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This paper analyzes the policy dismantling process in the Brazilian innovation system since mid-2010. The research describes how this policy change has been undertaken and explains the strategies deployed and major causes. The study is theoretically grounded in the debate of policy dismantling, meaning changes that result in cuts, reductions, or even abolition of budget, rules, capacities, and instruments of a governmental area. A mixed-methods approach, both quantitative and qualitative, is employed. First, it examines the dismantling process in the last years, focusing on the budget execution patterns of the major policy instruments and agencies in charge of innovation at the federal level. The research relies on the stakeholders' perception by conducting semi-structured interviews with experts regarding strategies, rationale, reactions, and effects. The empirical findings show the dismantling occurs in both dimensions: density (number of tools reduced) and, mainly, the intensity (budget cuts), varying according to government areas. The interviewees highlighted the prevailing strategy as active dismantling, in which the fiscal austerity aggravated by the COVID-19 crisis, an ideological shift in the government coalition, policy particularities, and a low level of prioritization in innovation by the domestic business community are the main factors that affect the politicians' preferences to dismantle. Finally, the process seriously affects the national innovation system, such as the loss of bureaucratic and policy capacity, brain drain, and lag in technology, productivity, and consequently, in the country's economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the effects of extractive informal institutions on the horizontal accountability process in a developing democracy? This paper presents evidence about the harmful effects of extractive informal institutions on horizontal accountability within subnational governments in Brazil. After three decades of free and competitive elections, the institutional design of oversight institutions for state governments has hardly changed. We explore the hypothesis that more extractive informal institutions, measured by the level of income inequality, is associated with decreasing transparency levels. Given its extensive social, political, and economic diversity embedded in an overall centralized formal institutional framework, Brazil provides an appropriate setting to test the hypothesis that extractive informal institutions responsible for increased income inequality can undermine horizontal accountability in new democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes public sector projects and programs in Brazil that received external financing from multilateral and bilateral agencies at the federal, state, and municipal levels between 2000 and 2020. The analyzed data were collected in the COFIEX Panel of the Brazilian Ministry of Economy, categorized, and presented in this article in a contextual way, aiming to represent the first overview of this object for studies on Public Administration in the country. An important instrument of the International Development Cooperation System, International Financing for Development follows international organizations" agendas and guidelines that have changed throughout history. Thus, in addition to exploring the main creditor sources, sectors, and federal units of destination of International Development Financing to Brazil, the article verified how the characteristics of international financing received between 2000-2015 and post-2015 reflect the agendas and guidelines of International Development Cooperation of the respective periods, namely, the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030). As a result, in addition to presenting a pioneering exploratory analysis of the data, it was possible to verify an inflection of external financing received by Brazil after 2015 in the direction of the current agenda and guidelines of International Development Cooperation. Finally, the paper presents directions for future research agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the pandemic of the new coronavirus, Brazilian public management has made decisions of public interest that directly impact the lives of practically all Brazilians and present several intrinsic ethical issues. From this context, this article aims to identify and discuss some of the main moral dilemmas that challenge Brazilian public management in the face of the pandemic. To this end, news reports were selected from journalistic websites that presented dilemmas that occurred or are still occurring in Brazil. Six thematic areas were identified: social distancing; use of big data in the pandemic's management; the performance of health professionals; federal emergency aid and bureaucracy; school closures and online learning; and release of prisoners as a preventive measure. It was observed that, in contexts of crisis, citizens and public managers are displaced from their status quo, which leads to new forms of moral reasoning. These issues demand continuous reflection and debate on the ethical aspects of the pandemic, especially to the governments' social and moral obligations and the limits of such disruption to citizen's rights in a period of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of the allocation of government spending on the economy is currently a subject of interest given the fiscal budget constraints facing governments due to fiscal crises or adjustments. This paper thus seeks to study the effects of the allocation of government spending on the GDP behavior of Brazilian states from 1995 to 2011. Using a conventional FE (Fixed Effect) panel data model, this paper's main results are as follows: (i) administration