Audience design in the police interview:the interactional and judicial consequences of audience orientation

Police-suspect interviews in England & Wales are a multi-audience, multi-purpose, transcontextual mode of discourse. They are conducted as part of the initial investigation into a crime, but are subsequently recontextualised through the judicial process, ultimately being presented in court as evidence against the interviewee. The communicative challenges posed by multiple future audiences are investigated by applying Bell’s (1984) audience design model to the police interview, and the resulting "poor fit" demonstrates why this context is discursively counter-intuitive to participants. Further, data analysis indicates that interviewer and interviewee, although ostensibly addressing each other, may orientate to different audiences, with potentially serious consequences. As well as providing new insight into police-suspect interview interaction, this article seeks to extend understanding of the influence of audience on interaction at the discourse level, and to contribute to the development of theoretical models for contexts with multiple or asynchronous audiences.

A new three phase method (SDP method) for the multi-objective vehicle routing problem with simultaneous delvery and pickup (VRPSDP)

Transportation service operators are witnessing a growing demand for bi-directional movement of goods. Given this, the following thesis considers an extension to the vehicle routing problem (VRP) known as the delivery and pickup transportation problem (DPP), where delivery and pickup demands may occupy the same route. The problem is formulated here as the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous delivery and pickup (VRPSDP), which requires the concurrent service of the demands at the customer location. This formulation provides the greatest opportunity for cost savings for both the service provider and recipient. The aims of this research are to propose a new theoretical design to solve the multi-objective VRPSDP, provide software support for the suggested design and validate the method through a set of experiments. A new real-life based multi-objective VRPSDP is studied here, which requires the minimisation of the often conflicting objectives: operated vehicle fleet size, total routing distance and the maximum variation between route distances (workload variation). The former two objectives are commonly encountered in the domain and the latter is introduced here because it is essential for real-life routing problems. The VRPSDP is defined as a hard combinatorial optimisation problem, therefore an approximation method, Simultaneous Delivery and Pickup method (SDPmethod) is proposed to solve it. The SDPmethod consists of three phases. The first phase constructs a set of diverse partial solutions, where one is expected to form part of the near-optimal solution. The second phase determines assignment possibilities for each sub-problem. The third phase solves the sub-problems using a parallel genetic algorithm. The suggested genetic algorithm is improved by the introduction of a set of tools: genetic operator switching mechanism via diversity thresholds, accuracy analysis tool and a new fitness evaluation mechanism. This three phase method is proposed to address the shortcoming that exists in the domain, where an initial solution is built only then to be completely dismantled and redesigned in the optimisation phase. In addition, a new routing heuristic, RouteAlg, is proposed to solve the VRPSDP sub-problem, the travelling salesman problem with simultaneous delivery and pickup (TSPSDP). The experimental studies are conducted using the well known benchmark Salhi and Nagy (1999) test problems, where the SDPmethod and RouteAlg solutions are compared with the prominent works in the VRPSDP domain. The SDPmethod has demonstrated to be an effective method for solving the multi-objective VRPSDP and the RouteAlg for the TSPSDP.

Catalytic systems based on carbon fiber materials for the low-temperature oxidation of carbon monoxide

New heterogenized catalytic systems for the low-temperature oxidation of CO were synthesized by supporting solutions of Pd, Cu, and Fe salts on carbon fibrous materials (carbopon and busofit). The carbon supports were studied by elemental analysis, SEM, TGA, and TPD. The effects of the nature of the support, the concentration and composition of the active component, and the conditions of preparation on the efficiency of the catalytic system were studied. It was ascertained that attenuation of hydrophilic properties of the support led to the decrease in system activity. The investigation of the catalysts by XPS showed that sample treatment in the reaction medium results in redistribution of the components of the active phase in the near-surface layer of the catalyst. The catalytic system based on carbon fibrous material carbopon prepared by supporting active components (Pd, Cu, and Fe salts) in three stages with intermediate activation in the reaction medium ensures 95% conversion of CO under respiratory conditions, and is promising for the design of the main element of breathing masks on its basis.

