Deep Reforms Research Articles

Exploration of the Current Situation and Mechanism Innovation of University Education Management under the New Situation

In the new era, university education management should be oriented toward the cultivation of innovative talents and the construction of a comprehensive education system. It should develop capable and qualified higher-level talents in response to the social demand for talent application, thereby enhancing the overall educational competitiveness of universities and driving deep reforms in educational activities. However, in current educational practice, efficient educational management often focuses on curriculum development and cultural education, with insufficient attention paid to the development of students’ comprehensive literacy. The talent cultivation and education programs are not yet perfect. This article explores the current situation of university education management activities under the new situation and considers practical methods for innovating university education management mechanisms.

Distribution of episodes of kidney diseases admitted at the University Hospital Center “Mother Teresa” in Tirana, Albania, during the period 2010-2023

Our aim was to describe the distribution of kidney diseases among hospitalized patients in Tirana, the capital of Albania, during the period 2010-2023. A case-series study was conducted including all episodes admitted with kidney diseases at the University Hospital Center “Mother Teresa” in Tirana during the period 2010-2023 (overall: 15,763 episodes; 46% females; overall mean age: 54.0±17.3 years). We found that ≈56% of the kidney disease episodes were 35-65 years old, followed by >65-year-old individuals (≈28%). Most of the kidney disease episodes (about 43%) hospitalized were from the Tirana region, followed by districts pertinent to South Albania (23%). Older patients (>65 years) were more prevalent among males compared to females (301% vs 25%, respectively; p<0.001). Patients from the Tirana region were more prevalent among females compared to males (45% vs 42%, respectively, p<0.001). This study provides evidence on the distribution of the episodes of kidney diseases admitted at University Hospital Center “Mother Teresa” in Tirana, the largest region in Albania, a country in the Western Balkans that is undergoing deep reforms in all sectors, including also the health sector.

The role of Higher Education Institutions in training engineers for the era of circular economy: the Portuguese case

The transition from linear economy (LE) towards a circular economy (CE) is Europe Union´s (EU) concerned and involve lot of efforts and actions. Education for circular economy (ECE) is emergent. This paper aims to map Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Portugal, Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs and Postgraduate courses in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) that address CE in their curricula with the aim of empowering students for the new era. A systematic search was performed to identify B.Sc./ M.Sc. in IEM of Portuguese Universities and Polytechnic Institutes, public and private, analyzing the content of their curricular units. As results, this study did not identify a strong interest about CE on the part of HEIs and their lecturers. Findings suggest that HEIs are not training future IEM engineers for the era of CE. This study contributes to make an alert to HEIs and their lecturers to review their teaching process, stimulating to improve the quality of the IEM curricula. We suggest a deep reform of the professional curriculum system, enriching curricular. Future studies can approach skills and competences developed towards CE what facilitate a redesign of courses.

Strategic thinking of managers: a systematic review of the literature

The purpose of the study is to provide a systematic literature review that identifies the key reasons for the development of strategic thinking in companies. In the current economic environment, considering the integration of Kazakhstan into the global community, it becomes clear that the effective development of strategic thinking is necessary not only for small and medium-sized businesses, but also for large companies requiring deep reforms. The methodological basis of the study is the principles of economic theory in the field of management and strategic management. As part of the study, an analysis of the main works of classical scientists and modern researchers in the field of strategic thinking was conducted using methods of systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis. The total number of literary sources used is thirty. As a result of the study, four main factors (antecedents) for the development of strategic thinking were identified, which were most often mentioned in foreign studies and substantiated through scientific methods of analysis: vision, creativity, corporate culture, and knowledge management. The significance of this study lies in identifying and justifying the significance of these factors in the development of strategic thinking, which can become a competitive advantage in the market.

