Energy

The Energy chapter of the Poor Choices report

Introduction

The seven sectors examined in this report represent the goods and services essential for, at the least, social inclusion and, in most instances, survival in a modern society. For the lowest three income deciles, they represent about 60 per cent of total household expenditure. [From final paragraph of Introduction]

Conclusion

We conclude that there are significant problems with the operation of the markets in all those sectors we look at that are, to a greater or less extent, operated as commercial markets. That said, the way in which the water sector operates (the only remaining regulated monopoly) seems to serve low-income consumers little better. [From 'Summary of conclusions']

La monarquia francesa y los financieros en el Antiguo Régimen. El ejemplo de los traitants durante la Guerra de los Nueve Años, 1689-1697 = The French Monarchy and the financiers during the Old Regime. The case of the traitants during the Nine Years War, 1689-1697

This article explores the relationship between the Crown, the French society and the king's financiers. It starts with a brief review of the discourses on the financiers and a survey of the work done by historians. Further to a description of the various groups of financiers, it analyses the nature of the contracts passed between the king and the traitants to pay for the Nine Years War, as well as the latter’s activities and profits. The article argues that the government supervised effectively the traitants and that, given the constraints of the Old Regime, these financiers provided essential services, but too costly to be sustainable.

Regional development through the enterprise of arts leadership

The literature in the field suggests that a community without arts-practice risks its future. Contemporaneously, evidence suggests that the future of some communities, specifically regional or rural communities, are at risk because of the withdrawal of essential services, which leads to economic and social decline. There is also evidence that arts practice has revived economic and social activity (and performance measures) in regional cities and towns. In this article, I argue that the arts foster regional sustainability, and I propose that an arts leadership that is collective in nature and associated with vision and creativity is needed if the arts are to achieve regional sustainability.

The occupiers' burden: tackling food shortage and related health problems in post-war Germany 1945-47

The end of the Second World War brought much relief to its combatants, but a range of problems remained that would plague post-war Europe for years to come. Chief among them was food shortage. The breakdown of agricultural systems, essential services, and the state itself laid fertile ground for food shortage to develop in parts of post-war Germany occupied by the victorious powers. There is much to be gained from comparing the occupiers’ responses to this Horseman of the Apocalypse. The most fruitful comparison lies between the Soviets and British. Unlike the Americans whose economic might in the post-war period allowed them to better feed and supply Germans living in their occupation zone, domestic economic weaknesses hamstrung both Soviet and British responses to the more severe advent of food shortage which confronted them. Their responses were very different—some successful, others not—but all instructive for understanding the impacts of natural and policy factors on the development of food shortage and the consequences to the health of the population. The variety of these impacts have been obscured by the absence of this comparison in the literature, which is now made more feasible by the greater availability of the extensive resources that each occupier devoted to recording food and health data, particularly in the Soviet case. The data is not only relevant to the occupation period from 1945 to 1949, as it suggests long-term health impacts on those most exposed to the risk of food shortage then, and most at risk to the consequences of malnutrition decades later. In fact, as the available data defines regional differences in food rations and, accordingly, comparative food shortages in Soviet and British occupation zones, the situation in post-war Germany provides an excellent platform for future research linking differences in early nutrition to adult health outcomes.

Cyber security and protection of ICS systems: An australian example

Many aspects of our modern society now have either a direct or implicit dependence upon information technology. As such, a compromise of the availability or integrity in relation to these systems (which may encompass such diverse domains as banking, government, health care, and law enforcement) could have dramatic consequences from a societal perspective. These key systems are often referred to as critical infrastructure. Critical infrastructure can consist of corporate information systems or systems that control key industrial processes; these specific systems are referred to as ICS (Industry Control Systems) systems. ICS systems have devolved since the 1960s from standalone systems to networked architectures that communicate across large distances, utilise wireless network and can be controlled via the Internet. ICS systems form part of many countries’ key critical infrastructure, including Australia. They are used to remotely monitor and control the delivery of essential services and products, such as electricity, gas, water, waste treatment and transport systems. The need for security measures within these systems was not anticipated in the early development stages as they were designed to be closed systems and not open systems to be accessible via the Internet. We are also seeing these ICS and their supporting systems being integrated into organisational corporate systems.

