This project aims to upgrade Lebanon's economic analytical capacity by focusing on key economic and social issues and empowering public officials. It will operate on two tracks: providing economic analysis skills training to officials and tackling important reform areas. The project will focus on promoting economic stability by addressing inflation and securing social security for the elderly through pension reform. It will last two years with a budget of $240,360 USD. Officials will be split into two working groups to produce analytical materials and policy responses on these issues. The first group will work to establish robust inflation measures. The second will analyze Lebanon's pension system and propose a universal non-contributory pension and healthcare system for the elderly.
Embedding Gender Budgeting - Tackmeon YI (Korea)OECD Governance
Presentation given at the OECD Gender Budgeting Experts Meeting, Vienna, Austria. 18-19 June 2018
For more information see http://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/gender-budgeting-experts-meeting-2018.htm
This presentation was made by Amanella Arevalo, Philippines, at the 12th Annual Meeting of OECD-Asian Senior Budget Officials held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 15-16 December 2016
The Best Practices are designed as a reference tool for Member and non-member countries to use in order to increase the degree of budget transparency in their respective countries. The Best Practices are organised around specific reports for presentational reasons only.
It is recognised that different countries will have different reporting regimes and may have different areas of emphasis for transparency. The Best Practices are based on different Member countries’ experiences in each area. It should be stressed that the Best Practices are not meant to constitute a formal “standard” for budget transparency.
http://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/
The four dimensions of public financial managementicgfmconference
In two relatively short articles, Michael Parry first proposes a definition of the modified cash basis of accounting and then describes the four dimensions of public financial management. We welcome this approach of relatively short articles addressing key issues in governmental financial management and would encourage other authors to follow Michael’s example in future issues.
Embedding Gender Budgeting - Tackmeon YI (Korea)OECD Governance
Presentation given at the OECD Gender Budgeting Experts Meeting, Vienna, Austria. 18-19 June 2018
For more information see http://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/gender-budgeting-experts-meeting-2018.htm
This presentation was made by Amanella Arevalo, Philippines, at the 12th Annual Meeting of OECD-Asian Senior Budget Officials held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 15-16 December 2016
The Best Practices are designed as a reference tool for Member and non-member countries to use in order to increase the degree of budget transparency in their respective countries. The Best Practices are organised around specific reports for presentational reasons only.
It is recognised that different countries will have different reporting regimes and may have different areas of emphasis for transparency. The Best Practices are based on different Member countries’ experiences in each area. It should be stressed that the Best Practices are not meant to constitute a formal “standard” for budget transparency.
http://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/
The four dimensions of public financial managementicgfmconference
In two relatively short articles, Michael Parry first proposes a definition of the modified cash basis of accounting and then describes the four dimensions of public financial management. We welcome this approach of relatively short articles addressing key issues in governmental financial management and would encourage other authors to follow Michael’s example in future issues.
This presentation was made byIgor YAREMENKO, Ministry of Finance, Russian Federation, at the 15th Annual Meeting of OECD-CESEE Senior Budget Officials held in Minsk, Belarus, on 4-5 July 2019
Presentation given by D. Ivarsson, M. Lemke, K. Paabusk
at the SIGMA Bilateral Event on the Principles of Public Administration and their use for public administration reform in Azerbaijan. This event was hosted by Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication of Azerbaijan on 24 November 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Profile of Bicol Sucs: Basis for Policy RecommendationIJRTEMJOURNAL
This descriptive research is all about the profile of SUCs in Bicol Region, Philippines in terms
of budget, program offerings, enrolment, and faculty and non-teaching personnel. The data were sourced from
the 2016 budget preparation for SUCs in Region V through documentary analysis. Said document was utilized
and analyzed vis-à-vis compared to each SUC operating in Bicol Region for the purpose of improving its
mandate and service delivery towards providing quality education for Bicolanos. Results of analysis revealed
that the national government increased the capital investment to Bicol SUCs. There are nine SUCs in Region
V composed of four state universities and five state colleges. These SUCs have varying amounts of budget
which offer 293 curricular programs, 89 programs in the graduate school and 204 programs in the
undergraduate and accepted a total of 75,257 enrollees for SY 2016-2017. The Bicol SUCs are embarking on
3,201 faculty and personnel to deliver the needed quality service required to answer the demand of the labor
market. With these findings, the study recommends that existing policies of the SUCs be made common so that
quality output would become a standard mantra towards improving quality and excellence.