A parameter to featuring the cultural landscape genes of traditional settlements in China: a perspective of geographical information

Creative transformation and innovative development of traditional cultures is a pressing social need in China because of the deep reform and rapid socio-economic developments. It is crucial to understand the natural features of cultural landscapes of traditional settlements because they are indispensable components of these heritages. Although there are significant findings on the cultural features of traditional settlements, people still face substantial difficulties in using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to directly handle their cultural factors due to a lack of theoretical models or described methods. To address this issue, at first, this study analyzed the component elements and contents of Cultural Landscape Genes of Traditional Settlements (CLGTS) from the perspective of Geographical Information (GI). Then, the concept “Feature Parameter of Geographical Information of CLGTS (FPGI-CLGTS)” was proposed based on the above. Simultaneously, the connotations, identification rules, and mathematical meanings of FPGI-CLGTS were also explored deeply. Next, this study developed the identification methods of FPGI-CLGTS. Finally, this study examined FPGI-CLGTS through an experiment on the spatial layouts CLGTS of six samples in Hunan, China. Through this study, FPGI-CLGTS has enormous potential to reveal the critical cultural features and values of traditional settlements.

The Legacy of President Lázaro Cárdenas for Health Care Reform in Today's Mexico.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's historic election victory in 2018 marked a sharp break from past decades of neoliberal socioeconomic policies. López Obrador campaigned on the promise of deep reform, with health care high on his agenda. The public health care sector had been decimated by decades of budget cuts, eroding workers' morale and patients' confidence, and crippling all aspects of the system. This article looks back to the creation of the nation's public health care system in the early twentieth century during the administration of President Lázaro Cárdenas (1934-1940). This "universal" system was designed to implement a central social justice goal of the Mexican Revolution of health care for all. The program rested on two pillars: providing care to the nation's vast, impoverished rural population and actively engaging communities in their own health care. Our objective is to critically assess the two presidents' health care initiatives within the distinct historical contexts of their administrations.

The project of state transforma- tions by M.M. Speransky

The relevance of the research lies in the analysis of the transformation project of one of the outstanding reformers of the days of Alexander I, whose ideas were not duly appreciated, but could prevent serious upheavals in Russia during subsequent reigns. The problem is that changes proposed by Speransky’s would have laid the foundation for a deep reform of the country, however, not all projects were destined to be realized. The purpose of the research is to consider the transformation projects of Speransky M.M. and to analyze the degree of their implementation. The article used the retrospective and historical-genetic methods of historical research. The first allowed us to immerse ourselves in the events of the past, the second allowed us to analyze the degree of implementation of projects. The result of the research: many of Mikhail Mikhailovich’s proposals would subsequently be considered by the descendants of the winner of Napoleon Bonaparte, but then the Russian emperor considered the projects premature. Only the reform of religious educational institutions was one of the few that was implemented almost completely. The conclusion: Speransky’s proposals in the field of religious education were implemented more than all others examined in the research; among state reforms, only the State Council arose; as for tax reforms, only certain partial proposals of the reformer were implemented.

Reshaping Power Relations Within the International Aid Regime: The Role of the People’s Republic of China and Africa

ABSTRACT International aid is one of the main issues within the Liberal International Order (LIO) in Africa, where traditional donors have held significant influence since the Second World War (WWII). The power dynamics within the aid regime, which have been characterised by asymmetry in both guiding standards and administering organisations, have started to undergo disruption in recent decades. The relationship between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the potential to reshape the institutional arrangements of the international aid regime in the current global system. Beijing's increased financial presence in SSA, particularly its involvement in debt and financial dependency, challenges the hegemony of traditional donors who have historically employed Africa's debt and aid dependency as tools of asymmetric power. Both African governments and the PRC advocate for deep reforms of the current regime by defending favoured institutional arrangements, rejecting those deemed unfavourable and establishing new ones to substantially shift power dynamics within the international aid regime.

Learning path planning methods based on learning path variability and ant colony optimization

