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On the verge of the expiry of land contracts, it is theoretically and practically important to explore the willingness and motivations of farmers to stabilize the land contract relationship, with regards to protecting their land contract rights, addressing potential contradictions during the land contract extension, and maintaining the stability of contracted land. Using China Land Economic Survey Data in 2020, this paper explores the impact of differences in areas per capita of household contracted land on farmers' willingness to stabilize land contract relationship. The findings show that most farmers support the stability of land contract relationship;the smaller areas per capita of contracted land are occupied by households than the average in the village, the weaker of the farmers' willingness to stabilize the land contract relationship. The difference between the areas per capita of contracted land ownership of a household and the average in the village has a greater impact on the willingness to stabilize land contract relationship for middle-and low-income farmers, while the development of land transfer market does not increased the willingness. Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the land plays a more important role of employment security, which reduces farmers' willingness to stabilize the land contract relationship. Furthermore, the promotion of socialized agricultural service has also mitigated the willingness of farmers o stabilize the land contract relationship.
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In December 2019, a novel coronavirus broke out in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, and, as the center of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, the economy and production throughout Hubei Province suffered huge temporary impacts. Based on the input–output and industrial pollution emissions data of 33 industrial industries in Hubei from 2010 to 2019, this article uses the non-parametric frontier analysis method to calculate the potential production losses and compliance costs caused by environmental regulations in Hubei's industrial sector by year and industry. Research has found that the environmental technology efficiency of the industrial sector in Hubei is showing a trend of increasing year-on-year, but the overall efficiency level is still not high, and there is great room for improvement. The calculation results with and without environmental regulatory constraints indicate that, generally, production losses and compliance costs may be encountered in the industrial sector in Hubei, and there are significant differences by industry. The potential production losses and compliance costs in pollution-intensive industries are higher than those in clean production industries. On this basis, we propose relevant policy recommendations to improve the technological efficiency of Hubei's industrial environment, in order to promote the high-quality development of Hubei's industry in the post-epidemic era.
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PurposeReportedly, green roof (GR) makes a significant contribution towards a truly sustainable-built environment;however, its implementation is yet to hit a sufficient level in developing countries. Thus, this study assesses GR implementation strategies in developing countries by providing a comparative analysis through experts in Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Turkey.Design/methodology/approachThe study adopts a four-step methodological approach to achieve the research aim: literature review, focus group discussion, fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) analysis and correlation analyses. First, a literature review followed by a focus group discussion is used to determine 18 (out of 25 initially) strategies for the selected context and these are classified into three categories: governmental and institutional support, knowledge and information and policy and regulation. Afterward, the identified GR strategies are evaluated using the FAHP with the data gathered from the experts in the countries studied. Finally, correlation analyses were used to observe the strength of agreement between the assessments of experts from the included countries.FindingsThe findings indicate that financial incentives, low-cost government loans and subsidies and tax rebates are the essential strategies for the wider adoption of GR. Evaluating the policy and regulations strategies also showed that mandatory GR policies and regulations and better enforcement of the developed GR policies are ranked as the most prominent strategies. The findings show a low level of agreement among respondents from Kazakhstan, while there is a high level of agreement between the experts in Malaysia and Turkey.Research limitations/implicationsThe research contribution is twofold. First (research implication), the study identifies the strategies through a complete literature review. Second, the identified strategies are evaluated through the lenses of experts in three developing countries which are hoped to provide (practical contribution) a better understanding of the most effective strategies that require attention and enable the frontline stakeholders (particularly government authorities) to focus on them.Originality/valueThe study findings provide a good point of departure to explore the strategies for broader adoption of GRs in developing economic setting.
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Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in 2019, with the relentless efforts of the country in the early stage to the "10 new measures" now, the prevention and control has been gradually released from strict regulations. The number of COVID-19 infections increased, and wide attention has been attracted by the primary skin diseases, deterioration of pre-existing skin diseases, and other skin damage that resulted from self-protection and treatment. Considering the series of skin problems caused by COVID-19 infection and prevention measures, we mainly summarize the common skin damage after the"10 new measures" and propose a strategy to guide the treatment in this article.
