivered the Prevention of Delirium intervention (median time 18.6 weeks for implementation). Overall, fidelity to the intervention was assessed as being high in two wards, medium in five wards and low in one ward. Of the expected 5645 Confusion Assessment Method delirium assessments, 5065 (89.7%) were completed during the first 10 days of admission. The rates of return of the patient-reported questionnaire booklets were 98.0% at baseline, 81.8% at 30 days and 70.5% at 3 months. The return rate of the EuroQol-5 Dimensions questionnaire was 98.6% at baseline, 77.5% at 1 month and 65.3% at 3 months (94–98% fully completed). The completion rate of the resource use questionnaire was lower (48.7%). The number of people with new-onset delirium at 10 days was 24 (7.0%) in the Prevention of Delirium group and 33 (8.9%) in the control group. Multilevel logistic regression analysis showed that participants in the Prevention of Delirium group had non-significant lower odds of developing delirium (odds ratio 0.68, 95% confidence interval 0.37 to 1.26; p = 0.2225). The average cost of the Prevention of Delirium intervention was estimated as £10.98 per patient and the mean costs for the Prevention of Delirium and usual-care groups were £5332 and £4412, respectively, with negligible between-group differences in quality-adjusted life-years. There was conflicting evidence from the trial- and model-based analyses relating to the cost-effectiveness of the Prevention of Delirium intervention. Given this, and in view of issues with the data (e.g. high levels of missingness), the results from the economic evaluation are highly uncertain. The criteria for continuation to a future definitive randomised controlled trial were met. Such a trial would need to recruit 5200 patients in 26 hospital clusters (200 patients per cluster). Conclusions The Prevention of Delirium system of care was successfully developed, and a multicentre feasibility study showed that the intervention is capable of implementation and delivery in routine care, with acceptable intervention fidelity and preliminary estimate of effectiveness. Limitations A prominent role for volunteers was originally intended in the Prevention of Delirium system of care, but only three of the eight wards allocated to the trial intervention group involved volunteers. Future work The findings indicate that a definitive multicentre evaluation of the Prevention of Delirium system of care should be designed and conducted to obtain robust estimates of clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN28213290 (project 1), ISRCTN65924234 (project 2) and ISRCTN01187372 (project 3). Funding This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research programme and will be published in full in Programme Grants for Applied Research; Vol. 9, No. 4. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

We’ll have trouble now!The Archaeological Society of Jutland was founded on Sunday, 11 March 1951. As with most projects with which P.V Glob was involved, this did not pass off without drama. Museum people and amateur archaeologists in large numbers appeared at the Museum of Natural History in Aarhus, which had placed rooms at our disposal. The notable dentist Holger Friis, the uncrowned king of Hjørring, was present, as was Dr Balslev from Aidt, Mr and Mrs Overgaard from Holstebro Museum, and the temperamental leader of Aalborg Historical Museum, Peter Riismøller, with a number of his disciples. The staff of the newly-founded Prehistoric Museum functioned as the hosts, except that one of them was missing: the instigator of the whole enterprise, Mr Glob. As the time for the meeting approached, a cold sweat broke out on the foreheads of the people present. Finally, just one minute before the meeting was to start, he arrived and mounted the platform. Everything then went as expected. An executive committee was elected after some discussion, laws were passed, and then suddenly Glob vanished again, only to materialise later in the museum, where he confided to us that his family, which included four children, had been enlarged by a daughter.That’s how the society was founded, and there is not much to add about this. However, a few words concerning the background of the society and its place in a larger context may be appropriate. A small piece of museum history is about to be unfolded.The story begins at the National Museum in the years immediately after World War II, at a time when the German occupation and its incidents were still terribly fresh in everyone’s memory. Therkel Mathiassen was managing what was then called the First Department, which covered the prehistoric periods.Although not sparkling with humour, he was a reliable and benevolent person. Number two in the order of precedence was Hans Christian Broholm, a more colourful personality – awesome as he walked down the corridors, with his massive proportions and a voice that sounded like thunder when nothing seemed to be going his way, as quite often seemed to be the case. Glob, a relatively new museum keeper, was also quite loud at times – his hot-blooded artist’s nature manifested itself in peculiar ways, but his straight forward appearance made him popular with both the older and the younger generations. His somewhat younger colleague C.J. Becker was a scholar to his fingertips, and he sometimes acted as a welcome counterbalance to Glob. At the bottom of the hierarchy was the student group, to which I belonged. The older students handled various tasks, including periodic excavations. This was paid work, and although the salary was by no means princely, it did keep us alive. Student grants were non-existent at the time. Four