Public Foundations Research Articles

МЕТОДОЛОГІЯ ПРОВЕДЕННЯ ЗАНЯТЬ ЛІКАРІВ-ІНТЕРНІВ ЗА ТЕМАТИКОЮ «ВІЛ-ІНФЕКЦІЯ» НА ОСНОВІ ІНТЕРАКТИВНИХ МЕТОДІВ НАВЧАННЯ

Мета роботи – підвищення зацікавленості, задоволення процесом навчання лікарів-інтернів та покращення якості підготовки лікарів-спеціалістів.Основна частина. Запропонована нами модель інтерактивного навчання розроблена відповідно до типової програми підготовки лікарів-інтернів з інфекційних хвороб та включає в методологію проведення такі інтерактивні методи проведення занять, як і робота в малих групах; дискусія; проведення інтерв’ю; тренінг із використанням ділової та рольової гри; самостійне складання студентами опитувальника; екскурсія та робота в лабораторії; case-навчання. Модель складена на прикладі вивчення інтернами тем розділу навчальної типової програми, що стосуються ВІЛ-інфекції, яка є одною з найбільш актуальних проблем сучасної інфектології. Методологія включає лекції, практичні заняття, семінари та самостійну підготовку інтерна. Кількість годин у моделі розрахована для спеціальності “Інфекційні хвороби”. Запропоновані два етапи підготовки інтернів: вхідний та головний етап – виконання міжпрофесійного проекту. Вхідний етап виконання міжпрофесійного проекту включає лекції, проведення практичних занять з різними видами участі лікарів-інтернів (роботу в малих групах; дискусію в групі; тренінг із використанням рольової та ділової гри; підготовку інтернами запитань (опитувальник, підготовлений у групі) та проведення інтерв’ю з пацієнтами Центру боротьби та профілактики зі СНІД, аналіз отриманих відповідей; рольову та ділову гру: “лікар–пацієнт”; екскурсію в лабораторію; роботу в малих групах, “case studies”), самостійну роботу з нормативними документами з організації та проведення добровільного консультування і тестування.До головного етапу виконання завдань міжпрофесійного проекту залучені такі спеціалісти: фахівці соціальної медицини, СНІД-центру, медичний психолог, фтизіатр, невролог, онколог, дерматовенеролог, а також представник суспільного фонду “Дорога життя” – один із пацієнтів центру СНІД. Лікар-інтерн є активним учасником проекту та входить до складу команди. На цьому етапі вирішується ряд завдань, головним із яких є сумісна робота команди фахівців у наданні кваліфікованої допомоги пацієнтам з ВІЛ.Висновок. Інтерактивна методика навчання є найбільш актуальною в сучасних умовах викладання, які передбачають підготовку висококваліфікованих спеціалістів, здатних інтегрувати теоретичні знання і практичні уміння в цілісну систему, володіти новими технологіями.

FROM RESEARCH TO POLICY TO IMPLEMENTATION: THE CASE OF THE ISRAELI NATIONAL STRATEGIC PLAN TO ADDRESS ALZHEIMER'S AND OTHER TYPES OF DEMENTIA

In 2013, Israel developed and adopted a National Strategic Plan to Address Alzheimer's and Other Types of Dementia based on the work of a multidisciplinary group of experts from the Ministries of Health, Social Affairs, Senior Citizens, and the National Insurance Institute. In addition professional societies, the Israel Alzheimer's Association (EMDA), public foundations, the health funds, and non-governmental agencies, as well as members of academia were represented. The plan has 7 objectives: raising professional and public awareness of dementia, developing health services targeting people with dementia, developing social services, family and caregiver support, improving long term care institutional services, professional training, and research. The Ministry of Health is leading the Strategic Plan through an implementation committee including representatives of all stakeholders. Major initiatives and accomplishments to date include Three media campaigns that have increased public and professional awareness of dementia A “Dementia Friends” program in partnership with local municipalities and EMDA also to increase public awareness Financial support to the health funds to develop programs of primary care team training, and case management for people with dementia. Competitive financial support for acute and chronic care hospitals to develop programs that train professional staff; and identify, treat and discharge people with dementia using innovative care pathways. A national dementia registry is being built in cooperation with the health funds to provide a tool for policy development, planning, and research. Caregiver support and education have been a major focus with funding provided for different models of group and individual programs. The Israel National Strategic Plan to Address Alzheimer's and Other Types of Dementia has led to cooperation between governmental ministries and across public and private agencies. The major initiatives described have resulted in an increased awareness of dementia, not only among professionals and the public, but also among policy makers. Our goal is to continue to promote care for people with dementia and their families as a public health priority.

