The State Inspector General’s Annual Report of Fraud Conducted by Executive Branch State Employees Fiscal Year (FY) 2015-2016

The SIG identifies Executive Branch employee fraud through mandatory reporting by each agency; law enforcement reporting; agencies’ annual reports to the Office of the Comptroller General; and open source reporting. In FY 2015-2016, the SIG received twelve notifications of fraud involving 18 Executive Branch employees at ten statewide agencies, which resulted in estimated losses of $1,188,529. This indicates a low risk of employee fraud in the Executive Branch given its $26 billion budget and 60,000 employees.

Predicamento de seguridad yemení

Con el inicio del periodo Post-Guerra Fría el Sistema Internacional comienza a experimentar un incremento en el fortalecimiento de su componente social; la Sociedad de Estados alcanza un mayor nivel de homogenización, el estado, unidad predominante de esta, comienzan atravesar una serie de transformaciones que obedecerán a una serie de cambios y continuidades respecto al periodo anterior. Desde la perspectiva del Realismo Subalterno de las Relaciones Internacionales se destacan el proceso de construcción de estado e inserción al sistema como las variables que determinan el sentimiento de inseguridad experimentado por las elites estatales del Tercer Mundo; procesos que en el contexto de un nuevo y turbulento periodo en el sistema, tomara algunas características particulares que darán un sentido especifico al sentimiento de inseguridad y las acciones a través de las cuales las elites buscan disminuirlo. La dimensión externa del sentimiento de inseguridad, el nuevo papel que toma la resistencia popular como factor determinante del sentimiento de inseguridad y de la cooperación, así como del conflicto, entre los miembros de la Sociedad Internacional, la inserción como promotor de estrategias de construcción de Estado, son alguno de los temas puntuales, que desde la perspectiva subalterna, parecen salir a flote tras el análisis del sistema en lo que se ha considerado como el periodo Post-Guerra Fría. En este sentido Yemen, se muestra como un caso adecuado no solo para poner a prueba las postulados de la teoría subalterna, veinte años después de su obra más prominente (The third world security Predicament), escrita por M. Ayoob, sino como un caso pertinente que permite acercarse más a la comprensión del papel del Tercer Mundo al interior de la Sociedad Internacional de Estados.

Supporting law students’ skills development online – a strategy to improve skills and reduce student stress?

Law students internationally suffer from a high level of psychological distress compared with the general and student populations, and anecdotal evidence suggests that students developing skills without adequate support experience significant stress and anxiety. This article considers an initiative at one Australian law school to develop a degree-wide structured online skills development programme as a means to both improve student skills acquisition and reduce student stress. The project implements, through the use of learning technology, the principles proposed by McKinney for making small changes to law school teaching, informed by self-efficacy theory, which can have powerful results.

Abusing data dominance in the digital market. The application of merger control and article 102 TFEU to data-related conducts.

The internet and digital technologies revolutionized the economy. Regulating the digital market has become a priority for the European Union. While promoting innovation and development, EU institutions must assure that the digital market maintains a competitive structure. Among the numerous elements characterizing the digital sector, users’ data are particularly important. Digital services are centered around personal data, the accumulation of which contributed to the centralization of market power in the hands of a few large providers. As a result, data-driven mergers and data-related abuses gained a central role for the purposes of EU antitrust enforcement. In light of these considerations, this work aims at assessing whether EU competition law is well-suited to address data-driven mergers and data-related abuses of dominance. These conducts are of crucial importance to the maintenance of competition in the digital sector, insofar as the accumulation of users’ data constitutes a fundamental competitive advantage. To begin with, part 1 addresses the specific features of the digital market and their impact on the definition of the relevant market and the assessment of dominance by antitrust authorities. Secondly, part 2 analyzes the EU’s case law on data-driven mergers to verify if merger control is well-suited to address these concentrations. Thirdly, part 3 discusses abuses of dominance in the phase of data collection and the legal frameworks applicable to these conducts. Fourthly, part 4 focuses on access to “essential” datasets and the indirect effects of anticompetitive conducts on rivals’ ability to access users’ information. Finally, Part 5 discusses differential pricing practices implemented online and based on personal data. As it will be assessed, the combination of an efficient competition law enforcement and the auspicial adoption of a specific regulation seems to be the best solution to face the challenges raised by “data-related dominance”.

