Common Fund Research Articles

Transparency and altruistic punishment in an experimental model of cooperation to corruption through economic games

This work integrates cooperation, punishment, damage to the treasury, and the transgression of norms in a single experimental model of corruption. Participants formed words with predetermined letters, receiving a reward for each word, and, if they reached a goal, an extra taken from the common fund. Manipulation in the letters made it impossible to reach the goal, so reporting exceeding it implied cheating for a benefit. Three studies model the effects of signaling, descriptive norms, and the possibility of punishing or investigating (transparency) corruption acts. 248 participants were randomly assigned to the conditions of each study. Significant differences were found in reports of words and earnings in Studies 1 and 3, but not in Study 2. The experimental model reveals the potential of transparency as an alternative of lower social cost than altruistic punishment to diminish corruption. The relevance of these results for implementing public policies was discussed.

Money and values in couples: a cross-welfare system comparison of gender values

PurposeMoney management practices among couples from 27 countries were studied to understand how they reflect egalitarian values. The welfare system was used as a classification criterion, to account for the distinct socio-political contexts in which couple relationships are formed.Design/methodology/approachThe data are sourced from the 2012 Survey on Family and Changing Gender Roles of the International Social Survey Programme. The analytical strategy used has been binary logistic regression.FindingsThe results demonstrate that participation of the woman in the household economy and financial decision-making indicates higher levels of egalitarian values in the couple. Couples who distinguish between a common fund and individual funds demonstrate more egalitarian values than those who have only a common fund. Besides, symmetry in the couple in terms of the income level of each partner increased the probability of having more egalitarian values. Greater equality was found among couples who resided in countries with a Mediterranean welfare system.Originality/valueThe paper makes an original contribution to the field of sociology and social policy by focus on couples' money management and improve understanding of the finance-well-being nexus.

Listening Sessions to Shape the Innovative NIH ComPASS Common Fund Program to Advance Health Equity.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recognized the need for a research program to address the underlying structural factors that impact health. To inform the development of the NIH Common Fund Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS) Program, NIH obtained input through community listening sessions. Through its design, ComPASS recognizes the essential role of community organizations as the lead in addressing persistent structural and social challenges to accelerate progress toward advancing health equity. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(7):685-689. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.307656).

A STUDY ON POLICY HOLDERS PREFERENCE TOWARDS LIFE INSURANCE POLICY IN ERODE DISTRICT

Insurance is basically working on the principle of ‘many sharing the loss of a few’. People facing common risks come together and make small contributions to a common fund and it can be called a co-operative venture. Insurance is also an effective risk management tool. The responsibility of taking care of the family, ensuring the security of the family are shifted from the shoulders of an individual to the life insurance companies since it curtails risk and substitutes certainty for uncertainty in human life. Life is a roller coaster ride and is full of twists and turns, one cannot take anything for granted in life. Life insurance policy helps in not only mitigating risk but also provides a financial cushion against adverse financial burdens suffered. A life insurance policy is distinct from other financial instruments because of the risk cover provided. It is one of the basic needs of an individual; every individual for his own sake and for the sake of his family should invest in life insurance. Life insurance provides for risk, life and health cover, investment, savings and tax shelter. This study Aims to findout to identity the Satifaction level of the policy holders in Erode District.

A Study on Financial Statement Analysis of Steel Authority of India

Financial statement analysis is the process of analyzing a financial statement for decision – making purposes. External stakeholders use it to understand the overall health of an organization and to evaluate financial performance and business value There are various methods and techniques used in analyzing financial statement such as comparative statements, trend analysis, common size statement, fund flow and cash flow analysis and ratio analysis

Neuromodulatory co-expression in cardiac vagal motor neurons of the Dorsal Motor Nucleus of the Vagus

