General Authorities Research Articles

Utworzenie Państwowego Gospodarstwa Wodnego „Wody Polskie” jako przejaw koncentracji zadań i kompetencji w obszarze gospodarki wodnej – wybrane zagadnienia

Ustawa z 20.07.2017 r. – Prawo wodne, która weszła w życie 1.01.2018 r., wprowadziła zmianę struktury organizacyjno-prawnej oraz podziału zadań i kompetencyjnej organów właściwych w sprawach gospodarowania wodami. Powołana została nowa struktura – Państwowe Gospodarstwo Wodne „Wody Polskie” (WP). WP są ujednoliconą strukturą instytucjonalną, która zastąpiła co do zasady dotychczasowe organy działające w obszarze gospodarowania wodami i skupiła szeroką grupę wyspecjalizowanych i sprofilowanych zadań i kompetencji z tego obszaru. Skoncentrowaniu uległo kilka rodzajów zadań i kompetencji w obszarze gospodarowania wodami dotychczas rozproszonych pomiędzy wieloma pomiotami i powierzonych w dużej części ogólnym organom administracji publicznej.
 Celem artykułu jest analiza wybranych zadań i kompetencji z zakresu gospodarki wodnej, które uległy koncentracji: wydawanie zgód wodnoprawnych oraz skoncentrowanie w rękach WP rozstrzygania zagadnień wymagających wysoko wyspecjalizowanej wiedzy z zakresu gospodarowania wodami występujących w innych postępowaniach.
 Artykuł zmierza do wykazania, że choć zmiany te niewątpliwie mogą mieć istotne znaczenie dla usprawnienia i przyspieszenia przebiegu procesu inwestycyjnego w obszarze gospodarowania wodami, występowanie pewnych niejednoznaczności, nieprecyzyjności w relacji pomiędzy przepisami, ich wzajemna niespójność przysporzyć mogą organom i inwestorom zobowiązanym do ich stosowania problemów, a przez to stopień osiągnięcia zamierzonego skutku może być mniejszy. Zasadne jest też rozważenie wprowadzenia dodatkowych regulacji.

Selected aspects of electronic administration. Comments on means of communication between parties to general administrative proceedings and public authorities

This article is an attempt to present the essence of electronic communication between clients (other parties to the proceeding) and administrative authorities in general administrative proceedings. It also presents advancements in the modern technologies of the 20th and 21st century (such as telegram, telex, fax) and especially means of electronic communication, which took place in recent years in Poland. In its essence, electronic administration enables communication through strictly electronic means, eliminating the need for physical contact, as a result of which it is not necessary for parties to the proceeding and a body of public administration, to be present at the same time in the same place. Objectives of electronic administration are among the main factors allowing to overcome the problem of time and space in this modern organizational concept of state.

Calidad en el sector turístico: marco normativo y planificación

In this article we analyse quality from the perspective of the public sector, focusing on the participation of the General Authorities of the State Administration and Autonomous Communities in Spain, with special focus on the regulatory planning instruments adopted in Andalusia. This regional perspective is completed with the study of initiatives adopted in Catalonia and the Canary Islands. The selection is based ion the longstanding history of experience in tourism of these Autonomous Communities and the large numbers of visitors, both national and international, who are received by them annually. The study of the evolution of planning articles and laws is essential in order to understand the aims and principles of quality control as defined by the Public Authorities, and their adaptation to private sector demands and the general citizens. The methodology is based on legal analysis of the current normative framework, and the planning instruments adopted, together with other bibliographic sources.

And justice for all? How anti-doping responds to ‘Innocent Mistakes’

ABSTRACT The WADA Strategic Plan 2015–19 includes as part of its Mission Statement, the aim to develop policies and procedures that reflect justice, equity and integrity. However, current policies and procedures for the sanctioning of athletes subvert legal maxims, such as the presumption of innocence, and punishment for all offenders, even in cases of accidental or inadvertent doping where there was neither intention, nor any performance enhancement. In this archival study, from an initial, broadly representative sample of 100 sanctions, 23 cases were identified in which sanctioned athletes either denied committing an anti-doping rule violation or denied intention to dope. Content analysis of the statements made by athletes showed that denial strategies fell into discrete categories, such as accidental doping through nutritional supplements, banned substances being present in medical treatments, accidental whereabouts violations, and accidental purchases. While some denials were credible, many were incredible, potentially reinforcing the general skepticism anti-doping authorities have towards protestations of innocence by athletes. Findings highlight the need to improve the education of athletes to prevent accidental violations. It is suggested that the introduction of a ‘reasonable person’ standard might help to prevent the imposition of sanctions in cases where even anti-doping tribunals acknowledge that sanctions are harsh or unfair.