Reducing the harms caused by cannabis use: the policy debate in Australia

The debate about cannabis policy in Australia has revolved around the harms that cannabis causes to users and the community, on the one hand, and the harms that are caused by the prohibition of its use, on the other. This paper assesses evidence on: (1) the harms caused to users and the community by cannabis use (derived from the international scientific literature) and (2) the harms that arise from prohibition (as reflected in Australian research). The most probable harms caused by cannabis use include: an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents; respiratory disease; dependence; adverse effects on adolescent development; and the exacerbation of psychosis. The harms of the current prohibition on cannabis use policy are less tangible but probably include: the creation of a large blackmarket; disrespect for a widely broken law; harms to the reputation of the unlucky few cannabis users who are caught and prosecuted; lack of access to cannabis for medical uses; and an inefficient use of law enforcement resources. Cannabis policy unavoidably involves trade offs between competing values that should be made by the political process. Australian cannabis policy has converged on a solution which continues to prohibit cannabis but reduces the severity of penalties for cannabis use by either removing criminal penalties or diverting first time cannabis offenders into treatment and education. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Property crime and income generation by heroin users

This paper provides a detailed analysis of patterns of income generation among 202 active heroin users in South West Sydney. We explore both sources of income and the relative contribution of different types of income generating activities, including drug sales and related activities, property crime, prostitution, legitimate income and avoided expenditures. Despite claims that heroin use leads inevitably to property crime, drug market activities accounted for a greater proportion of drug user income in this sample. Results indicate that law enforcement crackdowns that reduce opportunities for generating income from the drug market may increase property crime by heroin users.

Prevention of ""Risky"" drinking among students at a Brazilian University

Aim: The aim of this paper was to compare the quantity and frequency of alcohol use and its associated negative consequences between two groups of college students who were identified as being ""risky drinkers."" Subjects were randomly allocated in a clinical trial to intervention or control groups. Methods: Risky drinking use was defined as Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) >= 8 and/or Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI) >= 5 problems in the previous year. Students who had undergone the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) (N = 145 at baseline; 142 at 12 months, and 103 at 24 months, loss of 29.7%) were compared with a control group (N = 121 at baseline; 121 at 12 months and 113 at 24 months, loss of 9.3%), the nonintervention group. Variables included drinking frequency, quantity and peak consumption, dependence assessment, and family and friends` abuse assessment. Results: Treated students at a 24-month follow-up decreased quantity of alcohol use per occasion and lowered AUDIT and RAPI scores. Conclusions: This is the first brief intervention work on risky drinking with college students in Brazil and the results are encouraging. However, it is difficult to conduct individual prevention strategies in a country where culture fosters heavy drinking through poor public policy on alcohol and lack of law enforcement.

Illicit Opiate Abuse

Illicit opiate use, especially injected drugs, contributes to premature mortality and morbidity in many developed and developing societies. The economic costs of illicit drug use are substantial. Fatal overdoses and HIV/AIDS resulting from sharing dirty needles and injecting equipment are major contributors to mortality and morbidity. Illicit opioid use accounted for 0.7 percent of global disability–adjusted life years in 2000. An estimated 15.3 million people, or 0.4 percent of the world population ages 15 to 64, used illicit opioids in 2002, with more than half using heroin and the rest using opium or diverted pharmaceuticals such as buprenorphine, methadone, or morphine. The most popular interventions for illicit opioid dependence in many developed societies have been law enforcement efforts to interdict the drug supply and enforce legal sanctions against drug use. One consequence has been that illicit opioid users have been exposed to the least effective intervention: imprisonment for drug or property offenses. The most effective intervention to reduce blood–borne virus infection resulting from illicit drug injections is provision of clean injecting equipment to users. This intervention has been widely supported in developed countries, but less so in developing countries. In addition, vaccinations are effective against hepatitis B. In treatment settings, the most popular interventions have been detoxification and drug–free treatment, which has proven the least productive in retaining opioid–dependent people in treatment. Opioid agonists have a niche role in treatment of opioid dependence, especially if their efficacy improves with development of long–acting injectable forms of the drug.