With the advancement of education information, the scale of online education has been expanding, which brings challenges to students' learning path planning, i.e., course and learning method planning. To address the limitations of learning path planning such as insufficient personalization, the study proposes a learning path planning method based on learning path variability and ant colony optimization. First, dynamic time regularization is used to obtain learning path variability, and the K-means algorithm is used to classify students' learning types. Subsequently, an ant colony optimization algorithm is used to generate learning paths. Finally, the effectiveness of the method is tested. The results show that the loss value of the ant colony optimization algorithm converges to a minimum value of 0.1, which has the best stability of the loss function curve and the fastest convergence speed compared to other algorithms. Under the same experimental environment, the accuracy of the algorithm is as high as 0.9, which is conducive to the search for the optimal solution. The path planning method designed by the research can effectively grasp the learning characteristics and habits of students, and the accurate classification degree can reach 96.6%. With this learning path planning method, the average video learning time of students reaches a maximum of 80 min, while the average completion rate of students' course objectives is stable at 90%, which is about 20% higher than that of the GA-based learning path planning method. The method can significantly improve academic performance and educational outcomes. The method thus grasps the type of student learning, stimulates students' interest in learning, improves the effect of online learning, helps to promote education informatization and provides a boost to the deep reform of education.

Editorial Note

However, the question arises about the maneuvering room of these governments. While they share a critical stance against neoliberalism and seek to implement public policies that transform the socio-economic structures of the region, they face a series of challenges that we can summarize into three major ones: Adverse international context. The global economic crisis, the war in Ukraine, and the rise of the right in some countries around the world create a complex scenario for the implementation of progressive agendas. Existing power structures. Traditional economic and political elites still wield great power in the region, which can hinder the implementation of deep reforms. Institutional weaknesses. Corruption, lack of transparency, and the weakness of the rule of law are obstacles that limit the governments' ability to act. The debate on the future of the left in Latin America is complex and still open. While the current outlook is hopeful, it is important to consider the challenges faced by progressive governments. Their success will depend on their ability to build social consensus, strengthen institutions, and navigate in an adverse international context.

Economic education: A qualitative renewal is necessary and possible

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the need and characterize the main directions of a deep reform of economic education in Russia. The existing model of economic education, based on the absolute dominance of neoclassical economic theory, even taking into account the recent partial renovation of the latter, is unable to provide the formation of knowledge and competence, allowing not only to solve standard tasks of rational choice of optimal investment and consumption trajectories, but also to independently analyze and act in a qualitatively changing economy, focusing not only on selfish private interest, but also on solving the problems of national and global development. In a dialogue with the publication of A. Auzan, A. Maltsev and A. Kurdin (Voprosy Ekonomiki, 2023, No. 10), the authors show that the changes proposed are necessary, but not sufficient, only in some part they take into account the results of past discussions and publications. The answer to the challenges facingeducation in the context of qualitative changes in the economy and society necessitates the inclusion in the circle of compulsory disciplines (1) of heterodox economic theory, which reveals the content of existing economic systems, the contradictions and patterns of their transformation, the technological, social, political and cultural context of economic processes; (2) the course “Russian economy”; (3) the history of economy and economic thought with (4) a significant reduction and updating of the content of courses in micro- and macroeconomics, strengthening their social, environmental, and humanistic orientation

Legal regulation of taxation of legal entities: domestic and foreign experience

The paper proves that taxation of legal entities always causes a number of heated disputes in any state. In general, the taxation of legal entities is fragmentarily similar to the tax systems of developed European states, but in practice a situation arises when the domestic tax system of Ukraine is not a tool for increasing the competitiveness of the state and does not contribute to the growth of economic activity of economic entities. In Ukraine, the scale of tax evasion is affected not so much by the size of tax rates, but by the distortion of the conditions of competition due to the uneven distribution of the tax burden; corruption; imperfection of the legislation regulating business activities, as well as non-compliance with the laws by taxpayers. In the process of reforming the taxation system in Ukraine, an important problem is not only the level of the tax burden, but also the optimal combination of direct and indirect taxes. The current system of taxation today does not satisfy either the state or taxpayers. A whole series of miscalculations and distortions that were allowed during its creation led to the fact that taxes do not fully fulfill either fiscal or incentive functions. A separate positive is the possibility of switching to a simplified taxation system, because in our country, in accordance with the norms of the Tax Code of Ukraine, in addition to the general principle of withholding taxes, a simplified system operates in Ukraine. It was determined that a particular problem is the instability of the system of taxation of legal entities, which provokes frequent changes in legislative acts regarding individual taxes, which negatively affect the development of entrepreneurial activity in our country. Fiscal direction of the tax system is also quite difficult for entrepreneurs, i.e. insufficient identification of the regulatory function of taxes. It has been proven that in order to really stimulate the investment climate in the country, it is necessary to carry out much deeper reforms and use the gained international experience. The conditions for doing business are, first of all, a favorable investment climate, which, in turn, cannot be created without a stable, predictable, moderately burdensome tax field.