Online-questionnaire design:establishing guidelines and evaluating existing eupport

As a new medium for questionnaire delivery, the internet has the potential to revolutionise the survey process. Online (web-based) questionnaires provide several advantages over traditional survey methods in terms of cost, speed, appearance, flexibility, functionality, and usability [1, 2]. For instance, delivery is faster, responses are received more quickly, and data collection can be automated or accelerated [1- 3]. Online-questionnaires can also provide many capabilities not found in traditional paper-based questionnaires: they can include pop-up instructions and error messages; they can incorporate links; and it is possible to encode difficult skip patterns making such patterns virtually invisible to respondents. Like many new technologies, however, online-questionnaires face criticism despite their advantages. Typically, such criticisms focus on the vulnerability of online-questionnaires to the four standard survey error types: namely, coverage, non-response, sampling, and measurement errors. Although, like all survey errors, coverage error (“the result of not allowing all members of the survey population to have an equal or nonzero chance of being sampled for participation in a survey” [2, pg. 9]) also affects traditional survey methods, it is currently exacerbated in online-questionnaires as a result of the digital divide. That said, many developed countries have reported substantial increases in computer and internet access and/or are targeting this as part of their immediate infrastructural development [4, 5]. Indicating that familiarity with information technologies is increasing, these trends suggest that coverage error will rapidly diminish to an acceptable level (for the developed world at least) in the near future, and in so doing, positively reinforce the advantages of online-questionnaire delivery. The second error type – the non-response error – occurs when individuals fail to respond to the invitation to participate in a survey or abandon a questionnaire before it is completed. Given today’s societal trend towards self-administration [2] the former is inevitable, irrespective of delivery mechanism. Conversely, non-response as a consequence of questionnaire abandonment can be relatively easily addressed. Unlike traditional questionnaires, the delivery mechanism for online-questionnaires makes estimation of questionnaire length and time required for completion difficult1, thus increasing the likelihood of abandonment. By incorporating a range of features into the design of an online questionnaire, it is possible to facilitate such estimation – and indeed, to provide respondents with context sensitive assistance during the response process – and thereby reduce abandonment while eliciting feelings of accomplishment [6]. For online-questionnaires, sampling error (“the result of attempting to survey only some, and not all, of the units in the survey population” [2, pg. 9]) can arise when all but a small portion of the anticipated respondent set is alienated (and so fails to respond) as a result of, for example, disregard for varying connection speeds, bandwidth limitations, browser configurations, monitors, hardware, and user requirements during the questionnaire design process. Similarly, measurement errors (“the result of poor question wording or questions being presented in such a way that inaccurate or uninterpretable answers are obtained” [2, pg. 11]) will lead to respondents becoming confused and frustrated. Sampling, measurement, and non-response errors are likely to occur when an online-questionnaire is poorly designed. Individuals will answer questions incorrectly, abandon questionnaires, and may ultimately refuse to participate in future surveys; thus, the benefit of online questionnaire delivery will not be fully realized. To prevent errors of this kind2, and their consequences, it is extremely important that practical, comprehensive guidelines exist for the design of online questionnaires. Many design guidelines exist for paper-based questionnaire design (e.g. [7-14]); the same is not true for the design of online questionnaires [2, 15, 16]. The research presented in this paper is a first attempt to address this discrepancy. Section 2 describes the derivation of a comprehensive set of guidelines for the design of online-questionnaires and briefly (given space restrictions) outlines the essence of the guidelines themselves. Although online-questionnaires reduce traditional delivery costs (e.g. paper, mail out, and data entry), set up costs can be high given the need to either adopt and acquire training in questionnaire development software or secure the services of a web developer. Neither approach, however, guarantees a good questionnaire (often because the person designing the questionnaire lacks relevant knowledge in questionnaire design). Drawing on existing software evaluation techniques [17, 18], we assessed the extent to which current questionnaire development applications support our guidelines; Section 3 describes the framework used for the evaluation, and Section 4 discusses our findings. Finally, Section 5 concludes with a discussion of further work.

Software for Expert Information Processing During Carrying out the Examinations

The system of the automated carrying out of examinations is described. Opportunities of system, its architecture and structure of communications between functional subsystems are resulted. Features of the subsystems making system are described. Types of questions which can be used at carrying out of examination are listed. In the near future the working version of system will be ready to input in commercial operation.