The endgame for national girls' schooling policies in Australia?

Gender equity: A framework for Australian schools is the most recent policy dealing with gender in schools at the national level in Australia. This paper provides a critical discourse analysis of the policy document, tracking two themes: 'the construction of gender', and 'equity: a discourse of education for all boys and girls'. Through this analysis the authors argue that the policy signals a substantial shift in focus-from girls and boys in relation to girls, to both girls and boys-within a framework of presumptive equality. It is also argued that the policy shuts down federal involvement in policy for girls' schooling. In the process, responsibility is devolved to the states and territories where, in many cases, gender equity programs will be struggled over at a local, school-based level. At the same time, however, spaces have been created which potentially enable new strategies for gender equity policies in Australian schools.

Financiamento e gasto público da assistência social no Município de Vitória - ES - 2005 a 2012

Trata do financiamento e do gasto público com a política de assistência social no município de Vitória - ES, nos oito anos seguintes à publicação da Política Nacional de Assistência Social 2004. Constitui-se em um estudo de caso, onde se realizou revisão bibliográfica e pesquisa documental utilizando-se como fontes de dados o Sistema Municipal Ferramenta Operacional de Controle Orçamentário, os Planos Municipais de Assistência Social, os Planos Plurianuais de Aplicação e outras leis e resoluções municipais. Apresenta considerações sobre a trajetória da assistência social, especialmente a partir da Constituição Federal de 1988. Discute aspectos da política fiscal, do orçamento público, da Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal e do financiamento e gasto da União com a assistência social. Por fim, debruça-se sobre a experiência do Município de Vitória - ES. Neste trabalho, a assistência social é compreendida como uma das formas de intervenção estatal, no sentido de garantir as condições de reprodução da sociedade capitalista, seja contribuindo para a acumulação de capital seja respondendo as reivindicações dos trabalhadores. Como resultados desta pesquisa foi possível identificar avanços e limites no financiamento e no gasto com a política de assistência social no município, dentre os quais destacam-se, de um lado, a ampliação dos recursos da assistência social em valores reais e o protagonismo do município no financiamento da política, de outro, a manutenção e/ou redução do percentual de gastos em relação às despesas gerais do município e o insuficiente aporte de recursos para fazer avançar a assistência social na direção da ampliação e da qualificação dos serviços.

Relationships between NPM, the use of PM practices and the organizational performance: empirical evidence from government agencies

Purpose – this paper has two main purposes: (1)explore if government agencies more oriented to NPM postulates are more willing to use PM practices and to improve their performance; and (2) investigate whether the fit between the use of PM practices and the organizationa performance is dependent upon from the capacity of agencies to adapt its structures to changes introduced by NPM reforms. Design/methodology/approach - this paper is based on the survey method and provides empirical evidence from Portuguese government agencies.Findings (mandatory) - Our findings suggest that government agencies that made structural arrangements under the NPM reforms are more willing to use PM practices and will perform better than other agencies. In addition, this paper show that therelationship between the use of PM practices and the organizational performance is dependent upon from the agencies capacity to adopt new structural arrangements under the NPM reforms.Practical implications – this paper has three main contributions: (1) contribute to knowledge about the relationship between the introduction of NPM changes in the use of PM practices; (2) contribute to clarify whether agencies more oriented to NPM postulates are improving performance; and (3) help to clarify the way the organizations should adapt their structures for to be more effective in the use of PM practices. Originality/value - The quantitative empirical research, based on the unique survey applied to Portuguese government agencies on this field, allow us to add to prior research mainly based on case studies and oriented to local governments (Budding, 2004).

