Investment Worth Research Articles

Pengembangan Manajemen Usaha Pempek Melalui Program Community Development di Cianjur, Jawa Barat

According to Disnakertrans, there is an increase of income from jobs in the sub-district which makes financial management even more important. The Community Development Program helps out small businesses with the help of Prasetiya Mulya University students majoring in business, finance, marketing, and events. The team will take on a small Pempek business with no brand name, no standard of operational procedure, and little financial management. The team’s task is to improve and develop the small business in one month to help the business sustain against competitions. The team has jumpstarted it’s sales, marketing, human resources, finance, and operation with an investment worth of IDR 2 million, an operational rework to make the production run smoothly, promotions, and constant mentoring from the team.

What Factors Influence General Practice Specialist Trainees' Engagement with their E-portfolio?

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Background:E-portfolio is the primary strategy for the development and assessment of general practice trainees. Literature indicates that trainees often resist engaging fully, undermining its validity in assessing trainee competence and performance. Aim:To identify and explore conditions influencing engagement with e-portfolio within a local training programme. Design:A constructivist grounded theory design was used to conceptualise the factors that influence trainee engagement. Method: Twelve semi-structured trainee interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and coded. Aided by Nvivo Pro version 11, initial codes were developed, revised and raised to focused codes. Through constant comparison, diagramming and memo-writing, theoretical categories were generated. Results:Data analysis conceptualised a theory of engagement incorporating three conceptual categories: "Conceptualising the e-portfolio", "Developing and maintaining trust" in e-portfolio and its processes and "Deciding upon investment worth". Decisions to invest personal resources in e-portfolio engagement depended upon trainees' appraisal of its personal worth and value. Conclusions:E-portfolio valuation was contingent upon trainees' conceptualisation of its purpose, and the trustworthiness of the learning and assessment processes prescribed by its structure. This has implications for trainees, supervisors, and training programmes related to implementation and ownership of e-portfolio, and the credibility and transparency of its role in the assessment of professional performance.

Lilly and CureVac sign cancer vaccine deal

Eli Lilly & Co. has signed a deal potentially worth $1.8 billion with Tübingen, Germany-based CureVac to develop mRNA vaccines for cancer targets chosen by Lilly. In the vaccines, mRNA provides genetic instructions for making antigens, proteins that arouse and train the immune system to target cancer cells. CureVac will design, manufacture, and formulate the vaccines, and Lilly will run clinical development and commercialization. The deal includes a $50 million up-front payment and an equity investment worth about $53 million.

What Responsibilities Do Sovereign Funds Have to Other Investors?

With trillions of dollars in assets, sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) play a major role in financial markets around the world. With billions (and probably well over a trillion) dollars’ worth of equity investments around the world, the investment behavior of SWFs is of primary concern to regulators, portfolio firms and other investors. The routinely cited perils of sovereign investment, such as politicization, corporate espionage, and mercantilism, are typically seen as emanating from equity investments by SWFs. On the other hand, SWFs offer the promise of patient, sustainable investment by engaged stewards who take a long view of the impact of their investments. This essay, prepared for a Wake Forest Law Review symposium on sovereign wealth funds, seeks to provide a realistic appraisal of the benefits and potential costs of SWF investment for other investors. Most work on SWF investment has focused on the challenges that SWFs present to regulators, portfolio companies or their own domestic constituencies. Although a few studies have examined SWF investment price impacts, SWF analyses have tended to ignore the effect of SWF investment on other investors. What, if anything, do SWFs owe to other investors? The essay calls for sovereign investors to recognize the special responsibilities they have to co-investors. While these responsibilities may not constitute actionable fiduciary duties, SWFs should embrace a model of transparent, engaged ownership that will benefit their co-investors and their common portfolio companies. The essay first outlines the concept of fiduciary duties generally, and describes the way that such duties (or their civil law equivalents) impact SWF governance. The next section addresses the complex question of the object of SWF duties. The sponsor government, at least, has claim to these duties, but what of other impacted constituencies, such as citizens? The essay then turns to the issue of investor obligations, and notes that while investors typically do not owe one another fiduciary duties, they can mutually benefit by minimizing costs for one another as they adhere to basic principles of transparency and predictable investment behavior. The essay then evaluates the ability of the Santiago Principles to encourage this kind of transparency and predictability through a review of recently completed SWF self-assessments of compliance with the Santiago Principles.