Effect of Fiscal Responsibility Act on Budgeting and Accountability Practice ...ijtsrd
This study examines the effect of the Fiscal Responsibility Act on budgeting and accountability practice in Nigeria's Fourth Republic. Specifically, the study determines the relationship between the pre and post effect of the Reform Act to ascertain if there is any significant difference in the management of the nation's fiscal operations. The study made use of secondary data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Reports and Accounts, the Central Bank Nigeria Statistical Bulletins and report of the Accountant General of the Federation as audited by the Auditor General of the Federation for the period under study. Six research questions and seven hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The data generated for this study were presented in tables, graphs and mean scores and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22. The hypotheses were tested using the T test of difference and the Pearson Correlation r . Results revealed among others that the number of months of default on the publication of Federal Government Audited Accounts was reduced in the post Fiscal Responsibility Act era. Again, there is a significant negative trend in the mean corruption index after the introduction of the Act and that actual capital expenditure is more closely related to capital expenditure budget in the post than pre Fiscal Responsibility Act period. Based on the findings, we recommended that budgeting and accountability practice should be made more proactive by imbibing the culture of timely auditing and reporting standards as stated in sections 49 and 50 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007. Okegbe, T. O. "Effect of Fiscal Responsibility Act on Budgeting and Accountability Practice in Nigeria" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-5 , August 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd26639.pdfPaper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/accounting-and-finance/26639/effect-of-fiscal-responsibility-act-on-budgeting-and-accountability-practice-in-nigeria/okegbe-t-o
2009 04 01 Towards Evidence Based Public Administration Reform In Viet Namicgfmconference
Public Financial Management: Towards Evidence-Based Public Administration Reform in Viet Nam, 1 April, 2009
Dr. Clay G. Wescott, Director, Asia-Pacific Governance Institute, Washington DC
Nguyen Huu Hieu, Chief Operating Officer/Chief Technology Officer in StoxPlus, Ha Noi
Vu Quynh Huong Deputy Chief, Public Finance Research Division, Institute of Financial Science, Ministry of Finance, Ha Noi.
Presentation given at the OECD Gender Budgeting Experts Meeting, Vienna, Austria. 18-19 June 2018
For more information see http://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/gender-budgeting-experts-meeting-2018.htm
This presentation was made byIgor YAREMENKO, Ministry of Finance, Russian Federation, at the 15th Annual Meeting of OECD-CESEE Senior Budget Officials held in Minsk, Belarus, on 4-5 July 2019
Presentation given by D. Ivarsson, M. Lemke, K. Paabusk
at the SIGMA Bilateral Event on the Principles of Public Administration and their use for public administration reform in Azerbaijan. This event was hosted by Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication of Azerbaijan on 24 November 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Profile of Bicol Sucs: Basis for Policy RecommendationIJRTEMJOURNAL
This descriptive research is all about the profile of SUCs in Bicol Region, Philippines in terms
of budget, program offerings, enrolment, and faculty and non-teaching personnel. The data were sourced from
the 2016 budget preparation for SUCs in Region V through documentary analysis. Said document was utilized
and analyzed vis-à-vis compared to each SUC operating in Bicol Region for the purpose of improving its
mandate and service delivery towards providing quality education for Bicolanos. Results of analysis revealed
that the national government increased the capital investment to Bicol SUCs. There are nine SUCs in Region
V composed of four state universities and five state colleges. These SUCs have varying amounts of budget
which offer 293 curricular programs, 89 programs in the graduate school and 204 programs in the
undergraduate and accepted a total of 75,257 enrollees for SY 2016-2017. The Bicol SUCs are embarking on
3,201 faculty and personnel to deliver the needed quality service required to answer the demand of the labor
market. With these findings, the study recommends that existing policies of the SUCs be made common so that
quality output would become a standard mantra towards improving quality and excellence.
