Public Documents Research Articles

Vaccination governance in protracted conflict settings: the case of northwest Syria

BackgroundEffective vaccination governance in conflict-affected regions poses unique challenges. This study evaluates the governance of vaccination programs in northwest Syria, focusing on effectiveness, efficiency, inclusiveness, data availability, vision, transparency, accountability, and sustainability.MethodsUsing a mixed-methods approach, and adapting Siddiqi’s framework for health governance, data were collected through 14 key informant interviews (KIIs), a validating workshop, and ethnographic observations. Findings were triangulated to provide a comprehensive understanding of vaccination governance.ResultsThe study highlights innovative approaches used to navigate the complex health governance landscape to deliver vaccination interventions, which strengthened sub-national vaccination structures such as The Syria Immunisation Group (SIG). The analysis revealed several key themes. Effectiveness and efficiency were demonstrated through cold-chain reliability and extensive outreach activities, though formal reports lacked detailed analysis of vaccine losses and linkage between disease outbreak data and coverage statistics. Key informants and workshop participants rated the vaccination strategy positively but identified inefficiencies due to irregular funding and bureaucracy. Inclusiveness and data availability were prioritised, with outreach activities targeting vulnerable groups. However, significant gaps in demographic data and reliance on paper-based systems hindered comprehensive coverage analysis. Digitalisation efforts were noted but require further support. The SIG demonstrated a clear strategic vision supported by international organizations such as the World Health Organization, yet limited partner participation in strategic planning raised concerns about broader ownership and engagement. While the SIG was perceived as approachable, the lack of public documentation and financial disclosure limited transparency. Internal information sharing was prevalent, but public communication strategies were insufficient. Accountability and sustainability faced challenges due to a decentralized structure and reliance on diverse donors. Despite stabilizing factors such as decentralization and financial continuity, fragmented oversight and reliance on donor funding remained significant concerns.DiscussionThe study highlights the complexities of vaccination governance in conflict-affected areas. Comparisons with other conflict zones underscore the importance of local organisations and international support. The SIG’s role is pivotal, but its legitimacy, transparency, and inclusivity require improvement. The potential transition to early recovery in Syria poses additional challenges to SIG’s sustainability and integration into national programs.ConclusionThe governance of vaccination in northwest Syria is multifaceted, involving multiple stakeholders and lacking a legitimate government. Enhancing transparency, local ownership, and participatory decision-making are crucial for improving governance. The role of international bodies is essential, emphasising the need for structured feedback mechanisms and transparent monitoring processes to ensure the program’s success and sustainability.

Qualitative Exploration of the #MeTooMedicine Online Discourse: "Holding Beacons of Light to Shine in the Corners They Are Hoping to Keep Dark".

The MeToo movement forced a social reckoning, spurring women in medicine to engage in the #MeTooMedicine online discourse. Given the risks of reporting sexual violence, discrimination, or harassment, it is important to understand how women in medicine use platforms like Twitter to publicly discuss their experiences. With such knowledge, the profession can use the public documentation of women in medicine for transformative change. Using reflexive thematic analysis, 7,983 tweets (posted between November 2017-January 2020) associated with #WomenInMedicine, #MeTooMedicine, and #TimesUpHC were systematically analyzed in 2020-2022, iteratively moving from describing their content, to identifying thematic patterns, to conceptualizing the purpose the tweets appeared to serve. The Twitter engagement of women in medicine was likened to "holding beacons of light to shine in the corners [harassers] are hoping to keep dark," both reinforcing the message that "gender bias is alive and well" and calling for a "complete transformation in how we approach" the problem. The tweets of women in medicine primarily seemed aimed at disrupting complacency; encouraging bystanders to become allies; challenging stereotypes about women in medicine; championing individual women leaders, peers, and trainees; and advocating for reporting mechanisms and policies to ensure safety and accountability across medical workplaces. Women in medicine appeared to use Twitter for a host of reasons: for amplification, peer support, advocacy, and seeking accountability. By sharing their experiences publicly, women in medicine seemed to make a persuasive argument that time is up, providing would-be allies with supporting evidence of sexual violence, discrimination, and harassment. Their tweets suggest a roadmap for what is needed to achieve gender equity, ensure that lack of awareness is no longer an excuse, and ask bystanders to grapple with why women's accounts continue to be overlooked, ignored, or dismissed and how they will support women moving forward.