and planning, (ii) judicial, (iii) housing and (iv) social assistance spending were found to be productive, while (i) education and culture and (ii) legislative spending were found to be unproductive. In addition, some evidence has been found that the introduction of public borrowing rules by the Fiscal Responsibility Law has been beneficial to the economic growth of Brazilian states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to identify the contributions that the new comparative-historical method (CHM) has made to political science and public administration. By showing how recent advances in CHM can generate analytical gains through establishing causal conditions and tests associated with process tracing, we hope this will contribute to strengthening qualitative-based research of these two disciplines in Brazil. To achieve this, the paper begins by dissecting the main elements of this method. Then we review the classic work entitled Sessenta e quatro: anatomia da crise (Sixty-four: anatomy of the crisis) by Wanderley Guilherme dos Santos in light of the method's precepts. The paper also reviews a number of studies on Argentine foreign policy and highlights the gains that can be generated by the disciplined application of CHM. In the conclusion, the potential and limitations of the method are identified and some considerations are made with regard to the importance of its application to Brazilian political science and public administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to analyze the reform of the Judiciary, considering aspects of its organizational culture on the basis of the perceptions of the civil servants in the Bahia State Courts of Justice. We begin by looking at the reform of the Brazilian State and of the Judiciary. We then look at aspects of Brazilian culture and their relationship with organizational culture. Using content analysis, we follow this by reviewing the data obtained through interviews with 37 civil servants. The paper ends with reflections regarding compatibilities and incompatibilities between the reform model adopted by the Judiciary and its organizational culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the city of Belo Horizonte's experience building school infrastructure through public-private partnerships (PPPs). Between 2009 and 2015, Belo Horizonte built very similar schools using both PPPs and traditional public contracting (TPC). As the choice of mode of contracting was unrelated to our outcomes of interest, the experience constitutes a quasi-experiment that allows for a simple and direct comparison of PPPs to TPC. We examine construction- and operation-phase outcomes measured using administrative data and a survey of school administrators. We find that schools constructed under the PPP contracting model outperformed those built using TPCs in most outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the efficiency of federal government funding for destination competitiveness and the relationship among destination competitiveness enhancement and local development. Destination competitiveness models provide the theoretical background. The research is exploratory and descriptive. We mapped the investments from Brazilian Ministry of Tourism in 65 destinations. Destination Competitiveness was measured with information from the Brazilian Competitiveness Model. Data were analyzed with data envelopment analysis and multiple regression analysis. Study findings demonstrate that competitiveness enhancement does not depend on the amount of funding, but on its strategic application according to destination development stage. Besides, competitiveness dimensions Marketing, Monitoring, and Cooperation are major drivers for local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper builds a sustainable development index based on environmental, social, economic and institutional dimensions and presents a spatial assessment of municipalitties inequalities in the State of Ceará. Sustainability indices force institutions and governments to question their standards and act as "driving forces" for public policy-making. The validity of sustainability indexes is heavily dependent on how their components are weighted and aggregated. The research is quantitative developed through secondary data acquired in public agency databases of the country (Brazil) and federal unit (State of Ceara). Data analysis included confirmatory factor analysis for the construction of general sustainability indexes, descriptive analysis of these indices and spatial econometric modeling to represent on the map of Ceará municipalities. The survey results reveal a regular adjustment of the sustainable development index. The model allows a geographical view of sustainable development indicators and presents with a tool in the definition of public policies for social equity, environmental and economic. The analysis of social, economic, environmental, institutional and general indices revealed that the most urban areas of the State of Ceará have a greater sustainable development and confirms the fragility of public policies in promoting regional balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the implementation of federal education programs in municipalities through structured analysis of the texts in supervision reports provided by the Comptroller General of Brazil for the year 2014. The aim is to analyze the problems affecting the management of federal programs in municipalities. Studies on management and corruption in municipalities were reviewed and form the theoretical framework. The main conclusion is that it is necessary to increase the attention of researchers and managers to issues related to the quality of municipal management, because problems in program implementation is more likely to be the result of bad