of us made up a team: Olfert Voss, Mogens Ørsnes, Georg Kunwald and myself. Like young people in general, we were highly discontented with the way our profession was being run by its ”ruling” members, and we were full of ideas for improvement, some of which have later been – or are being – introduced.At the top of our wish list was a central register, of which Voss was the strongest advocate. During the well over one hundred years that archaeology had existed as a professional discipline, the number of artefacts had grown to enormous amounts. The picture was even worse if the collections of the provincial museums were taken into consideration. We imagined how it all could be registered in a card index and categorised according to groups to facilitate access to references in any particular situation. Electronic data processing was still unheard of in those days, but since the introduction of computers, such a comprehensive record has become more feasible.We were also sceptical of the excavation techniques used at the time – they were basically adequate, but they badly needed tightening up. As I mentioned before, we were often working in the field, and not just doing minor jobs but also more important tasks, so we had every opportunity to try out our ideas. Kunwald was the driving force in this respect, working with details, using sections – then a novelty – and proceeding as he did with a thoroughness that even his fellow students found a bit exaggerated at times, although we agreed with his principles. Therkel Mathiassen moaned that we youngsters were too expensive, but he put up with our excesses and so must have found us somewhat valuable. Very valuable indeed to everyon e was Ejnar Dyggve’s excavation of the Jelling mounds in the early 1940s. From a Danish point of view, it was way ahead of its time.Therkel Mathiassen justly complained about the economic situation of the National Museum. Following the German occupation, the country was impoverished and very little money was available for archaeological research: the total sum available for the year 1949 was 20,000 DKK, which corresponded to the annual income of a wealthy man, and was of course absolutely inadequate. Of course our small debating society wanted this sum to be increased, and for once we didn’t leave it at the theoretical level.Voss was lucky enough to know a member of the Folketing (parliament), and a party leader at that. He was brought into the picture, and between us we came up with a plan. An article was written – ”Preserve your heritage” (a quotation from Johannes V. Jensen’s Denmark Song) – which was sent to the newspaper Information. It was published, and with a little help on our part the rest of the media, including radio, picked up the story.We informed our superiors only at the last minute, when everything was arranged. They were taken by surprise but played their parts well, as expected, and everything went according to plan. The result was a considerable increase in excavation funds the following year.It should be added that our reform plans included the conduct of exhibitions. We found the traditional way of presenting the artefacts lined up in rows and series dull and outdated. However, we were not able to experiment within this field.Our visions expressed the natural collision with the established ways that comes with every new generation – almost as a law of nature, but most strongly when the time is ripe. And this was just after the war, when communication with foreign colleagues, having been discontinued for some years, was slowly picking up again. The Archaeological Society of Jutland was also a part of all this, so let us turn to what Hans Christian Andersen somewhat provocatively calls the ”main country”.Until 1949, only the University of Copenhagen provided a degree in prehistoric archaeology. However, in this year, the University of Aarhus founded a chair of archaeology, mainly at the instigation of the Lord Mayor, Svend Unmack Larsen, who was very in terested in archaeology. Glob applied for the position and obtained it, which encompassed responsibility for the old Aarhus Museum or, as it was to be renamed, the Prehistoric Museum (now Moesgaard Museum).These were landmark events to Glob – and to me, as it turned out. We had been working together for a number of years on the excavation of Galgebakken (”Callows Hill”) near Slots Bjergby, Glob as the excavation leader, and I as his assistant. He now offered me the job of museum curator at his new institution. This was somewhat surprising as I had not yet finished my education. The idea was that I was to finish my studies in remote Jutland – a plan that had to be given up rather quickly, though, for reasons which I will describe in the following. At the same time, Gunner Lange-Kornbak – also hand-picked from the National Museum – took up his office as a conservation officer.The three of us made up the permanent museum staff, quickly supplemented by Geoffrey Bibby, who turned out to be an invaluable colleague. He was English and had been stationed in the Faeroe Islands during the war, where he learned to speak Danish. After 1945 he worked for some years for an oil company in the Gulf of Persia, but after marrying Vibeke, he settled in her home town of Aarhus. As his academic background had involved prehistoric cultures he wanted to collaborate with the museum, which Glob readily permitted.This small initial flock governed by Glob was not permitted to indulge inidleness. Glob was a dynamic character, full of good and not so good ideas, but also possessing a good grasp of what was actually practicable. The boring but necessary daily work on the home front was