Effect of Fiscal Responsibility Act on Budgeting and Accountability Practice ...ijtsrd
This study examines the effect of the Fiscal Responsibility Act on budgeting and accountability practice in Nigeria's Fourth Republic. Specifically, the study determines the relationship between the pre and post effect of the Reform Act to ascertain if there is any significant difference in the management of the nation's fiscal operations. The study made use of secondary data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Reports and Accounts, the Central Bank Nigeria Statistical Bulletins and report of the Accountant General of the Federation as audited by the Auditor General of the Federation for the period under study. Six research questions and seven hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The data generated for this study were presented in tables, graphs and mean scores and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22. The hypotheses were tested using the T test of difference and the Pearson Correlation r . Results revealed among others that the number of months of default on the publication of Federal Government Audited Accounts was reduced in the post Fiscal Responsibility Act era. Again, there is a significant negative trend in the mean corruption index after the introduction of the Act and that actual capital expenditure is more closely related to capital expenditure budget in the post than pre Fiscal Responsibility Act period. Based on the findings, we recommended that budgeting and accountability practice should be made more proactive by imbibing the culture of timely auditing and reporting standards as stated in sections 49 and 50 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007. Okegbe, T. O. "Effect of Fiscal Responsibility Act on Budgeting and Accountability Practice in Nigeria" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-5 , August 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd26639.pdfPaper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/accounting-and-finance/26639/effect-of-fiscal-responsibility-act-on-budgeting-and-accountability-practice-in-nigeria/okegbe-t-o
2009 04 01 Towards Evidence Based Public Administration Reform In Viet Namicgfmconference
Public Financial Management: Towards Evidence-Based Public Administration Reform in Viet Nam, 1 April, 2009
Dr. Clay G. Wescott, Director, Asia-Pacific Governance Institute, Washington DC
Nguyen Huu Hieu, Chief Operating Officer/Chief Technology Officer in StoxPlus, Ha Noi
Vu Quynh Huong Deputy Chief, Public Finance Research Division, Institute of Financial Science, Ministry of Finance, Ha Noi.
Presentation given at the OECD Gender Budgeting Experts Meeting, Vienna, Austria. 18-19 June 2018
For more information see http://www.oecd.org/gov/budgeting/gender-budgeting-experts-meeting-2018.htm
Presentation by Dr. Alban Thomas at LEA's conference.
For more information about the project, visit: http://leb-econ.org/site/upgrading-lebanons-economic-analytical-capacity/
Public Sector Intangibles: The SPINTAN ProjectSPINTAN
Paper by Matilde Mas on the SPINTAN Project presented in the 10th World Conference on Intellectual Capital for Communities, University Paris-Sud, June 5th and 6th 2014
Budget for Outcomes - Stefan Kiss, Slovak RepublicOECD Governance
This presentation was made by Stefan Kiss, Slovak Republic, at the 40th Annual Meeting of OECD Senior Budget Officials (SBO) held in Tallinn, Estonia, on 5-6 June 2019
OECD - Fiscal Network Work Programme (Item5)OECDtax
Presentation delivered during the 13th Annual Meeting of the OECD Network on Fiscal Relations Across Levels of Government, 23-24 November 2017, Paris, France.