The amplified effect of market size on innovation: A comparative analysis of pea and wheat seed value chains in France

CONTEXTDespite their interest for agro-ecological transition, grain legumes remain poorly cultivated in France. One reason is the low availability of seed innovations for farmers which, to a large extend, is related to the low incentives to innovate for these crops which represent a small acreage. OBJECTIVEIn this article, we analyze the link between market size and the efforts made to create, diffuse and value innovation. We compare two value chains related to two field crops in France that mainly differ in terms of market size, namely, pea and wheat. Our analysis focuses more specifically on the seed-related innovations created in the upstream part of these value chains. In both of these cases, innovation relies on multiple complementary activities carried out by different actors, including the creation of the innovation, the production and diffusion of technical knowledge, the production and distribution of the innovation, and its valorization by downstream users. METHODSThe two case studies on the pea and wheat sectors were conducted using a qualitative approach based on public documentation, 16 semistructured interviews with various actors in the innovation system of the two value chains and data on commercialized pea and wheat varieties. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONWe show that the level of investment in each of these activities is highly related to market size. This result is first explained by the fact that part (if not all) of the cost of these activities is fixed; that is, these activity costs do not depend on the diffusion of innovation. This result is also explained by the complementarity of these activities, which makes the investment in one activity less beneficial if the investment in complementary activities is low. As a consequence, the effect of market size on innovation is self-reinforcing in those cases where innovation relies on different activities managed by different actors. SIGNIFICANCEIn agricultural sectors, where there is a need for innovations in both large and small markets, this result calls for an evolution of innovation funding mechanisms to attenuate the impact of market size.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP CASE OF PROFESSORS

Objective: The paper aims to analyse the stages and problems involved in the creation of a technology-based university spin-off by providing a real case study. Theoretical Framework: The main concepts supporting the research are discussed, as well as the theoretical framework of reference. It addresses the stages of the process of setting up a university technology-based company, as well as the specific problems that it involves. All issues are presented in a real context. Method: The methodology adopted for this research is based on a case study for teaching application. To this end, information is gathered through observation, direct interviews with the company under study, public documentation, and theoretical review through scientific databases of impact. Results and Discussion: The results were reflected in the development of a university teaching activity with guidelines for the teachers coordinating its implementation, in terms of objectives and reference bibliographic material to be used. It was contextualised in the light of the theoretical framework, highlighting the implications, basically at the level of reinforcement and acquisition of competences. Research Implications: The paper has essentially practical implications, providing information that reinforces the existing scientific literature on how the decision-making process that leads to the setting up of a technology-based university spin-off takes place and the problems associated with it. This allows a vision that enables a more effective and efficient execution of the entrepreneurial decision. Originality/Value: This is a real case of application in the university classroom, which allows students to assimilate the issues related to the process of entrepreneurship and, specifically, to the setting up of a technology-based university spin-off, dealing with its specific problems. Students' skills are strengthened with a view to their incorporation into the world of professional life.

A trustworthy AI reality-check: the lack of transparency of artificial intelligence products in healthcare.

