Given the need to ensure the best use of scarce resources, increasing emphasis is being placed on hospital efficiency measurement. In the literature about hospital efficiency measurement, there is an absence of a well-defined framework to select the most appropriate set of input and output variables. Variables used in hospital efficiency studies predominantly reflect a narrow view of hospital functions with a little attention to quality variables. This implies that the hospital goal and its full range of functions in efficiency measurement are poorly understood. While numerous studies have been undertaken in developed countries, there have been only a few attempts at measuring hospital efficiency in developing countries. However, there has so far been no systematic attempt, using frontier-based techniques, to measure the efficiency of Iranian hospitals, and to identify factors affecting efficiency and remedial actions to improve efficiency. By focusing on the above two issues, this thesis makes three arguments. First, by undertaking an in-depth investigation regarding the multi-product nature of hospitals, considering a fuller range of hospital functions, and the values of various stakeholders including patient, staff, and community, this study has proposed a health-oriented framework with a focus on the Iranian hospitals to select the most appropriate variables for measuring hospital efficiency. I argue that both variables (existing in the literature, and discussed for addition) should be taken into account in order to enhance the validity of hospital efficiency studies. Second, two types of techniques (simple ratio analysis and data envelopment analysis) were used for measuring the technical efficiency of hospitals owned by the Iranian Social Security Organization (SSO). The benefits and shortcomings of each method were discussed. For example, considering major surgery rates, which implicitly provide information about the case-mix, has revealed that all high-turnover, high-occupancy outlying hospitals as well as the majority of hospitals falling in the relatively well-performing quadrant in the Lasso diagram had a low major surgery rate. This suggests that simple ratio analysis can only measure the performance of hospitals over a single dimension ignoring their multi-input and multi-output nature of hospitals. Using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), I measured technical efficiency, scale efficiency, and types of returns to scale for the SSO hospitals. In addition to studying their overall and relative efficiency, I analysed the magnitude of the inefficiency for each individual hospital. The results revealed that 22 of the 53 hospitals were deemed to be efficient. Inefficient hospitals had an average score of 78%, implying a potential reduction in all inputs on average by about 22% with no impact on output levels. The comparison of DEA results and simple ratio analysis has revealed that hospitals with an exceptional performance on individual variable even though less valuable compared with other variables can gain a full efficiency score. This critical analysis of the study strongly suggests that the findings obtained from unconstrained DEA should be interpreted with caution. Finally, in addition to simply measuring efficiency, it was felt that a better understanding of the factors affecting hospital efficiency and remedial actions to improve efficiency is needed. Using qualitative methods, a complex mix of organisational factors such as hospital financing, political influences such as political pressures in determining hospital location, and the training and experience of the managers were argued to be influential factors in hospital efficiency. The interviews also provided a great insight into remedial actions such as reforms in the regulatory framework and corporatization. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1297532 / Thesis (Ph.D) -- University of Adelaide, School of Population Health and Clinical Practice, 2007

There have been three main phases of political discourse in recent Iranian history.<br> A paternalistic era was accompanied by a phase of absolutistic rule during the Qagar dynasty. This phase was followed by a forced modernization, when the Shah of Iran expanded his absolutistic rule and established a dictatorship. With the Islamic Revolution of 1979, a new phase of political discourse emerged with a tendency towards religious traditionalism. The author states that religion and democracy are not in opposition. However, there is need for dialogue between the East and the West.

Die zehnten Präsidentschaftswahlen im Iran sorgten für einen Eklat. Ausgerechnet im Jubiläumsjahr, in dem man sich mit Stolz präsentieren wollte, erlebt die Islamische Republik ihren größten Legitimitätsverlust. Mit der Verkündung von Ahmadinedschads Wahlsieg löste das Regime eine Welle der Empörung aus, die bis heute nicht abgeklungen ist. Zwar konnten die Proteste den amtierenden Präsidenten nicht von seiner zweiten Amtszeit abhalten, doch der grüne Sommer hat seine Spuren in der Theokratie hinterlassen.

Iran steht vor einer neuen Revolution. Die Wahlen und deren offensichtlicher Betrug haben die Spaltung des Landes zu Tage gefördert. Die theokratische Herrschaft kann sich nur noch durch einen ölgeförderten Klientelismus am Leben erhalten und steht nun dort, wo der Schah vor dreißig Jahren gestanden hat. Nur durch eine kluge Politik, die auch Versöhnung bietet, kann ein friedlicher Machtwechsel herbeigeführt und die Demokratisierung des Landes ermöglicht werden.

In December 2003, the Orient-Occident Forum for Intercultural Exchange at the University of Potsdam and the academic partnership program Potsdam-Teheran held a week-long conference, titled „Comparing Processes of Modernization“, which was attended by many social scientists from Egypt, Iran and Germany. In this issue, some of the contributions of the conference are published and commented. During the course of the conference, an intercultural discourse – „beyond the line“ – concerning the responsibilities and development prospects of modernization theory took place. In their article, the organizers of the meeting try to systematically summarize these discussions and present some further reflections.

For the first time when the new Islamic councils began their Operation, many intellectuals and politicians proclaimed that there would be no room for the young Islamic councils to proceed. In political terms, because of the new challenges between the rightists and leftists, many people had no hope to see the results of the councils. Still others believed that under the dominating ruling system of Iran there is no space for public opinion and participation in local decision-making. This paper focuses on the role of the Islamic Councils as a new form of social democracy, which decentralizes power and creates good local governance. The paper also discusses the obstacles for the Councils in the development of the region.

This paper offers a new theoretical framework for studying the problem of generations and social change in contemporary Iran. It offers a model which is called „articulation of cultural modes“. The paper agrees with Ronald Inglehart that ‘culture’ is now playing a more dominant role in the social formation of current societies, as ‘technology’ once did in the modern era. But it goes one step further by arguing that culture cannot be approached as a holistic concept building on a comprehensive theoretical framework.

Säbelrasseln und Bombendrohungen am Persischen Golf. Israelische Politiker sprechen sich für Angriffe auf iranische Nuklearanlagen aus, bevor es zu "spät" sei. US-Verteidigungsminister Panetta hält einen Angriff Israels auf den Iran im Frühling für wahrscheinlich, während sein Präsident abwiegelt: Israel habe noch keine Entscheidung getroffen, man müsse den Sanktionen mehr Zeit geben. Mittlerweile werden aber die Instrumente scharf gemacht. Die 5. Flotte überwacht den Golf; in der Region sind etwa 40.000 US-Soldaten stationiert. Der Iran setzt auf Seemanöver.

Der Elburs im Norden Irans ist ein durch die Konvergenz der Arabischen und Eurasischen Platte verursachtes doppelt konvergentes Gebirge. Das komplexe System von Blattverschiebungen und Überschiebungen sowie die Aufnahme der Deformation im Elburs ist noch nicht sehr gut verstanden. Eine neu zu entwicklende Methode zur Inversion von seismischen Momententensoren, die unterschiedliche Beobachtungen verschiedener Stationstypen kombiniert invertiert, soll die bisher hauptsächlich strukturelle/geomorphologische Datengrundlage um Momententensoren auch kleinerer Magnituden (M < 4.5) erweitern. Dies ist die notwendige Grundlage für detaillierte seismotektonische Studien, die wiederum die Basis für seismische Gefährdungsanalysen bilden.

Texte remanié de: Doct. diss.--Anthropology--Philadelphia--University of Pennsylvania. / Bibliogr. p. 421-422. index.