Raising the Voice of Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients in Argentina: An Inspirational Campaign to Highlight to Share Patients Unique Life Vision and Patients' Unmet Needs

Background and context: In Argentina, every year 19,000 new breast cancer cases are diagnosed, and 30% of those cases will advance to a metastatic stage. In fact, breast cancer is the first cause of female death by tumors in Argentina. Previously, BC awareness campaigns developed by local NGOs, medical societies and/or government authorities focused their efforts in early diagnosis, and there weren't initiatives raising the awareness of those women suffering from advanced or metastatic BC. In fact, a regional survey that included Argentina reported that only 50% of respondents knew anything about mBC. Particularly in Argentina, 76% of adults considered that media and key influencers were not paying enough attention to the mBC burden of disease. Furthermore, every time mBC was mentioned, it was with a negative connotation, more of a “sentence of death” than a positive message. Aim: To raise the voice of Argentinian metastatic breast cancer patients to ensure that their situation and needs are known and addressed by the general public, media, and government authorities. Strategy/Tactics: In 2016, Pfizer along with four cancer patient advocacy organizations (MACMA, ACIAPO, SOSTEN and ACILCO) worked together to change that situation. Eleven women with mBC shared their testimonies through in-depth interviews with a message full of hope and positive feelings. These women's experience inevitably led them to take a different view at life. For them, words changed their meaning following diagnosis, when their life changed. With admirable simplicity and integrity, they shared these meanings that invited us all to appreciate life differently. These testimonies were included in a dictionary called Palabra de Mujer (Woman's Voice) where powerful words as life, love, friendship, future, among others were redefined while compared with the literature academy formal meaning. These women and the NGOs participated in a media campaign that included a press-conference, live interviews for TV shows, interviews for most important magazines and newspapers and participation at local “Grammys”. To gain a national reach, the campaign had the support of advertising and a Web site where video testimonies could be found and the dictionary downloaded for free. The dictionary was also distributed to patients at different levels: patient advocacy groups, public hospitals, payers and physicians' offices. Outcomes: This campaign had a wide stakeholder reach, with an impact of +79 million impressions, 5000 dictionaries distributed and more than 50,000 unique visits to the landing page ( www.palabrademujer.com.ar ). Moreover, the city of Buenos Aires declared Palabra de Mujer of sanitary and social interest, recognizing the initiative at the legislature. Additionally, the participant NGOs are still asking for more and more dictionaries as, any time they give one of them to a mBC patient, feedback is powerful and full of hope.

Island for Sale: Is it Legal?

For more than ten years already, Indonesian public discourse has been set ablaze by the rumours of Indonesian small islands being sold to foreigners, inviting emotional and, thus, superficial reactions from general public and public authorities alike. This article seeks to offer a conceptual framework to discuss this issue in a more cool-headed manner, thus finding a solution to it. It can be concluded that the problems of small islands are best discussed in the context of coastal areas and small islands (CSI) management, which is the implementation of the Marine Economy policy in order to realize the Archipelagic Outlook. “Island trade,” therefore, is possible under Indonesian law, but more than just transfer of land rights or giving permit to utilize. Instead, it must take into account sustainability, bio-ecoregional as well as participatory considerations.

ADF: An Anomaly Detection Framework for Large-Scale PM2.5 Sensing Systems

As the population density continues to grow in the urban settings, air quality is degrading and becoming a serious issue. Air pollution, especially fine particulate matter (PM2.5), has raised a series of concerns for public health. As a result, a number of large-scale, low cost PM2.5 monitoring systems have been deployed in several international smart city projects. One of the major challenges for such environmental sensing systems is ensuring the data quality. In this paper, we propose an anomaly detection framework (ADF) for large-scale, real-world environmental sensing systems. The framework is composed of four modules: 1) time-sliced anomaly detection (TSAD), which detects spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal anomalies in the real-time sensor measurement data stream; 2) real-time emission detection, which detects potential regional emission sources; 3) device ranking, which provides a ranking for each sensing device; and 4) malfunction detection, which identifies malfunctioning devices. Using real world measurement data from the AirBox project, we demonstrate that the proposed framework can effectively identify outliers in the raw measurement data as well as infer anomalous events that are perceivable by the general public and government authorities. Because of its simple design, ADF is highly extensible to other advanced applications, and it can be exploited to support various large-scale environmental sensing systems.