not very interesting to him, so he willingly handed it over to others. He hardly noticed the lack of administrative machinery, a prerequisite for any scholarly museum. It was not easy to follow him on his flights of fancy and still build up the necessary support base. However, the fact that he in no way spared himself had an appeasing effect.Provincial museums at that time were of a mixed nature. A few had trained management, and the rest were run by interested locals. This was often excellently done, as in Esbjerg, where the master joiner Niels Thomsen and a staff of volunteers carried out excavations that were as good as professional investigations, and published them in well-written articles. Regrettably, there were also examples of the opposite. A museum curator in Jutland informed me that his predecessor had been an eager excavator but very rarely left any written documentation of his actions. The excavated items were left without labels in the museum store, often wrapped in newspapers. However, these gave a clue as to the time of unearthing, and with a bit of luck a look in the newspaper archive would then reveal where the excavation had taken place. Although somewhat exceptional, this is not the only such case.The Museum of Aarhus definitely belonged among the better ones in this respect. Founded in 1861, it was at first located at the then town hall, together with the local art collection. The rooms here soon became too cramped, and both collections were moved to a new building in the ”Mølleparken” park. There were skilful people here working as managers and assistants, such as Vilhelm Boye, who had received his archaeological training at the National Museum, and later the partners A. Reeh, a barrister, and G.V. Smith, a captain, who shared the honour of a number of skilfully performed excavations. Glob’s predecessor as curator was the librarian Ejler Haugsted, also a competent man of fine achievements. We did not, thus, take over a museum on its last legs. On the other hand, it did not meet the requirements of a modern scholarly museum. We were given the task of turning it into such a museum, as implied by the name change.The goal was to create a museum similar to the National Museum, but without the faults and shortcomings that that museum had developed over a period of time. In this respect our nightly conversations during our years in Copenhagen turned out to be useful, as our talk had focused on these imperfections and how to eradicate them.We now had the opportunity to put our theories into practice. We may not have succeeded in doing so, but two areas were essentially improved:The numerous independent numbering systems, which were familiar to us from the National Museum, were permeating archaeological excavation s not only in the field but also during later work at the museum. As far as possible this was boiled down to a single system, and a new type of report was born. (In this context, a ”report” is the paper following a field investigation, comprising drawings, photos etc. and describing the progress of the work and the observations made.) The instructions then followed by the National Museum staff regarding the conduct of excavations and report writing went back to a 19th-century protocol by the employee G.V. Blom. Although clear and rational – and a vast improvement at the time – this had become outdated. For instance, the excavation of a burial mound now involved not only the middle of the mound, containing the central grave and its surrounding artefacts, but the complete structure. A large number of details that no one had previously paid attention to thus had to be included in the report. It had become a comprehensive and time-consuming work to sum up the desultory notebook records in a clear and understandable description.The instructions resulting from the new approach determined a special records system that made it possible to transcribe the notebook almost directly into a report following the excavation. The transcription thus contained all the relevant information concerning the in vestigation, and included both relics and soil layers, the excavation method and practical matters, although in a random order. The report proper could then bereduced to a short account containing references to the numbers in the transcribed notebook, which gave more detailed information.As can be imagined, the work of reform was not a continuous process. On the contrary, it had to be done in our spare hours, which were few and far between with an employer like Glob. The assignments crowded in, and the large Jutland map that we had purchased was as studded with pins as a hedge hog’s spines. Each pin represented an inuninent survey, and many of these grew into small or large excavations. Glob himself had his lecture duties to perform, and although he by no means exaggerated his concern for the students, he rarely made it further than to the surveys. Bibby and I had to deal with the hard fieldwork. And the society, once it was established, did not make our lives any easier. Kuml demanded articles written at lightning speed. A perusal of my then diary has given me a vivid recollection of this hectic period, in which I had to make use of the evening and night hours, when the museum was quiet and I had a chance to collect my thoughts. Sometimes our faithful supporter, the Lord Mayor, popped in after an evening meeting. He was extremely interested in our problems, which were then solved according to our abilities over a cup of instant coffee.A large archaeological association already existed in Denmark. How ever, Glob found it necessary to establish another one which would be less oppressed by