Budget Distribution Research Articles

MLS: An MAE-Aware LiDAR Sampling Framework for On-Road Environments Using Spatio-Temporal Information

In recent years, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors have been widely utilized in various applications, including robotics and autonomous driving. However, LiDAR sensors have relatively low resolutions, take considerable time to acquire laser range measurements, and require significant resources to process and store large-scale point clouds. To tackle these issues, many depth image sampling algorithms have been proposed, but their performances are unsatisfactory in complex on-road environments, especially when the sampling rate of measuring equipment is relatively low. Although region-of-interest (ROI)-based sampling has achieved some promising results for LiDAR sampling in on-road environments, the rate of ROI sampling has not been thoroughly investigated, which has limited reconstruction performance. To address this problem, this article proposes a solution to the budget distribution optimization problem to find optimal sampling rates according to the characteristics of each region. A simple yet effective mean absolute error (MAE)-aware model of reconstruction errors was developed and employed to analytically derive optimal sampling rates. In addition, a practical LiDAR sampling framework for autonomous driving was developed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms all previous approaches in terms of both the object and overall scene reconstruction performances.

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MALAYSIA

Background and Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the level of technical efficiency of Malaysia’s secondary education. Education efficiency has become an important issue since the education sector is the recipient of high priority budget allocation. An evaluation of whether the budget distribution for secondary education is technically efficient is necessary because secondary education represents almost 40% of the national education budget. 
 
 Methodology: The study applied the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in examining the level of technical efficiency for a sample of 626 secondary schools from four selected states, namely, Selangor, Melaka, Kedah, and Terengganu. The sample was further split into schools from developed and less developed states, and urban and rural areas. 
 
 Findings: The results revealed that secondary schools in the four sample states were technically inefficient (almost 98%). Most schools were at a moderate level of technical efficiency (score range between 0.5-0.79). Interestingly, schools in rural areas and less-developed states showed better technical efficiency than those in urban areas and developed states. Given the government's total expenditure, academic achievement could be increased by almost 30 percent with an improvement in inefficiency.
 
 Contributions: The study's fundamental implications are that inefficient secondary schools need to increase their efficiency by ensuring effective budget spending and adequate expenditure distribution monitoring. More schools need to be constructed or repaired, and old schools/buildings upgraded. The sector also needs to expedite compliance with the 17:1 student-teacher ratio set by the Education Ministry to improve teaching delivery quality.
 
 Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, government spending, secondary school, student and teacher ratio, technical efficiency.
 
 Cite as: Baba, R., Abdul Karim, Z., Abdul-Majid, M., & Sulaiman, N. (2021). Technical efficiency of secondary schools in Malaysia. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(1), 265-283. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss1pp265-283

Risk-averse bi-level stochastic network interdiction model for cyber-security risk management

This paper proposes a methodology to enable a risk-averse, resource constrained cyber network defender to optimally deploy security countermeasures that protect against potential attackers with an uncertain budget. The proposed methodology is based on a risk-averse bi-level stochastic network interdiction model on an attack graph–maps the potential attack paths of a cyber network–that minimizes the weighted sum of the expected maximum loss over all attack scenarios and the risk of substantially large losses. The conditional-value-at-risk measure is incorporated into the stochastic programming model to reduce the risk of substantially large losses. An exact algorithm is developed to solve the model as well as several acceleration techniques to improve the computational efficiency. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the acceleration techniques enable the solution of relatively large problems within a reasonable amount of time: simultaneously applying all the acceleration techniques reduces the average computation time of the basic algorithm by 71% for 100-node graphs. Using metrics called mean-risk value of stochastic solution and value of risk-aversion, computational results suggest that the stochastic risk-averse model provides substantially better network interdiction decision than the deterministic (ignores uncertainty) and risk-neutral models when 1) the distribution of attacker budget is heavy-right-tailed and 2) the defender is highly risk-averse.

Inequality in the distribution of income as a threat to the sustainable development of united territorial communities in Ukraine

Current decentralisation and reform of the administrative and territorial structure of Ukraine, the issue of overcoming inequalities and disparities of territorial development in Ukraine by building effective system of financial management for united territorial communities as basis for territories' and country's sustainable development becomes especially relevant. The study analyses effectiveness of intergovernmental fiscal relations system to income distribution within UTCs in the context of inequalities and imbalances, and the current system of UTCs' expenditures. It has been shown that in the current legal framework regarding UTCs there are no effective guarantees of optimal, balanced budget allocation between UTCs settlements-members. To overcome current disparities in expenditures' distribution of a UTC budget, it has been proposed to use economic and mathematical model, which allows to take into account both the dynamics of UTC per capita income and changes in its population.

