Project description:BackgroundIn recent years, public health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola outbreaks, have occurred with increasing frequency worldwide, posing significant threats to global public health security. Policies serve as the foundation and institutional framework for effective emergency responses. Consequently, evaluating and optimizing the formulation and implementation of Public Health Emergency Response Policies (PHERPs) to enhance emergency response capacities has become an urgent and important research priority.MethodsThis study developed an evaluation system for PHERPs using content analysis of policy texts, expert consultations, and the PMC-Index model. It quantitatively analyzed 33 central-level PHERPs in China issued between 2003 and 2020.ResultsThe analysis revealed an average PMC-Index score of 6.43 for the 33 PHERPs. The PMC-Surface analysis highlighted that the top three scoring indicators were policy openness, policy structure, and policy area. In contrast, the lowest-scoring indicators were policy timeliness, issuing agency, and incentive measures.ConclusionsThe study demonstrates was generally good. However, significant variability was observed in the scores of individual indicators across different policies. These findings provide valuable insights into the strengths and weaknesses of PHERPs and offer a reference for optimizing policy design and implementation.
Project description:During the past decades, the traditional state monopoly in urban water management has been debated heavily, resulting in different forms and degrees of private sector involvement across the globe. Since the 1990s, China has also started experiments with new modes of urban water service management and governance in which the private sector is involved. It is premature to conclude whether the various forms of private sector involvement will successfully overcome the major problems (capital shortage, inefficient operation, and service quality) in China's water sector. But at the same time, private sector involvement in water provisioning and waste water treatments seems to have become mainstream in transitional China.
Project description:The formulation and implementation of a rural sports policy is an important means of promoting rural sports, improving the physical wellbeing of farmers, and enhancing the cohesion of rural communities. However, introducing such a policy faces problems in the process of specific policy practices, such as poor effective implementation, a lagging implementation effect, and goal cognitive bias. How to look at the current rural sports policy implementation blockage problem and the governance of the blockage, in order to improve the level of rural sports public service, is the focus of this paper's research. On this basis, this paper selects 56 policy texts, issued from 2002 to 2023, that are highly relevant to rural sports and have high timeliness and authority from the sports policies issued in China. Also, ROST CM6 software is used to count high-frequency words; this study then draws keyword social network mapping for the visual analysis of policy preferences and selects 20 rural sports policy texts as typical samples. Finally, a policy modeling research consistency (PMC) index model is used to evaluate the texts comprehensively and quantitatively. The results show that the overall design of China's rural sports policies is relatively reasonable. However, the consistency and effectiveness of their implementation need to be improved. Twenty representative policy texts have an average PMC index score of 5.96, with a concave index of 3.04 (which is good overall), with the highest mean value for rural sports policies at the national level. This is followed by the second highest value at the municipal and county levels, and the smallest at the provincial level. Therefore, in the future formulation and implementation of rural sports policies, a multi-dimensional rural sports policy system should be constructed. This would help to strengthen the consistency and effectiveness of the implementation of the policy system and promote the high-quality development of rural sports.
Project description:BackgroundTraditional Chinese medicine development policies (TCMDPs) are essential in improving the sustainable development of TCM undertakings, of which transmissions of policy information are closely related to the actual policy effectiveness. However, the inherent components of TCMDPs had not been explored from the structural dimension of policy design.MethodsBased on the policy modeling consistency (PMC) index model, we constructed a comprehensive evaluation system, including ten first-level and 40 second-level indicators, and focused on the TCMDPs released by the Chinese central government in the past 42 years (1980-2022) to conduct multi-dimensional inspections to TCMDPs by analyzing the overall policy quality, individual scoring performance, and indicators distribution characteristics.ResultsThis study pointed out that four policies were rated as "perfect," 35 were rated as "superb," 50 were rated as "excellent," 28 were rated as "good," and four were rated as "acceptable," with total mean values of the PMC index being 7.530 ± 0.835. Although most TCMDPs had appropriate policy structure and consistency, the potential weaknesses in the design of TCMDPs also needed our attention through careful checks on the outlier policy samples. Besides, the existing TCMDPs had room for improvement regarding policy areas, guarantees and incentives, objects included, and issuing agencies.ConclusionsWe emphasized that the policy evaluation method used in this current study, the PMC index model, is scarce in the TCMDPs. These findings are helpful for fully understanding the strengths and weaknesses of TCMDPs and provide theoretical references for further studies optimizing TCMDPs.
Project description:We quantify the impact of scientific grant funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on patenting by pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. Our paper makes two contributions. First, we use newly constructed bibliometric data to develop a method for flexibly linking specific grant expenditures to private-sector innovations. Second, we take advantage of idiosyncratic rigidities in the rules governing NIH peer review to generate exogenous variation in funding across research areas. Our results show that NIH funding spurs the development of private-sector patents: a $10 million boost in NIH funding leads to a net increase of 2.3 patents. Though valuing patents is difficult, we report a range of estimates for the private value of these patents using different approaches.