Budget is a financial and non-financial framework in terms of cash flows that guides governments, private organizations and individuals in achieving their desired objectives in a particular period if it is properly, adequately and realistically prepared. The long standing and familiar incremental budget has been faulted by various stakeholders hence, the contemplation for an alternative system known as zero-based budgeting (ZBB). The first objective of this study is to find out whether or not the theoretical benefits accruable to ZBB can motivate the governments’ ministries, departments and agencies to adopt and implement the proposed new system? The second objective is to determine whether or not the budgeting system has any relationship with budget implementation. Questionnaire was used in collecting data from the budget stakeholders. Descriptive statistics and simple regression were adopted in analyzing the data. It is established that the theoretical benefits accruable to ZBB can influence the adoption and implementation of the proposed ZBB. It is also revealed that the proposed budgeting system has a strong relationship with implementation. The study recommends that, despite the support for the ZBB, the current incremental budgeting system would have to be reviewed for reference into adopting and implementing the ZBB since it will be the basis for the new system. It is also recommended that the coming into operation of the new system should be a gradual process in the form of test running it to address the acknowledged challenges in the proposed system before it can be fully implemented. In addition, there should be seriousness in the whole exercise.
China also takes an active part in launching South-South cooperation by providing assistance to other developing countries and aiding developing countries, especially the least developed countries to eliminate poverty. Over the past 60 years, China has offered nearly 400 billion yuan ($58.27 billion) and dispatched more than 600,000 aid personnel to 166 countries and international organizations, statistics indicated. Other countries will look forward to the policy taken by the global leader and expect some benefit of right decisions.
Performance budgeting & measurement systems - Anne-Gisèle Privat & David Bern...OECD Governance
This presentation was made by Anne-Gisèle Privat & David Bernstein, France, at the 7th meeting of the Joint OECD DELSA/GOV Network on Fiscal Sustainability of Health Systems held at the OECD Conference Centre, Paris, on 14-15 February 2019
Climate change is one of the most complex issues facing business, governments, and society at large. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2014 synthesis report notes that “each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850.”1 Independent analyses by both NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that 2015 was the hottest year on record by a wide margin, and that 15 of the 16 warmest years on record have come in the 21st century.2 The large-scale and long-term nature of the problem makes it uniquely challenging, especially in the context of long-term economic decisions. Moreover, our current understanding of the potential financial risks posed by climate change—to companies, investors, and the financial system as a whole—is still at an early stage.
Considerable global agreement has emerged regarding the threats posed by climate change, as evidenced by the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (“COP21”) held in Paris, where nearly 200 governments agreed to curb carbon emissions and limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
There is also increasing agreement in the business and financial communities that some degree of climate change is inevitable, and that its impacts, both physical and nonphysical, may present material risks and opportunities that span both adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the runup to COP21, 350 investors representing more than US$24 trillion in assets under management called on world leaders to forge a meaningful and ambitious climate agreement, in recognition of the risks that climate change presents to their investments.3 The Montreal Carbon Pledge,4 with 120 investors representing over US$10 trillion in assets, commits investors to undertaking and disclosing the carbon footprint of their investment portfolios. And, the CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) signatories—with more than 822 institutional investors representing over US$95 trillion in assets—asked companies worldwide to disclose their carbon emissions and how they are managing climate-change issues.
These efforts reflect a growing demand for decision-useful climate-related information by a range of participants in the financial markets. Creditors and investors today are more sensitive to complex or opaque financial disclosures, and increasingly demand better access to risk information that is consistent, comparable, reliable, clear, and efficient.
In December 2015 the FSB launched the industry-led Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The Task Force will develop a set of recommendations for consistent, comparable, reliable, clear and efficient climate-related disclosures by companies, as requested in the FSB’s proposal. This phase 1 report published by the TCFD on 1 April 2016 sets out recommendations on the scope and principles to be applied to the final recommendations and provides a review of the landscape of existing climate-related disclosures.
The report notes that the Task Force will focus primarily on developing recommendations for issuers of public securities, listed companies, and key financial-sector participants, although it is expected that it will be possible for the recommendations to apply more broadly. The Task Force will seek to promote and drive voluntary adoption by ensuring that its recommendations reflect a consensus view of leading practices for disclosure; advance principles of good governance, fiduciary duty, and stewardship; and provide a basis for consistent and comparable application by firms in countries throughout the G20.