The Austrian philanthropic Innovation Foundation for Education

As part of a big education initiative, the Austrian government has introduced the Act on the Public Innovation Foundation for Education. This new public foundation represents an interesting possibility for philanthropic initiatives to gain public attention and to attract public and private funds. The Innovation Foundation for Education foundation may grant, even to foreign investors who found an Austrian charitable foundation, up to 30 per cent of the initial capital of such foundation.

The Materiality of Environmental and Social Shareholder Activism Who Cares?!

Is shareholder activism on environmental and social issues driven by a quest for shareholder value maximisation or do sponsors of environmental and social proposals use this channel to advance ulterior motives? I address this question from a new angle by using the industry-specific materiality standards by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) to classify the environmental and social proposals into financially material or immaterial for the target firm. Overall, the results indicate that a considerable amount of investor resources is spent on advancing immaterial environmental and social issues through shareholder activism. Based on a sample of 3,360 environmental and social proposals, I find that more than 56% of the submitted proposals focus on financially immaterial matters. While certain investors such as public pension funds, university and foundation endowments, religious institutions and specific asset managers are better at targeting financially material issues, the overall shareholder base does not seem to differentiate between the financial materiality, or otherwise, of a proposal. Material proposals neither receive greater vote support nor does the market react more positively to learning that a company has been targeted by a material proposal. Finally, my results suggest that companies are more likely to be targeted if they show past violations and concerns on material environmental and social issues.

Shared decision making as part of value based care: New U.S. policies challenge our readiness

Shared decision making in the United States is increasingly being recognized as part of value-based care. During the last decade, several state and federal initiatives have linked shared decision making with reimbursement and increased protection from litigation. Additionally, private and public foundations are increasingly funding studies to identify best practices for moving shared decision making from the research world into clinical practice. These shifts offer opportunities and challenges for ensuring effective implementation.

A Study on Stock of Small and Medium Sized Firms Contributed to Public Foundation

A Study on Stock of Small and Medium Sized Firms Contributed to Public Foundation

Allocation Efficiency of Public Foundation Education: Resource Optimization or Resource Waste?

This paper uses DEA-CCR model and Malmquist index to calculate the technology efficiency and total factor productivity level of provincial basic education in China from 2004 to 2012, to reveal the optimization and waste phenomenon of fiscal basic education. It gives rise to the measurement results as follows: firstly, less than half of provincial basic education resources configuration have been optimized; secondly, the basic education in central regions wastes more in terms of fiscal education expenses, capital construction funds, the number of teachers and fixed assets investment than the one in the western regions; thirdly, relative technology regress resulting from policy lag of basic education and the dissatisfaction of the quantity and quality of basic education supply with the needs of economic development, triggers the reduction in total factor productivity of basic education. It argues that when basic infrastructure level of education reaches a certain extent, fiscal funds improving basic education allocation efficiency should be more put into elements related to the quality of basic education, rather than quantity elements. It explores the reasons for resources waste from the perspectives of dynamic changes in technology efficiency and total factor productivity of basic education, points out current waste degree of financial resources, and provides a pre-policy guidance for the reasonable size of urbanized basic education supply costs afforded by local governments in the next stage.

External Governance of Non-Profit Organization—Reflections on the Auditing Guidance of Public Welfare Foundation

Nowadays, the society is increasingly concerned about the operation of the public welfare foundation. For third-party supervision as an important tool of external governance, the audit of the foundation should be targeted to reflect the implementation process and results of the fiduciary responsibility of the public welfare fund so as to meet the community’s open and transparent demand for charitable information, reshaping the credibility of charitable organizations. Improving the traditional audit model tailored, and auditing the foundation in whether it is responsible for its public fiduciary responsibility, from the donors’ point of view, the evaluation of the operation of the public welfare fund may be better able to meet the social’s need for charity accountability.

