Total Balalaika Show

„Welcome to an outrageous spectacle!“, verkündet eine charmante Ansagerin mit enormer Haartolle, wie sie nur die Stirn eines Leningrad Cowboy zieren kann. Das Musikerkollektiv hat die totale Show initiiert und dafür die 100 Sänger, 40 Musiker und 20 Tänzer des Alexandrov-Ensembles der Roten Armee der unlängst zerfallenen Sowjetunion auf Bühne geladen. 70.000 Zuschauer strömen vor die gewaltige Freilichtbühne ins historische Zentrum Helsinkis. Sie erwarte ein einmaliges Ereignis in der finnischen Rockgeschichte, so die Musiker - und ein Crossover: von Klassik und Rock, von „Old and New, East and West“

Out-of-pocket payments for health care services in Bulgaria: financial burden and barrier to access.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, Bulgaria has increasingly relied on out-of-pocket payments as one of the main sources of health care financing. However, it is largely unknown whether the official patient charges, combined with informal payments, are affordable for the population. Our study aimed to explore the scale of out-of-pocket payments for health care services and their affordability. METHODS: Data were collected in two nationally representative surveys, conducted in Bulgaria in 2010 and 2011, using face-to-face interviews based on a standardized questionnaire. To select respondents, a multi-stage random probability method was used. The questionnaire included questions on the out-of-pocket payments for health care services used by the respondent during the preceding 12 months. RESULTS: In total, 75.7% (2010) and 84.0% (2011) of outpatient service users reported to have paid out-of-pocket, with 12.6% (2010) and 9.7% (2011) of users reporting informal payments. Of those who had used inpatient services, 66.5% (2010) and 63.1% (2011) reported to have made out-of-pocket payments, with 31.8% (2010) and 18.3% (2011) reporting to have paid informally. We found large inability to pay indicated by the need to borrow money and/or forego services. Regression analysis showed that the inability to pay is especially pronounced among those with poor health status and chronic diseases and those on low household incomes. CONCLUSION: The high level of both formal and informal out-of-pocket payments for health care services in Bulgaria poses a considerable burden for households and undermines access to health services for poorer parts of the population

Development of stochastic models of window state changes in educational buildings

How people would like to interact with surrounding environment will subsequently influence indoor thermal conditions and further impact building energy performance. In order to understand occupants' adaptive behaviours in terms of environmental control utilization from the point of view of quantification, an investigation on windows operation was carried out in non-air-conditioned educational buildings in the UK during summer time considering the effects of occupant type (active and passive) and the time of a day. Outdoor air temperature was a better predictor or window operation than indoor air temperature. Window operation was found to be time-evolving event. The purpose or criteria of adjusting window states were different at different occupancy stages. Active occupants were more willing to change windows states in response to outdoor air temperature variations. Sub-models predicting transition probabilities of window state for different occupant type and occupancy stages were developed. The results derived from this field study are helpful with improving building simulation accuracy by integrating sub-models into simulation software and further providing guideline on building energy reduction without sacrificing indoor thermal comfort

HIV/AIDS discourses in Kyrgyzstan's policy arena.

This article explores the major discourses on HIV/AIDS in the policy arena in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet country in Central Asia that has experienced a rapid rise in HIV infections since the early 2000s. Based on an analysis of policy documents and 54 semi-structured in-depth interviews with key stakeholders in the area of HIV/AIDS policies in Kyrgyzstan, we distinguish a number of key discourses, competing for legitimacy and authority. While some of these discourses have been used in other countries (such as those presenting HIV/AIDS as a biomedical, social or moral issue), others are more specific to Kyrgyzstan (such as a discourse presenting the country as a regional pioneer in HIV/AIDS prevention efforts). Our analysis shows how HIV/AIDS discourses in the policy arena overlap and complement each other and how stakeholders employ a number of tools and strategies to promote and secure their agendas and positions of power. Our findings help to better understand HIV/AIDS discourses in Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere. They highlight the importance of understanding which discourses are prevailing, who drives them and why, how they change over time, and how they can be framed to achieve policy objectives

Public vs private administration of rural health insurance schemes: a comparative study in Zhejiang of China.

: Since 2003, China has experimented in some of the country's counties with the private administration of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS), a publicly subsidized health insurance scheme for rural populations. Our study compared the effectiveness and efficiency of private vs public administration in four counties in one of China's most affluent provinces in the initial stage of the NCMS's implementation. The study was undertaken in Ningbo city of Zhejiang province. Out of 10 counties in Ningbo, two counties with private administration for the NCMS (Beilun and Ninghai) were compared with two others counties with public administration (Zhenhai and Fenghua), using the following indicators: (1) proportion of enrollees who were compensated for inpatient care; (2) average reimbursement-expense ratio per episode of inpatient care; (3) overall administration cost; (4) enrollee satisfaction. Data from 2004 to 2006 were collected from the local health authorities, hospitals and the contracted insurance companies, supplemented by a randomized household questionnaire survey covering 176 households and 479 household members. In our sample counties, private administration of the NCMS neither reduced transaction costs, nor improved the benefits of enrollees. Enrollees covered by the publicly administered NCMS were more likely to be satisfied with the insurance scheme than those covered by the privately administered NCMS. Experience in the selected counties suggests that private administration of the NCMS did not deliver the hoped-for results. We conclude that caution needs to be exercised in extending private administration of the NCMS