tradition. Det kongelige nordiske Oldsskriftselskab had been funded in 1825 and was still influenced by different peculiarities from back then. Membership was not open to everyone, as applications were subject to recommendation from two existing members and approval by a vote at one of the monthly lecture meetings. Most candidates were of course accepted, but unpopular persons were sometimes rejected. In addition, only men were admitted – women were banned – but after the war a proposal was brought forward to change this absurdity. It was rejected at first, so there was a considerable excitement at the January meeting in 1951, when the proposal was once again placed on the agenda. The poor lecturer (myself) did his best, although he was aware of the fact that just this once it was the present and not the past which was the focus of attention. The result of the voting was not very courteous as there were still many opponents, but the ladies were allowed in, even if they didn’t get the warmest welcome.In Glob’s society there were no such restrictions – everyone was welcome regardless of sex or age. If there was a model for the society, it was the younger and more progressive Norwegian Archaeological Society rather than the Danish one. The main purpose of both societies was to produce an annual publication, and from the start Glob’s Kuml had a closer resemblance to the Norwegian Viking than to the Danish Aarbøger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie. The name of the publication caused careful consideration. For a long time I kept a slip of paper with different proposals, one of which was Kuml, which won after having been approved by the linguist Peter Skautrup.The name alone, however, was not enough, so now the task became to find so mething to fill Kuml with. To this end the finds came in handy, and as for those, Glob must have allied him self with the higher powers, since fortune smiled at him to a considerable extent. Just after entering upon his duties in Aarhus, an archaeological sensation landed at his feet. This happened in May 1950 when I was still living in the capital. A few of us had planned a trip to Aarhus, partly to look at the relics of th e past, and partly to visit our friend, the professor. He greeted us warmly and told us the exciting news that ten iron swords had been found during drainage work in the valley of lllerup Aadal north of the nearby town of Skanderborg. We took the news calmly as Glob rarely understated his affairs, but our scepticism was misplaced. When we visited the meadow the following day and carefully examined the dug-up soil, another sword appeared, as well as several spear and lance heads, and other iron artefacts. What the drainage trench diggers had found was nothing less than a place of sacrifice for war booty, like the four large finds from the 1800s. When I took up my post in Aarhus in September of that year I was granted responsibility for the lllerup excavation, which I worked on during the autumn and the following six summers. Some of my best memories are associated with this job – an interesting and happy time, with cheerful comradeship with a mixed bunch of helpers, who were mainly archaeology students. When we finished in 1956, it was not because the site had been fully investigated, but because the new owner of the bog plot had an aversion to archaeologists and their activities. Nineteen years later, in 1975, the work was resumed, this time under the leadership of Jørgen Ilkjær, and a large amount of weaponry was uncovered. The report from the find is presently being published.At short intervals, the year 1952 brought two finds of great importance: in Februar y the huge vessel from Braa near Horsens, and in April the Grauballe Man. The large Celtic bronze bowl with the bulls’ heads was found disassembled, buried in a hill and covered by a couple of large stones. Thanks to the finder, the farmer Søren Paaske, work was stopped early enough to leave areas untouched for the subsequent examination.The saga of the Grauballe Man, or the part of it that we know, began as a rumour on the 26th of April: a skeleton had been found in a bog near Silkeborg. On the following day, which happened to be a Sunday, Glob went off to have a look at the find. I had other business, but I arrived at the museum in the evening with an acquaintance. In my diary I wrote: ”When we came in we had a slight shock. On the floor was a peat block with a corpse – a proper, well-preserved bog body. Glob brought it. ”We’ll be in trouble now.” And so we were, and Glob was in high spirits. The find created a sensation, which was also thanks to the quick presentation that we mounted. I had purchased a tape recorder, which cost me a packet – not a small handy one like the ones you get nowadays, but a large monstrosity with a steel tape (it was, after all, early days for this device) – and assisted by several experts, we taped a number of short lectures for the benefit of the visitors. People flocked in; the queue meandered from the exhibition room, through the museum halls, and a long way down the street. It took a long wait to get there, but the visitors seemed to enjoy the experience. The bog man lay in his hastily – procured exhibition case, which people circled around while the talking machine repeatedly expressed its words of wisdom – unfortunately with quite a few interruptions as the tape broke and had to be assembled by hand. Luckily, the tape recorders now often used for exhibitions are more dependable than mine.When the waves had died down and the exhibition ended, the experts examined the bog man. He was x-rayed at several points, cut open, given a tooth inspection, even