management than corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, an investigation regarding the transformations of studies published in the Brazilian Journal of Public Administration (RAP) from 2003 to 2016 was conducted, through bibliometric research. The main results indicate consolidation of the field, with an increase in the number of authors per article. Most authors were male, although with a high participation of female researchers, in a context where most authors are Brazilian, from public institutions. Case-studies, applied-approaches and quantitative methodology studies increased in comparison to studies published from 1994 to 2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing use of the Internet, different social and economic groups are appropriating its resources in various ways. As such, politicians have adopted this new media for varying reasons. From an ideological classification of political parties represented in Brazilian Congress, this paper evaluates whether it is a variable that can distinguish federal congressmen's adoption and use of Twitter. A total of 512 profiles of congressmen who use Twitter to post content and connect with citizens and colleagues from Congress were analysed in December 2013. Twitter's programming platform was used to collect data on the use of profiles and connections between them and with other social network profiles. This data was related to the ideological classification of different parties. The results show that it is possible to distinguish Twitter groups of different ideologies represented in Congress because they adopted its use at various times, have different levels of popularity, follow congressional colleagues with varying patterns of interest and have diverging activity indicators in the digital environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a contribution to the academic debate on the use of outsourcing as a formula for the provision of local public services, the article proposes to focus attention on political-institutional factors. The paper departs from the review of the main arguments highlighted by the literature and it contrasts their expected results in cross-sectional study based on data from all the municipalities with over 5,000 inhabitants in Catalonia, a Spanish Autonomous Community. A typology of municipalities is constructed through principal component analysis and a cluster analysis and the existence of differences in the percentage of outsourcing among types of municipalities is tested. The results show the relevance of political-institutional factors in the selection of the service provision formula and allow us to identify three strategies that propose outsourcing as a mechanism of flexibility of public management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper criticizes the methodology of poverty measurement used by the Brazilian federal government called Brasil Sem Miséria Plan (PBSM). Using a compilation and analysis of secondary data collected from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), we conducted a comparison between the government methodology and that one used by the economist Sonia Rocha. Her methodology establishes poverty lines which are regionalized and indexed to the consumer basket values found in different regions of the country. The results of both methodologies are compared, showing that PBSM lines are incapable of detecting 12.9 million Brazilians living in poverty. In our conclusions, we present suggestions to improve the government's poverty measurement methodology, i.e., the need of a regionalization of poverty lines and that they become indexed to regional consumer basket prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present new perspectives for the understanding on multidimensional poverty in northern Brazil in the years 2006-13, in order to assist the government in developing policies focused on fighting poverty and advancing the development process. The study used a methodology built by Bourguignon and Chakravarty (2003), which presents an alternative way of measuring the multidimensionality of poverty. The data was collected from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) and the results of six dimensions analyzed revealed a reduction in the proportion of multidimensional poor of the northern population, from 30.71% in 2006 to 25.79% in 2013. As for isolated analysis of metropolitan regions in urban and rural areas, it was found that poverty was more intense in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate governance in central banks has evolved in recent years, both as a result of advances made in the study of the subject by supranational organizations, as well as through the adoption of the best practices used in the public and private sectors. This paper aims to identify, analyze and compare key aspects of corporate governance used by the central banks of Brazil, Canada and England in 2015. By reviewing existing literature on the subject, it was possible to analyze certain aspects of the monetary authorities of these three countries in terms of their structures and their committeees, as well as the three pillars of governance normally attributed to central banks: independence, accountability and transparency. The results showed significant differences between the three, and suggested that the degree of maturity of each country's society has a certain influence on the practices of governance adopted by its central bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we seek to clarify how intermunicipal consortia distribute benefits and costs among their members, a relevant point to structure the willingness to cooperation between partners. Under the case study in three government areas, we identify two patterns of the systems for sharing costs and benefits. In