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS' ACTIVITIES ON THE FINANCIAL MARKET OF UKRAINE

Introduction. Institutional investors play an important role in the economy. They perform efficient redistribution of resources and reduce the risk in conditions of uncertainty, take a part in the transformation of savings-investment. Activity of institutional investors give the opportunity reduce the speculative component of the domestic financial market by means of giving to human instruments of pension fund scheme and accumulation of savings, that has an positive impact on level of the human wellbeing. Purpose - analysis of features of the activities of different types of institutional investors’ development in the domestic financial market and developing of proposals which are aimed at improving of the regulation of their activities. Results. The level of activity of institutional investors in Ukraine is still low because of the poorly developed system of attracting of household savings into the stock market, which is not ensured the flow of funds into the economy; institutional investors are not competitive in the stock market; pyramid investment scheme are appearing and conditions of the financial security is getting worse. Reducing the number of participants in the asset management asset management company in Ukraine continued in 2016. There were reducing of asset management companies as well as reducing of operative stocks in management and their investors, assets in the management reduced too. In general, results of the year 2016 were mostly positive for investors of Investment fund with public offering, including public foundations and diversified foundations which are oriented on the equity investments, because stock indexes rose mostly during the year. At the same time, unstable regulatory environment, including artificial narrowing of the stock market by administrative methods which prevented to develop activity of institutional investors more active. Conclusion. Development of activities of institutional investors is necessary process in the modern economy. State regulation which is aimed at stimulating of the involvement of public funds, improvement of the legal framework which regulate activities of institutional investors and provides access to a wider range of financial instruments must promote this. The main measures to regulate activity of institutional investors are using of the mandatory electronic document management for institutional investors; introducing amendments to reporting forms which are related investment activities of all types of institutional investors; legal termination of manipulation by price and improvement of legislation on the protection of investors' rights; improvement of tax regulation; creating of favorable conditions for attracting long-term investment resources; enhancing the role of professional self-regulatory organizations and rating agencies on the market of investments; introduction of asset management strategies into practice using the instruments of the derivatives market, if they are used to hedge financial risks; expanding the list of liquid capital markets instruments, including derivatives, in order to provide portfolio diversification and risk management of institutional investors; to ensure the implementation of legislation on the possibility to buy foreign securities by institutional investors; add demands to professionalism of risk managers in the organization of activity of institutional investors.

Professionalization and Cost Efficiency of Fundraising in Charitable Organizations: The Case of Charitable Foundations in China

This study examines the effects of professionalization on the cost efficiency of fundraising organizations in a unique research context, Chinese charitable foundations. Two important professionalization measures, professionalized human resource management and accounting practices, are adopted. Using data from audited annual reports from 2005 to 2009, we find that professionalization in general enables foundations to increase their fundraising cost efficiencies. However, further analysis indicates that this positive effect only occurs in private but not in public foundations. Furthermore, the positive effect of professionalization is more significant when raising unrestricted funds than when raising restricted funds from donors.

Genetic and Clinical Factors Associated With Chronic Postsurgical Pain After Hernia Repair, Hysterectomy, and Thoracotomy

This study was supported by grant 071210-2007 from Fundacio La Marato de TV3 (Catalan public television network marathon foundation, Barcelona, Spain).

The Fusion of Public Health into Kinesiology

The health-enhancing benefits of regular physical activity have been theorized for thousands of years. Within the past 25 years, public health agencies, health-related organizations, and health-focused foundations have recognized regular physical activity as a major factor in preventing premature morbidity and mortality. Colleges and universities have experienced a paradigm shift in applying public health strategies to prepare graduates in understanding how to reduce the impact of sedentary lifestyles on health outcomes. For nearly 20 years, some kinesiology departments have expanded from traditional curricula to new courses and degrees in promoting physical activity in the community, the application of epidemiology concepts to physical activity, and the study of policy and environmental approaches to promoting physical activity. Given the high prevalence of physical activity insufficient to prevent premature morbidity and mortality, continuing educational efforts are needed to assure kinesiology students have the skills and information needed to promote physical activity in communities to people of all ages and abilities.