Досягнення реформи децентралізації та її бюджетна ефективність на прикладі Павлівської ОТГ у Волинській області

The article discusses the topical issue of the present day: decentralization and its budget efficiency (on the example of the Pavlivska amalgamated hromada in the Volyn region). A significant feature of decentralization today is voluntary association with other territories in order to improve living conditions and development of the area. Decentralization facilitates the improvement of investment climate, forms an efficient environment for attracting investments and financing the activities of Ukrainian regions. That is why decentralization allows amalgamated hromadas to reveal their internal potentials. The result of local self-government depends on the appropriate use of financial resources, independent resolution of regional issues. The publication uses indicators of budget self-sufficiency, budget effectiveness, budget transparency to analyze the budget efficiency of the territorial community, based on an assessment of the level of implementation of the distribution and redistribution of the local budget of the amalgamated hromada. Budget self-sufficiency demonstrates how the territorial community can develop itself, budget effectiveness is responsible for the expenditure part and the result of these costs, and budget transparency — for insightfulness and openness of information for citizens. The introduction of decentralization aims to improve the system of management of territorial communities and the system of administrative and territorial structure of the country, with the improvement of the state of residence and development of citizens regardless of their place of residence. With the help of decentralization, the investment climate of the country is improving and an efficient environment is being formed to attract foreign and domestic investors. Financing of territories allows opening up new opportunities for the evolvement of amalgamated hromadas.

An instrument to diagnose different aspects of students' consumer behavior

Introduction. Consumer behavior as an economic behavior of the individual needs to be studied based on the distinctive features of the Ukrainian market and the Ukrainian mentality. However, there is a shortage of standardized instruments to diagnose different aspects of individuals' economic activity, in particular their consumer behavior. Aim. To develop and test validity and reliability of the psychodiagnostic instrument "Students' Consumer Behavior" as well as standardize the data on a sample of adolescents. Methods. The author's Students' Consumer Behavior and Daily Purchases questionnaires and the R. Yanov-Bulman Basic Beliefs Scale questionnaire (adapted by O. Kravtsova). Results. Students' consumer behavior includes: rational distribution of budget, following the opinion of other people and advertising, flexibility in mking purchases, buying as a getting of the wished. It has been found that the tendency of students to make a rational distribution of money is associated with limited monthly expenses (up to 4,000 hryvnias), while the tendency to follow other people's opinions or advertisements when buying goods is associated with a young age, female gender, lower unplanned expences, limited means of subsistence (less than 4,000 hryvnias per month) and the dependant's status. The flexibility in making purchases is more developed in students who make purchases on their own. Young students (up to 20 years) or those who depend on their parents have a tendency to buy goods to meet their needs. Conclusions. The validation and reliability testing procedures used by the author have shown high reliability in measuring different aspects of young people's consumer behavior. The proposed scales measure the aspects of consumer behavior that are relevant to age, gender, independence of purchases, monthly expenses, students' dependence status (being financially dependent/independent of parents), etc. Young people tend not to follow other people's opinions and/or buy goods to meet their own needs as their self-control grows.

Asymmetrical Thermal Boundary Condition Influence on the Flow Structure and Heat Transfer Performance of Paramagnetic Fluid-Forced Convection in the Strong Magnetic Field

Continuous interest in space journeys opens the research fields, which might be useful in non-terrestrial conditions. Due to the lack of the gravitational force, there will be a need to force the flow for mixing or heat transfer. Strong magnetic field offers the conditions, which can help to obtain the flow. In light of this origin, presented paper discusses the dually modified Graetz-Brinkman problem. The modifications were related to the presence of the magnetic field influencing the flow and asymmetrical thermal boundary condition. Dimensionless numerical analysis was performed, and two dimensionless numbers (magnetic Grashof number and magnetic Richardson number) were defined for paramagnetic fluid flow. The results revealed the heat transfer enhancement due to the strong magnetic field influence accompanied by possible but not essential flow structure modifications. On the other hand, the flow structure changes can be utilized to prevent the solid particles’ sedimentation. The explanation of the heat transfer enhancement including energy budget and vorticity distribution was presented.

Development of intelligent virtual assistant for planning the optimal travel route

In this article the developing of an intelligent travel planning system is considered. Travel planning system includes an intelligent search module, an optimal budget planning module and a module for building an optimal route. The intelligent search module acts as a recommendation system and offers the user sights and interesting places to visit. The optimal budget allocation module helps the user to plan their finances taking into account their preferences for the comfort of travel and accommodation. Based on the obtained data, the optimal route planning module plans a schedule of visits to the selected attractions. In this article, we consider the production model of knowledge representation to determine the most preferred travel destinations for tourists, the application of a genetic algorithm for the optimal distribution of the travel budget and the modification of the method of imitation of an ant colony to find the optimal route between the cities.