The report concludes that climate-related disclosure remains fragmented and incomplete, with only a limited number of reporting regimes focusing on the financial risks posed by climate-related risks. In general, existing laws and regulations already require disclosure of climate-related risk in financial filings if it is deemed material.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and Grafana
Summary lea idrc project
1. 1
Upgrading Lebanon’s Economic Analytical Capacity
Funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
Project Summary Document
Summary: The project aims to upgrade Lebanon’s economic analytical capacity, by focusing on key economic
and social issues currently facing the Lebanese society. The project will empower key public officials with the
necessary skills and tools to actively engage in tackling these issues, and contribute to putting these issues at the
center of the public policy debate scene. The project will focus on two key public policy issues which have been
identified as central to achieving the general long-term goals of the project. These include promoting economic
stability by tackling inflation; and securing social security and medical care for the elderly through pension
reform.
Project Duration: Two years
Budget: 240,360 USD
The project will operate on two parallel tracks: first, it aims to provide a set of necessary economic analysis skills
to a group of public sector officials. Second, the project aims to tackle some important reform fields that have
been sidelined by the Paris III program, by engaging the governmental team in the process of formulating a
policy response to these challenges.
Involving neither conventional studies nor conventional teaching, but elements of both, the methodology
involves first delivering courses to a selected group of civil servants (12 persons). After an initial
familiarization with theoretical concepts and working tools for analysis and forecasting, the civil servants will
be split into two working thematic groups of 6 persons each, and members of each team would start
producing analytical material on key issues under the joint control of their colleagues in the working
groups and technical assistance of LEA’s team of academic experts and field professionals. The project will
also include 2 retreats where civil servants and the project team will discuss progress on the activities. An
important element of networking and relationship building will be promoted during these retreats.
The proposed initiatives under this project therefore include:
1. Understanding inflation and revising national price data: Lebanon is a small dependent economy
with extreme vulnerability to external price shocks; yet no inflation targeting policy or good knowledge
2. 2
on price evolutions is available1
. The Central Administration of Statistics (CAS) is the principal national
institution responsible for measuring inflation. The CAS relies on the Consumer Price Index (CPI),
which has been tracking the price of consumer goods since December 1998. Although the CPI uses
correct statistical and scientific methods, its measurements suffer from severe technical problems as well
as an acute shortage of human and material resources, which has a negative effect upon the quality of the
statistics that it issues. Other sources like the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MoET) has issued an
index of the prices of a consumer food basket, however, their index also suffers of many shortcomings. It
is also important to note that the IMF uses neither one of these figures in its inflation data which relies
solely on the Central Bank and IMF staff.
The IMF's 2009 Article IV Consultations report states that Lebanon's statistics on GDP and consumer
price index have been significantly improved in the last two years, but cautioned that "data
insufficiencies still hamper the analysis of real and external sector developments" (p. 25). The IMF
called for the implementation of a comprehensive overhaul of the statistical system. The CAS "still does
not have the capacity to produce national accounts statistics in line with accepted international
standards" (Annex III, p. 7). One of this project’s objectives is to build on these recent advances to
construct a more comprehensive and robust inflation indicator for Lebanon.
Working Group 1: Price Monitoring
Objectives
The objectives of the Working Group are:
a) To undertake a critical revision of available price information in Lebanon, including public, private
and international sources of information;
b) To establish new price statistics from available data, when feasible, such as export-import price
indices, real-estate price indices, and producer price indices;
c) To develop a framework for price statistics to explain the links between various price indices and
between price indices and other relevant economic statistics.
Composition
The working group will be comprised of (6) representatives from the following organizations (mid and
senior level civil servants):
- CAS: 1 person
- MoET: 2 persons
- MoF: 2 persons
- BdL: 1 person
The group will have (1) national expert in econometrics and statistics as its coordinator, and will benefit
from the expertise of (1) international expert in the field.