Environmental Foundations in Germany

Foundations in Germany were examined in the context of environmental issues. Data from environmental foundations show that there is huge difference between private and public foundations concerning financial settings. Furthermore, environment is often not the only objective and sometimes not even processed. Our analysis shows that there are different types of foundations with regard to environmental scopes and activities. Although “attractive topics” such as biodiversity and landscape conservation seem to be more important to foundations, less visible topics such as pollution prevention remain merely a “blind spot.” Together, these findings suggest that there is only a limited potential of private foundations compared with public foundations. Nevertheless, there might be an impact on environmental awareness and local sustainability.

Stringham, Edward P. (ed): Anarchy, state, and public choice. New Thinking in Political Economy

This is an excellent book. Edward Stringham has collected a set of very helpful essays exploring the economics of bottom-up social organization—of anarchy. He includes a set of contributions originally made to two symposia in the early 1970s, generally critical of anarchy as a social ideal, linking most with contemporary rejoinders. “Public choice” figures in the title for at least two reasons. The founders of public choice economics, James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, were among the contributors to the original symposia, both expressing doubts about the viability of anarchy. And, ironically, a number of the authors of the newer essays in the volume, frequently students of Buchanan and Tullock, are doubtful that their mentors have taken with sufficient seriousness the implications of public choice theory for the merits of top-down social organization (though their arguments for anarchy do not depend narrowly on public choice foundations). For Winston Bush, anarchy would be characterized by predation. Jason Osborne’s response emphasizes that evolutionary game theory and experimental economics both point in a different direction. “Contingent cooperation” can reasonably be expected in anarchy (and, we might suppose, though this isn’t Osborne’s point, could be expected to lay the groundwork for more robust varieties of cooperative engagement). Government doesn’t emerge, in any case, as an obviously superior solution to nongovernmental order-maintenance mechanisms available in anarchy. Chris Coyne responds on several fronts to Gordon Tullock’s modified Hobbesian account of anarchy. Law, he emphasizes, can emerge without legislation—it can be customary or agreement-based. Social order can be provided on the market (reputational effects and the discipline of continuous dealing matter significantly here), and the state can’t, in turn, effectively remedy the very problems related to social order that Tullock believes require state-provided solutions: the state is not a cure for predation, but simply a particularly virulent instance of predation. Rev Austrian Econ (2015) 28:361–363 DOI 10.1007/s11138-014-0282-8

Promotion of Entrepreneurial Culture in Andalucia

Andalucía Emprende, develops a wide range of activities about entrepreneurship, this text shows some of them. This Public Foundation depends of the Government of Andalusia. The first part of the article talks about the tools that this entity provides regarding business incubation, protection and training companies are listed. The second part focuses on the building services to support entrepreneurs in the Educational system, from primary schools to university. Finally, the article gives information about the constitution of the “Aulas Andalucía Emprende”, for the development of start up, business training and research in collaboration with the Andalusian Public Universities.

12 Jahre Kompetenznetz Schizophrenie: Ergebnisse und Perspektiven

The German Research Network on Schizophrenia (GRNS) was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) from 1999 to 2011. The objectives and the structure of the network with its horizontal and vertical networking of German research and care facilities served for the scientific investigation of open research questions for schizophrenia, and the transfer of the results into clinical practice. In this paper, the functioning and results of the GRNS are described on the basis of selected research projects. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation parameters such as scientific publications and additional external funds, as well as promotion of young scientists, public relations activities, congress activities and foundation of an European Schizophrenia Association demonstrate the successful work of the network. As a final point, the funding programme of the BMBF is critically evaluated using the example of the GRNS and future funding prospects are outlined.