DIRECTIONS OF REALIZATION OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL AND ECONOMIC MECHANISM OF FORMATION OF THE ENERGY SECURITY SYSTEM OF UKRAINE: THE ELECTRIC POWER ASPECT

The process of reforming the electricity market has been underway for a long time. The European market liberalization guidelines encourage changes in Ukraine. However, internal contradictions of the domestic market slow down these changes. The basis for these changes is the Law of Ukraine, "On the Electricity Market," adopted in 2017, which lays the foundation for deep reform. This is manifested in the following: all enterprises (producers and suppliers) in the electricity market must operate on separate, self-organized principles; openness and transparency, and free access to the use of networks of all business entities based on public contracts; the law provides for and creates several electricity markets: the intraday market, the balancing market, and the ancillary services market. Each has a separate operating procedure, electricity purchase and sale system, pricing, and the establishment of sales volume standards and quotas. The purpose of the article is to determine the priority areas for implementing the organizational and economic mechanism for the formation of Ukraine's energy security system in the context of the electricity sector. The situation in the electricity market requires significant investments (about USD 25 billion over ten years) to ensure the reliability and continuity of electricity supply. Reform of the electricity market should be based on the following principles: efficiency and transparency of the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities; separation of electricity generation from distribution; certification of the transmission system operator; updating system, technical, software and information software; optimization of measures and reform of the retail market to meet the needs of consumers; economic justification of pricing to meet the needs and capabilities of consumers, including changes in the cross-subsidization mechanism. Implementing the planned goals and priority areas will help reduce risks in reforming the electricity market, intensify the competitive basis between market participants (entities), create conditions for improving service quality, and limit negative factors' impact on the environment with an incentive pricing policy. The structured structure of the organizational and economic mechanism will allow us to systematize the understanding of the stages of the electricity market functioning. Thus, a unified system of interrelations between the goals of reform, the search for reform methods, sources of financial support, subject and object positions, principles, and methods of their regulation, which directly or indirectly affect the efficiency of the electricity market, will be formed.

The Impact of Illegal Logging on the State of the Rainforests of the Congo River Basin

In the modern world, one of the key problems on a planetary scale is the disappearance of tropical forests. In addition, the state of these forest ecosystems is of serious concern. The fight against the disappearance of tropical forests, especially due to illegal logging, is an integral part of the decisions taken to prevent negative climate impacts, and the most important task for the implementation of programs for the socio-economic development and protection of forests in Central Africa. The article describes the state of forests in the countries of the Congo River basin. The reasons for the degradation of forests and deforestation of the territory of this region are given, as well as the consequences of anthropogenic activities that have a huge direct and indirect impact on forest ecosystems. The lack of balance between economic, environmental and social components in the formation of national and subregional forest policy is reflected in legislation in this area. As a consequence, grounds for delinquency and illegal activities are created, and illegal logging continues in all countries of the Congo Basin. The authors analyzed the situation with illegal logging. It is shown that illegal logging not only has a devastating impact on forest ecosystems, but also deprives the state of income from the export of valuable timber and, thereby, destabilizes the situation in this subregion. The development of illegal activities is explained by the peculiarities of the forest management system, which has created a situation with relative impunity for offenders due to corruption and the imperfection of the regulatory framework. Solving the problem requires a deep reform of forest legislation and the development of a more effective system of economic measures to counter illegal logging of tropical forests in the countries of the Congo Basin.

