Economic Situation In Country Research Articles

Effect of Blood Transfusion on Supportive Therapy of Elderly Patients at Kumamoto, Japan as Compared with Khon Kaen, Thailand

After rising to the highest level of life expectancy ever in the early 21st century, Japan is expected to become an aged society the links of which no other country in the world has experienced. The aging rate in Kumamoto exceeds the national average and is one of the top ranking long living societies in Japan. The old population of Khon Kaen is also the second-largest of aging population in Thailand. More than 2,500 patients with malignant neoplasm were treated every year at National Hospital Organization Kumamoto Medical Center (KMC) in Japan as well as at Khon Kaen Regional Hospital (KKH) in Thailand. Especially KMC had so many patients older and equal 60 years accounted for 70% of those patients. Patients with malignant tumors in KMC were in the 8th decade (29.6% in 2011), while those in KKH were in the 6th decade (26.1% in 2011). In addition, the number of patients with cancer was increasing at KKH, while it was stable at KMC. Transfusion products, particularly red blood cell supply increased, which correspond to the increasing ageing population at Kumamoto, Japan. KKH is one of 25 regional blood centers in Thailand and blood cell supply increased year by year, suggesting not only developing system of blood bank but also increasing elderly patients who need blood transfusion for their therapy. Now under the limits of medical resources, we are to provide the best healthcare (prevention of diseases) in the extent permitted by the country's economic situation.

Expatriates adjustment and job performance

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the mediating effects of expatriate adjustment (work, general and interaction) between individual (previous international experience, self‐efficacy, social network and cultural sensitivity) and organizational factor (direct and indirect support) and job performance.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected from 201 expatriates working in Malaysia and analyse by using structural equation modelling (Amos‐16).FindingsThe results of the study indicated that expatriate adjustment (work, general and interaction) mediate the relationship between individual and organizational factors and expatriate performance (supervisor rated).Research limitations/implicationsThe data were collected from the expatriates working in Malaysian universities. There can be differences between education industry and pure business organization in terms of working environment, selection process and management support. The respondents were citizens of different countries around the world which include Asia, Europe and Middle East. Even though Malaysia is a multicultural society and expatriates from any part of the world can find themselves in Malaysia, this research did not group the respondents in terms of their cultural differences and similarities with Malaysian culture.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study suggest that human resource managers and MNC's management should provide direct and indirect support to the expatriates and their families in terms of language and cultural training, career development, logistical assistance, family mentoring, psychological counselling, job search, self‐development and social activities. Furthermore, recruitment managers and MNC's management should consider these factors before appointing any employee for international assignment. Finally, the findings of this research suggest that better expatriate performance help MNC's to perform better in their international operations which will ultimately improve the home and host country economic situation. The better performance of MNC's in their international operations through effective expatriate performance will encourage other domestic organizations to expand their operations globally.Originality/valueExpatriate literature have highlighted many individual and organizational factors which affect expatriate job performance and adjustment but the role of some individual and organizational factors is still not clear and/or ignored by past researchers. For example, the role of direct and indirect support has not been well conceptualized in past studies. In addition, only a few studies have explained the importance of self‐efficacy, cultural sensitivity and social network in expatriate literature. Furthermore, role of previous international experience has generated conflicting results in past research.

Pakistan's Sharif: testing relationships

Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's new prime minister, faces important challenges if he is to improve his country's economic and security situation, as well as make progress in relationships with Kabul, New Delhi and Washington. His first priority, however, will be to forge a good working relationship with the military.

Globalisation and Its Impact on Economic Diplomacy – An Emperical Study of Kuwait

Globalization is generally defined as the process of integration of nations resulting from the transaction of world views, products, ideas, and many other aspects of culture. One particular development, arising from the advancing globalization, is the way countries are seeking cooperation with other countries of the world. Because of the highly developed means of communication, countries are seeking economic stability through diplomatic relationships. Economic diplomacy is traditionally defined as the decision and policy- making and advocating of business interests of a state. Economic diplomacy requires application of technical expertise that analyzes the effects of one's own and another country's economic situation on its political climate. This study, therefore, focuses on a historical analysis of the development of globalization and hence, economic diplomacy as one of its resulting trends to determine Kuwait's place in the world economy. The study explores the following research question: What role has globalization played in giving rise to economic diplomacy? The study uses historical analysis to explore the question. Two factors have been important in the current economic situation of the state of Kuwait: its foreign policy which was influenced by the direct interests of Middle Eastern states and of the United States and her dependence on its oil production.