had his fingerprints taken. During the autopsy there was a small mishap, which we kept to ourselves. However, after almost fifty years I must be able to reveal it: Among the organs removed for investigation was the liver, which was supposedly suitable for a C-14 dating – which at the time was a new dating method, introduced to Denmark after the war. The liver was sent to the laboratory in Copenhagen, and from here we received a telephone call a few days later. What had been sent in for examination was not the liver, but the stomach. The unfortunate (and in all other respects highly competent) Aarhus doctor who had performed the dissection was cal1ed in again. During another visit to the bogman’s inner parts he brought out what he believed to be the real liver. None of us were capable of deciding th is question. It was sent to Copenhagen at great speed, and a while later the dating arrived: Roman Iron Age. This result was later revised as the dating method was improved. The Grauballe Man is now thought to have lived before the birth of Christ.The preservation of the Grauballe Man was to be conservation officer Kornbak’s masterpiece. There were no earlier cases available for reference, so he invented a new method, which was very successful. In the first volumes of Kuml, society members read about the exiting history of the bog body and of the glimpses of prehistoric sacrificial customs that this find gave. They also read about the Bahrain expeditions, which Glob initiated and which became the apple of his eye. Bibby played a central role in this, as it was he who – at an evening gathering at Glob’s and Harriet’s home in Risskov – described his stay on the Persian Gulf island and the numerous burial mounds there. Glob made a quick decision (one of his special abilities was to see possibilities that noone else did, and to carry them out successfully to everyone’s surprise) and in December 1952 he and Bibby left for the Gulf, unaware of the fact that they were thereby beginning a series of expeditions which would continue for decades. Again it was Glob’s special genius that was the decisive factor. He very quickly got on friendly terms with the rulers of the small sheikhdoms and interested them in their past. As everyone knows, oil is flowing plentifully in those parts. The rulers were thus financially powerful and some of this wealth was quickly diverted to the expeditions, which probably would not have survived for so long without this assistance. To those of us who took part in them from time to time, the Gulf expeditions were an unforgettable experience, not just because of the interesting work, but even more because of the contact with the local population, which gave us an insight into local manners and customs that helped to explain parts of our own country’s past which might otherwise be difficult to understand. For Glob and the rest of us did not just get close to the elite: in spite of language problems, our Arab workers became our good friends. Things livened up when we occasionally turned up in their palm huts.Still, co-operating with Glob was not always an easy task – the sparks sometimes flew. His talent of initiating things is of course undisputed, as are the lasting results. He was, however, most attractive when he was in luck. Attention normally focused on this magnificent person whose anecdotes were not taken too seriously, but if something went wrong or failed to work out, he could be grossly unreasonable and a little too willing to abdicate responsibility, even when it was in fact his. This might lead to violent arguments, but peace was always restored. In 1954, another museum curator was attached to the museum: Poul Kjærum, who was immediately given the important task of investigating the dolmen settlement near Tustrup on Northern Djursland. This gave important results, such as the discovery of a cult house, which was a new and hitherto unknown Stone Age feature.A task which had long been on our mind s was finally carried out in 1955: constructing a new display of the museum collections. The old exhibitio n type consisted of numerous artefacts lined up in cases, accompaied ony by a brief note of the place where it was found and the type – which was the standard then. This type of exhibition did not give much idea of life in prehistoric times.We wanted to allow the finds to speak for themselves via the way that they were arranged, and with the aid of models, photos and drawings. We couldn’t do without texts, but these could be short, as people would understand more by just looking at the exhibits. Glob was in the Gulf at the time, so Kjærum and I performed the task with little money but with competent practical help from conservator Kornbak. We shared the work, but in fairness I must add that my part, which included the new lllerup find, was more suitable for an untraditional display. In order to illustrate the confusion of the sacrificial site, the numerous bent swords and other weapons were scattered a.long the back wall of the exhibition hall, above a bog land scape painted by Emil Gregersen. A peat column with inlaid slides illustrated the gradual change from prehistoric lake to bog, while a free-standing exhibition case held a horse’s skeleton with a broken skull, accompanied by sacrificial offerings. A model of the Nydam boat with all its oars sticking out hung from the ceiling, as did the fine copy of the Gundestrup vessel, as the Braa vessel had not yet been preserved. The rich pictorial decoration of the vessel’s inner plates was exhibited in its own case underneath. This was an exhibition form that differed considerably from all other Danish exhibitions of the time, and