The impact of corruption on the performance of state-owned companies: case of Petrobras Brasil

As empresas estatais são freqüentemente consideradas como componentes cruciais da economia de um país. Eles são responsáveis pela criação de vários postos de trabalho e proveem serviços essenciais que exigem um grande investimento de capital. Porém, em países com instituições fracas, onde a responsabilidade dos políticos é limitada e a gestão dos recursos financeiros das empresas estatais sofre pouco controle, os funcionários são muitas vezes tentados pela corrupção. Enormes quantidades de fundos públicos são facilmente desviados, e dinheiro que deveria ter sido investido nas despesas de capital, no pagamento de dívida da empresa ou no aumento do retorno para os acionistas, é usado para aumentar a riqueza privada de indivíduos ou para financiar ilegalmente partidos políticos. O desempenho da empresa sofre com essas alienações visto que parte dos lucros da empresa não são reinvestidos na empresa e dado que incentivos dos gestores estão desalinhados com os interesses dos acionistas. Petrobras, a maior empresa da América Latina em termos de ativos e receitas anuais, sofreu em 2014 e 2015 um escândalo de corrupção imenso, cujo impacto económico foi considerável, levando ao enfraquecimento da confiança de muitos investidores no Brasil após o evento. O escândalo expôs um extenso esquema de corrupção através do qual os contratantes foram conspirando para aumentar os preços de contratos de construção, com a aprovação da administração da Petrobras que pediu em troca ganhos pessoais ou fundos para o Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). A exposição do escândalo na imprensa brasileira teve um grande impacto sobre a credibilidade da Petrobras: as contas da empresa estavam escondendo imensas irregularidades dado que a empresa tinha pago demais para os contratos de construção que não foram precificados no valor do mercado. Ao longo deste estudo, usamos o exemplo da Petrobras para ilustrar como a corrupção dentro empresas estatais prejudica o desempenho da empresa e como ela afeta as várias partes interessadas da empresa.

O trabalho dos assistentes sociais nos hospitais universitários Onofre Lopes (HUOL) e Hospital Ana Bezerra (HUAB) da UFRN: os desafios da formação permanente

This paper discusses the process of training social workers in the environment of University Hospitals- UH s. These hospitals provide space for professional education aiming to achieve a critical and purposeful professional performance. As environments for training, producing knowledge and providing essential services to the public, these hospitals require all members of the healthcare team to have a continued education. Understanding that training has to be a priority and conceived as constant pursuit for update through the interaction of Teaching, Researching and EPO ( Education and Public Outreach). These dimensions provide approximations and domain of theoretical and methodological, giving special importance to understanding the social reality, a sine qua non condition to the work of the Social Service professional. The main goal of the research was to comprehend how the continuous professional education of the social worker occurs and it s relation with the articulations involving Teaching, Researching and EPO, as significant elements for the job of the social workers in the Hospital Universitário Ana Bezerra and Hospital Universitário Onofre Lopes/UFRN. The research was conducted through a literature review, documentary and field inquiries with semistructured interviews including the group of 09 (nine) social workers from the aforementioned hospitals, taking as a reference the quantitative and qualitative approach to analyze mediations that stand between the subject and the social context. The results indicate that social workers in these university hospitals have their insertion beyond the care provided to patients in performance in the areas of education through preceptorship to undergraduate students and social work residents in and extension projects with low insertion in area of research. We note that there is a recognition of the importance of a continuous education, indicating that the qualification of social worker is essential in transforming their daily professional practice to better monitor, critically explain the peculiarities of public health in its everyday showing of how unequally access is provided to the users of the public health system

Evaluation of the performance of pharmacists in terms of providing health assistance at a university hospital

OBJETIVE: This study aimed to assess the practices of pharmacists in Hospital Care. Method - we interviewed 20 pharmacists from the Pharmacy Division by applying a structured instrument, in September 2005. This instrument addressed aspects related to the main activities at the Hospital Pharmacy, which were assessed according to indicators organized into five areas: sector management, hospital pharmacotechniques, committee activities, information and pharmacotherapeutic follow-up, as well as teaching and research activities.RESULTS: the Pharmacy Division considered all structural aspects under analysis as essential for the good development and application of its services. We found that some essential services, such as the Medication Information Service and Pharmacotherapeutic Follow-up, were absent. Pharmacist professionals were dissatisfied about human resource and physical structure dimensioning, and they presented as not very active in terms of Pharmaceutical Care.CONCLUSION: Results indicate that care is still centered on the drug, with few clinical activities. We suggest reformulations in service management, particularly in the management of pharmacists.