Utilization of Structural Equations on the Assessment of the Role of the Agricultural Bank in Economic Development in Sudan

The Agricultural Bank of Sudan ABS is considered as the main supplier for agriculture financing. However, in the past ten years there were continuous decrease in finance volumes for the agricultural sector of the country which was reflected in diminishing productivity of food and cash crops. The launching of Agricultural Renaissance AR (Nahda Zeraaiya) and Green Resurrection GR (Nafra Zeraaiya) programs did not succeed in increasing neither productivity nor food security in the country. Nevertheless, more resources were channeled to those programs rather than supporting the ABS. Therefore, the current paper first conceptualizes the best statistical method to use and then analyzes agricultural productivity in Sudan on macro-level. Structural Simultaneous Model was chosen and utilized in the ensuing analysis. The main conclusions reached were that resources represented great importance with the produced values of R2, coefficient of determination and r the partial correlation rate. Those results supported the hypothesis that increasing the allocated resources for the Agricultural Sudan Bank will better help for an efficient financing and hence productivity. That is rater better than funneling precious resources to the presumed programs of AR and GR. Moreover, the scarcity of resources allocated to ABS encouraged its administration to allocated available financing to short and medium term loans, conceivably to achieve quick and higher returns rather than the presumed function of the ABS in supporting agriculture in the country. Additional, taxation represented an economic hindrance for farmers which minimize their productive activities or stop them all together. It is recommended in the conclusions that the Ministry of Finance should revert the role of ABS from the commercial function to its original role as a financier of the agricultural sector. Thus, it has to redirect resources from AR and GR to the ABS or cancel altogether those inefficient programs. Considering the current country's economic situation, exogenous loans, supports and donations should all be mobilized and allocated through the Ministry of Finance to the ABS. Such an act requires rebuilding new financing policy for the bank that includes an umbrella for long-term financing and less profit generation goals.

Socio-economic inequality in multiple health complaints among adolescents: international comparative study in 37 countries

To use comparable data from many countries to examine 1) socio-economic inequality in multiple health complaints among adolescents, 2) whether the countries' absolute wealth and economic inequality was associated with symptom load among adolescents, and 3) whether the countries' absolute wealth and economic inequality explained part of the individual level socio-economic variation in health complaints. The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) international study from 2005/06 provided data on 204,534 11-, 13- and 15-year old students from nationally random samples of schools in 37 countries in Europe and North America. The outcome measure was prevalence of at least two daily health complaints, measured by the HBSC Symptom Check List. We included three independent variables at the individual level (sex, age group, family affluence measured by the Family Affluence Scale FAS) and two macro level measures on the country's economic situation: wealth measured by Gross National Product (GNP) and distribution of income measured by the Gini coefficient. There was a significant socio-economic variation in health complaints in 31 of the 37 countries. The overall OR (95 % CI) for 2+ daily health complaints for all countries was 1.31 (1.27-1.36) in the medium versus high FAS group and 2.07 (2.00-2.14) in the low versus high FAS group. This socio-economic gradient in health complaints attenuated somewhat in the multilevel models which included macro level data. There was no association between GNP and health complaints. The OR for high symptom load was 1.35 (1.08-1.69) per 10 % increase in Gini coefficient. The socio-economic gradient in health complaints at the individual level was somewhat attenuated in the multilevel models which included macro level data. There was a significant association between low FAS and high level of health complaints in 30 of 37 countries. Health complaints increased significantly by increasing income inequality in the country.

REGIONAL PECULIARITIES OF DEVELOPMENT OF LITHUANIAN SME

All over the world the growing evidence that small and medium enterprises play an important role in the national economic development of any country could be observed. Small and medium enterprises provide the majority of new jobs and produce much of the creativity and innovation which fuels economic growth and at the same time is the principal condition of regional development. As the level of small and medium business development is the determinant of economic development of a region, the analysis of small and medium enterprises development peculiarities in regions is a quite useful tool to demonstrate the economic situation in country’s regions. The analysis show, that focusing sustainable development the main problem exists in towering regional disparities of small and medium business development in Lithuanian regions. Nevertheless regional differences should gradually tone down because of EU structural funds and national regional development programs that are targeted to minimize regional disparities.

The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Asia-Pacific Real Estate Markets: Evidence from Korea, Japan, Australia and U.S. REITs

This paper analyzes the impact of the U.S. real estate market collapse on the Asia-Pacific real estate markets, by examining the Korea, Japan, Australia, and U.S. REITs indexes during the sample period of January 2004 - June 2009 with two sub-samples of before-crisis and after-crisis. The findings indicate that linkages between the U.S. and Australia REIT sectors was strong during January 2004 - June 2009. In the case of linkages between the U.S. and Korean REIT sectors, co-movements have become significant only after the breakout of global financial crisis. The Japanese REIT sector shows a weak relationship with the U.S. REIT sector. In addition, this paper shows a weak co-integration among Asia-Pacific REIT sectors. A-REITs, K-CR REITs, J-REITs show different magnitudes of contagion effects. This finding can be explained by characteristics of REITs, structure offinancing, and country's economic situation.