Dorsal Motor Nucleus of the Vagus (DMV) activity is required for cardioprotection from physiological interventions such as remote ischemic pre-conditioning (RIPC). Herein, we discover the transcriptomic phenotypes of cardioprotective DMV neurons, by combining high throughput transcriptomics, 3D anatomical mapping, and neural tracing in 12 week old male and female Sprague Dawley rats. We find that DMV neurons appear to participate in neuromodulatory co-expression, including those that project to the heart. To distinguish potential mechanisms of cardioprotection, we highlight the functional significance of several transcripts in cardiac-projecting DMV neurons and we begin to validate these findings at the protein level. In our sc-RNAseq data we find that Snca (α-synuclein), the cardioprotective neuromodulator Adcyap1 (PACAP), and the neuropeptide Cartpt (CART) are enriched in cardiac-projecting DMV neurons. To contrast our molecular findings in cardioprotective DMV neurons, we have also collected single neuron HT-RTqPCR data from the other source of cardiac vagal motoneurons, the Nucleus Ambiguus (NA). Catecholaminergic transcripts, including Slc18a2 (VMAT2), Ddc, and Th, are enriched in cardiac-projecting DMV neurons relative to those of the NA. These findings implicate catecholaminergic processes, synuclein, and these secreted neuropeptides in cardioprotection. At the protein level, we found PACAP, CART, SNCA and TH enrichment, as well as co-localization of PACAP, TH, and ChAT, in cardiac-projecting DMV neurons. There is consistency between our findings from three spatial transcriptomics techniques and across sexes. Based on these results, we propose a 3D anatomical and molecular map of cardiac vagal motoneurons. This work fills a major gap in the understanding of the cellular mechanisms by which parasympathetic drive provides cardioprotection and provides a future translational path to emulating the positive vagal neuromodulatory effects on heart health. Funding was provided by the R01 HL161696 grant through National Heart, Lung, and Blood institute and the National Institutes of Health Common Fund SPARC Program Grant OT2OD030534. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Activation of PACAP+ vagal motoneurons following remote ischemic pre-conditioning

The Dorsal Motor Nucleus of the Vagus nerve (DMV) provides parasympathetic innervation of the intrinsic cardiac nervous system (ICN), and it has been shown that DMV activity is required for the cardioprotection induced by remote ischemic pre-conditioning (RIPC) against the pathological effects of myocardial infarction. However, the mechanism behind the DMV’s cardioprotective effects is not well understood. Previous literature has shown that the DMV and the other vagal motor nuclei, the nucleus ambiguus (NA), innervate distinct cells within the ICN. DMV neurons project to many other organs in addition to the heart. The cardioprotective neuropeptide Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide (PACAP) has been found to be expressed in the fibers innervating the ICN, where it is co-localized with the parasympathetic marker, ChAT. While we have found PACAP to be expressed in cardiac-projecting DMV neurons, it is unknown whether these neurons are preferentially activated in response to RIPC. To assess the activity of these neurons following RIPC, we performed immunofluorescence staining of brainstem tissue containing DMV neurons for both PACAP, and c-FOS, a neuronal activity-dependent marker. We hypothesized that PACAP+ DMV neurons would have increased activity following RIPC, and therefore increased c-FOS intensity and increased co-localization with PACAP compared to sham control. Our results suggest that PACAP+ neurons in the DMV show increased activity following RIPC compared to sham, as defined by increased c-FOS fluorescence intensity and co-localization with PACAP. These results suggest that PACAP+ neurons are activated during the cardioprotective response to remote ischemic pre-conditioning. Funding was provided by the R01 HL161696 grant through National Heart, Lung, and Blood institute and the National Institutes of Health Common Fund SPARC Program Grant OT2OD030534. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Exploring Endocrine Signaling between Adipose Tissues and the Heart using Transfer Learning and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Models