Project description:ObjectiveThe caesarean section rates have been rising in the developed world for over two decades. This study assessed the involvement of the public and private health sectors in this increase.DesignPopulation-based, retrospective cohort study.SettingPublic and private hospitals in Western Australia.ParticipantsIncluded in this study were 155 646 births to nulliparous women during 1996-2008.Main outcome measuresCaesarean section rates were calculated separately for four patient type groups defined according to mothers' funding source at the time of birth (public/private) and type of delivery hospital (public/private). The average annual per cent change (AAPC) for the caesarean section rates was calculated using joinpoint regression.ResultsOverall, there were 45 903 caesarean sections performed (29%) during the study period, 24 803 in-labour and 21 100 prelabour. Until 2005, the rate of caesarean deliveries increased most rapidly on average annually for private patients delivering in private hospitals (AAPC=6.5%) compared with public patients in public hospitals (AAPC=4.3%, p<0.0001). This increase could mostly be attributed to an increase in prelabour caesarean deliveries for this group of women and could not be explained by an increase in breech deliveries, placenta praevia or multiple pregnancies.ConclusionsOur results indicate that an increase in the prelabour caesarean delivery rate for private patients in private hospitals has been driving the increase in the caesarean section rate for nulliparous women since 1996. Future research with more detailed information on indication for the prelabour caesarean section is needed to understand the reasons for these findings.
Project description:This study aimed to compare the styles of leadership practices of female leaders in public and private Universities in Pakistan. In this study, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using a mixed-method approach. An adapted and developed questionnaire was used for quantitative data collection, whereas qualitative data were collected through a semi-structured interview schedule. A sample of 200 female leaders was selected for quantitative data collection, while 10 females from the said sample were selected for qualitative data collection through a simple random method. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS, whereas qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Based on the statistical results, this study discovered statistically significant differences in female transformational and transactional leadership styles and significant differences in job performance based on the university sector. This study discovered statistically insignificant differences based on the different positions of female leaders regarding transformational and transactional leadership, and job performance. Moreover, qualitative data revealed that female leaders clearly understood both leadership styles and how to improve job performance by practicing them. The originality of this study concerns the identification of the differences between leadership styles (transformational and transactional) practiced by female leaders of public and private Universities in Pakistan and explains female leaders' perceptions of the role of leadership styles in their job performance.
Project description:This study aims to differentiate between perceived quality culture (QC) and service quality (SQ) in public and private universities; and to examine the effect of QC on SQ in both types of universities, individually and collectively. This is a quantitative study in which data are collected from administrative and quality managers of randomly selected universities in Pakistan through face-to-face and online surveys. Of the 150 questionnaires distributed, a total of 111 questionnaires are received, of which 105 are valid, giving a response rate of 70%. The collected data are then analyzed by descriptive and causal research methods using SPSS-25 and PLS-SEM. The findings reveal significant differences in perceived QC and SQ between public and private universities; however, public universities scored higher on both variables than private universities. Furthermore, the results show the significant effect of QC on SQ individually and collectively in public and private universities; however, this relationship is stronger for private universities than for public universities. The findings of the study may help administrative and quality managers to improve SQ by cultivating QC in their respective universities, thereby improving organizational performance. This study extends theoretical knowledge by introducing QC as a predictor variable and then measuring SQ from a dual perspective (internal and external customers) in a university setting, which is less explored in the existing literature.
Project description:IntroductionSmoking remains a major health risk factor and China is the world's largest consumer of tobacco. Smoke-free policies in public places are a powerful weapon in tobacco control. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the association between smoke-free policies in public places and smoking cessation among smokers in China from 2012 to 2020.MethodsIn this study, we assessed the impact of smoke-free public places policies on smoking cessation situation among smokers aged 16 years and older. We do this by conducting a difference-in-differences analysis using data from the China Family Panel Study (CFPS) 2012-2020.FindingsBy 2020, about 60.2% of the cities were covered by partial smoke-free policies and about 38.5% by comprehensive smoke-free policies. Based on the results of the study, we found that the medium-term effect model (Model 2, 2012:2016; Model 3, 2012:2018) of the impact of partial smoke-free policies on smoking cessation was not statistically significant using 2012 as the study baseline; the short-term effect model (Model 1; 2012:2014; P< .01) and the long-term effect model (Model 4; 2012:2020; P< .05) were statistically significant; the effect of a comprehensive smoke-free policy on smoking cessation (Model 5; 2012:2020; P<.05) was statistically significant.ConclusionChina's existing comprehensive smoke-free policies have had a modest impact on smoking cessation among the smoking population, and a strong, comprehensive national smoke-free law is urgently needed to achieve greater public health outcomes.ImplicationsSmoke-free policies are an important intervention to influence smoking behavior. This study demonstrates that comprehensive smoke-free policies in public places in China can effectively influence smoking behavior and show long-term trends in smoke-free behavior, while also reflecting the need to promote comprehensive smoke-free policies. This study provides a basis for the implementation of comprehensive smokefree policies into law and also provides a basis for policy makers.
Project description:South Africa's expenditure on tuberculosis (TB) research and development (R&D) is insignificant relative to both its disease burden and the expenditure of some comparator countries with a minimal TB incidence. In 2010, the country had the second highest TB incidence rate in the world (796 per 100,000 population), and the third highest number of new TB cases (490,000 or 6% of the global total). Although it has a large TB treatment program (about $588 million per year), TB R&D funding is small both in absolute terms and relative to its total R&D expenditure. Given the risk and the high cost associated with drug discovery R&D, such neglect may make strategic sense. However in this analysis it is shown that TB R&D presents a unique opportunity to the national treasuries of all high-burden countries. Using two separate estimation methods (global justice and return on investment), it is concluded that most countries, including South Africa, are under-investing in TB R&D. Specific investment targets for a range of countries, particularly in areas of applied research, are developed. This work supports the outcome of the World Health Organization's Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and Development: Financing and Coordination, which has called for "a process leading to the negotiation of a binding agreement on R&D relevant to the health needs of developing countries".