Employment, growth and reforms in Jamaica

Includes bibliography

A comunicação organizacional e o atendimento ao público via 0800 no Departamento de Água e Esgoto de Bauru

Pós-graduação em Comunicação - FAAC

Avaliação econômica de diferentes composições veiculares empregadas no transporte rodoviário de madeira: estudo de caso

Transport is one the essential services for the development of most economic activities. In the forestry sector, the main transport used to carry wood from the forest to local consumption is road. The transport increases the producing costs of wood and may be responsible of a high percentage in the final price of the wood sold in the industry. To reduce the company’s costs and increase the efficiency of forest production those transport activities must be analyzed and improved. In that context, an economic analysis is the main objective of this work, evaluating three different types of log transport from a sawmill in São Paulo´s Southwest region. For this, a data collection was done to compound the costs and the incomes of timber transport, and that way, to do the economic analyses of each transport. The monitoring activities were done in the second 2013 half-year and the research achieved economic viability results utilizing tools and methods of Economic Engineering

Regolazione delle prestazioni indispensabili e poteri della Commissione di garanzia

La legge n. 146 del 1990 ha istituito la Commissione di garanzia per l’attuazione della legge sullo sciopero nei servizi pubblici essenziali, un’authority deputata al controllo dell’effettivo bilanciamento del diritto di sciopero con gli altri diritti della persona di rango costituzionale nel caso dei servizi pubblici essenziali. Ad essa spettano alcuni poteri tra di loro eterogenei. Accanto a poteri propulsivi e sanzionatori, essa possiede poteri di tipo normativo. La legge prevede, infatti, che le prestazioni indispensabili e le altre misure necessarie al contemperamento siano determinate da accordi tra il datore di lavoro e le associazioni sindacali, mentre per il lavoro autonomo da codici di autoregolamentazione forniti da ognuna delle categorie interessate. Gli accordi e i codici di autoregolamentazione devono essere, comunque, sottoposti al vaglio della Commissione di garanzia la quale in ultimo stabilisce se essi siano idonei a realizzare il bilanciamento dei diritti in questione. Quando i soggetti indicati dalla legge non provvedano alla redazione dei suddetti atti, la Commissione interviene con l’emanazione di una provvisoria regolamentazione, la quale possiede natura di regolamento, giacchè partecipa dei caratteri della generalità ed astrattezza propri delle norme di legge. In effetti, anche altre authorities possiedono un potere normativo, che si sostanzia alle volte in un regolamento indipendente, altre in un regolamento simile ai regolamenti delegati ed altre al regolamento esecutivo. Poiché la legge n. 146 del 1990 prevede quali siano gli istituti idonei a realizzare il bilanciamento (preavviso, proclamazione scritta, procedure di raffreddamento e conciliazione, intervallo minimo, misure indicative delle prestazioni indispensabili), la provvisoria regolamentazione possiede i caratteri del regolamento esecutivo.

EVALUATING INFRASTRUCTURE PERFORMANCE TO ASSIST FACILITY MANAGEMENT TOWARD SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS

Civil infrastructure provides essential services for the development of both society and economy. It is very important to manage systems efficiently to ensure sound performance. However, there are challenges in information extraction from available data, which also necessitates the establishment of methodologies and frameworks to assist stakeholders in the decision making process. This research proposes methodologies to evaluate systems performance by maximizing the use of available information, in an effort to build and maintain sustainable systems. Under the guidance of problem formulation from a holistic view proposed by Mukherjee and Muga, this research specifically investigates problem solving methods that measure and analyze metrics to support decision making. Failures are inevitable in system management. A methodology is developed to describe arrival pattern of failures in order to assist engineers in failure rescues and budget prioritization especially when funding is limited. It reveals that blockage arrivals are not totally random. Smaller meaningful subsets show good random behavior. Additional overtime failure rate is analyzed by applying existing reliability models and non-parametric approaches. A scheme is further proposed to depict rates over the lifetime of a given facility system. Further analysis of sub-data sets is also performed with the discussion of context reduction. Infrastructure condition is another important indicator of systems performance. The challenges in predicting facility condition are the transition probability estimates and model sensitivity analysis. Methods are proposed to estimate transition probabilities by investigating long term behavior of the model and the relationship between transition rates and probabilities. To integrate heterogeneities, model sensitivity is performed for the application of non-homogeneous Markov chains model. Scenarios are investigated by assuming transition probabilities follow a Weibull regressed function and fall within an interval estimate. For each scenario, multiple cases are simulated using a Monte Carlo simulation. Results show that variations on the outputs are sensitive to the probability regression. While for the interval estimate, outputs have similar variations to the inputs. Life cycle cost analysis and life cycle assessment of a sewer system are performed comparing three different pipe types, which are reinforced concrete pipe (RCP) and non-reinforced concrete pipe (NRCP), and vitrified clay pipe (VCP). Life cycle cost analysis is performed for material extraction, construction and rehabilitation phases. In the rehabilitation phase, Markov chains model is applied in the support of rehabilitation strategy. In the life cycle assessment, the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) tools are used in estimating environmental emissions for all three phases. Emissions are then compared quantitatively among alternatives to support decision making.