it quickly set a fashion. We awaited Glob’s homecoming with anticipation – if it wasn’t his exhibition it was still made in his spirit. We hoped that he would be surprised – and he was.The museum was thus taking shape. Its few employees included Jytte Ræbild, who held a key position as a secretary, and a growing number of archaeology students who took part in the work in various ways during these first years. Later, the number of employees grew to include the aforementioned excavation pioneer Georg Kunwald, and Hellmuth Andersen and Hans Jørgen Madsen, whose research into the past of Aarhus, and later into Danevirke is known to many, and also the ethnographer Klaus Ferdinand. And now Moesgaard appeared on the horizon. It was of course Glob’s idea to move everything to a manor near Aarhus – he had been fantasising about this from his first Aarhus days, and no one had raised any objections. Now there was a chance of fulfilling the dream, although the actual realisation was still a difficult task.During all this, the Jutland Archaeological Society thrived and attracted more members than expected. Local branches were founded in several towns, summer trips were arranged and a ”Worsaae Medal” was occasionally donated to persons who had deserved it from an archaeological perspective. Kuml came out regularly with contributions from museum people and the like-minded. The publication had a form that appealed to an inner circle of people interested in archaeology. This was the intention, and this is how it should be. But in my opinion this was not quite enough. We also needed a publication that would cater to a wider public and that followed the same basic ideas as the new exhibition.I imagined a booklet, which – without over-popularsing – would address not only the professional and amateur archaeologist but also anyone else interested in the past. The result was Skalk, which (being a branch of the society) published its fir t issue in the spring of 1957. It was a somewhat daring venture, as the financial base was weak and I had no knowledge of how to run a magazine. However, both finances and experience grew with the number of subscribers – and faster than expected, too. Skalk must have met an unsatisfied need, and this we exploited to the best of our ability with various cheap advertisements. The original idea was to deal only with prehistoric and medieval archaeology, but the historians also wanted to contribute, and not just the digging kind. They were given permission, and so the topic of the magazine ended up being Denmark’s past from the time of its first inhabitant s until the times remembered by the oldest of us – with the odd sideways leap to other subjects. It would be impossible to claim that Skalk was at the top of Glob’s wish list, but he liked it and supported the idea in every way. The keeper of national antiquities, Johannes Brøndsted, did the same, and no doubt his unreserved approval of the magazine contributed to its quick growth. Not all authors found it easy to give up technical language and express themselves in everyday Danish, but the new style was quickly accepted. Ofcourse the obligations of the magazine work were also sometimes annoying. One example from the diary: ”S. had promised to write an article, but it was overdue. We agreed to a final deadline and when that was overdue I phoned again and was told that the author had gone to Switzerland. My hair turned grey overnight.” These things happened, but in this particular case there was a happy ending. Another academic promised me three pages about an excavation, but delivered ten. As it happened, I only shortened his production by a third.The 1960s brought great changes. After careful consideration, Glob left us to become the keeper of national antiquities. One important reason for his hesitation was of course Moesgaard, which he missed out on – the transfer was almost settled. This was a great loss to the Aarhus museum and perhaps to Glob, too, as life granted him much greater opportunities for development.” I am not the type to regret things,” he later stated, and hopefully this was true. And I had to choose between the museum and Skalk – the work with the magazine had become too timeconsuming for the two jobs to be combined. Skalk won, and I can truthfully say that I have never looked back. The magazine grew quickly, and happy years followed. My resignation from the museum also meant that Skalk was disengaged from the Jutland Archaeological Society, but a close connection remained with both the museum and the society.What has been described here all happened when the museum world was at the parting of the ways. It was a time of innovation, and it is my opinion that we at the Prehistoric Museum contributed to that change in various ways.The new Museum Act of 1958 gave impetus to the study of the past. The number of archaeology students in creased tremendously, and new techniques brought new possibilities that the discussion club of the 1940s had not even dreamt of, but which have helped to make some of the visions from back then come true. Public in terest in archaeology and history is still avid, although to my regret, the ahistorical 1960s and 1970s did put a damper on it.Glob is greatly missed; not many of his kind are born nowadays. He had, so to say, great virtues and great fault s, but could we have done without either? It is due to him that we have the Jutland Archaeological Society, which has no w existed for half a century. Congr tulat ion s to the Society, from your offspring Skalk.Harald AndersenSkalk MagazineTranslated by Annette Lerche Trolle