Regional Characteristics of Secular Changes in Obesity-Related Lifestyle Behavior in Japan

BACKGROUND: In 2000 the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare initiated a new health promotion program, Health Japan 21, in which obesity control is one of the prioritized objectives. For the program's effective implementation, it is important to enhance individual nutritional education as well as to identify the socioeconomic and environmental factors affecting obesity-related lifestyle habits. This study aimed to investigate the secular changes in dietary and exercise habits between sexes and among four types of residential areas in Japan.METHODS: The datasets of annual national nutrition surveys (1976-2003) were used for the secondary analyses. Data on the dietary and exercise habits of 385,559 persons aged 15 years and older were analyzed. Residential areas were divided into four groups: metropolitan areas, large cities, small cities, and small towns.RESULTS: Similar trends were observed in the proportions of people skipping breakfast and eating out lunch/dinner, with those living in metropolitans having the highest proportions. The secular trend showed that the proportions of people eating dinner out were highest in the early 1990s, which corresponds to the “bubble period” in Japan.CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that dietary habits could be greatly influenced by the country's economic situation, especially in metropolitan areas. Thus, area-specific population approaches should be enhanced to promote appropriate lifestyle habits, especially for the young to middle-aged.

Family planning and women's lives in rural China.

By 1979, China had begun implementing the so-called one-child policy, which severely restricts couples' childbearing. It is important to understand Chinese women's perceptions of how their lives have been affected by this policy and by the use of family planning. Survey and focus group data collected in 1996 and 1998 from women in three Chinese provinces-Jiangsu, Anhui and Yunnan-were used to examine links connecting family planning and childbearing to women's lives within the family, including their relationships with spouses and other family members, and their opportunities for education, employment and social activities. Women related family planning to the country's economic situation and to their ability to prosper by having fewer children to support. Increased prosperity enabled them to provide for children's education and to build them houses. In Jiangsu, 73-75% of respondents who had had one child were satisfied with their number of children, regardless of sex; in Anhui and Yunnan, 54-58% of women who had one son and no daughter reported being satisfied, compared with 31-50% of women who had one daughter and no sons. The great majority (73-99%) of women in all three provinces who had two children-regardless of sex-were satisfied with their number of children. Few women disputed that women's lives were better now than in the past. China's one-child policy, however, places women-particularly those in rural areas-in a situation where they are pressured by the government's childbearing requirements on one side and by society's preference for sons on the other.

Nucelar bombs: A poor country' short cut to international notoriety

Pakistan is a poor country, yet it has been able to develop and detonate a nuclear device. This has been accomplished by transferring resources from the general educational and scientific development of society to serve the country's security needs as perceived by the defense establishment—and this has meant a single-minded pursuit of acquiring the bomb. This article argues, however, that the country's precarious economic situation and dismal infrastructure of science and technology can guarantee neither a viable nuclear capability, nor a sound basis for national security.

¡PONGAN DE CABEZA A ESE SANTO!

It is a case study on the creation, growth and transformation of a medical center into a clinic. Its trajectory follows the rhythm of the country's economic situation, it opens new services when demand increases, which it finances with contributions from new partners and then with loans. When you go through an economic situation that can turn into insolvency, not all partners agree on the causes. Likewise, important changes in the market, such as the creation of new health service organizations and the entry of other competitors, generate solution proposals. Among others, the adoption of a total quality system is accepted. Ten months after its implementation, the situation does not improve and opinions on the effects of the program are divided. An advisor points out that the clinic's problem is financial. The case describes problems in the operation of the clinic and includes an annex section containing the financial statements for the last three years and information on bed occupancy.

Teachers' Employment Conditions in Greece: Findings of a Survey

This paper reports on the problems faced by the teaching profession in Greece based on a survey of those in training. Nearly 50% of the primary school teachers in the country are waiting to be employed. Teachers' salaries are significantly lower than salaries in other occupations, including construction work. There is dissatisfaction in the teaching profession; however, given the country's economic situation, few teachers are prepared to change employment. The above findings are discussed in the context of policy options designed to end the backlog of unappointed teachers and to signal prospective entrants to the profession that their employment opportunities will be limited in the fixture.