Background: Because of the amount of evidence pointed toward obesity as a co-morbidity of heart disease, our goal in this study is to use a data-driven method to discover potential cross talk signals between adipose and cardiac tissues, which may reveal a physiological reason for this association. For this study, we hypothesized that adipose-cardiac crosstalk signaling can be found by unexpected co-expression between adipose tissue genes encoding secreted proteins and cardiac tissue genes and vice versa. By discovering new crosstalk signals between these two tissues, we can find new associations between heart disease and obesity. Methods: Cross-tissue correlations of gene expression have been used to identify candidate endocrine signals that mediate tissue crosstalk, which are otherwise diffcult to detect in circulation. However, the identification of significant cross-tissue gene co-expression is hindered by immense multiple-testing burden. Our goal here is to abstract gene expression patterns of tissues into eigengenes and then test their correlation with secreted protein coding genes across tissues in a pairwise fashion. We first used the NIH Common Fund Genotype-Tissue Expression data set (GTEx v8) which contains RNA seq gene expression data from matched tissues of over 17,000 transcriptomes, to learn the latent structure of gene expression across tissues. To do so, we used PLIER (pathway level information extractor), a matrix factorization algorithm to extract the latent targets as eigengenes that map to specific biological pathways in the target tissue (e.g., pathways in the heart in the case of adipose to heart crosstalk). The learned gene expression structure is then transferred to a smaller data set with matching donor adipose and heart transcript expression data, from which a correlation matrix is constructed to find significant relationships between source tissue crosstalk signals and target tissue eigengenes and nominate novel crosstalk signals. Results: Adipose to heart tissue cross talk correlations using PLIER derived latent eigengene targets revealed many adipokines that had strong correlations with pathways found in the heart tissue through similar gene expression. Among these strong correlations were eigengene targets that were wrapped in metabolism pathways particularly those of fatty acid, phospholipid, and protein metabolism. Adipokines that showed high significant and positive correlation with cardiac latent variable expression included Adiponectin (R = 0.32, p = 4.7e−13), Glutathione Peroxidase 3 (R = 0.34, p = 5e−15) and Galectin 9 (R = 0.37, p < 2.2e−16) among others. Based on these results, we nominated new potential relationships between adipose and cardiac tissue. Work is currently under way to validate these candidate crosstalk signals using human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes. Future Directions In conclusion, we have found strong evidence in silico to suggest a relationship between known secreted proteins from adipose tissue (adipokine) and the expression of important pathways (such as fatty acid and protein metabolism) in the heart. Based on the findings of these correlations between adipokines and latent eigengene pathways within the heart, our future directions will involved the understanding of potential downstream functional consequences mediated by the adipose secreted proteins in iPSC derived models. This project was supported in part by NIH award R03-OD032666 and the University of Colorado Translational Research Scholar Program to E.L. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

AI-MARRVEL - A Knowledge-Driven AI System for Diagnosing Mendelian Disorders.

Diagnosing genetic disorders requires extensive manual curation and interpretation of candidate variants, a labor-intensive task even for trained geneticists. Although artificial intelligence (AI) shows promise in aiding these diagnoses, existing AI tools have only achieved moderate success for primary diagnosis. AI-MARRVEL (AIM) uses a random-forest machine-learning classifier trained on over 3.5 million variants from thousands of diagnosed cases. AIM additionally incorporates expert-engineered features into training to recapitulate the intricate decision-making processes in molecular diagnosis. The online version of AIM is available at https://ai.marrvel.org. To evaluate AIM, we benchmarked it with diagnosed patients from three independent cohorts. AIM improved the rate of accurate genetic diagnosis, doubling the number of solved cases as compared with benchmarked methods, across three distinct real-world cohorts. To better identify diagnosable cases from the unsolved pools accumulated over time, we designed a confidence metric on which AIM achieved a precision rate of 98% and identified 57% of diagnosable cases out of a collection of 871 cases. Furthermore, AIM's performance improved after being fine-tuned for targeted settings including recessive disorders and trio analysis. Finally, AIM demonstrated potential for novel disease gene discovery by correctly predicting two newly reported disease genes from the Undiagnosed Diseases Network. AIM achieved superior accuracy compared with existing methods for genetic diagnosis. We anticipate that this tool may aid in primary diagnosis, reanalysis of unsolved cases, and the discovery of novel disease genes. (Funded by the NIH Common Fund and others.).

The experience of persons with disabilities as beneficiaries of Ghana's District Assemblies Common Fund.

Ghana's Disability Fund aims to build the capacity of persons with disabilities, particularly those outside of formal employment, to engage in livelihood generation activities as a way to reduce poverty. The objective of this paper is to investigate the kind of knowledge that exists on the District Assemblies Common Fund program, understand the experience of beneficiaries when they access the program, and examine the benefits on beneficiaries' livelihoods. The research consisted of five focus group discussions with 35 beneficiaries, key informant interviews with six member organizations of Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations, and interviews with eleven Disability Fund Management Committees members. This research found the experiences of beneficiaries on the program are varied yet the program on the whole has had a positive outcomes on their livelihoods. Persons with disabilities who participated in this study demonstrated knowledge of the program. Beneficiaries further described issues relating to the quality of purchased items, the procurement process, as well as reductions and changes to requested items. Disability-specific issues in accessing the funds were also noted. These limited the effectiveness of the Fund to meet its stated goals. The findings of the study can inform the Common Fund Secretariat efforts to improve the performance of the fund as well as the advocacy of the disability movement. The findings are also relevant to the design and implementation of other social protection programmes in low-and middle-income countries.