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Responding to mistrust in the European agencies' risk assessments in politically salient cases, the European Union (EU) legislator, the European Food Safety Authority and the European Medicines Agency alike have accelerated their efforts to foster EU regulatory science transparency. These simultaneous endeavours have, however, taken place in a fragmented legislative and administrative context, with each agency operating under a different legal framework. By focusing on authorisation procedures, from registration of studies to authorisation of novel foods, pesticides and human medicines, this article examines the resulting regimes governing the disclosure of scientific data by EU agencies to identify common trends and sectoral specificities. Against the background of an overall shift towards enhanced transparency, we shed light on, first, the circulation of institutional arrangements and practices among agencies and, second, the new dimensions of transparency emerging from these developments. We also highlight the remaining sectoral differences and argue that they could have potentially large impacts on the amount and type of information disclosed and on the level of transparency perceived by stakeholders and citizens. We argue that more coherence across the sectoral transparency regimes is needed, in particular in light of the agencies' contested legitimacy and of their increasing cooperation on cross-cutting issues like antimicrobial resistance and medicine and pesticide residues in food.
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With the recent global COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, accreditation delays have become inevitable in lieu of the strict travel restrictions. The usual accreditation inspection process conducted face-To-face was affected. Organizations are shifting to a reliance on technology to adapt to the national emergency. The study aims to bridge the gap by digitalization Professional Regulation Commission's (PRC) monitoring and accreditation system to conduct a virtual inspection and monitoring. With all of these said, the specific objectives of the researchers and developers are to develop an efficient digitized system that captures the original one. In developing the proposed accreditation and monitoring system and document management system (website) for PRC, the group will adapt and take inspiration from the Agile Development Lifecycle methodology, which will help the modification and other functionality of the system by using the iterative style in the development of the system. The proposed digital monitoring system undergoes a cross-browser test, and performance test, i.e., Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM). These tests show that the proposed system passed the compatibility for commonly used browsers like Chrome, Edge, Mozilla, and many more. The Final Test in Performance Testing showed that the system RTM functions had passed all final testing. © 2023 IEEE.
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PurposeThere is an increasing interest in the supply chain's digitalization, yet the topic is still in the preliminary stages of academic research. The academic literature has no consensus and is still limited to research assessing the supply chain's digitalization of organizations. This study aims to explore the supply chain digitalization drivers to understand the emerging phenomena. More specifically, the authors devised from the literature the most common factors in assessing the readiness in scaling supply chain digitalization.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed a five-phased systematic literature review (SLR) methodology in this research: designing, analyzing, conducting, writing and assessing the quality of the review. The SLR is beneficial for justifying future research regardless of the complex process that requires dealing with high-level databases, information filtering and relevancies of the content. Through analysis of 347 titles and s and 40 full papers, the authors showed and discussed the supply chain digitalization: transformation factors.FindingsThe results generated three main themes: technology, people and processes. The study also generated ten subthemes/primary drivers for assessing the readiness for supply chain digitalization in organizations: IT infrastructure, cybersecurity systems, digitalization reskilling and upskilling, digitalization culture, top management support, digitalization and innovation strategy, integrated supply chain, digital innovation management, big data management and data analytics and government regulations. The importance of each factor was discussed, and future research agenda was presented.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the key drivers of the supply chain digitalization were identified, there is still a need to study the statistical correlation to confirm the interrelationships among factors. This study is also limited by the articles available in the databases and content extraction.Practical implicationsThis study supports decision-makers in understanding the critical drivers in digitalizing the supply chain. Once these factors are studied and comprehended, managers and decision-makers could better anticipate and allocate the proper resources to embark on the digitalization journey and make informed decisions.Originality/valueThe digitalization of the supply chain is more critical nowadays due to the global disruptions caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the surge of organizations moving toward the digital economy. There is a gap between the digital transformation pilot studies and implementation. The themes and factors unearthed in this study will serve as a foundation and guidelines for further theoretical research and practical implications.
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This publication presents Peru's illegal wildlife trade activity before and after Covid-19 pandemic which creates a perfect conditions for zoonotic emerging infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2 to emerge and spread among animals and people, thus recommendations to prevent this scenario are highlighted.
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After decades of outsourcing to low-cost countries, companies are restructuring their production footprint globally. Especially having experienced supply chain disruption caused by the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic for the past several years, many multinational companies are considering bringing their operations back home (i.e., reshoring). At the same time, the U.S. government proposes using tax penalties to motivate companies to reshore. In this paper, we study how a global supply chain adjusts its offshoring and reshoring production decisions under two different circumstances: (1) under traditional corporate tax regulations; (2) under the proposed tax penalty regulations. We analyze cost variants, tax structures, market access and production risks to identify conditions where global companies decide to bring manufacturing back to their domestic countries. Our results show that multinational companies would be more likely to relocate the production from the main foreign country to an alternative country that enjoys even lower production costs under the proposed tax penalty. As identified by our analysis and as well as numerical simulations, reshoring can only occur in rare situations such as when the production costs in the foreign countries are close to that in the domestic country. Besides potential national tax reform, we also discuss the impact of the Global Minimum Tax Rate proposed by the G7 on global companies' offshoring/reshoring decisions.