Outputs
The outputs of the Working Group will consist of the development of:
1) Analytical report on inflation measurement in Lebanon, containing:
a. A general introduction to the theory of indices
1
See Chaaban, Jad “Doing the Sums: A new approach to calculating inflation in Lebanon”, Lebanon Opportunities, March
2008.
3. 3
b. Conceptual and operational issues in inflation indices construction (such as sampling,
collection methodology, compilation, organization and computation and dissemination of
data)
c. Survey of available price statistics in Lebanon, with consistency and validity checks
d. Proposal for new price indices: export-import price indices, real-estate price indices, and
producer price indices
2) National Price Monitoring Newsletter, to be published on a monthly basis as of the second year
of the project, and which includes:
a. Information about the various price indices used
b. Trends in the evolution of prices, with explanations provided as needed
c. Expected impacts of price movements on other economic indicators in Lebanon.
The working group will study during the project’s phase how to make sure that the publication of the
newsletter is sustainable beyond the project’s end date, by exploring the possibility of a joint
partnership between the governmental stakeholders and other counterparts (private sector, LEA) to
sustain the publication.
2. Pension reform and addressing elderly pensions and healthcare: The proportion of older adults in
Lebanon is currently the highest in the region (7%). Recent projections suggest that the population over
65 years of age will constitute more than 10 percent of the population by the year 2025, similar to
contemporary Europe. Yet Lebanon does not have a uniform old-age/retirement pension plan (see
Appendix 2 for an overview). Rather, such plans are largely dependent on the type of employment. For
example, whereas government employees and those in the military service are covered by pension plans
and health insurance, those covered by the National Social Security Fund – the majority of whom are
employees in the private sector – ironically lose such benefits upon retirement, at the time when they are
much needed2
. Obviously, those who have never been employed, the majority being women, are not
eligible for any type of pension plan or health care coverage. Private insurance in Lebanon is costly and
insurance companies refuse coverage to those requesting it above the age of 70 years at the time of initial
enrolment, creating heavy burdens upon out of pocket expenditures for households. The cost of health
care for the uninsured is high and is related to low follow up, high levels of self medication and overall
poor quality of health state. One of the main tasks of the governmental team would be to provide an
economic analysis to the feasibility of a universal non-contributory social pension and medical insurance
for the elderly in Lebanon.
Working Group 2: Pension Reform, elderly universal pension and medical coverage
Objectives
The objectives of the Working Group are:
a) To undertake a critical revision of the current pension system in Lebanon;
b) To provide a socio-demographic analysis of the need for pension reform and a public financial
perspective on pension reform, and the possibility of non-contributory pension schemes for the
elderly;
c) To propose a universal non-contributory social pension and medical insurance for the elderly.
2
Chemali Z, Chahine LM, Sibai AM (2006). Prospects of older adult care in Lebanon: Towards stronger and sustainable
reforms (EMHJ-WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean).
4. 4
Composition
The working group will be comprised of (6) representatives from the following organizations (mid and
senior level civil servants as well as staff of the UNDP units):
- MoSA: 2 persons
- MoL: 1 person
- MoF: 2 persons
- NSSF: 1 person
The group will have (1) national expert as its coordinator, and will benefit from the expertise of (1)
international expert in the field.
Outputs
The outputs of the Working Group will consist of the development of:
1) Analytical report on social insurance and pensions in Lebanon, containing:
a. A critical overview and assessment of current pension plans
b. A description of the current policy, legal, regulatory, and administrative frameworks of the
current pension system;
c. Socio-demographic analysis of the need for pension reform;
Public financial perspective on pension reform and the possibility of non-contributory pension
schemes for the elderly;
d. A discussion of the policy conditions that are needed for the development of a sustainable
and effective rural pension system.
2) Proposal for legislation on a universal non-contributory social pension and medical insurance
for the elderly, which includes:
a. Background and motivation for the public intervention;
b. Modalities and mechanisms of the pension and medical coverage schemes.