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Article
Publication date: 30 June 2020

Lucas Lobo Latorre Fortes and Sandro Trindade Mordente Gonçalves

This paper aims to explore the limitations of the conformal finite difference time-domain method (C-FDTD or Dey–Mittra) when modeling perfect electric conducting (PEC) and…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the limitations of the conformal finite difference time-domain method (C-FDTD or Dey–Mittra) when modeling perfect electric conducting (PEC) and lossless dielectric curved surfaces in coarse meshes. The C-FDTD is a widely known approach to reduce error of curved surfaces in the FDTD method. However, its performance limitations are not broadly described in the literature, which are explored as a novelty in this paper.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper explores the C-FDTD method applied on field scattering simulations of two curved surfaces, a dielectric and a PEC sphere, through the frequency range from 0.8 to 10 GHz. For each sphere, the mesh was progressively impoverished to evaluate the accuracy drop and performance limitations of the C-FDTD with the mesh impoverishment, along with the wideband frequency range described.

Findings

This paper shows and quantifies the C-FDTD method’s accuracy drops as the mesh is impoverished, reducing C-FDTD’s performance. It is also shown how the performance drops differently according to the frequency of interest.

Practical implications

With this study, coarse meshes, with smaller execution time and reduced memory usage, can be further explored reliably accounting the desired accuracy, enabling a better trade-off between accuracy and computational effort.

Originality/value

This paper quantifies the limitations of the C-FDTD in coarse meshes in a wideband manner, which brings a broader and newer insight upon C-FDTD’s limitations in coarse meshes or relatively small objects in electromagnetic simulation.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering , vol. 39 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 June 2009

Phusit Prakongsai, Supon Limwattananon and Viroj Tangcharoensathien

Objective – This chapter assesses health equity achievements of the Thai health system before and after the introduction of the universal coverage (UC) policy. It examines five…

Abstract

Objective – This chapter assesses health equity achievements of the Thai health system before and after the introduction of the universal coverage (UC) policy. It examines five dimensions of equity: equity in financial contributions, the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure, the degree of impoverishment as a result of household out-of-pocket payments for health, equity in health service use and the incidence of public subsidies for health.

Methodology – The standard methods proposed by O’Donnell, van Doorslaer, and Wagstaff (2008b) were used to measure equity in financial contribution, healthcare utilization and public subsidies, and in assessing the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment. Two major national representative household survey datasets were used: Socio-Economic Surveys and Health and Welfare Surveys.

Findings – General tax was the most progressive source of finance in Thailand. Because this source dominates total financing, the overall outcome was progressive, with the rich contributing a greater share of their income than the poor. The low incidence of catastrophic health expenditure and impoverishment before UC was further reduced after UC. Use of healthcare and the distribution of government subsidies were both pro-poor: in particular, the functioning of primary healthcare (PHC) at the district level serves as a “pro-poor hub” in translating policy into practice and equity outcomes.

Policy implications – The Thai health financing reforms have been accompanied by nationwide extension of PHC coverage, mandatory rural health service by new graduates and systems redesign, especially the introduction of a contracting model and closed-ended provider payment methods. Together, these changes have led to a more equitable and more efficient health system. Institutional capacity to generate evidence and to translate it into policy decisions, effective implementation and comprehensive monitoring and evaluation are essential to successful system-level reforms.

Details

Innovations in Health System Finance in Developing and Transitional Economies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-664-5

Book part
Publication date: 4 June 2005

Yvonne A. Braun

This paper explores some gendered impacts of resettlement in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). Based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lesotho, Southern Africa…

Abstract

This paper explores some gendered impacts of resettlement in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). Based on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lesotho, Southern Africa, I use a feminist political ecology framework to analyze the ways host and settler communities negotiate development-induced resettlement and how resettlement conditions (re)produce gendered social interests in the context of the LHWP. While material losses are typically compensated during resettlement, the non-material, psycho-social aspects of loss do not get compensated. After resettlement, however, it is the unpaid, uncompensated community work of women that offers opportunities for adjustment into the new communities.