Multi-level genetic algorithm for the resource-constrained re-entrant scheduling problem in the flow shop

The re-entrant flow shop scheduling problem (RFSP) is regarded as a NP-hard problem and attracted the attention of both researchers and industry. Current approach attempts to minimize the makespan of RFSP without considering the interdependency between the resource constraints and the re-entrant probability. This paper proposed Multi-level genetic algorithm (GA) by including the co-related re-entrant possibility and production mode in multi-level chromosome encoding. Repair operator is incorporated in the Multi-level genetic algorithm so as to revise the infeasible solution by resolving the resource conflict. With the objective of minimizing the makespan, Multi-level genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed and ANOVA is used to fine tune the parameter setting of GA. The experiment shows that the proposed approach is more effective to find the near-optimal schedule than the simulated annealing algorithm for both small-size problem and large-size problem. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Exploring the optimum step size for defocus curves

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of reducing the number of visual acuity measurements made in a defocus curve on the quality of data quantified. Setting: Midland Eye, Solihull, United Kingdom. Design: Evaluation of a technique. Methods: Defocus curves were constructed by measuring visual acuity on a distance logMAR letter chart, randomizing the test letters between lens presentations. The lens powers evaluated ranged between +1.50 diopters (D) and -5.00 D in 0.50 D steps, which were also presented in a randomized order. Defocus curves were measured binocularly with the Tecnis diffractive, Rezoom refractive, Lentis rotationally asymmetric segmented (+3.00 D addition [add]), and Finevision trifocal multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs) implanted bilaterally, and also for the diffractive IOL and refractive or rotationally asymmetric segmented (+3.00 D and +1.50 D adds) multifocal IOLs implanted contralaterally. Relative and absolute range of clear-focus metrics and area metrics were calculated for curves fitted using 0.50 D, 1.00 D, and 1.50 D steps and a near add-specific profile (ie, distance, half the near add, and the full near-add powers). Results: A significant difference in simulated results was found in at least 1 of the relative or absolute range of clear-focus or area metrics for each of the multifocal designs examined when the defocus-curve step size was increased (P<.05). Conclusion: Faster methods of capturing defocus curves from multifocal IOL designs appear to distort the metric results and are therefore not valid. Financial Disclosure: No author has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned. © 2013 ASCRS and ESCRS.

Determining which factors influence the optimum multifocal contact lens correction for presbyopia

Presbyopia is a consequence of ageing and is therefore increasing inprevalence due to an increase in the ageing population. Of the many methods available to manage presbyopia, the use of contact lenses is indeed a tried and tested reversible option for those wishing to be spectacle free. Contact lens options to correct presbyopia include multifocal contact lenses and monovision.Several options have been available for many years with available guides to help choose multifocal contact lenses. However there is no comprehensive way to help the practitioner selecting the best option for an individual. An examination of the simplest way of predicting the most suitable multifocal lens for a patient will only enhance and add to the current evidence available. The purpose of the study was to determine the current use of presbyopic correction modalities in an optometric practice population in the UK and to evaluate and compare the optical performance of four silicone hydrogel soft multifocal contact lenses and to compare multifocal performance with contact lens monovision. The presbyopic practice cohort principal forms of refractive correction were distance spectacles (with near and intermediate vision providedby a variety of other forms of correction), varifocal spectacles and unaided distance with reading spectacles, with few patients wearing contact lenses as their primary correction modality. The results of the multifocal contact lens randomised controlled trial showed that there were only minor differences in corneal physiology between the lens options. Visual acuity differences were observed for distance targets, but only for low contrast letters and under mesopic lighting conditions. At closer distances between 20cm and 67cm, the defocus curves demonstrated that there were significant differences in acuity between lens designs (p < 0.001) and there was an interaction between the lens design and the level of defocus (p < 0.001). None of the lenses showed a clear near addition, perhaps due to their more aspheric rather than zoned design. As expected, stereoacuity was reduced with monovision compared with the multifocal contact lens designs, although there were some differences between the multifocal lens designs (p < 0.05). Reading speed did not differ between lens designs (F = 1.082, p = 0.368), whereas there was a significant difference in critical print size (F = 7.543, p < 0.001). Glare was quantified with a novel halometer and halo size was found to significantly differ between lenses(F = 4.101, p = 0.004). The rating of iPhone image clarity was significantly different between presbyopic corrections (p = 0.002) as was the Near Acuity Visual Questionnaire (NAVQ) rating of near performance (F = 3.730, p = 0.007).The pupil size did not alter with contact lens design (F = 1.614, p = 0.175), but was larger in the dominant eye (F = 5.489, p = 0.025). Pupil decentration relative to the optical axis did not alter with contact lens design (F = 0.777, p =0.542), but was also greater in the dominant eye (F = 9.917, p = 0.003). It was interesting to note that there was no difference in spherical aberrations induced between the contact lens designs (p > 0.05), with eye dominance (p > 0.05) oroptical component (ocular, corneal or internal: p > 0.05). In terms of subjective patient lens preference, 10 patients preferred monovision,12 Biofinity multifocal lens, 7 Purevision 2 for Presbyopia, 4 AirOptix multifocal and 2 Oasys multifocal contact lenses. However, there were no differences in demographic factors relating to lifestyle or personality, or physiological characteristics such as pupil size or ocular aberrations as measured at baseline,which would allow a practitioner to identify which lens modality the patient would prefer. In terms of the performance of patients with their preferred lens, it emerged that Biofinity multifocal lens preferring patients had a better high contrast acuity under photopic conditions, maintained their reading speed at smaller print sizes and subjectively rated iPhone clarity as better with this lens compared with the other lens designs trialled. Patients who preferred monovision had a lower acuity across a range of distances and a larger area of glare than those patients preferring other lens designs that was unexplained by the clinical metrics measured. However, it seemed that a complex interaction of aberrations may drive lens preference. New clinical tests or more diverse lens designs which may allow practitioners to prescribe patients the presbyopic contact lens option that will work best for them first time remains a hope for the future.