Trustworthy medical AI requires transparency about the development and testing of underlying algorithms to identify biases and communicate potential risks of harm. Abundant guidance exists on how to achieve transparency for medical AI products, but it is unclear whether publicly available information adequately informs about their risks. To assess this, we retrieved public documentation on the 14 available CE-certified AI-based radiology products of the II b risk category in the EU from vendor websites, scientific publications, and the European EUDAMED database. Using a self-designed survey, we reported on their development, validation, ethical considerations, and deployment caveats, according to trustworthy AI guidelines. We scored each question with either 0, 0.5, or 1, to rate if the required information was "unavailable", "partially available," or "fully available." The transparency of each product was calculated relative to all 55 questions. Transparency scores ranged from 6.4% to 60.9%, with a median of 29.1%. Major transparency gaps included missing documentation on training data, ethical considerations, and limitations for deployment. Ethical aspects like consent, safety monitoring, and GDPR-compliance were rarely documented. Furthermore, deployment caveats for different demographics and medical settings were scarce. In conclusion, public documentation of authorized medical AI products in Europe lacks sufficient public transparency to inform about safety and risks. We call on lawmakers and regulators to establish legally mandated requirements for public and substantive transparency to fulfill the promise of trustworthy AI for health.

A comparative study of national travel surveys in six European countries

ABSTRACT This paper aims to show how changes in survey design, supervision, and data collector affect travel survey data. The results can be used by policymakers and travel behaviour researchers when evaluating or choosing survey design. A document study of public documentation of national travel survey (NTS) methodology, and research using NTS data material from six European countries were conducted to compare the survey design of their respective NTSs. The results show that all countries included in this analysis have some sort of quality challenges. However, the countries have handled them differently, at different stages, and the transparency of the data collection process varies. Transparency in the data collection process and processing of data is essential for improving the survey design, evaluating quality, and ensuring that the time series is intact.

National Parks and Landscape Commodification: New Challenges for Nature-based Tourism in Patagonia

Summary Some of the most important tourism destinations in North Patagonia are located inside or adjacent to National Parks, especially around a circuit known as the Lakes Corridor that runs along the Andes through more than 600 km. Even though the main attractions are in the protected areas, accommodation and other services are provided in the towns or cities nearby. As a result of the intensification of tourism and recent inward migrations, the region has experienced urban growth and the emergence or increase of social disputes around land use, environmental issues, and local residential needs. In this case study, we analyze this process, focusing on destinations from the Lakes Corridor and paying special attention to the COVID-19 pandemic effects. The main objective is to understand the characteristics, actors involved, and tensions that emerge in urban development related to this specific kind of tourism based on the positive valorization of nature. This case study is part of an investigation regarding the configuration of tourist landscapes in North Patagonia. Methodologically, it involves the construction of data through observation and interviews, as well as qualitative analysis of different sources, like promotion material and public documentation regarding territorial planning. Information © The Author 2024

AN ANALYSIS OF HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILL QUESTIONS IN READING COMPREHENSION IN SCHOOL FINAL EXAMINATION IN BIMA

This study is aimed at finding out the distribution of higher order thinking skill questions, describing the specific cognitive processes demonstrated under HOTS questions, and finding out the portion of HOTS questions in two school examination packages in Bima. Content analysis was used to examine 86 reading comprehension test items in school final examination using Bloom’s taxonomy revised version. Qualitative data analysis was applied to the reading comprehension question items. Public documentation, indirect observation and a semi-structured interview were performed to collect the data. Data source were collected from reading comprehension test items and analysis card. In analyzing the data, qualitative analysis of Miles, Huberman, & Saldana (2014) model with three phases was applied. The findings indicated the distribution of higher order thinking skill questions are lower than lower order thinking skill questions. HOTS only obtain 6 out of 86 questions while the rest of questions are indicated as LOTS. Analyze skill has the highest distribution among HOTS skills: 4 questions, evaluate skill has 2 questions, while create skill is not found. On the contrary, the most used specific cognitive processes in the whole questions are interpreting and recognizing skill with the frequency of 18 questions, and differentiating and critiquing skills frequently appear in the test as the specific cognitive processes of HOTS questions

Legalization of Public Documents Through Apostille: A Legal Reform in Public Services