the first, the division agreement is restricted to routine expenses of the consortium, while additional agreements with each member ensure contributions, ex post, according to the proportion of benefits enjoyed. In the second, the division agreement itself includes criteria that allow equalizing, ex ante, such contributions and benefits. In the end, we consider restrictions on functions performed by consortia in public policies, due to the reasoning by which each member pays for what it consumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management processes of the Unified Health System (SUS) are supported by a set of information systems with national scope, having features for the epidemiological, ambulatory, hospital, and administrative areas. This article proposes a model for evaluating health information systems that may be applied to the systems of SUS. It describes the research, analysis, and classification process of evaluation indicators for the model. The indicators were obtained by search in bibliographic databases and they were classified according to the quality attributes of the standard ISO/IEC 25010, adopted as quality model in the study. As a result, 66 indicators were identified and mapped, covering all quality features of the model. This paper will be able to contribute as a further reference for studies involving quality assessment processes for softwares in health and to assist in the standardization of plans for assessing and monitoring the quality of systems and data on public health in Brazil and in projects for improving softwares. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay describes the process for consolidating the Republic in Brazil, showing that the case illustrates the transformative change of political institutions through the action of interest groups. We intend to contribute to bridge two important theoretical gaps. On the one hand, the lack of theorizing about the Brazilian public administration with a historical and non-instrumental approach. On the other hand, the current debate in New Institutionalism about the institutional change processes. Thus, the paper has as its main results the identification and classification of strategies of the republican elites that provided the Brazilian public administration with routines, at the same time that they consolidated the new political regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the processes of management, monitoring and controlling of results adopted by Embrapa to effectively perform the 10 projects and 141 goals in Embrapa's Strengthening and Growth Program (PAC Embrapa). The qualitative approach, based in a descriptive case study strategy, discusses the literature on managing for results (MFR) coupled with the analysis of the model that emerged from this implementation. While presenting and describing the model used, considered vital for achieving objectives and for a high budget execution, the study identifies seven requirements for an effective management for results in public institutions, such as meritocracy in the formation of the management team, support from top management, autonomy and strategic communication. By presenting empirical evidence of the requirements for effective MFR, the study provides contributions to improve the management of government programs and the consequent generation of public value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, Brazil has more than 40,000 councils for managing public policies spread throughout towns. However, how are structured these spaces that constitute a broad participatory network for developing and implementing public policies? Having as a basis a classificatory model developed through theoretical approaches related to social participation, deliberative democracy, and legislative analysis, this exploratory paper identifies the main institutional characteristics concerning mandatory conformation, nature of the representation, composition, and decision-making capacity; and possible regional patterns in the implementation of the councils network. As a result, we identified that most councils do not have mandatory conformation. Nevertheless, there is a direct relationship between mandatory conformation and the implementation degree of municipal public policies. We also identified unique regional institutional conformation patterns: councils in the Northeast region are proportionately more balanced and deliberative than those in the South and Southeast regions. Finally, the cross-sectional data analysis points out a tendency for change in the institutional model of Brazilian councils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming to analyze the way how recruitment based on the idea of "technical competence", was incorporated in the Brazilian public administration after the 1995 administrative reform, this paper investigates the career of expert in public policies and government management. Among all public administration careers, that of expert in public policies and government management (EPPGM) is an exemplary case, since its creation brings the idea of constituting a stable bureaucracy in face of discontinuities in government, able to prepare and manage public policies in a continued flow, something which justifies studying it. Through various sources related to the career evolution, the profile, and training of these managers, and their distribution in the federal Executive Power, we demonstrate that the very training of these public officials ended up undergoing government interferences according to government guidance and that allocating these EPPGMs to jobs of Superior Management and Advisement (SMA) of the federal Executive has reconciled meritocratic principles with a certain relaxation of appointments, restricting, in theory, the spaces for political