Fibre grating filters for suppression of near infrared OH emission lines

Here we present the design and fabrication of multi-notch optical fibre Bragg gratings for suppressing OH emission lines in the near infrared spectra of the night sky for astrophysical applications. We demonstrate a novel approach of fabricating 2, 3 and 5-notch filters using the phase mask technology, which show a good match with the model.

A sensing mechanism for the detection of carbon nanotubes using selective photoluminescent probes based on ionic complexes with organic dyes

The multifunctional properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) make them a powerful platform for unprecedented innovations in a variety of practical applications. As a result of the surging growth of nanotechnology, nanotubes present a potential problem as an environmental pollutant, and as such, an efficient method for their rapid detection must be established. Here, we propose a novel type of ionic sensor complex for detecting CNTs – an organic dye that responds sensitively and selectively to CNTs with a photoluminescent signal. The complexes are formed through Coulomb attractions between dye molecules with uncompensated charges and CNTs covered with an ionic surfactant in water. We demonstrate that the photoluminescent excitation of the dye can be transferred to the nanotubes, resulting in selective and strong amplification (up to a factor of 6) of the light emission from the excitonic levels of CNTs in the near-infrared spectral range, as experimentally observed via excitation-emission photoluminescence (PL) mapping. The chirality of the nanotubes and the type of ionic surfactant used to disperse the nanotubes both strongly affect the amplification; thus, the complexation provides sensing selectivity towards specific CNTs. Additionally, neither similar uncharged dyes nor CNTs covered with neutral surfactant form such complexes. As model organic molecules, we use a family of polymethine dyes with an easily tailorable molecular structure and, consequently, tunable absorbance and PL characteristics. This provides us with a versatile tool for the controllable photonic and electronic engineering of an efficient probe for CNT detection.

Firm-level productivity growth in Northern Ireland:the impact of exporting, innovation and public financial assistance

Motivated by the historically poor productivity performance of Northern Ireland firms and the longstanding productivity gap with the UK, the aim of this thesis is to examine, through the use of firm-level data, how exporting, innovation and public financial assistance impact on firm productivity growth. These particular activities are investigated due to the continued policy focus on their link to productivity growth and the theoretical claims of a direct positive relationship. In order to undertake these analyses a newly constructed dataset is used which links together cross-sectional and longitudinal data over the 1998-2008 period from the Annual Business Survey, the Manufacturing Sales and Export Survey; the Community Innovation Survey and Invest NI Selective Financial Assistance (SFA) payment data. Econometric methodologies are employed to estimate each of the relationships with regards to productivity growth, making use in particular of Heckman selection techniques and propensity score matching to take account of critical issues of endogeneity and selection bias. The results show that more productive firms self-select into exporting but there is no resulting productivity effect from starting to export; contesting the argument for learning-by-exporting. Product innovation is also found to have no impact on productivity growth over a four year period but there is evidence of a negative process innovation impact, likely to reflect temporary learning effects. Finally SFA assistance, including the amount of the payment, is found to have no short term impact on productivity growth suggesting substantial deadweight effects and/or targeting of inefficient firms. The results provide partial evidence as to why Northern Ireland has failed to narrow the productivity gap with the rest of the UK. The analyses further highlight the need for access to comprehensive firm-level data for research purposes, not least to underpin robust evidence-based policymaking.