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BACKGROUND: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 60% of children under 5 years of age were cared for in out-of-home child care arrangements in the United States. Thus, child care provides an opportunity to identify and address potential child maltreatment. However, during the pandemic, rates of reporting child maltreatment decreased-likely because children spent less time in the presence of mandated reporters. As children return to child care, states must have regulations in place to help child care providers prevent, recognize and report child maltreatment. However, little is known about the extent to which state regulations address child maltreatment. Therefore, the purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess state regulations related to child maltreatment and compare them to national standards. METHOD: We reviewed state regulations for all 50 states and the District of Columbia for child care centres ('centres') and family child care homes ('homes') through 31 July 2021 and compared these regulations to eight national health and safety standards on child maltreatment. We coded regulations as either not meeting, partially meeting or fully meeting each standard. RESULTS: Three states (Colorado, Utah and Washington) had regulations for centres, and one state (Washington) had regulations for homes that at least partially met all eight national standards. Nearly all states had regulations consistent with the standards requiring that caregivers and teachers are mandated reporters of child maltreatment and requiring that they be trained in preventing, recognizing and reporting child maltreatment. One state (Hawaii) did not have regulations consistent with any of the national standards for either centres or homes. CONCLUSIONS: Generally, states lacked regulations related to the prevention, recognition and reporting of child maltreatment for both centres and homes. Encouraging states to adopt regulations that meet national standards and further exploring their impact on child welfare are important next steps.
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Critical care units-designed for concentrated and specialized care-came from multiple parallel advances in medical, surgical, and nursing techniques and training taking advantage of new therapeutic technologies. Regulatory requirements and government policy impacted design and practice. After WWII, medical practice and education promoted further specialization. Hospitals offered newer, more extreme, and specialized surgeries and anesthesia enabled more complex procedures. ICUs developed in the 1950s, providing a recovery room's level of observation and specialized nursing to serve the critically ill, whether medical or surgical.
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Critical Care , Intensive Care Units , Humans , Critical Illness , TechnologyABSTRACT
Background: The influx of people across the national borders of Ghana has been of interest and concern in the public health and national security community in recent times due to the low capacity for the prevention and management of epidemics and other public health risks. Although the international health regulations (IHR) stipulate core public health capacities for designated border facilities such as international airports, seaports, and ground crossings, contextual factors that influence the attainment of effective public health measures and response capabilities remain understudied. Objective: This study aims to assess the relationship between contextual factors and COVID-19 procurement to help strengthen infrastructure resources for points of entry (PoE) public health surveillance functions, thereby eliminating gaps in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of pandemic-related interventions in Ghana. Methods: This study employed a mixed-methods design, where quantitative variables were examined for relationships and effect size interactions using multiple linear regression techniques and the wild bootstrap technique. Country-level data was sourced from multiple publicly available sources using the social-ecological framework, logic model, and IHR capacity monitoring framework. The qualitative portion included triangulation with an expert panel to determine areas of convergence and divergence. Results: The most general findings were that laboratory capacity and Kotoka International Airport testing center positively predicted COVID-19 procurement, and public health response and airline boarding rule negatively predicted COVID-19 procurement. Conclusion: Contextual understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola epidemic is vital for strengthening PoE mitigation measures and preventing disease importation.
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Introduction: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging disease that infects patients, who have critical and complex health problems, that need to be treated in hospitals. The financial regulations and heath economy to management efficiency in hospitals is an important indicator for hospital administrators to make decisions for efficient health service provision. Then, the purposes were to: analyze the cost of in-patient with COVID-19 per day and per admission, and compare COVID-19 severity with the cost of in-patient. Methods: This retrospective study using secondary data from the standard data set HOSxP data system program 43 folders of 18, between 2021 and 2022 was conducted. The total hospital costs was analyzed from the 4191 samples of in-patients with COVID-19 on the 18 community hospital in Sakon Nakhon Province, Thailand. Results:The majority of samples were females 52.6%, age group between 30 - 39 of 26.0 %, the insurance type was Social Security Scheme 60.9% (average sleeping days 11 days), lived in Sakon Nakhon province, Thailand 77.7%, no medical conditions 97.7 %, the severity of disease was asymptomatic and mild symptoms 80.5%. In addition, the cost of an in-patient COVID- 19 ward was 104.1 USD per day. The cost of complication diseases resulted from 1,063.3 USD - 1,681.1 USD per admission, moderate symptoms and pneumonia were 1,681.1 USD per admission, and mild symptoms were 1,063.3 USD per admission, which was higher than the standard cost (p<0.015). Furthermore, the cost of mild symptoms was 1,063.3 USD per admission was higher than the estimated cost (p<0.05), and the cost of moderate symptoms with pneumonia was 1,681.1 USD per admission, higher than the estimated cost ( p<0.001). Conclusions: As a consequence, the various levels of clinical severity and the cost of an in-patient with COVID-19 is higher than the standard cost and estimated cost. However, there is still no suitable fiscal legislation.