Indonesia is a country that has the objective of ensuring the welfare of its citizens. One effective way to achieve prosperity for its citizens is by implementing excellent public services, especially when it comes to the fulfillment of rights concerning the legalization of public documents. Therefore, this study is aimed to analyze the application of the Apostille convention in the legalization of public documents, and to investigate the changes in the law of public services related to the legalization of documents after the Apostille enactment. This legal study is categorized as a type of doctrinal analysis. Specifically, it is descriptive and analytical. Juridical and theoretical foundations were used for data analysis and the theoretical basis employed was the Theory of Legal Reform. The finding is consistent with the principles of the Legal Reform Theory. Legalization of public documents has undergone legal reform because legalization of public documents can be done online and in a short time. This shows that law, as a means of reform, has been realized because it has met the needs of society for the public. Despite the enhancement of public services, several aspects require careful consideration and improvement. This includes establishing effective cooperation with the Regional Office of Law and Human Rights, which acted as a liaison for Apostille services at the regional level. Additionally, the Regional Office of Law and Human Rights assume a pivotal role in overseeing the printing of certificates to ensure accessibility for the public.

GENERATIVE AI IN ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION: A QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION

Purpose- The purpose of this study is to explore the application and potential of generative artificial intelligence (AI) within the context of electricity distribution companies. The study aims to investigate how these advanced AI technologies, particularly Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), can address the sector's pressing challenges, such as load forecasting, power outage prediction, and preventive maintenance. Methodology- The study employs a qualitative case study methodology, providing an in-depth analysis of real-world applications of generative AI within electricity distribution companies. The selection of cases represents a wide variety of experiences and contexts, facilitated by both primary data collected through semi-structured interviews with key personnel within the organizations and secondary data derived from an extensive review of company reports, public documentation, and industry publications. The gathered data was systematically analyzed using thematic analysis to identify and report recurring patterns and themes. Findings- The analysis reveals that generative AI has been successfully implemented in various operational aspects of electricity distribution. The first case study presents how GANs have significantly improved load forecasting accuracy in an Eastern Turkish electricity distribution company. The second case study from Southern Turkey showcases how GANs have been used for predicting power outages, thereby aiding efficient resource allocation, reducing downtime, and enhancing customer satisfaction. Lastly, the third case from Northern Turkey demonstrates how generative AI has contributed to effective preventive maintenance of distribution equipment, improving overall system reliability. Conclusion- Based on the analysis findings, it may be concluded that generative AI holds transformative potential for the electricity distribution sector. While the implementation of these technologies is associated with challenges such as data privacy, security, and the requirement of technical expertise, the benefits in terms of improved accuracy, system reliability, and resource efficiency provide a strong justification for their adoption. The paper underlines the importance of an interdisciplinary collaboration between AI researchers, electrical engineers, industry professionals, and policymakers for furthering the adoption of these technologies. As the field of generative AI continues to evolve, it is expected to have an even greater impact on the electricity distribution sector, thereby opening up exciting opportunities for future research and application. Keywords: Generative artificial intelligence (ai), electricity distribution companies, generative adversarial networks (gans), load forecasting, outage prediction, preventive maintenance JEL Codes: M40, M41

Life stories interrupted: an exploration of United States obituaries during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 global pandemic drastically changed the lives of so many, including creating a sense of mass bereavement in the United States because of the million plus lives lost. As obituaries provide public documentation of personal legacies as well as serve to create a generational memory, this study sought to determine how obituaries, published in the United States during a public health crisis with excess deaths, discuss living and dying. We analysed 82 obituaries published in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic to determine their functions during this time. These U.S. obituaries documented how the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the life stories of so many. Several key themes emerged in the obituaries – cause of death, COVID-19 changing lives, resilience/positivity, political statements, and thanking healthcare workers. These COVID-19 obituaries shared many of the known functions of obituaries, but they also served as public service death announcements.

Horsehair weaving for sievewrights

This paper aims to discuss methods for reviving a craft – horsehair weaving – inspired by the concept of a moving searchlight approach and a forensic perspective. Isolated artefacts, tools, tools with ongoing processes and photographs, together with preserved documentation, have been analysed. Ongoing documentation on social media and a webpage were used during this process. Social media aimed to get people interested in the subject, test thoughts and maintain a dialogue. The webpage aimed to gather documentation demonstrating the horsehair weaving process and how the sievewright was made. The public documentation also aimed to inspire and engage other crafters. The public display of the ongoing project has been a positive learning experience. Different methods of documentation have different advantages.