Details

Gender Realities: Local and Global
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-214-6

Executive summary
Publication date: 17 December 2020

RUSSIA: Food price caps cannot reverse impoverishment

Details

DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-ES258282

ISSN: 2633-304X

Keywords

Geographic
Topical
Book part
Publication date: 10 October 2017

Joseph Deutsch, Jacques Silber and Guanghua Wan

This chapter examines the impoverishment process in three South Caucasian states: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It uses the concept of ‘order of curtailment’ of consumption…

Abstract

This chapter examines the impoverishment process in three South Caucasian states: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It uses the concept of ‘order of curtailment’ of consumption expenditures to detect the order of curtailment of expenditures in the Caucasus region. It then suggests computing poverty rates on the basis of a threshold corresponding to the curtailment of a certain number of consumption expenditures categories and compares the poverty rates obtained with those derived from more traditional approaches to the unidimensional measurement of poverty. The empirical illustrations are based on the Caucasus Barometer surveys of 2009 and 2013.

Article
Publication date: 30 August 2010

Bayard Roberts, Pamela Abbott and Martin McKee

Although it is well recognised that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent widespread social and economic changes impacted on the levels and distribution of physical…

Abstract

Although it is well recognised that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent widespread social and economic changes impacted on the levels and distribution of physical health, there is very limited evidence on the social patterning of mental health in the countries that emerged. The aim of this paper is to assess levels of psychological distress and describe its demographic, social and economic correlates in eight former Soviet countries.Cross‐sectional surveys using multi‐stage random sampling were conducted in Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. A standardised questionnaire was used for all countries, including the main outcome for this study of psychological distress, which consisted of 12 items on symptoms of psychological distress. Respondents who repor ted 10‐12 of the symptoms were considered to have a high psychological distress score. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was then used to investigate how demographic, social and economic factors were associated with a high psychological distress score.High psychological distress in seven of the eight countries ranges from 3.8% in Kazakhstan to 10% in Ukraine but was substantially higher (21.7%) in Armenia. Factors associated with psychological distress in the multivariate analysis included: being female; increasing age; incomplete secondary education; being disabled; experiencing two or more stressful events in the past year; lack of trust in people; lack of personal suppor t in crisis; being unemployed; and poor household economic situation.The study contributes evidence on the association of impoverishment and social isolation on psychological distress in countries of the former Soviet Union and highlights the impor tance of exploring ways of improving mental health by addressing its social determinants.

Details

Journal of Public Mental Health, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5729

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2018

Yang Yu, Zhongjie Wang and Chengchao Lu

The purpose of this paper is to propose an extended Kalman particle filter (EPF) approach for dynamic state estimation of synchronous machine using the phasor measurement unit’s…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose an extended Kalman particle filter (EPF) approach for dynamic state estimation of synchronous machine using the phasor measurement unit’s measurements.

Design/methodology/approach

EPF combines the extended Kalman filter (EKF) with the particle filter (PF) to accurately estimate the dynamic states of synchronous machine. EKF is used to make particles of PF transfer to the likelihood distribution from the previous distribution. Therefore, the sample impoverishment in the implementation of PF is able to be avoided.

Findings

The proposed method is capable of estimating the dynamic states of synchronous machine with high accuracy. The real-time capability of this method is also acceptable.

Practical implications

The effectiveness of the proposed approach is tested on IEEE 30-bus system.

Originality/value

Introducing EKF into PF, EPF is proposed to estimate the dynamic states of synchronous machine. The accuracy of a dynamic state estimation is increased.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 37 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 March 2013

John Ele‐Ojo Ataguba, Hyacinth Eme Ichoku and William M. Fonta

The purpose of this paper is to compare the assessment of poverty/deprivation using different conceptions of this phenomenon including the traditional money‐metric measure and…

2238

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare the assessment of poverty/deprivation using different conceptions of this phenomenon including the traditional money‐metric measure and different forms of multidimensional constructs.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were drawn from a household survey conducted in Nsukka, Nigeria. Interviewer‐administered questionnaires were used in data collection from about 410 households across urban and rural localities. The counting and FGT methodologies were used to assess impoverishment, while regression analyses were used to assess the determinants of deprivation across different constructs.