Youth and the Cuban Revolution

For the past 30 years Cuban youth has experienced uninterrupted upward social mobility. This trend is apparent in the increase in the level of schooling with decreasing age: whereas in the 55 to 59 age group the level of technicalprofessional schooling and higher education is 8.06 percent, in the 35 to 39 age group it is 14.89 percent and in the 25 to 29 group it is as high as 17.64 percent (CEE, 1981: 169-170, Table 40). The age group composition of the occupational structure also shows this upward mobility: 42.8 percent of the country's professionals and technicians are between 17 and 29 years of age (CEE, 1985b). Similarly, 62.8 percent of rural youth is incorporated into advanced forms of organization of labor such as production cooperatives (CEE, 1986: 113-114, Table 4). In key branches of the economy such as electronics, the machine tool industry, and mining and metallurgy, young workers make up more than 40 percent of the total workforce (CEE, 1985b). These indicators are the result of a policy, maintained throughout the history of the revolution, of giving priority to mass education and guaranteeing access to it to young people of all social sectors. Within this general framework, a historical approach to the issue allows an appreciation of changes in the role of Cuban youth with regard to society as a whole changes shaped both by the transformations in the country's economic and social situation and by the age group's internal dynamics. During the 1960s and the first half of the 1970s these transformations and internal changes took place with unprecedented speed. The resources obtained through the expropriation first of foreign enterprises and later of the national bourgeoisie, together with aid from the socialist camp, allowed for accelerated growth of investment that generated a significant increase and diversification in employment. The rate of investment rose to more than 30

More power for the Soviets:Perestroikaand energy

ACCORDING TO recent survey data, a majority of the Soviet population is convinced that the country's economic situation has deteriorated since the beginning of perestroika, Gorbachev's restructuring policy.1 This general feeling ties in with the observation of top Soviet economists that the country is facing a dramatic economic crisis and that the outlook for the coming decade is bleak. While both Soviet and foreign observers concentrate on the rapidly deteriorating supply situation, the real Achilles' heel of the Soviet economy, namely energy supply, is eclipsed by the current problems that are in the media limelight. The energy sector plays a crucial role for the restructuring process because virtually all economic sectors depend on its performance. The fate of perestroika therefore hinges on a successful restructuring of the energy sector. The importance of the Soviet energy sector can hardly be exaggerated. In contrast to other industrially developed countries, Soviet energy was, in addition to its key role in purely economic terms, an essential part of the tacit bargain concluded between Soviet leaders and the population at large. Moreover, heat supply has been a crucial survival asset under the harsh climatic conditions of most parts of the country.

Leasing Relations In The Economic System Of Socialism

Positive change in the country's economic situation requires not only fundamental change in the system of management and the search for unconventional forms of management as such, but also the fundamental restructuring of basic relations, especially the relations of socialist property. Such restructuring essentially means returning the working people to their status as real co-owners of the means and results of production and other economic activity, the diversification of property relations, and the elimination of gross deformations that still persist in property relations.

Solidarity's Tasks

Abstract In my view, the following are the main problems that Solidarity will have to confront. The first problem concerns the new trade union's attitude toward the country's economic situation and the necessary economic reforms. Official circles have defined the situation as “catastrophic” and “dramatic.” On many occasions, Solidarity has stressed that it was aware of the gravity of the situation and that it wished to contribute to the search for solutions. Having asserted its willingness, Solidarity took a very important stand. But in order to really contribute, it must be given the means. Clearly, before everything, Solidarity must organize itself and give serious thought to the question: What does it mean “to contribute toward the overcoming of the crisis”?

Cooperative Programs in Foreign Language Studies Abroad: Work-Study in Hamburg

During the summer of 1967 the Department of Health, Education and Welfare supported a program that was to test a new approach to the exposure of American undergraduates to foreign languages and cultures in the countries in which the respective languages are spoken. The German Department of the University of Cincinnati structured its Work-Study Program in Hamburg, Germany, according to the pattern that had been developed at Cincinnati for Cooperative Studies in Engineering or Business Administration as early as 1906 and has since been imitated by more than eighty universities in the United States. The main principle of cooperative programs is the constant application of knowledge gained in the classroom to practical situations encountered by the students during periods of employment in carefully selected enterprises. Such periods of work are interspersed in the years of study at regular intervals. To make the practical experience worthwhile, the employment of a student must be closely related to his field of studies. He can thus test his theoretical knowledge of his profession and return to school with new questions concerning the intricacies of his field. A program that provides employment to students in a foreign country on the basis of the same principles of selection offers its participants opportunities not only in respect to their future careers-be they in engineering, business administration, sociology, medicine or any other fieldbut adds the acquaintance with another language and another culture. (The term culture is used here to refer to the various aspects of a country's political, economic, social and intellectual situation and achievement.) This supplementary advantage of cooperative programs conducted abroad may indeed be the reason for instituting them. By improving the students' linguistic skills and acquainting participants with conditions abroad, such programs appear to be most valuable for students majoring in foreign languages or preparing for the foreign service. Yet the experience of the Cincinnati Program in Hamburg has shown that students in other fields can also profit professionally from a period of work in another country. In many professions the techniques may be the same as in the U.S., in others the students can study new methods and return with a professional knowledge that will make them the coveted employees of many an American firm in the future. Language departments should certainly make use of this appeal to students in other disciplines who have fulfilled the basic language requirement by offering cooperative programs abroad to students from all departments. No such program should, of course, be undertaken that has not been prepared conscientiously and can really assure its participants of employ-