patronage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The participation of citizens in public policies is an opportunity not only to educate them, but also to increase their empowerment. However, the best way for deploying participatory policies, defining their scope and approach, still remains an open and continuous debate. Using as a case study the Brazilian National Agency of Electric Energy (Aneel), with its public hearings about tariff review, this paper aims at analyzing the democratic aspects of these hearings and challenges the hypothesis of many scholars about the social participation bias in this kind of procedure. This study points out a majority participation of experts, contrasting with the political content of discussions. And, this way, it contributes to a critical analysis of the public hearings as a participatory tool, indicating their strengths and their aspects which deserve a special attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem that this paper seeks to understand has the following paradox: federalism municipal, derived from the 1988 Constitution, which, in principle, bring the perverse effect of the crisis of the metropolitan administration, because the problems faced, particularly tax and municipalities in financial, ended up to be a zero sum game for the whole federation, and was a factor encouraging the resumption of intercommunal aggregation of the country. This observation demonstrates the resumption of metropolitan management in Brazil, from the late 1990s and first decade of this century. The analysis procedure adopted to demonstrate this problem will be historical-institutional, and basic explanation of the processes of incremental changes observed in the Brazilian metropolitan management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is placed in the context of comparative analyzes of efficiency between private and state companies and discusses differences regarding the strategic alignment and value creation management procedures on those enterprises, allowing to obtain evidence about "types" of alignment and value origination management "modes". From hypothetical-deductive approach, we used information from the survey previously applied to 95 Brazilian organizations, now stratified according to the origin of capital, private or state. We tested hypotheses about the existence of mean differences in strategic alignment vectors, on the existence of different proportions of types of state and private companies with respect to patterns of value origination and the behavior of the components of the total value created. The tests presented on a recurring basis, mean differences in favor of private enterprise, with results displayed from the confidence interval above 85%, satisfactory when taking into consideration that this is an exploratory study. Also regarding the origination value, was found superior performance of private equity firms in all dimensions/perspectives. Faced with the findings and the relevance of state enterprises, it is expected that the evidence to enable a new performance approach of organizations managed by the state, triggering mechanisms for monitoring performance more in line with the management challenges of contemporary organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the exercise of social control in Brazil, from the general debate that prompted him, as well as the internal context that led to the creation of institutionalized spaces for your application. The objective is to evaluate the exercise of social control through the Public Policy Management Councils. Through studies conducted by other researchers in Public Policy Management Councils, in the three levels of government, and empirical study, we found that the way it has happened to the exercise of social control in these forums, much moves away from what is expected by law. From this table, we bring contributions to the understanding of this fact and to the advancement of social control itself, understood as a necessary and a high level of democratization of public management in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent debate on institutional change in the Brazilian public health system pays little attention to organizational innovation in Hospital Units (HUs). Calling upon the analytical framework proposed by Economic Analysis to investigate asymmetric information and innovation, this paper analyzes the connections among effectiveness of rules, routines and protocols, staff training, and service quality in HUs with the help of statistical analysis of Hospital Accreditation reports. The convenience sample consisted of ten reports containing perceived assessment data. As a theoretical contribution, the proposed model analyzes the dynamic relationship between organizational innovation, service quality and growth in HU and development of the market for healthcare services. Empirical findings show that the effect of organizational innovation in Referral Hospital Units is stronger than the effect of staff training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to discuss to which extent the actions implemented in the Gender Pro-Equity Program-- actions developed in Caixa Econômica Federal (Caixa) after having been granted the Gender Pro-Equity Seal--have improved the relationships amongst men and women in this financial institution. A qualitative research was carried out from documental research and individual, semi-structured interviews with five interviewees: four managers from different Caixa branches in the Federal District, Brazil; two men and two women, and the woman who is Caixa's Pro-Equity Program Coordinator. The results point out that there have been some advances in the implementation of the Program concerning the regulation of the parity commission of men and women in the examining