Access to Public Documents and Its Restrictions: a Reflection from the Perspectives of Brazil and Sweden

Abstract The access to public documents is currently perceived as a human right among democratic nations worldwide. While Sweden has a long background of transparency in the core of the government, in Brazil the regulations concerning this matter are very recent. This article compares Swedish and Brazilian law regarding the right to information and its restrictions, particularly when in conflict with privacy and data protection. As a result of the utilization of objective criteria, the Brazilian regulation is considered better, mainly because it has a broader scope and provides for more promotional measures than the Swedish regulation. However, when analyzing the quality of the implementation of the regulations, it is suggested that in both jurisdictions there is still room for improvements in order to have a better balance between openness and secrecy.

Designing a Metascience Institute

This proposal outlines an open, transparent and collaborative process to design a Metascience Institute that would apply the scientific method onto itself, with the mission to improve the research landscape systemically in terms of maximizing societal benefit and public documentation thereof. This facility is envisaged to engage in the systematic study of the research ecosystem, initially at a national level in Germany but later on also in other contexts. As such, the Metascience Institute would assess systemic properties, interactions of different components within and beyond the research system and how the roles played by various components are aligned with goals of relevant stakeholder groups and broader societal benefits. Collaborating with any interested stakeholders on an initially narrow yet steadily expanding range of intra- and transdisciplinary use cases and using an appropriate mix of experimental, theoretical, empirical and computational approaches, the Metascience Institute would assess existing and proposed policies and practices in the research ecosystem and engage in public discourse around them, including by assessing the relative costs, benefits and side effects of alternative parametrizations of the system. The project proposed here is to design the organizational structure of such a Metascience Institute in an evidence-based and community-led fashion, to seed it with organizational values, to establish it as an independent legal entity with open and transparent policies and practices, to provide it with an initial technical infrastructure online, to design evidence-based and sustainable mechanisms by which it prioritizes its activities, and to document the entire process in a way that would facilitate reuse and adaptation by other communities or entities aiming at evidence-based systemic improvements to the research ecosystem or selected niches within it.

THE TERRITORIAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES AND IMPLEMENTED CROSS BORDER COOPERATION PROJECTS IN BIHOR COUNTY. AN ASSESSMENT OF THE 2007-2013 AND 2014-2020 PROGRAMMING PERIODS AND EXPLOITATION OF THE EU FUNDS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF TOURISM

Bihor County has remarkable and various tourism resources in the frontier area which could be exploited more efficiently considering the tourism development strategies on different hierarchical levels, opportunities for investments using non-refundable financial support and the multilateral trans-frontier relationships due to its territorial location and historical and ethnical background. This study gives an insight in the relationship and consistency of development strategies, in the importance and the territorial distribution of implemented projects within Interreg IV and V Hungarian-Romanian Cross-border Cooperation Programmes, that concern tourism development in Bihor. All projects regarding Bihor were categorized through content and comparative analysis based on public documentation of Interreg Programmes which contributed to establishing three main category of winner applications: tourism development projects, indirect tourism development projects and other type of projects. The county has an exceptional position due to its high share of the number of projects and the amount of gained aid within the examined programmes, although there exist multilateral territorial inequalities in the location of project partners, in the total amount of non-refundable financial support from European Regional Development Fund and in the gained aid per capita on the level of local governments of the county. Based on the territorial distribution, mostly the urban areas and their catchment rural settlements on the eastern, central and north-western part of the county benefitted from the Interreg VI and V in case of tourism development.

Some key documents on the ICRC's response to armed violence and more

The purpose of this section is to share, in a consolidated format, relevant and public documentation pertaining to the theme of armed violence and the ICRC's operational response to the phenomenon.