Роль Пензенского церковного историко-археологического и статистического комитета в формировании общественного интереса к провинциальной повседневности (по материалам "Пензенских епархиальных ведомостей")

The article analyzes the activities of the Penza Church Historical, Archaeological and Statistical Committee for the Preservation of the History and Description of the Daily Life of Cities, Villages and Parishes of the Penza Diocese.As a source for studying this problem, the materials of the «Penza diocesan gazette» (1866-1917) were used, on the pages of which articles and essays of members of the Committee were published.Documents on the organization of the Penza Church Historical, Archaeological and Statistical Committee, as well as numerous publications of its members, have been studied. The reasons for the organization of the Committee, its place and role in the system of historical and archival institutions of the Penza province were investigated; organizational structure and composition; quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results of the activity was carried out; a description of the clergy'perception of parish life in the cities and villages of the Penza diocese, as well as the peculiarities of the class organization of Russian society in the era of modernization, using the example of the peasantry and clergy, was given.The historical, archaeological and statistical committee acted at the Penza Theological Seminary from February 14 (27), 1902 until 1918. This body played a prominent role in shaping public interest in local history and provincial everyday life. The Orthodox clergy was involved in expeditionary research of the provincial "living history," not recorded in historical documents, but transmitted from generation to generation according to oral tradition. The description of the modern state of the parishes was carried out, in modern terms, through the "included observation" of the priests themselves. The activities of the Committee significantly complemented the research results of the Provincial Statistical Committee.The analysis of publications in the Penza diocesan gazette convinces that representatives of the Orthodox clergy, having the initial goal of collecting and summarizing information on the history of the Russian Church in the Penza Territory, describing the history of settlements, churches, monasteries and parishes, discovered crisis bias in the development of the entire Russian society. While describing the daily life of the province, it turned out that the clergy and peasantry underwent unfavorable historical circumstances. The acute shortage of arable land became widespread and everyday phenomena; the insufficient level of development of education and medicine, as well as technical equipment of peasant farms; lack of productive land-cultivation practices, mass poverty, the low crop capacity and recurrent hunger; forced migration in the conditions of "latrine" industries, etc. The consequences of the above phenomena were the extinction of the cultural traditions of the peasant world, the rupture of stable social ties and crisis phenomena in the religious and moral state of society. The clergy fully shared the hardships of the daily life of the peasantry, experiencing a poor financial situation. Essays on the history of villages and parishes, compiled by members of the Committee, were a signal for the deep reform of society.

Global green hydrogen-based steel opportunities surrounding high quality renewable energy and iron ore deposits

The steel sector currently accounts for 7% of global energy-related CO2 emissions and requires deep reform to disconnect from fossil fuels. Here, we investigate the market competitiveness of one of the widely considered decarbonisation routes for primary steel production: green hydrogen-based direct reduction of iron ore followed by electric arc furnace steelmaking. Through analysing over 300 locations by combined use of optimisation and machine learning, we show that competitive renewables-based steel production is located nearby the tropic of Capricorn and Cancer, characterised by superior solar with supplementary onshore wind, in addition to high-quality iron ore and low steelworker wages. If coking coal prices remain high, fossil-free steel could attain competitiveness in favourable locations from 2030, further improving towards 2050. Large-scale implementation requires attention to the abundance of suitable iron ore and other resources such as land and water, technical challenges associated with direct reduction, and future supply chain configuration.

THE AFRICAN CONTINENTAL FREE TRADE AREA AND REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION: POTENTIAL ECONOMIC BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES

The paper examined the African Continental Free Trade Area with a view to assessing its potential economic benefits and challenges for regional economic integration. The paper adopted qualitative methodology and approach in obtaining relevant data towards achieving the objectives. Specifically, qualitative data were obtained from secondary sources such as books, journals, periodicals as well as official documents. It argues that the number of states accepting regional economic integration initiative such as the AfCFTA is one of the major features of globalization whose benefits have not been evenly distributed among nations. It argues further that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) presents a major opportunity for African countries to pull 30 million people out of extreme poverty and to raise the income level of 68 million others who live on less than $5.50 per day. The paper reveals that with the implementation of AfCFTA, trade facilitation measures that cut red tape and simplify customs procedures would drive $292 billion of the $450 billion in potential income gains. That is to say, that implementing AfCFTA would help usher in the kinds of deep reforms necessary to enhance long term growth in African countries. It further reveals that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement is capable of creating the largest free trade area in the world measuring the number of countries participating in the agreement. It concludes that achieving economic prosperity by 2063 is such a long period, but African countries must adhere strictly to the principles and objectives of the agreement and avoid anything that will cut short the life span. The paper recommends that the African Union should as much as possible, ensure the protection of the key interests of participating member states by launching in-depth studies as well as mandating member states to commission nationwide enlightenment and sensitization programmes on the AfCFTA so as to give it regional acceptance. It recommends further that the key planners and players should focus implementation on security and terrorism, abide by the agreement of the AfCFA, avoid conflictual policies that may affect free trade especially domestic policies and ensure the availability of adequate transportation system such as road and rail networks.