Financial Evaluation of the Greek Port Authorities Operating as GOPC

This article provides a factual perspective on the immediate responses of the port industry to the 2008 economic downturn. Specifically, it investigates the port authorities' performance located in Greece in relation to the current economic crisis. Firstly, it translates the general theories on organizations that better adapt to crisis conditions into the practical setting of port authorities. Further, based on comprehensive literature, it concludes that several factors positively associate with better response of organizations, in general, and port authorities, in particular, to difficult economic conditions. Focusing on the financial statements of ten Greek ports of national interest, this article finds profitable financial results over a time span, but also raises considerable doubts as to the efficiency of their organizational structures, currently in a transitional phase. In addition, the review of the existing literature allowed formulating the hypotheses basing the application of adaptability of businesses to external economic shock theories to port authorities.

THE ORGANIZATION AND ACTIVITIES OF OCCUPYING BODIES OF JUSTICE IN THE POLISH GENERAL GOVERNORSHIP (1939–1945)

The article shows the aggressive policy of Nazi Germany in capturing Polish and Ukrainian lands during the Second World War. This policy assumed the liquidation of the Polish state and the Soviet Union; the Polish, Ukrainian and the other countries had to be partially destroyed, while others had to be assimilated. German colonists had to be resettled on the Ukrainian and Polish lands. However, the politics of Nazis concerning the Jewish population was even crueler and not human. The Second World War started on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany attacked Poland. The signing of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Treaty (August 23, 1939) called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and a Secret Protocol providing the distribution of the spheres of influence in Central and Eastern Europe between Stalin's Soviet Union and Nazi Germany was a prerequisite of the Second World War. For the purpose of the colonization policy, the dismemberment of the Polish lands was performed, and the Polish General governorship was established, that was structurally divided into four districts which were subordinated by local authorities. When the war between Germany and the Soviet Union started on June 22, 1941, five districts of Galicia were included to the General governorship that were a part of Lviv, Drohobych, Stanislav (Ivano-Frankivsk) and Ternopil oblasts of the USSR. One of the main factors that influenced the inclusion of Galicia to the Polish General governorship was the fact that Galicia had been a part of Austria and Austria-Hungary during 1772–1918 and economic ties with Poland. The article analyzes the process of establishing of the General governorship justice authorities, whose functions were performed by the Chief department of Justice of the General governorship and District departments of justice in Krakow, Warsaw, Lublin, Radom, and Galicia. The procedure of the appointment of officers of the justice authorities in the General governorship and districts was characterized. The main Department of Justice had administrative control over the activities of the justice authorities in the districts. Certain administrative powers in the sphere of justice belonged to the General governor who was the representative of the government of Nazi Germany on the occupied Polish and Ukrainian lands. Formation of the justice authorities in the General governorship began in May 1940. The Head of the Main Department of Justice was appointed and dismissed by the Governor General, and the governors of the districts appointed and dismissed officials in the district departments of Justice. The majority of workers of the justice authorities constituted the Germans.

Understanding different perspectives on the preservation of community and heritage buildings in the Wellington Region, New Zealand

The Canterbury (New Zealand) earthquake sequence of 2010–2012 caused unexpectedly extreme levels of damage and disruption, being an unparalleled event in New Zealand in terms of the damage extent. Christchurch’s heritage buildings were seriously damaged during these events, with churches especially affected in 22 February 2011 M w 6.2 earthquake. During this earthquake, a total of 84% of the heritage unreinforced stone and 81% of the clay brick masonry churches in the Canterbury region were either considered unsafe (receiving red placards) or with restricted access (yellow placards). Following the earthquakes, authorities across New Zealand are reassessing the capacity of older buildings to resist earthquakes. Current legislation requires that a building judged as earthquake prone either be strengthened by retrofitting or be demolished within a legislated number of years. Many building owners are facing the problems of owning earthquake-prone buildings and lacking the funding to upgrade. This affects both community and heritage buildings, resulting in the likely abandonment or demolition of some buildings. To address the problem of the balance between life safety and preservation in the Wellington Region, this project gathered and compared the perspectives of the general public, church communities, heritage specialists, professional engineers, and local authorities to assist in balancing the interests of these stakeholders. As a result of the findings, several recommendations have been provided that include standardizing structural assessment processes and training, feasibility of additional public funding to upgrade buildings, new signage to increase public awareness of earthquake-prone buildings, and regular communication among stakeholders to understand and resolve differences.

Ethical use of animal models in musculoskeletal research.