Evaluation of low vision services on the quality of life of individuals with age-related macular degeneration

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) is a major cause of irreversible visual loss in the elderly and a significant threat to their quality of life. Although low vision services often improve the functional outcomes of individuals with macular disease, it remains unclear whether or not they have any impact on quality of life. The principal aim of this study was to determine the effect of a hospital-based low vision clinic on the quality of life of individuals with ARMD. Methods: Forty patients with ARMD attended the low vision clinic at Milton Keynes University Hospital. Quality of life was measured with the vision-specific Low Vision Quality of Life (LVQOL) questionnaire and the general health EuroQol (EQ-5D-5L) questionnaire. Measures were completed at baseline (time zero, T0), and at three- (T3) and six-month (T6) follow-up visits. Results: The near visual acuity of individuals attending the low vision clinic for the first time improved significantly between visits T0 and T3 (p=0.005), reflecting the practiced use of their newly-dispensed low vision aids. As expected, there was no significant change in near acuity over this time period for existing patients. For both new and existing patients, a significant increase in LVQOL score was evident between visits T0 and T3, with a further significant improvement between T3 and T6. Similarly, there was a significant decrease in EQ-5D-5L questionnaire scores between visits T0 and T6. Conclusions: The higher LVQOL scores obtained at the end of the study period (T6) provide evidence that low vision services at Milton Keynes University Hospital served to improve patient quality of life. The reduction in EQ-5D-5L scores over the same time period suggests that low vision services also provide for an improvement in general health-related quality of life. Impact: The findings support the cause of low vision services to improve not only the vision and functional outcomes of individuals with macular disease but also their quality of life. Moreover, the findings suggest that a more efficient allocation of resources at low vision clinics may be possible through the standardisation of patient follow-up frequency.

A desztináció menedzsment szerepe a desztinációs versenyképességben – Hazai és dán tapasztalatok tükrében = The role of destination management in the destinations’ competitiveness – Hungarian and Danish experiences

A desztináció menedzsment valamennyi desztinációs versenyképesség modell középponti eleme, és „csodaszerként” jelenik meg, különösen azokban az országokban, amelyek a desztináció menedzsment eszközrendszerét a közelmúltban vezették be, annak érdekében, hogy a desztinációk lépést tudjanak tartani a versenytársaikkal, mint ahogyan ez hazánkban is történt. Jelen tanulmány alapját a témában írt PhD Értekezésem (Sziva, I. (2010)) adja, amelynek fókuszában a desztinációs versenyképesség értelmezése, az ex ante oldali tényezők feltárása állt. A téziskutatás során feltárt tényezők, és a Bírálóim konstruktív fejlesztési javaslatai a téma továbbkutatására ösztönöztek. Mindezért tartottam elengedhetetlennek, hogy a tézisemben összefoglalt hazai és osztrák kutatások legfontosabb eredményeit további nemzetközi színtéren, ezúttal Dániában vizsgáljam, jelen esetben a fókuszt a desztináció menedzsment tényezőire, és annak kiemelt kontextusaira helyezve. Jelen tanulmány legfontosabb célja az, hogy egyrészt összefoglalást adjon a desztináció menedzsment szerepéről a desztinációs versenyképesség elméleti megközelítéseit tekintve. Továbbá, hogy a hazai tapasztalatok összevetésre kerüljenek a szakértői interjúk során megismert dán tapasztalatokkal és további kutatási irányok kerüljenek meghatározásra. Ezúton szeretném megköszönni dániai kutatásom interjú-alanyainak részvételét és a Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem TÁMOP 4.2.1.B-09/1/KMR-2010-0005 projekt keretében nyújtott támogatását! _________ Destination management is the central element of the model concerning destinations’ competitiveness, and appears as „wonder medicine”, particularly in those countries, where the tools of destination management was introduced in the near past, as it happened in Hungary. The baseline of this study is given by my PhD Dissertation (Sziva, I. (2010)), which was focusing on interpretation and the ex ante factors of destinations’ competitiveness. The factors identified during my thesis research, and the constructive recommendations of my Reviewer gave the motivation for further analysis. That is why was it important to make further researchers based on the results identified in the Hungarian and Austrian cases of my thesis research, and add further international, this time Danish context to the research, by focusing on destination management among the factors of competitiveness. The aim of the article is to give a summary about the theoretical approach of destination management and compare the Hungarian experiences with that of the results of the Danish research based on experts’ interviews. Hereby I would like to thank my interviewees their participation, and the support of Corvinus University Budapest in the framework of TÁMOP 4.2.1.B-09/1/KMR-2010-0005 project.