"Criminal" Law Politics Regarding the Legalization of Citizenship Documents (Apostille) in Indonesia

The legalization of citizenship documents is not only an administrative matter in countries whose administrative systems exist throughout the world. Philosophically, the purpose of legalization is to protect and create legal certainty for every user. Therefore it is necessary to analyze the political role of criminal law about the apostille and which citizenship documents are part of the apostille. Because Indonesia's international interaction policy resulted in the ratification of many national conventions, including the Congress on the Elimination of Legalization of Foreign Public Documents. The use of all documents is the right and obligation of each person to comply with all applicable regulations in different countries. The use of documents and their evidentiary system regulated in the Decree of the Minister of Law and Human Rights Number 6 of 2022 is a national policy that provides legal protection and certainty to all users and those who have the authority to legalize citizen documents. The practices offered are administrative and public (criminal) rights. The emergence of a criminal justice policy regarding the authentication of citizenship documents that applies in 121 countries is urgently needed to protect, for example, parties or bodies authorized to carry out authentication. One of the state institutions authorized to legalize civil documents is a notary. Based on the Notary Law, the position of Notary is called an official who has the authority to handle special requests from the public related to Notaries. It should be noted that documents that can be used both domestically and abroad must be legalized by 5 (five) authorities, namely the Document Authority, the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Consulate. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the destination country and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the destination country.

Connecting simple and precise P‐values to complex and ambiguous realities (includes rejoinder to comments on “Divergence vs. decision P‐values”)

AbstractMathematics is a limited component of solutions to real‐world problems, as it expresses only what is expected to be true if all our assumptions are correct, including implicit assumptions that are omnipresent and often incorrect. Statistical methods are rife with implicit assumptions whose violation can be life‐threatening when results from them are used to set policy. Among them are that there is human equipoise or unbiasedness in data generation, management, analysis, and reporting. These assumptions correspond to levels of cooperation, competence, neutrality, and integrity that are absent more often than we would like to believe. Given this harsh reality, we should ask what meaning, if any, we can assign to the P‐values, “statistical significance” declarations, “confidence” intervals, and posterior probabilities that are used to decide what and how to present (or spin) discussions of analyzed data. By themselves, P‐values and CI do not test any hypothesis, nor do they measure the significance of results or the confidence we should have in them. The sense otherwise is an ongoing cultural error perpetuated by large segments of the statistical and research community via misleading terminology. So‐called inferential statistics can only become contextually interpretable when derived explicitly from causal stories about the real data generator (such as randomization), and can only become reliable when those stories are based on valid and public documentation of the physical mechanisms that generated the data. Absent these assurances, traditional interpretations of statistical results become pernicious fictions that need to be replaced by far more circumspect descriptions of data and model relations.

Conceptual approaches in combating health inequity: A scoping review protocol.

What are the different ways in which health equity can be sought through policy and programs? Although there is a central focus on health equity in global and public health, we recognize that stakeholders can understand health equity as taking different approaches and that there is not a single conceptual approach. However, information on conceptual categories of actions to improve health equity and/or reduce health inequity is scarce. Therefore, this study asks the research question: "what conceptual approaches exist in striving for health equity and/or reducing health inequity?" with the aim of presenting a comprehensive overview of approaches. A scoping review will be undertaken following the PRISMA guidelines for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) and in consultation with a research librarian. Both the peer-reviewed and grey literatures will be searched using: Ovid MEDLINE, Scopus, PAIS Index (ProQuest), JSTOR, Canadian Public Documents Collection, the World Health Organization IRIS (Institutional Repository for Information Sharing), and supplemented by a Google Advanced Search. Screening will be conducted by two independent reviewers and data will be charted, coded, and narratively synthesized. We anticipate developing a foundational document compiling categories of approaches and discussing the nuances inherent in each conceptualization to promote clarified and united action.

Legislation on marketing of breast-milk substitutes in digital and social media: a scoping review

Innovative and continuously changing methods of digital marketing are routinely used to reach young women and their families with advertisements that normalise infant artificial feeding and undermine breastfeeding. Legislation and...