Changing Admission Patterns in Pediatric Emergency Departments during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy Were Due to Reductions in Inappropriate Accesses

During the initial phase of the national lockdown, we found that there were sharp decreases in admissions to two pediatric emergency departments (EDs) in northern Italy (Cremona and Novara). Here we present a detailed analysis of these admission patterns and types of admissions over a longer timeframe. ED admissions data were anonymously extracted from the departmental management software. Admissions data from 2019 and 2020 were analyzed and compared separately for each ED and combined. There was a 73.2% decrease in total admissions compared with the same period in 2019. With respect to admission diagnoses, there was a significant (p < 0.001) drop in infectious (−51%), respiratory (−25.5%), and nervous systems diseases (−50%) and injuries and poisoning (−17%) but not endocrine, metabolic, neoplastic, circulatory, or musculoskeletal diseases. White codes (patients with minor injuries for whom ED medical care is not required) significantly decreased by 56.3% (p < 0.001). Even if the COVID-19 pandemic represented an enormous healthcare burden in Italy, especially during the first months of the pandemic (late February to May), the workload of pediatric EDs was significantly reduced, especially for unnecessary accesses (white codes).

Problems and competence of police during enforcement of judgments related to imprisonment.

Today, a certain conflict in judicial practice, the current criminal procedural and criminal-executive legislation of Ukraine is the procedure for execution of court sentences related to imprisonment, from the moment they enter into force. At the legislative level, the limits of competence of the National Police officers remain unresolved after the receipt of such a sentence to any police unit and the procedure for their execution. When enforcing a court sentence, law enforcement officers have a number of problems that make it impossible to enforce it, or even inaction is formed on their part. As a result, these factors contribute to convicts evading punishment or committing other crimes at this time. To date, the legislator does not define the competence of the National Police and does not include in its responsibilities the execution of court decisions related to imprisonment. However, when deciding on the determination of the body that will execute such a decision, the judicial institution is guided only at its own discretion or by the materials of the criminal proceedings in which it will be adopted. To solve such problems, it is necessary to correctly determine the procedure for each body to perform its functions. Such decisions cannot be made by the heads of structural subdivisions alone, and therefore this leads to the solution of this problem at the level of departmental management with further amendments to the legislation governing the activities of their sectoral services.

SPECIAL FEATURES OF DEPARTMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN CLOSED CITIES OF RUSSIA

The article analyzes the development of the system of departmental management of closed cities in Russia in the period from the 1940s to the 2000s. For convenience, the temporary frames of the study are divided into three periods: the first dated 1945-1954, the second is 1954-1991, and the third period, which dates back to 1991, continues at the present stage and is relevant to the study to this day. At each of these periods, the main features of the system of departmental management of closed cities at the Federal, regional and municipal levels were highlighted. The analysis of the departmental management system is based on the normative legal acts issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR in the Soviet period, and the government of the Russian Federation in the post-Soviet period. The results of the work revealed a specific way to establish a departmental structure for managing closed cities, with a number of features characteristic of secret territories.

DEPARTMENTAL MANAGEMENT OF PROCUREMENT PROCESSES AS ECONOMIC SECURITY TOOL FOR BUDGETARY INSTITUTIONS

The article discusses organizational and methodical questions of departmental control of purchasing processes for ensuring economic security of budgetary institutions. On the basis of the carried-out analysis of special economic literature and practice of implementation of state procurements, according to the existing legislation, the system approach provides completeness of legal regulation, interrelation of all necessary stages and processes of purchases. As a result, there has been formed the unified information system in the sphere of purchases, which allows to automatically monitor the data published or unpublished by customers on the official portal of purchases and to compare these data for identification of discrepancies, such as a plan of purchases, scheduled plans, notices on carrying out purchases, protocols and reports on contracts. It contributes to further development of fair competition and anti-corruption by means of monitoring the market prices, ensuring transparency of activity of both customers and suppliers in the sphere of state procurements. Special attention is paid to the organization and methodical approaches of implementation of field and documentary departmental checks. In the exercise of departmental control over procurements there has been suggested to apply tabular forms of procurement data collection. There has been stated the need to develop domestic policy of ensuring economic security of business-processes and methodology of risks assessment at the level of the budgetary establishment, which will promote an increase in efficiency of both internal and departmental control.