Adolescente e ato infracional : uma investigação acerca da medida socioeducativa de internação na cidade do Recife-PE

RESUMO: Este estudo procura avaliar a Medida Socioeducativa de Internação decretada a adolescentes autores de ato infracional na Cidade do Recife no ano de 2009. É um trabalho de grande importância para a sociedade brasileira, sobretudo, no que diz respeito ao combate à violência juvenil, à criminalidade em geral, e à construção de um mundo mais justo e solidário. Escolhemos a Cidade do Recife, Capital do Estado de Pernambuco, localizada na região Nordeste do Brasil, para ser o local da nossa pesquisa, por ser esta uma das mais violentas cidades do país. No decorrer desta pesquisa fizemos ainda uma breve análise do cenário sociológico da adolescência na Cidade do Recife. Em seguida estudamos o cenário jurídico dos adolescentes autores de ato infracional com base no Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente – Lei nº 8.069/1990, analisando a evolução histórica do tratamento legal dispensado a estes jovens, abordando o conceito de adolescente e ato infracional, e investigando as Medidas Socioeducativas previstas na legislação brasileira, sobretudo, a Medida de Internação, pelo fato de ser a mais grave delas. Assim, além investigarmos através de dados estatísticos o quantitativo por gênero de adolescentes autores de ato infracional aos quais foram decretadas Medida de Internação, observamos os tipos de atos infracionais mais praticados. Intentamos, dessa forma, questionar a violência juvenil e o modo como a sociedade e as instituições envolvidas têm tratado a questão. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas com servidores da Fundação de Atendimento Socioeducativo- FUNASE, entidade que trabalham diretamente com a reeducação de adolescentes autores de ato infracional submetidos à Internação na Cidade do Recife, para analisar como estão sendo aplicadas essas medidas. ABSTRACT: This study aims to evaluate the Socioeducational Measure of Internation decreed to transgressor teenagers in the City of Recife at the year 2009. This study has a big importance to Brazilian society, above all, because focalize the combat of the juvenile violence in Recife, Capital of the State of Pernambuco on the northwest of the Brazil, one of the most violent city of Brazil. During this investigation, was done a brief analysis of sociological scenery of teenage in this City. It was studied too, the juridical scenery of teenagers that committed any kind of transgression, based on the Statue of Child and the Adolescent- law n° 8.069/1990, analyzing the historical evolution of lawful treatment put into practice to this people, using the concept of adolescent and infracional act, and observing the social and educative punishment in the penal justice system of Brazil, and detaching the measure of internation, that is the gravest form of punishment. So, in this study it was investigated the quantity of transgressors adolescents based in gender and the kinds of transgression most practiced by them which results on internation measure decreed. This way, the purpose of this study is discuss about young violence and the way that society and institutions have faced this question. For this, it was realized interviews with Foundation of Socioeducative Attendance – FUNASE workers, that work directly with re-education of adolescents that committed any transgression and were submitted to internation punishment, in order to analyze how are being applied these measures.

Auxílios de Estado sob a forma fiscal: O caso Açores - Proc. C-88/03

Mestrado em Fiscalidade

Helmet use among motorcyclists: observational study in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina

The objective of the study was to assess the use of helmets in a community where helmet use is mandatory but low as there is no police enforcement. A sample comprising 451 motorcyclists in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina, was studied in 2006. The following variables were studied: gender, type of motorcycle, weather conditions, time of the day, city area and type of road where motorcyclists traveled. Data were analyzed through a multiple logistic regression model. An overall 40% prevalence (95% CI: 35.5;44.5) of helmet use was found. Higher rates of helmet use were seen among women, and under unfavorable weather conditions, lower rates were found in the city outskirts, and variable use was seen according to the type of motorcycle. There is a need to improve law enforcement and to promote education of motorcyclists.