Gender equality and legislative evaluation of gender-based laws in Korea

ABSTRACT Korea’s Constitution, Article 11(1) prescribes, ‘All citizens shall be equal before the law, and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic, social or cultural life on account of sex, religion or social status’. The Constitution prescribes equal protection of citizens regardless of their gender. In this article, the efforts and tools for ensuring gender equality in Korea are introduced. The discussion mainly focuses on gender impact assessment and how it improves equal protection in Korea. Gender impact assessment is necessary because it contributes to policy improvement by removing gender discrimination in law and policy. The assessment also helps in preparing a substantial policy that guarantees gender equality through equal policy benefit, equal participation, and equal budget distribution for men and women. This article also covers the role of the Constitutional Court of Korea as a reviewer of the constitutionality of gender-based laws. The Constitutional Court has the authority to judge a law as unconstitutional. This can be seen as a form of legislative evaluation in Korea.

A New Model for Maintenance Strategy Based on Failure Analysis and Multicriteria Approach

An effective maintenance plan allows one to minimize failures and to ensure the proper functioning of machines in order to obtain the estimated production system performances. On the other hand, inadequate maintenance can cause faults such as a decrease of production levels, compromising customer satisfaction and resulting in economic losses. In the present research, a new model is proposed to develop a support tool for maintenance design. The new approach is focused to the adequate distribution of maintenance budget to units and machines of a production system. It is based on the main factors determining availability of equipment thanks to appropriate indexes, adjusted through a multi-criteria method, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The obtained results can support the budget allocation to maintenance activities, right for machines or units that are strategic to ensure production. The model has been validated through the application to three different industrial plants.

The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.

The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.

Anthropocene, Emissions Budget, and the Structural Crisis of the Capitalist World-System

This paper evaluates the implications of global emissions budget distribution between three large geographical areas (China, OECD countries, and the rest of the world) in the context of Anthropocene and the structural crisis of the capitalist world system. Two plausible emissions distribution principles are considered. Under neither the inertia principle nor the equity principle, can continuing economic growth be made compatible with requirements of climate stabilization in all three regions. This conclusion does not change significantly when plausible acceleration of emissions intensity reduction in the future is taken into account. To limit global warming to not more than 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, at least two of the three large regions need to reorganize their economies to operate with zero or negative growth. Such a reorganization cannot be achieved under a capitalist economic system given the inherent tendency of capitalism towards endless accumulation. Neither is it likely to be achieved under any conceivable economic system dominated by market relations.

Allocating resources to support universal health coverage: policy processes and implementation in Malawi

Optimising the use of limited health resources in low-income and middle-income countries towards the maximisation of health outcomes requires efficient distribution of resources across health services and geographical areas. While...

Do ecological–economic tradeoffs triggered by budget allocations for forest carbon sequestration change under different market conditions?

We analyze how the optimal spatial budget distribution for protecting ecosystem services under two extreme market conditions results in different ecological–economic tradeoffs for balance between conservation and sustainable development. As a case study, we develop an empirical framework for the optimal spatial budget distribution given the objectives of maximizing forest carbon storage and maximizing total value added in the Central and Southern Appalachian Region. We consistently find concave efficient frontiers between carbon storage and total value added and differences in ecological–economic tradeoffs under two extreme market conditions in 2006 and 2011 for intra- and inter-generational sustainability. The former confirms previous findings of a concave tradeoff relationship, while the latter new finding suggests that balancing weights between the two objectives with preferences of decision makers can be effectively done depending on the market conditions. For example, if a conservation agency considers increasing the weight on either maximizing total value-added or maximizing forest carbon storage, the decision makers should consider the sacrifice of the other objective required by the optimal decision, which changes across market conditions. We also find that a conservation agency may want to consider the negative consequences on equity between rural and urban areas of increasing the weight on maximizing total value-added, regardless of the market condition.

The Process of Decentralization Management Based on Foreign Experience

The democratization of relations in society among developed countries, in most cases, is accompanied by the concept of fiscal decentralization. Today the priority in the world is the reform of public administration and decentralization which results in the abandonment of the centralized model of governance and the introduction of an effective system of territorial organization, financial self-sufficiency of local governments and expanding their budgets. In the current state of the economy of Ukraine and its regions there are a number of negative phenomena due to the loss of production potential, insufficient level of entrepreneurial activity, the presence of a significant level of shadow economy, resulting in economic instability and economic crisis. Thus, today there are many unresolved issues regarding the effective strategy of regulating the processes of decentralization of the management system, the equal distribution of powers at the local level and an effective strategy for the formation and distribution of the local budget. The task is to reform the country's inter-budgetary relations. However, the key to success in successfully reforming the state's governance system is to ensure economic decentralization with financial support from the central government in the initial stages. This strategy was followed by most developed countries in Europe and the world. Therefore, it is advisable to analyze the main advantages, risks and disadvantages of a decentralized management system based on foreign experience. Historical and modern strategies of reforming the management system of the leading countries of the world are considered.The scientific article considers the problematic aspects of the reforms and their specific implementation in countries such as Germany, Poland, Great Britain and Sweden. Prospects for the development of reform in Ukraine are identified and the main problems that arose at the first stage of the decentralization process are identified.