Why Bascom Palmer Eye Institute is a very special place

Born in Cuba, Eduardo C Alfonso grew up in Puerto Rico before moving to the USA to attend college. A board-certified ophthalmologist, Dr Alfonso joined the Bascom Palmer faculty in 1986 as Assistant Professor and became tenured Professor of Ophthalmology and the Edward W.D. Norton Professor in Ophthalmology in 1998. Dr Alfonso has served as director of Bascom Palmer since November 2007. As director, he oversees ophthalmology clinical facilities that perform over 290,000 patient visits and 20,000 surgeries a year and include the Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital, Jackson Memorial Hospital, the University of Miami Hospital, the Veterans Administration Hospital and outpatient facilities in Palm Beach Gardens, Plantation and Naples, Florida, USA. Dr Alfonso is an internationally known expert on ocular infectious diseases, and he is the medical director of Bascom Palmer Eye Institute's Ocular Microbiology Laboratory. His research interests include bacterial and fungal sensitivity. In 2006, he documented an increase in the incidence of an aggressive form of fungal corneal infection that was related to soft contact lens use. His findings drew considerable media attention throughout the world and significantly reduced the number of new infections. With a team of investigators from the University of Miami, he is spearheading ways to make rapid identification of sight-threatening eye infections. The National Eye Institute, public and private foundations and philanthropy have funded this research. Clinically, Dr Alfonso also specializes in corneal transplants, having performed over 1000 of these in adults and children, and he is developing clinical applications of keratoprosthesis, an artificial cornea, which has significant potential for patients awaiting transplants in developing nations where donor tissue is often scarce. Dr Alfonso received the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Honor Award in 1993 and Senior Achievement Award in 2003. He was named as CEO of the Year by South Florida Business Journal, and named one of the 100 most influential leaders in South Florida. He received the ORBIS International Medical Faculty Award in 2004. He was inducted into the American Ophthalmological Society in 2009 and the University of Miami Iron Arrow Society in 2010. Dr Alfonso and his wife, Molly, live in Key Biscayne, Florida. They have three children, two sons-in-law and four grandchildren. They enjoy the outdoors, exercise, boating and travel.

Labour market characteristics of Ukrainian employees with special regard to the North Great Plain region

National Employment Public Foundation founded our research to examine the employment characteristics and job market importance of Ukrainian citizens in Hungary in 2008. As the means of our investigation we analysed available statistical data and conducted a survey. Ukrainian citizens working in Hungary with valid work permit were questioned. 226 people were in the sample.
 Hungarian job market processes were not significantly affected by the officially employed Ukrainian citizens because their number was rather small in relation to the number of registered unemployed people and in relation to the available job positions. It can be stated that Ukrainian citizens mainly work in positions where high specialised knowledge is not a requirement.

The São Paulo Research Foundation, FAPESP

FAPESP (http://www.fapesp.br/en) is a public foundation, funded by the taxpayer in the State of Sao Paulo, with the mission to support research projects in higher education and research institutions, in all fields of knowledge. Sao Paulo has a population of forty million and generates 35% of Brazil’s GNP. The constitution of the State establishes that 1% of all state taxes belong to the foundation and the government transfers these funds monthly. The stability of the funding and the autonomy of the foundation allow for an efficient management of the resources that has had a sizable impact: while Sao Paulo has 22% of the Brazilian population and 30% of the scientists with a doctorate in the country, the state responds for 52% of the country’s scientific articles published in international journals. The foundation works in close contact with the scientific community: all proposals are peer reviewed with the help of area panels composed of active researchers. Besides funding research in all fields, the foundation supports large research programs in Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Global Climate Change, and in Neurosciences. FAPESP invested R$ 939 million (approximately US$ 660 million) in research projects in 2011. One third of this value goes into fellowships for graduate and undergraduate students. About 55% goes into exploratory academic research, mostly fundamental in nature. The remaining 10% is invested into application oriented research, in many cases performed in Small Businesses or in joint research performed by academia and industry. The percentage invested in applied research has been growing in recent years, consistently with the foundation’s mandate to foster the scientific and technological development in the State of Sao Paulo. FAPESP maintains cooperation agreements with national and international research funding agencies, higher educational and research institutions and business enterprises. The international cooperation covers a broad range of countries and agencies (http://www.fapesp.br/en/6812) including the UK Research Councils, the Agence Nationale de Recherche (ANR) in France, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in Germany, and NSF in the U.S. FAPESP offers many programs to support foreign scientists willing to work in research institutions in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. These include: post-doctoral fellowships (http://www.fapesp.br/en/5427), young investigator awards (http://www.fapesp.br/en/4479) and visiting researcher grants (http://www.fapesp.br/147).

Alternative Investment Funds

Alternative investments are rapidly becoming a common part of many diversified portfolios for tax exempt organizations, such as hospitals, universities, public and private foundations. These investments create a new level of risk- for unrelated business income, and penalties (both civil and criminal) and carry with them increased state reporting requirements and administrative cost. An alternative investment is an investment product other than traditional investments such as stocks, bonds or cash. Most alternative investment assets are held by institutional investors or accredited, high-net-worth individuals because of their complex nature, limited regulations and relative lack of liquidity.