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This work had the general objective of analyzing how the Brazilian Federal Government, through tax incentive laws, has enhanced the economic activity of companies, highlighting the current socioeconomic scenario caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was classified as qualitative, documental, bibliographic, basic and descriptive. The federal rules on tax incentives that exist in Brazil until March 2020 were analyzed, totaling eleven rules. Then, it was verified if there were any changes in the period from March 2020 to December 2021, and if there were publications of new federal rules on tax incentives. The conclusions are that of the federal norms already instituted, in March 2020, six have undergone changes: Rouanet Law;Informatics Law;Audiovisual Law;Sports Incentive Law;Payroll Exemption Law;and Drawback Law. Regarding the federal regulations instituted in the period, there was no institution of tax incentives, which the companies needed to be able to maintain their cash flow, enhance their socio-economic activities and mitigate the impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted a certain slowness in the approval procedures of the Law projects. Possibly, the benefits already granted would need to be extended or adjusted.
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This article aims to address the adequacies of the preceding review studies, which have largely failed to systematically analyze the academic contributions (notably, theoretical and methodological contributions) made by the extant studies pertinent to COVID-19 and tourism. Specifically, we have collected up to 245 articles indexed in top 10 academic journals in the field of tourism studies, including Annals of Tourism Research, Tourism Management, Journal of Travel Research, Journal of Sustainable Tourism and so forth. The keywords used for search involve "COVID-19" "COVID" "pandemic" "epidemic" "coronavirus" and "corona virus". The publication dates of the articles all fall somewhere between the start of the pandemic in January, 2020 and the 31st of August, 2021. Based upon the analysis framework proposed by authors, according to John Tribe's essay, and that formulated by Colquitt and Zapata-Phelan, this article evaluates the extent to which the sampled studies have made a contribution to the extant theories and methodology related to tourism.As the research outcomes manifest, first, the extant studies could be categorized according to their research themes. Specifically, most research shed light on tourist behaviours and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism development, particularly on the national and destinational levels. In contrast, very few has reflected upon the changes in tourism as a discipline, in general, and the relevant research approaches, in specific. Second, roughly half of the sample articles are quantitative studies, most of which are in favour of either questionnaires or statistics. In contrast, qualitative studies only take a lesser share. Third, with respect to academic contribution, it is clear that significant theoretical contribution is rarely made in the sampled studies. Most are found oriented to solving real-world problems. This imbalance would, perhaps, pose a threat to the growing tourism research in the long run. The reasons are manifold, but we focus upon triple key human and nonhuman factors, namely, academics, academic journals, and the rule and regulations by institutions (e.g., universities), which might have conspired to manipulate the process of (co-)producing tourism knowledge. Thus, to solve practical questions in the real time has become popular among academics, who might be increasingly reluctant to spend sufficient time and energy on theory building itself. Nevertheless, theory building, after all, is vitally significant, not least because it arguably paves a base stone for the future of tourism research. As such, we suggest that the current tourism knowledge production system needs to be reformed, encouraging more academics in future to focus on the theoretical significance of their own studies. This article has some limitations, as we only target the articles indexed in the top 10 journals in tourism. It means that our research findings might be less representative than expected. Moreover, it might be better to evaluate respectively the significance of the studies in different tourism subjects, whose fabrics might vary from one to another. In so doing, more nuanced insights might be mobilized in this aspect, providing most useful guidance to other scholars with utmost interest in the production of tourism knowledge.