Local taxation and sustainable urban development in Morocco

Over the last few decades, the financing of cities has been at the heart of ongoing debates of change and deep reforms as well as major concerns in all countries where decentralization is giving an increasingly dynamic role to local governments. This article presents the role of local taxation in promoting sustainable urban development in Morocco through an empirical study of 163 actors and partners involved in cities in the regions of Casablanca-Settat and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra. The results show that to increase local taxation in Morocco, it is necessary to develop the capacity of city managers, encourage public-private partnerships, and improve the quality of spending.

ПРОБЛЕМИ ТА ПЕРСПЕКТИВИ ЕКОЛОГІЧНОГО ОПОДАТКУВАННЯ В УКРАЇНІ

The article substantiates the importance of environmental tax as an effective tool in the field of environmental protection. The purpose of the article is to identify the key role and importance of environmental taxation in solving the problems of excessive load on the environment, to highlight the main problems and issues that slow down the positive effect of the implementation of its mechanisms, to analyze theregulatory documents in this feild. It is determined that depending on how rapidly the country is developing, the implementation of one of the functions (environmental protection, incentive and fiscal) will prevail during the implementation of reforms in the field of environmental taxation. The great role and importance of environmental taxation at all levels of socio-economic development of the country is defined: budget filling, financing of environmental protection measures, motivation for innovative activities, for the introduction of resource-saving technologies and the environmental management system, increasing the competitiveness of regions, reducing the level of anthropogenic load on the environment. The main provisions of the normative and legal documents for the regulation of environmental taxation in Ukraine are systematized, the demotivational direction of action of its individual components is determined, which leads to decrease in the incentives of business entities to reduce the man-made loadon the environment. Attention is focused on the imperfections of the information provision of research, and the creation of unified information databases is proposed. The need to direct the results of scientific research into the feild of their practical implementation has been proven. It is proposed to abandon the symptomatic implementation of environmental taxation tools in favor of deep reform of the environmental taxation system.

Strategic imperatives of institutionalization of the development of rural areas through the support of new type of agricultural formations

The article emphasizes the need for the transformation of agro-industrial production as one of the leading sectors of the national economy, which over a long period of development was able to reach such a level that it not only covers domestic food needs but also occupies a significant niche in the world markets. The current stage of Ukraine’s development will undoubtedly lead to the entry of our state into international political, social, military, and economic structures. Overcoming the negative impact of the factors of the development of agro-industrial production is possible through a deep reform of the institutional environment for the development of rural areas and agro-industrial production. The main imperatives of such a strategy should include the creation and ensuring the effective functioning of integrated agricultural formations of a new type in connection with the development of communities. It should lead to the expansion, rationalization, and mutual coordination of the range of economic, social, and ecological interests of the state, local authorities and self-government, producers of agricultural products, and the rural population. The current stage of the country’s socio-economic development is determined by the need for post-war modernization and recovery of all spheres of life in Ukrainian society, requiring the selection and purposeful research of the most relevant types of agro-industrial integration, which would ensure activation and improvement of the efficiency of integration processes, including cooperatives and clusters. The article emphasizes that the support of agro-industrial formations of a new type based on ensuring the mutually agreed interests of food producers and rural areas should be achieved due to the synergetic effect of agro-industrial integration, which will significantly increase the effectiveness of such interaction. The authors prove that the state’s efforts in the process of post-war reconstruction of the region should focus on the development, approval, active implementation, and support of the agricultural formations, the effectiveness of which will depend not only on the development of rural areas but also on the entire country as a whole.