Commoditizing of Human Beings: An Investigation into the Implications of Kidnapping on National Security in Nigeria

Society often frowns on things considered to be odd and abomination and have shown this in the treatment of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). In developing nations such as Ghana it is quite common to find disabled at street corners begging for arms. This study seeks to assess the impact of the District Assembly Common Fund (DCF) on the socio-economic lives of PWDs and recommend ways to improve the policy. Using a double bowelled technique of both qualitative and quantitative methods of studies. 100 PWDs were selected and interviewed whiles 5 employees each of the social welfare and district assembly workers were also interviewed and analysis were done using Statistical Package Service Solution. Results were generated through descriptive and analytical statistics. The findings show that education; employment and income levels were too low among PWDs to impact positively on their socio-economic status hence more needs to be done to aid in their right to socio-economic freedom. Although the mean monthly income of respondents was GHC 145.20, 56.7% earned between GHC80.00 to GHC120.00, below the national minimum wage whereas at 2014 was GHC184.80.00 per month. Mean monthly income was higher among respondents who had some level of education compared to those who weren’t. The mean amount of money received from the fund was GHC 250.00. Although the PWDs stated that the funds were inadequate they iterated that it went a long way to aid in their livelihood. About 75% indicated that majority of their income was used mostly on food with the rest used for healthcare and other activities. Challenges associated with managing the District Assembly Common Fund ranged from several dimension spanning from the irregular and untimely desperation of funds to the poor administration of the funds. More so, social workers lack proper data and control over the identification of the PWDs in itself. We also found out that some PWDs had no idea of the scheme let alone to partake in it. It is encouraged that future studies should be directed towards a well-structured system for the distribution of items to the PWDs. Keywords : Poverty, Person with Disabilities, District Assembly Common Fund, Asuogyaman DOI : 10.7176/DCS/9-1-07

Who spends what, and why? The constituency project fund and electoral politics in Ghana

Ghana's version of MPs Constituency Project Fund is a component of the District Assemblies Common Fund, introduced in 1993. Since its introduction however, no steps have been taken to ensure efficient use of the fund, thus justifying assertions that it is often used as a tool for rent-seeking and perpetuating clientelist relationships. This paper examined how MPs in selected constituencies in Ghana used the fund between 2013 and 2016, and what impact the expenditure had on their performances in the 2016 parliamentary elections. It was found that the MPs were more inclined towards spending their constituency project fund on the personal needs of constituents. However, the findings do not show that the expenditure of the MPsCPF has a significant impact on electoral fortunes of an incumbent MP. While shedding light on an aspect of Ghanaian voter behavior, the study highlights the clientelist motivations underpinning legislative spending in Ghana and emphasizes the need for appropriate laws to regulate the use of the MPsCPF, and empowering the local government system to perform its functions effectively.

Implementation arrangements for research and innovation policies in the Italian, Spanish, French, and German national recovery plan: A comparative analysis of emerging challenges for multi‐level governance

AbstractThe crisis triggered by the Covid‐19 pandemic has challenged the socioeconomic systems of all European member states. To reduce the severe impact of the pandemic, the European Union has established a common fund for European states, launching therefore a social‐economic recovery process. This fund was granted upon the submission of a programmatic plan of targets to be pursued within certain deadlines, appropriately assessed by the European Commission. Although the European Commission provided general guidelines for the elaboration of plans and the constitution of the multi‐level governance of national recovery plans, each country followed its own institutional, political, economic, and social context. Thus, this article investigates the influencing factors on the implementation arrangements of research and innovation policies in four different contexts, geographically, historically, economically, and administratively, such as Italy and Spain as representatives of the Mediterranean model; France and Germany as representatives of the continental model. Findings confirm two main key factors, enriching the reference literature on implementation arrangements of public policies. Firstly, the actors' ability to join together in synergetic and cooperative networks is oriented towards achieving common goals. The second is the policy legacy, which still anchors actors in path dependencies, thus complicating their path diversion.

Strengthening the EU’s defence cooperation

In an expeditiously changing world, security challenges have become more intricate, multifaceted and complex. The 21st century is an epoch of strategic competition and multisided relations. The influence and rate of occurrence of hybrid security threats are constantly rising and deepening. World is in era of transition, characterized by creating new dynamics by emerging players along with significant shift of geopolitical and economic power, and currently, global attention is drawn to the Russian aggression against Ukraine, which is the consequent catalyst for the EU states, obligating them to take more responsibility and improve security and defence. Russia does not use force only to dominate on Ukraine, but this war aims to reverse and strike down western dominance - it is a big threat-economically, militarily, and politically. In an international competition, other powers are challenging the European countries’ ability to protect their interests and values that was the motivation for the idea of collective security building called "strategic sovereignty". For this reason, both defence and security fields are essentially important for the European Union. The EU leaders have long been trying to improve common defence policy - the European Union External Action Service in 2011, and later in 2016, the EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker called for a common defence fund, a “European headquarters.“ In March 2022, the EU council approved the Strategic Compass. The Compass gives the European Union an ambitious plan of action for strengthening the EU's security and defence policy by 2030 (EU, 2022. French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europe to invest in its own collective security framework in the face of Russian military moves on the bloc’s doorstep - "Europe needs to finally build its own collective security framework on our continent." We argue about the prospects of collective security and the fact that it may now be time for the EU member States to take the necessary decisions.