Factor’s Persistence in Foreign and Indigenous Doctoral Research Completion: University Teachers’ Perception

The doctoral degree focuses on the training and application of research in a certain professional field instead of basic research to expand the knowledge of the field. Timely completion of a doctoral degree depends on many affecting factors. The study was aimed; to compare the persistence of factors between male and female and foreign and indigenous doctoral researchers. The research design of the study was qualitative in nature. 29 indigenous and 19 foreign interviews were conducted by the personal visit of the researcher. Collected data were analysed manually by thematic analysis. The findings of the study inferred that most of the foreign and indigenous had friendly relation with their supervisor. Most of the foreign respondents were highly satisfied with the departmental practices and policies whereas some of the indigenous respondents were not satisfied with the departmental practices and policies and the supervisor’s feedback. It was recommended that researchers may be devoted and honest towards doctoral research and departmental management may be cooperative with the doctoral research students.

Oman's labour force: an analysis of gender in management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the state of affairs in the Sultanate of Oman for the presence (or absence) of women in senior and managerial roles in private companies. The study also investigates where women are located within the organisations (e.g. as board members, chief officers, vice presidents, top management, division or unit heads). Design/methodology/approach – This is a quantitative study that analysed gender in the largest 122 private and publicly listed organisations in Oman. The study is based on data available from the Zawya database that tracks information about companies in the Middle East and North Africa region. Findings – Women are employed in Oman in small numbers when compared with the number of men. Women remain extremely underrepresented in senior roles in Omani organisations currently. Women are found slightly (but not significantly) more in departmental management roles (particularly in human resource management, marketing/communication, public relations, and project management) and in the transport and finance industries. Research limitations/implications – The Zawya database did not contain complete data on each company analysed. Hence, this is a descriptive study and lacked advanced statistical techniques for comparison and relationship analysis. Practical implications – This study increases the academic knowledge on international issues in gender and management. The study also provides insights for government leaders, educators, and scholars who work to help prepare women for leadership in this region. Originality/value – This is one of the first scholarly studies conducted on the presence of women in senior positions and management within Oman. It adds value as it is the first study to compare gender in management across roles, industrial classification, size of company, and ownership.

Internationalization of the State under US Hegemony: Building the Cold War Regime and Capturing Peasants, 1945–1975

A strong argument can be made that the Thai state has been highly internationalized for a very long time. This is in part a function of the breadth and depth of regional trade and migration networks in the pre-European colonial period, many of which integrally involved Thai dynasties (Reid 1988; 1993). David Wyatt argues that the Ayutthaya-based monarchies had a distinctly cosmopolitan flavour, incorporating substantial numbers of governmental representatives from a variety of Asian trading partners, and representation of foreign interests within the royal court continued into the Bangkok period as well (Wyatt 1984). Hans-Dieter Evers has gone so far as to declare the Bangkok-based Siamese dynasty founded in the late eighteenth century to be a fundamentally trade-based regime (Evers 1987). The importance of trade, in turn, strengthened the importance of foreign merchants and advisers within the royal court. The incursions of the British and other European powers into nineteenth-century Southeast Asia contributed to further internationalization of the Thai state, particularly after the signing of the Bowring Treaty in 1855. The reforms of the Thai state launched in this context led to not only a dramatic overhaul of the existing bureaucracy but to the employment of enormous numbers of European advisers. William Siffin, for example, notes that during Rama V’s reign (1868–1910) there were a total of 549 foreign officials who served in the Thai government, most of these serving after 1880. In 1909 alone, there were some 319 foreigners serving in the Thai government, including 6 general advisers, the general financial agent of the government, 21 legal advisers and assistants, 13 director-generals of departments or equivalent, 23 assistant director-generals, and 69 persons engaged in administrative work just below the level of the departmental management (Siffin 1966: 96–7). The role of these advisers in influencing Thai state policies and in representing the interests of metropolitan capital within Thailand has been extensively discussed elsewhere and need not be addressed here. Suffice it to say that their presence manifests the internationalization of capital, while their successful accommodation by Thai elites—who were able to collaborate with them in projects of mutual benefit—speaks to the ways in which the state became internationalized around shared transnational interests (Suehiro 1989; Chaiyan 1994; Thongchai 1994).