boards of selective processes. However, women are still located in the base of Caixa's organizational pyramid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an outputs assessement of the Sistema Unico de Assistencia Social's implementation after four years of its conception. Therefore, some relevant issues are subject of this article analysis: i) has the new implementation framework had an impact on local government improvement? ii) has Suas implementation had positive outputs in reducing inequality among municipalities? iii) What are the determinants of municipalities' improvement in welfare policymaking after this institutional change? In order to do so, data exploratory analysis and multiple regression are employed based on 2005 and 2009 Munic/IBGE surveys. As a result, the inquiry demonstrates that overall Suas has been successful improving the welfare policy, reducing the disparity among municipalities and, especially, political system's aspects impacted the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to compare the relative efficiency of the States Justice Courts of Brazil. This is an exploratory study with a focus on quantitative and qualitative research with documentary and bibliography researches. They used data in the report Justiça em números, editions 2007 and 2008, published by the National Council of Justice. The data were analyzed using the model oriented for outputs using the technique of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to assess the efficiency of the Courts. There was an increase in the number of courts that have reached the maximum level of relative efficiency between 2007 and 2008. Some Justice Courts have been presented as benchmarks for all other Courts. In addition, it has presented the situation of the Justice Court of the State of Ceará together with an analysis of the factors that need to be adjusted to achieve its maximum level of efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyze the dynamics of participation of social actors in the social management of territorial development policy and how it influences the process of allocation of public resources through the process of monitoring projects in the Territory of Serra do Brigadeiro, Minas Gerais. The study identifies that the experience of constructing and legitimizing policy has enabled a new institutional space (Territorial Forum), which enabled the discussion and selection of collective projects. The Forum, through its deliberative action, managed to establish a relatively autonomous development agenda, which enabled broader discussions on rural development, despite the limitations of the operation of the public policy program and the quality of participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to evaluate, through a single case study, the functioning of the Câmara de Animação Econômica da Subprefeitura do Itaim Paulista (CAE-IT), a mechanism by which it sought to promote work and income generation. The region has about 380,000 inhabitants, a high rate of violence and a large number of young people without access to basic education and no job offer. Thus, in 2005, the Subprefeitura do Itaim Paulista articulated with a series of partners developed the idea of CAE-IT. Initially, they sought to understand the local reality, through the analysis of secondary data. Then, there was a consultation with community health workers to understand what were the economic vocations of the region and in which public policy should focus on targeted efforts. The final decision was to focus on promotion of local productive arrangements involved in waste recycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the social impacts of the Tourism Development Program (Prodetur) in the northeastern town of Porto Seguro, Bahia, Brazil. The method used is based on the difference in difference technique applied to the 1991 and 2000 Census microdata. The results suggest social advances following from poverty relief based on income -- where the benefits are distributed, generally, in a relatively equal manner between the native and migrant population. There is a relative deterioration in the sanitary situation, which consists of a very serious problem in the mid- and long-term, whose costs are mostly borne by the native population. Therefore, maintaining the natural capital is the main aspect that distances Porto Seguro's tourism supply from the concept of sustainability. The article also relies on difference in difference estimators to assess the impacts of local public policies related to the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to present and discuss the operations management in the Brazilian electronics sector. The electronics sector is one of the most important in Brazil, accounting for 4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Much of the available literature focuses on the discussion of policies to strengthen the sector, without, however, to discuss its operations management, yet little known. To fill this gap in the literature, a quantitative research has been conducted, through a survey with companies of the Brazilian Association of Electrical and Electronics Industry (Abinee). The collected data were supplemented with secondary data, drawing a big picture about the sector in Brazil. The results indicate the need for companies to invest more in using information technology to expand the integration of processes, planning and developing products integrating with customers and suppliers, increases adoption of management practices in the supply chain. The originality of this paper is to shed light on the operations management of an economically relevant sector generating insights for scholars, practitioners and policymakers focused on Brazilian electronics sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]