Findings

Between 70 per cent and 78 per cent of the study population were identified as poor/deprived. However, more than 11 per cent of those living on less than USD1.25/day were classified as non‐poor using different measures of multidimensional poverty. Similarly, more than 62 per cent of individuals who live on more than 1.25USD/day (i.e. non‐poor) are classified as poor using different measures of multidimensional deprivation. There is some level of correlation between measures, some inevitably stronger than others. The major determinants of deprivation across the various constructs of deprivation include large family size, low level of education, poor employment, rural location, and poor health.

Originality/value

This paper uses novel datasets that incorporate variables relating to the capability approach in understanding deprivation. Specifically, it analyses the so‐called missing dimensions of poverty. It also applies a new methodology for the assessment of impoverishment and deprivation. It highlights the importance of the capability approach in explaining poverty.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 40 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 September 2021

Emanuela Chiodo

This paper has a dual purpose: on one side, it analyzes what types of solidarity and social relations are implemented as social support resources applied to actions aiming at the…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper has a dual purpose: on one side, it analyzes what types of solidarity and social relations are implemented as social support resources applied to actions aiming at the empowerment of children living in poverty. On the other, it investigates on the role of the community in the governance of local welfare practices and its ability to produce social innovations for municipal policies in favor of children and adolescents.

Design/methodology/approach

Proximity, flexibility, generativity and territoriality are just some of the features that – in the framework of the scientific debate – characterize the social work in areas of social disadvantage. In the framework of the debate, this paper presents a qualitative research on the social ties and educational practices promoted and implemented by nonprofit organizations that attempt to counteract educational poverty and social exclusion of children and adolescents in the eastern peripheral neighborhoods of Naples, one of the poorest cities in the South of Italy.

Findings

The results of the analysis reveal a capacitating and generative role of the actions applied to social and educational practices for children and adolescents and their families in poor neighborhoods and peripheral areas; a role that is, however, also useful for community social policies targeting children and adolescents. Among local welfare policies enhancing community resources, such practices have indeed become an active resource of subsidiarity; they also ensure wider rights and empowerment for children and adolescents who live in poor communities and for their families as well.

Originality/value

More recent studies focusing on the role of social ties in deprived context and impoverishment processes, demonstrated that nonprofit organizations operate as crucial actors fostering inclusion and social cohesion, by means of “elective participation”; this guarantees access to protection and recognition resources that are an integral part of the social support these organizations provide in their areas of intervention. Despite the wide debate on the key role of the Third Sector in territorial welfare policies, further empirical studies on the role of these organizations in poor neighborhoods of the cities of the south of Italy are necessary. The value of this article is an attempt to provide to bridge this gap.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 42 no. 9/10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 November 2012

Ramona Lall

This chapter provides a brief overview of our understanding of major public health challenges and environmental concerns in Karakalpakstan today, and highlights questions that…

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief overview of our understanding of major public health challenges and environmental concerns in Karakalpakstan today, and highlights questions that still remain unanswered. As seen in the case of Muynak, the fishing town on the southern edge of the former Aral Sea, ecological disasters do not happen alone – they spur socioeconomic disasters that only heighten the health disasters. The loss of the sea, the loss of local livelihoods, and mass out-migration of the population, along with economic depression following the collapse of the Soviet Union, have adversely affected the community living in Muynak. They face major public health challenges, such as tuberculosis, multidrug resistant tuberculosis, and anemia as a result of their impoverishment. The desiccation of the Aral Sea is but one of the many disasters linked to intensive cotton cultivation in Uzbekistan. Pesticide contamination and the salinization of drinking water in Karakalpakstan are yet other environmental disasters that further threaten the health of the population and of future generations. Currently, there is an urgent need for greater international involvement and collaboration with Uzbeks to reverse the poor public health trends and to study the extent of environmental contamination in communities across Karakalpakstan, in order to reduce the health threats presented by these.

Details

Disaster by Design: The Aral Sea and its Lessons for Sustainability
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-376-6

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