Study on decentralized budget distribution model presentation for country's research organization's subsidiaries

Study on decentralized budget distribution model presentation for country's research organization's subsidiaries

Asymmetric budget constraints in a first-price auction

I solve a first-price auction for two bidders with asymmetric budget distributions and known valuations for one object. I show that in any equilibrium, the expected utilities and bid distributions of both bidders are unique. If budgets are sufficiently low, the bidders will bid their entire budget in any equilibrium. For sufficiently high budgets, mass points in the equilibrium strategies arise. A less restrictive budget distribution could make both bidders strictly worse off. If the budget distribution of one bidder is dominated by the budget distribution of the other bidder in the reverse-hazard-rate order, the weaker bidder will bid more aggressively than the stronger bidder. In contrast to existing results for symmetric budget distributions, with asymmetric budget distributions, a second-price auction can yield a strictly higher revenue than a first-price auction. Under an additional assumption, I derive the unique equilibrium utilities and bid distributions of both bidders in an all-pay auction.

Constrained Optimization for the Selection of Influenza Vaccines to Maximize the Population Benefit: A Demonstration Project.

BackgroundInfluenza is an infectious disease causing a high annual economic and public health burden. The most efficient management of the disease is through prevention with vaccination. Many influenza vaccines are available, with varying efficacy and cost, targeting different age groups. Therefore, strategic decision-making about which vaccine to deliver to whom is warranted to improve efficiency.ObjectiveWe present the use of a constrained optimization (CO) model to evaluate targeted strategies for providing influenza vaccines in three adult age groups in the USA.MethodsCO was considered for identifying an influenza vaccine provision strategy that maximizes the benefits at constrained annual budgets, by prioritizing vaccines based on return on investment. The approach optimizes a set of predefined outcome measures over several years resulting from an increasing investment using the best combination of influenza vaccines.ResultsResults indicate the importance of understanding the relative differences in benefits for each vaccine type within and across age groups. Scenario and threshold analyses demonstrate the impact of changing budget distribution over time, price setting per vaccine type, and selection of outcome measure to optimize.ConclusionSignificant gains in cost efficiency can be realized for a decision maker using a CO model, especially for a disease like influenza with many vaccine options. Testing the model under different scenarios offers powerful insights into maximum achievable benefit overall and per age group within the predefined constraints of a vaccine budget.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s40258-019-00534-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Using portfolio theory in spatial targeting of forest carbon payments: an effective strategy to address spatiotemporal variation in land-use opportunity costs?

The objective of our research is to extend current conservation applications of modern portfolio theory (MPT) to develop a framework for the cost-efficient budget distribution for a forest carbon payment program that optimizes risk–reward trade-offs in the presence of economic growth uncertainty over time. We consider correlation across space and time of the fluctuating opportunity costs of restoring forestland under changing future economic conditions using a case study of eight states in the central and southern Appalachian region of the United States. The findings suggest that optimal budget allocation decisions that ignore the covariance component of the spatial variance–covariance structure of forest carbon returns fail to minimize the true risk of conservation investment for any level of expected return. The importance of incorporating the spatial covariance in targeting conservation payments is made explicit through alternative approaches using multi-objective (mean–variance) optimization and an ex post analysis with and without the covariance component of the spatial variance–covariance structure of forest carbon return on investment (ROI). A comparison of these approaches against our MPT-based approach revealed misleading risk–return expectations if the ROI covariance is ignored in the spatial targeting of forest carbon payments under uncertainty.

Simulation of temporary mechanism for self-organization of production and consumer activities of operating entities

The essence of the proposed scientific hypothesis lies in the multiplicity of time forms in the economy which reflects the specifics of the fundamental economic relationships between subjects, determines the direction and pace of economic development, reveals the ability to control and regulate the process of self-organization of production and consumer activities of subjects. The purpose of the study is to investigate the structure of time in the subject’s economic space based on the methodology of interdisciplinary interaction of the concept of multiplicity of time forms. As a result, based on the synthesis of Marxist, neoclassical and evolutionary methodologies of economic theory, we justify the control effect of time on the individual’s production and consumer activities according to his/her preferences in the distribution of the calendar budget of time for working and free time. On this basis, the authors propose a model of a temporary mechanism for self-organization of both production and consumer activities of economic entities and the market economy as a whole.