Abstract Objectives The Kidney Team at Home program is an educational intervention aimed at patients with chronic kidney disease to assist them in their choice for kidney replacement therapy. Previous studies have shown that the intervention results in an increase in knowledge and communication on kidney replacement therapy, and eventually in an increase in the number of living donor kidney transplantations. The study assesses the cost-effectiveness of the intervention compared to standard care. Methods A dynamic probabilistic Markov model was used to estimate the monetary and health benefits of the intervention in The Netherlands over 10 years. Data on costs and health-related quality of life were derived from the literature. Transition probabilities, prevalence, and incidence rates were calculated using a large national database. An optimistic and a pessimistic implementation scenario were compared to a base case scenario with standard care. Results In both the optimistic and pessimistic scenario, the intervention is cost-effective and dominant compared to standard care: savings were €108,681,985 and €51,770,060 and the benefits were 1382 and 695 QALYs, respectively. Conclusions The superior cost-effectiveness of the intervention is caused by the superior health effects and the reduction of costs associated with transplantation, and the relatively small incremental costs of the intervention. The favorable findings of this implementation project resulted in national uptake of the intervention in The Netherlands as of 2021. This is the first time a psychosocial intervention has been implemented as part of standard care in a kidney replacement therapy program worldwide.

The purpose of this research study is to explore the role of social media in creating societal transformation particularly in the context of developing countries like Pakistan. This is an exploratory research which focuses around the role and power of social media in creating societal transformation. Semi structure and focus group discussions have been conducted from 40 participants (parents, teachers, and youth). Moreover, thematic analysis was used for the analysis of data. Findings revealed that social media is playing a significant role in improving standard of living by providing an open access to the global markets, financial services and employment opportunities. The young generation has more opportunities for socialization in less time with minimum cost. Social interaction with friends, peers, colleagues, family across the globe has become easier and cheaper. However, the dark side of the use of social media in the forms of privacy breach, unethical practices, detachment from family and less concentration on studies has crippled the society to a big extent. This study contributes towards enhancing the in-depth understanding of social media in shaping societal changes in a developing country like Pakistan and paves the way for future research.

This thesis is a collection of three independent essays that applies microeconometrics techniques to empirically study topics in development and labour economics. The first chapter uses evidence from a natural experiment in Bangladesh, where households were treated to different types of transfer, food grains and cash, at different periods in time, to test the effect of these transfers on household consumption behaviour. Using the fixed effect instrumental variable model, the estimation results show that though in-kind transfers did cause households to consume more grain than they would have chosen under equal-value cash transfers, the impact on calorie consumption and children health status is minimal. Households that received cash were able to reallocate their funds more effectively, and chose to spend their extra income on clothing and children's non-food consumption, while at the same time spending no more on vices. The second chapter investigates the dynamics of living standards in Thailand. Income and earnings processes are first modelled after the statistical Galton-Markov process before being extended to follow a more structural permanent earnings model. Empirical estimations of income and earnings persistence in Thailand employ both constructed pseudo-panel data from Thailand's Labour Force Surveys and the Townsend Thai panel data. Galton-Markov estimates found conditional persistence to be low in Thailand. However, quantile regression estimates find that persistence is low at the bottom of the distribution but high at the top, indicating a divergence in earnings as time passes. A study of the covariance structure of earnings finds that total variation in the earnings process is predominantly driven by moderately persistent transitory components following the AR(1) process. The third chapter attempts to empirically fit the power-law distribution and study the dynamics of inequality, especially at the upper end, of the income and consumption distribution in Thailand. We find that using the popular but incorrect method based on the linear regression approach will lead to researchers drawing a wrong conclusion. Regression estimates of the power-law exponent, a, provide strong evidence of power-law fit in Thailand. However, from the implementation of the superior Clauset et al. method, the evidence in support of the power-law fit is much weaker. Estimates of a for both income and consumption suggest that there is low inequality at the top in Thailand but further inspection finds that there is a high level of persistent between-group inequality between the top and bottom ends of the distribution. In addition, following Battistin et al. (2009), we find weak support for Gibrat's law of proportional random growth as the income-generating process in Thailand.