SENNET CONSORTIUM: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Abstract The Cellular Senescence Network (SenNet) Program was established in 2021 by the NIH Director’s Office Common Fund with the goal of comprehensively identifying and characterizing senescent cells across human lifespan in numerous organs. Mapping senescent cells in mice was added in 2022 to leverage genetic and pharmacologic approaches to drive, report, and ablate senescence in vivo. Senescent cells are implicated in driving most if not all age-related chronic diseases as well as accelerated aging caused by chronic diseases and their treatments (e.g., cancer chemotherapy). Furthermore, therapeutics specifically targeting senescent cells (senotherapeutics) have been developed and are currently being tested in clinical trials for multiple disease and geriatric endpoints. Thus, identifying and characterizing senescent cells throughout human aging and disease states has the potential to significantly impact human health. The SenNet Consortium is a highly collaborative network of scientists across the globe jointly benchmarking tools, technologies, and data analytic approaches, and aligning their activities with other NIH Common Fund initiatives, such as HuBMAP. While mapping senescent cells holds great biomedical promise, there are challenges such as the absence of specific biomarker to identify senescent cells, the appearance of senescence under physiological and pathological conditions, and little knowledge of what drives senescence in vivo. Analogous to the Human Genome Project, to achieve SenNet goals, innovative tools and technologies for single cell and spatial tissue analysis must be developed. Products of SenNet, in addition these new approaches, will include common nomenclature to define senescent cells, novel biomarkers of senescent cells, and publicly accessible databases and 4D atlases of senescent cells in 18 human and murine organs that enables 4D visualization.

SENESCENCE NEW FRONTIERS - SENNET CONSORTIUM

Abstract Senescence is a cell fate triggered by stress, activating signaling cascades that stably arrest the cell cycle, thereby preventing mutagenesis and cancer. Senescent cells are critical for wound healing and other physiological processes, during which they secrete a host of factors that remodel tissue and attract immune cells, which are responsible for removing the senescent cells. However, with age and immune dysfunction, senescent cells accumulate and are established to play a causal role in aging and most age-related diseases, largely through their secretome that drives chronic sterile inflammation. Senescent cells have proven tractable as drug targets, potentially affording novel geroscience approaches to treat a variety of age-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. To optimize this opportunity much more must be learned about senescent cells. This is a challenge as there are no specific biomarkers to detect or isolate senescent cells. Furthermore, senescent cells are anticipated to be highly heterogeneous based on cell lineage, the cause of senescence, their secretome, and tissue context. This challenge sparked the creation of the SenNet Consortium, an NIH Common Fund effort involving hundreds of scientists across the globe charged with creating a 4D atlas of senescent cells in 18 healthy human tissues across human lifespan, using mice and perturbations to inform the mapping. The speakers in this session will define the goals of SenNet, the scientific opportunities and challenges, the novel technologies applied, and the anticipated deliverables including large public datasets and innovative search and visualization tools.

Optimal cashback in a cooperative framework for peer-to-peer insurance coverages

AbstractThe challenges of using technology in the insurance field are opening new horizons for developing and distributing innovative products. Among these, peer-to-peer insurance schemes attract the interest of policyholders and insurance companies. Different types of peer-to-peer insurance have been introduced, from pure models to hybrid ones, as in the case of the broker model. In this paper, we focus on the broker model, where the groups of peers are formed by an insurance broker according to similar risk characteristics. The participants in the network pay an initial contribution defined by a cooperative rule that must be transparent and shared. A part or the whole of the collected contributions is set aside in a common fund. At the end of the year, if the common fund is sufficient to pay for the claims, the members obtain the excess over-retained premiums that is shared according to a capital allocation rule. We propose a cashback distribution mechanism based on the participant’s marginal contribution to the risk, framing the issue in a cooperative game and applying the concept of Shapley value to define an optimal allocation rule of the remaining capital. A numerical application based on a portfolio of motor third-party liability policies is developed to show how the model works.