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This chapter reviews the effects of the pandemic on population movements, following three human security frames of migration: (1) migration as a threat, (2) migrants as a population of concern, and (3) migration as a means for security. Despite great global efforts to debunk the myth of migration as a threat, the pandemic's nature has once again made the stereotype prominent. Distrust and xenophobia episodes have taken place worldwide, adding a new layer of complexity to the emergency. Moreover, an almost complete halt to migration closed the possibility of moving away from the direct disease threat and ensuing deprivation, not only because governments impeded new movements but also because people on the move found themselves in new precarious situations. The fall in remittances and relapses into poverty across the world are evidence of this trend, so any recovery strategy will have to include migration considerations. Finally, different migrants have fared differently against the pandemic's challenges: while specific vulnerabilities are notorious, contributions covering dangerous jobs during the emergency have also been exalted. Efforts to contain stigma and provide protection without discrimination will be necessary to potentiate the migration contribution to the pandemic recovery. Preventing further disease relapses remains a difficult problem to address. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer 2022.
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The events of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan and the WHO's immediate response have garnered international media attention and popular criticism against the organization for being unduly deferential to Chinese reporting and, by extension, incapable of independent investigation and pandemic management. The study examines the WHO's efforts to contain international spread of the virus whilst managing its relationship with influential member states, namely the United States and China. It argues that the International Health Regulations (2005) are poorly insulated against underlying political dynamics and competition that are largely unrelated to international public health. That is, the existing framework governing pandemic events are susceptible to manipulation by influential member states with ulterior motives who do not abide by their reporting duties. Finally, the study suggests that, by promoting greater transparency and incorporating a dispute-settlement mechanism focused on adjudicating international health law-specific matters, the WHO will be better equipped to respond to future pandemics. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2023.
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We report results from the first randomization of a regulatory reform in the health sector. The reform established minimum quality standards for patient safety, an issue that has become increasingly salient following the Ebola and COVID-19 epidemics. In our experiment, all 1348 health facilities in three Kenyan counties were classified into 273 markets, and the markets were then randomly allocated to treatment and control groups. Government inspectors visited health facilities and, depending on the results of their inspection, recommended closure or a timeline for improvements. The intervention increased compliance with patient safety measures in both public and private facilities (more so in the latter) and reallocated patients from private to public facilities without increasing out-of-pocket payments or decreasing facility use. In treated markets, improvements were equally marked throughout the quality distribution, consistent with a simple model of vertical differentiation in oligopolies. Our paper thus establishes the use of experimental techniques to study regulatory reforms and, in doing so, shows that minimum standards can improve quality across the board without adversely affecting utilization.
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There has been global economic fallout from the Pandemic COVID-19. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is one of the industries hit worst. Many MSMEs have seen their profits decline or even disappear. Consequently, tax income dropped. In order to raise tax revenue, the government has implemented a number of reforms, one of which is a push for greater tax compliance among MSMEs. This study aims to analyze the effect of providing tax incentives and understanding taxpayers on MSME tax compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also examines risk preferences as moderation. The population in this study is the MSMEs food sector in the city of Pekanbaru, Indonesia. Samples were selected using convenience sampling. A total of 397 MSMEs in the food sector participated in this study. During the months of December 2021 and February 2022, data was gathered by distributing questionnaires to taxpayers directly and also by using Google forms. Data analysis techniques used SEM with Warp PLS. Tests show that tax incentives affect the compliance of MSME taxpayers during the COVID 19. This study demonstrates that understanding MSME tax rules can boost compliance. The high risk faced by taxpayers can reduce tax compliance even though the government provides tax incentives. However, with a high level of understanding, even though taxpayers have risks, they still carry out their tax compliance. This study aids the government's effort to give tax incentives and outreach to better comprehend the needs of MSME taxpayers.
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The COVID-19 pandemic elicited a surge in the use of digital tools to replace "classic” manual disease tracking and contact tracing across individuals. The main technical reason is based on the disease surveillance needs imposed by the magnitude of the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus since 2020, particularly how these needs overwhelmed governments around the world. Such developments led to stark variations across countries in terms of legal approaches towards the use of digital tools, including self-reporting software and mobile phone apps, for both disease tracking and contact tracing. Against this backdrop, in this article I highlight some of the normative challenges posed by the digitalization of disease surveillance, underscoring its almost non-existent regulation under international law. I look back at the historical emergence of the epidemiological principles underlying this procedure, by referring to John Snow's trailblazing work in cholera control. I emphasize how the COVID-19 pandemic prompted both technical and normative shifts related to the digitalization of these procedures. Furthermore, I refer to some of the overarching obstacles for deploying international law to tackle future tensions between the public health rationale for digitalized disease tracking and contact tracing, on the one hand, and normative concerns directly related to their legality, on the other hand. Lastly, I put forward conclusions in light of the current juncture of international health law reforms, and how they so far display limited potential to herald structural changes concerning the legality of the use of digital tools in disease surveillance.