Defence date: 18 September 1998
Examining board: Prof. Andrea Ichino,EUI; Prof. Emmanuel Jimenez, World Bank, Washington; Prof. Ravi Kanbur, Cornell University, Ithaca; Prof. John Micklewright, UNICEF, Florence and EUI (Supervisor)
First made available online 04 August 2017

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
Existing zakat research reports little information about the living conditions of Indonesian zakat recipients. This study examined the perceptions of zakat recipients at Rumah Zakat, a charitable institution, in Yogyakarta. Semi-structured interviews solicited seven economic empowerment and seven socio-health program respondents’ narratives. This data collection method incorporating multiple approaches to data analysis, including phenomenology, revealed that economic empowerment respondents with more education and spousal support could better subsist after utilizing Rumah Zakat’s interest-free loans. And, compared to individual efforts or group support, spousal support helped significantly with business growth. These respondents typically earned incomes above the national standard of poverty. As their businesses grew, four respondents planned to employ the jobless. In the socio-health program, respondents had minimal education and incomes that fell below the national standard of poverty. A Rumah Zakat clinic gave these respondents four to five years of free health care services; it also facilitated collaborative learning. Although the services lowered their expenses, three respondents requested food distribution in addition to health care. Respondents benefiting from both programs reported a significant positive impact on their home economies, health, and social lives. Thus, an integrative program offering assistance with micro-credits, health care, food security, and education would better serve the poor.

This chapter presents childcare leave measures and ECEC as two policy case studies to show how government strategies on productivism affect people’s life-mix patterns. It shows how policy measures in these two domains can recognise, redistribute, reduce and reward paid work or informal care among men and women, and redistribute caring and financial responsibilities between the family and the state. By analysing the policy measures in these two domains in seven East Asian and European countries and territories, it is argued that generous and well-coordinated provision in these two policy domains can significantly increase the opportunity for parents of young children to organise their working and caring lives according to their life-mix preferences; whereas limited and weakly coordinated policy measures under these two domains may generate negative welfare outcomes, including life-mix material gaps (falls in the standard of living), life-mix relational constraints (taking up a role in care and work involuntarily) and user deficits (paying a high opportunity cost in using the services).

This chapter offers a state-of-the-art review of the implementation of ICTs strategies in a developing country with special reference to Sri Lanka as a case study. This chapter is based on primary and secondary sources (books, articles, Web sites, white papers, and grey literature). It also brings in a small number of empirical studies that serve to illustrate the practical use of the ICT to support arguments. Traditionally, access to ICTs and information has not been viewed as basic a need. However, if needs are interpreted as being dynamic and changing over time and culture (Max-Neef, 1986), access to information and knowledge could be treated as a basic need. Information and knowledge have become increasingly important in the contemporary globalized economy, as advancement in ICTs has enabled larger amounts of information to circulate at a much higher speed and at lower cost. This is partly due to the balance between knowledge and natural resources, but with regard to being the most important factor in determining the standard of living in a country, it is said to have shifted in favor of knowledge. This has led many authors to claim that the people are now living in an information society or a knowledge-based economy (Drucker, 1993). Nowadays, it is a country’s ability to assimilate, use, and diffuse knowledge that will essentially determine its chances of uplift in the new economy.