Adatbányászati alkalmazások lehetőségei egy multinacionális vállalat magyarországi leányvállalatának információs rendszerében (Opportunities of datamining applications in the information system of a multinational company’s Hungarian subsidiary)

A tanulmány Magyarország egyik legnagyobb foglalkoztatójának megrendelésére készült abból a célból, hogy milyen megoldásokkal lehetne a vállalati működést hatékonyabbá tenni. Ennek keretében a szerzők megvizsgálták, hol tart ma a HR adatbányászati kutatás a világban. Milyen eszközök állnak rendelkezésre ahhoz, hogy a munkavállalói elmenetelt előre jelezzék, illetve figyeljék, valamint milyen lehetőség van a hálózati kutatások felhasználására a biztonság területén. Szerencsés, hogy a vállalkozói kérdések és erőforrások találkozhattak a kutatói szféra aktuális kutatási területeivel. A tanulmány szerzői úgy gondolják, hogy a cikkben megfogalmazott állítások, következtetések, eredmények a jövőben hasznosíthatók lesznek a vállalat és más cégek számára is. _____ The authors were pleased to take part in this research project initiated by one of Hungary’s largest employer. The goal of the project was to work out BI solutions to improve upon their business process. In the framework of the project first the authors made a survey on the current trends in the world of HR datamining. They reviewed the available tools for the prediction of employee promotion and investigated the question on how to utilize results achieved in social network analysis in the field of enterprise security. When real business problems and resources meet the mainstream research of the scientific community it is always a fortunate and it is rather fruitful. The authors are certain that the results published in this document will be beneficial for Foxconn in the near future. Of course, they are not done. There are continually new research perspectives opening up and huge amount of information is accumulating in the enterprises just waiting for getting discovered and analysed. Also the environment in which an enterprise operates is dynamically changing and thus the company faces new challenges and new type of business problems arise. The authors are in the hope that their research experience will help decision makers also in the future to solve real world business problems.

Állami támogatások és gazdasági teljesítmény. Támogatás-túladagolás a magyar gazdaságfejlesztésben? (An overdose of state aid in the Hungarian economy)

Magyarországon az elmúlt évtizedben a vállalatoknak nyújtott állami támogatás GDP-arányosan számolva az európai uniós átlag 2,7-szerese volt. A cikk megvizsgálja, hogy a támogatások hatása megjelenik-e a magyar gazdaság beruházási, foglalkoztatási, jövedelemtermelési teljesítményében és versenyképességében. Arra a következtetésre jut, hogy egyik területen sem jobb a helyzet, mint azokban az országokban, amelyekben lényegesen alacsonyabb a támogatási arány. A mikroszintű elemzések, értékelések sem támasztják alá azt a vélekedést, hogy az állami támogatások érzékelhetően javítják a gazdasági teljesítményt. A források bősége önmagában is okoz hatékonysági problémákat, mert sok program és szervezet versenyez egymással. A rossz (gyengébb hatékonysági követelményeket támasztó) programok kiszorítják a jó programokat. Ha a versenyképességet érdemben befolyásoló tényezők, például a kedvező jogi szabályozási környezet és az üzleti szolgáltatások jól működő piacai nem adottak, akkor ezek hiányát nem ellensúlyozza a támogatások magas szintje. Magyarország az idén indult hétéves programozási időszakban tovább kívánja növelni a vállalatoknak nyújtott állami támogatások mértékét, miközben nincs egyértelmű válasz arra a kérdésre, hogy milyen módon növelhető a támogatási rendszer jelenleg alacsony hatékonysága. _____ State aid given to enterprises as a proportion of Hungary�s GDP has been 2.7 times the EU average over the past decade. The article examines whether any impact of this high level of state aid can be discerned in investment, employment, income- generation performance, or competitiveness of the Hungarian economy. It seems that in none of these areas is the situation better than in countries that have a markedly lower rate of state aid. Micro-level analyses and evaluations do not support the belief that state aid appreciably improves economic performance. A wealth of resources on its own can cause problems with efficiency, as many programs and organizations compete with each other. Bad (less demanding) programs nudge out the good ones. If the factors significantly determining competitiveness, including a favourable legal and regulatory environment and well-functioning markets of business services, are not in place, a high level of state aid cannot be a proxy for them. In the seven-year programming period beginning this year, Hungary plans to further increase the amount of state aid to enterprises, while there is no clear answer as to how to improve the currently poor efficiency of the state aid system.