The use of animals in research is under increasing scrutiny from the general public, funding agencies, and regulatory authorities. Our ability to continue to perform in-vivo studies in laboratory animals will be critically determined by how researchers respond to this new reality. This Perspectives article summarizes recent and ongoing initiatives within ORS and allied organizations to ensure that musculoskeletal research is performed to the highest ethical standards. It goes on to present an overview of the practical application of the 3Rs (reduction, refinement, and replacement) into experimental design and execution, and discusses recent guidance with regard to improvements in the way in which animal data are reported in publications. The overarching goal of this review is to challenge the status quo, to highlight the absolute interdependence between animal welfare and rigorous science, and to provide practical recommendations and resources to allow clinicians and scientists to optimize the ways in which they undertake preclinical studies involving animals. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:740-751, 2017.

Modal testing of offshore rock lighthouses around the British Isles

Given that 95 per cent of the UK’s international trade is transported by sea, and as a vital complement to fallible virtual navigational aids such as GPS, rock-mounted lighthouses constructed in the 19th century have a crucial role to play in safe navigation. However the longevity of these historical structures is threatened by extreme weather so in the UK, the General Lighthouse Authorities comprising Trinity House, the Northern Lighthouse Board and the Commissioners of Irish Lights are supporting three British universities in a program of linked experimental and analytical investigations of full-scale performance under extreme wave loading. The aim is to use structural models calibrated by modal testing to deduce wave loading from response recorded by long-term monitoring.The paper describes the procedures for modal testing, taking into account the constraints on access, logistics, unfamiliar layout and time. The test program sequentially covered Les Hanois, Wolf Rock, Longships and Bishops Rock lighthouses over summer 2016 followed by Fastnet Rock in December 2016.Some conventional techniques of forced and ambient vibration testing were used along with some unusual excitation methods. Results from the measurements and observations on the particular challenges associated with testing two of these iconic structures are presented.

Regulation of Managers and Real Estate Investment Vehicles in Europe

This chapter summarises selected tools for the regulation and supervision of managers and investment vehicles in Europe’s real estate market. Defined by a debt or equity product and traded on a private or public market, real estate investments can be carried out in all four quadrants of the real estate investment universe. Due to their higher trading volume, historical experience with them and the fact that they are open to all investors, public and equity products have been in the focus of regulators for a long time now. In the aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007-2009, however, supervisory authorities have increased their attention to private and debt products in Europe. In general, regulators and supervisory authorities are continuously working on 1) a sounder, more stable and secure financial system, 2) a harmonised and stringent regulatory and supervisory framework in Europe and 3) a higher level of consumer service and protection. These regulations, however, also incur higher costs for the real estate holding or managing entities. According to the real estate industry, the process of harmonisation and thus the establishing of more and more regulations within the European Union (EU) could lead to an imbalance among the profits of a low-risk asset class, such as properties. In this context, interest groups have expressed their concerns regarding the efficiency of fulfilling the original aim of various regulations as well as the short time frame as prescribed for implementation in their business process. Rather than listing all the regulations which are connected with the real estate industry or all the concerns of the investment and managing industry, this chapter will give the reader a brief overview of the most recent and most relevant regulative and supervisory changes for the real estate industry in Europe.

Analysis, Modeling, and Mitigation of Cross-Rate Interference in eLoran

The General Lighthouse Authorities of the UK and Ireland (GLA) have selected eLoran as the most cost-effective way of complementing GNSS to provide resilient positioning, navigation, and timing within their waters. Achieving adequate eLoran coverage over the GLA service area will require a number of new transmitting stations to be installed. Due to the nature of eLoran transmissions, new stations can contribute as sources of interference which is often referred to as Cross-Rate Interference (CRI). This paper investigates the impact of CRI on the positioning accuracy of eLoran and explores mitigation methods. Analytical models of the pseudorange and positioning error due to CRI are presented and validated, and applications to coverage prediction and optimal eLoran Group Repetition Interval (GRI) selection are demonstrated. Results show that the CRI-induced errors can be substantially reduced through the judicious choice of GRIs and the use of state-of-the-art eLoran signal processing techniques

Modelling the Eddystone Lighthouse response to wave loading

The Eddystone Lighthouse is an imposing granite structure that has guided mariners through the treacherous waters off the Plymouth coast for nearly 150years. The General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs) of the UK and Ireland, recognising the continuing importance of rock-mounted lighthouses as physical aids for navigation, funded a pilot project, commissioning Plymouth University to monitor the tower. The present study aims to provide more information on the structural behaviour of the Eddystone Lighthouse under the impacts from wave loading, through the utilisation of a 3D finite element model. Data from geophones, an offshore wave buoy and video cameras installed on the tower have been used to calibrate and validate the model; in particular, the wave that caused the maximum displacement during the winter 2013/2014storms has been considered. The point of application of the wave load is important in the tower’s structural response; the lighthouse being especially vulnerable to larger displacements when the wave acts above its cylindrical base. Finite element analysis suggests that the lighthouse is stable with regard to material failure, and for failure mechanisms of overturning and sliding there are factors of safety of 6.3 and 8.0 respectively. A hypothetical unbroken wave of 17.5m height would be required to overturn the lighthouse, and one of height 17m would cause cracking at the base, but in such a location these waves would not be possible.