Study of problems faced by Women Entrepreneurs with special reference to Self Help Groups in Eranakulam District

Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as "one who takes over the world, innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response to a perceived opportunity. An entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and is accountable for the inherent risks and the outcome. When women enter into a business venture a women entrepreneur is born. Lack of specific skills and restriction on availability of any meaningful employment in the rural or semi rural areas compels a woman to start her own business.
 A Self-Help Group (SHG) is a registered or unregistered group of micro entrepreneurs having homogenous social and economic backgrounds, voluntarily coming together to save regular small sums of money. They mutually agree to contribute to a common fund and to meet their emergency needs on the basis of mutual help. Also it is a group of people who pool in their resources to become financially stable by taking loans from the money collected by that group and by making everybody of that group self-employed.
 However a lot of SHG’s face a lot of problems and close down after venturing into their own enterprises. In the present paper the researchers have made an attempt to find out and analyse the reasons for success or failure of the business ventures as established by women SHG’s in the city of Eranakulam.

Mapping and analysis of health financing in South Kivu province (DRC)

In South-Kivu, the health system is underfunded due to numerous constraints. Several initiatives have been tested but are insufficient for increasing and sustaining health financing. Analyze the health financing system in South-Kivu, through a mapping as well as quantitative and qualitative analysis of health financing mechanisms. The provincial health financing system is fragmented, with poorly coordinated mechanisms and interventions, leading to duplication of health system strengthening activities in addition to the absence of a mechanism for pooling external funding flows. Costs recovery (i.e. user fees) and external supports are the most widely used schemes while the government hardly contributes to the financing of the provincial health system. Mutual health insurance is supposed to improve access to health care, but its coverage is still extremely low. Results-Based Financing and free health care programs, fully financed by external donors, are irregular and insufficiently sustainable. It would be critical to implement a strategic purchasing model that is anchored in local institutions, owned by all stakeholders, and integrating all existing financing mechanisms, which could be supported by a common fund supporting the provincial health system. The “Single Contract” initiative developed to harmonize, pool, and sustain external programs, could be a good basis in this respect. This would involve strengthening policy dialogue, developing an investment case to support resource mobilization and implementing a joint monitoring and evaluation platform for disbursements led by the provincial health authorities.

Эпосоведение

This work is a continuation of the study of the oral heritage of the Khoshuts of Kalmykia, which was widely used in past centuries. The relevance of the study is dictated by the preparation for publication of a corpus of Khoshut folklore texts in the book “Historical and cultural heritage of the Khoshuts of Kalmykia” (2023). The purpose of the article is to describe the plot composition of Khoshut non-fairytale prose. The source of the study was the personal field materials of the authors (2006–2021), recorded in the city of Elista and the regions of Kalmykia, as well as archival materials stored in the Scientific Archive of the Kalmyk Institute for Humanitarian Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia. For comparison, texts from printed publications were used, as well as expeditionary materials collected by the authors in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China (2012–2019). When writing this article, the authors relied on the descriptive method, the comparative typological method and the comparative analysis. Source analysis of archival and published materials, decoding of records from magnetic tapes (1960–1978), carried out by the authors of the article, made it possible to shed light on unknown and little-known works of non-fairytale prose, recorded by Kalmyk scientists (N. N. Ubushaev (1967; 1970), A. V. Badmaev (1970), A. Sh. Kichikov (1970), L. S. Sangaev (1978), E. B. Ovalov (1982) and others) in the second half of the 20th century. Khoshut storytellers Ochir Badmaev (1896–1992), Nuskha Tyurbeev (1900–1986), Yegor Mukabenov (1903–1980), Chimid Komaev (1903–1992), Boris Boktaev (1927–2014) and Shani Boktaev (1933–2010) . Comparison with non-fabulous plots of other nations contributed to the classification and systematization of some plots of myths, legends, legends and oral stories of the Khoshuts of Kalmykia. The similarity of plots with Oirat, Mongolian and Buryat works testifies to a common national folklore fund, and the coincidence of some plots with samples of non-fairytale prose of other peoples can be interpreted as a result of historical contacts, as well as the mental capabilities of human societies that were at the same stage of development. As a result of the analysis of the considered texts, interpretations and differentiating elements of the plots of myths, legends, historical traditions and oral stories of the Khoshuts of Kalmykia, related to their local tradition, are established.