Perception of Ethiopian on Federal Tax Authority: A Comprehensive Study

This paper examines satisfaction of business taxpayers with the tax system. The study focuses on examining the views of taxpayers towards the tax taxpayers ’services, tax policy, tax administrative mechanism and tax law enforcement. The study has adopted a sequential explanatory mixed method research approach. The data were collected from federal business taxpayers through questionnaire and in-depth interview and descriptive. The data collected are analysed using descriptive data analysis. The findings of this study reveal that business taxpayers are not satisfied with the existing tax systems. Moreover, the finding further reveals that the tax system is so complex and unfair, discretionary treatment by officers and existent of lack of monitoring in the tax authority. Finally, the paper suggests a series of measures, which could be taken by the government in general and tax authorities in particular, are improving tax policy and administration issues, stepping up their duty of promoting tax awareness; tax officers should be given intensive and repetitive training to improve their attitude and promoting a code of conduct with emphasis on ethical values; and finally, tax refund procedure would be simplified.

Wave loading on rock lighthouses

Historical and contemporary observations of wave-impact loading on rock lighthouses during storms are presented. With climate change potentially causing sea level rise and more energetic wave climates, the longevity of these heritage structures cannot be taken for granted. To obtain a better understanding of the wave–structure interaction, Plymouth University has been working with the General Lighthouse Authorities to develop monitoring and modelling techniques suitable for these isolated masonry structures. Details of the field campaign, in which 2978 impact events were recorded during the winter storms of 2013/2014, are presented together with an initial analysis that begins to shed light on the dynamic response of these iconic structures. The results indicate that the response can be sensitive to the type of wave impact and that the overall motion of the Eddystone tower was less than might have been expected. A finite-element model of the tower was able to reproduce accurately the frequencies of the first and third modes of vibration but, unlike the field data, failed to show response at a frequency near the second mode. Preliminary attempts to apply wave loads estimated on the basis of ISO 21650 show reasonable agreement between the model displacements and those measured.

PERSONALITY OF THE MODERN NATIVE STUDENT IN THE ALL-EUROPIAN VALUES ASPECT

In the article definition of the concept «all-Europian values» is determined. This values (dignity, freedom, egulity) is characterized with using «Charter of general authorities of Europian Union». The reasons of Ukrainian students conversion to this kind of values is established

Earthquake loss estimation for the Kathmandu Valley

Kathmandu Valley is geologically located on lacustrine sediment basin, characterized by a long history of destructive earthquakes. The past events resulted in large structural damage, loss of human life’s and property, and interrupted the social development. In recent years, the earthquake risk in this area has significantly increased due to uncontrolled development, poor construction practices with no earthquake safety provisions, and lack of awareness amongst the general public and government authorities. In this context, this study explores the realistic situation of earthquake losses due to future earthquakes in Kathmandu Valley. To this end, three municipalities: (a) Kathmandu Metropolitan City, (b) Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City and (c) Bhaktapur Municipality are selected for a case study. The earthquake loss estimation in the selected municipalities is performed through the combination of seismic hazard, structural vulnerability, and exposure data. Regarding the seismic input, various earthquakes scenario considering four seismic sources in Nepal are adopted. For what concerns the exposure, existing literature describing the construction typologies and data from the recent national census survey of 2011 are employed to estimate ward level distribution of buildings. The economic losses due to the earthquake scenarios are determined using fragility functions. Finally, the ward level distribution of building damage and the corresponding economic losses for each earthquake scenario is obtained using the OpenQuake-engine. The distribution of building damage within the Kathmandu Valley is currently being employed in the development of a shelter model for the region, involving various local authorities and decision makers.

Indian Federalism: A Short History

The crux and pivotal point of federalism is a division of powers and functions between one general and several regional authorities, each of which, in its own sphere, is coordinate with the others, and each of which acts directly on the people through its own administrative agencies within the limits of the constitution. This principle of shared power is often expressed by the concept of dual sovereignty, ascribing to the federal state as well as to the member units supreme or sovereign power within their spheres of jurisdiction. In a federation the political authority is territorially divided between two autonomous sets of separate jurisdictions, one national and the other provincial, which both operate directly upon the people. The roots of federalism in India have bearing from the British system. This research article is an attempt to traces the evolution of federalism in India.