Looking at China’s Belt and Road Initiative from the Central Asian Perspective

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a potentially transformational geopolitical development initiative, launched by China, which encompasses 65 countries, accounting for roughly 32 percent of global GDP, 39 percent of global merchandize trade, and 63 percent of the world’s population. The BRI, also referred to as the Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and the twenty-first century Maritime Silk Road (MSR), is a geopolitical initiative put forth by Chinese President Xi Jinping, which goes well beyond building infrastructure along the ancient “silk road.” The initiative seeks to develop a wide network of connectivity and cooperation spanning the entire Eurasian land mass and parts of Africa, including Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North and East Africa. The magnitude of investments anticipated under the BRI is massive. According to the Chinese government, US$890 billion worth of investments have already been disbursed under the BRI umbrella, with an expected total Chinese investment of US$4 trillion over the course of the initiative. Developments suggest that BRI could ultimately evolve beyond a mere Chinese-financed initiative. However, the bulk of BRI-related investments still appear to be conceived, driven, and primarily financed by China and financial institutions controlled by Beijing. This could change, however, as national governments that host BRI projects, multilateral institutions, and private sector gets more actively involved.

Measuring and Assessing Public Health Emergency Preparedness: A Methodological Primer

Given the magnitude of the investments made in public health emergency preparedness (PHEP) in recent years, elected officials and policymakers need to know whether these efforts have actually substantially improved the nation’s ability to respond to large-scale public health emergencies. In addition, if the nation’s public health system remains underprepared (which is likely for some preparedness functions), policymakers and public health practitioners need guidance on how best to further improve the PHEP system’s capabilities. Valid, reliable, and practical PHEP measures are needed to ensure accountability for a decade’s worth of PHEP investments, to improve public health systems’ capabilities to respond effectively to future public health emergencies, and to support related research efforts. To this end, this paper will summarize insights on PHEP measure development that are emerging from this effort, drawing on the experience of the authors and their public health practice partners as well as on discussions in workshops, exercises, and other venues, only some of which has been published in scientific and professional journals. The goal is not to describe a universal set of preparedness measures, but rather an approach that others can use to develop measures as needed for a variety of purposes. Adopting a public health systems research perspective, we begin by describing an approach to the development of performance measures and assessment tools that has proven to be effective in health services research and healthcare quality improvement efforts. We then apply this approach to PHEP, illustrating each of the four major steps in the measurement development cycle with preparedness examples, many of which are drawn from the work of the LAMPS team. A companion paper will use this framework to assess the current state of PHEP measurement, identifying areas in which more measurement development work is needed.

Decomposition of GDP Growth Rates in 2016-2019: In Expectation of Structural Changes

Calculations of decomposition of the RF GDP growth rates in 1999–2015 and the MED’s forecast for 2016–2019 show that in current conditions cyclical components related to the domestic business cycle’s entering the positive phase are the only source of economic growth. However, they alone are insufficient to ensure growth rates of 4% or more. To achieve that, it is important to increase structural economic growth rates, too. In particular, with the aggregate factor productivity to be retained at the present level it is necessary to attract to the economy further labor resources of about 4.5m people and Rb 40 trillion worth of additional investments in capital assets in 2016–2018.

Good Morning Engineers: A Wake up Call

Good Morning Engineers: A Wake up Call

Investments and costs of oral health care for Family Health Care.

ABSTRACTOBJECTIVE To estimate the investments to implement and operational costs of a type I Oral Health Care Team in the Family Health Care Strategy.METHODS This is an economic assessment study, for analyzing the investments and operational costs of an oral health care team in the city of Salvador, BA, Northeastern Brazil. The amount worth of investments for its implementation was obtained by summing up the investments in civil projects and shared facilities, in equipments, furniture, and instruments. Regarding the operational costs, the 2009-2012 time series was analyzed and the month of December 2012 was adopted for assessing the monetary values in effect. The costs were classified as direct variable costs (consumables) and direct fixed costs (salaries, maintenance, equipment depreciation, instruments, furniture, and facilities), besides the indirect fixed costs (cleaning, security, energy, and water). The Ministry of Health’s share in funding was also calculated, and the factors that influence cost behavior were described.RESULTS The investment to implement a type I Oral Health Care Team was R$29,864.00 (US$15,236.76). The operational costs of a type I Oral Health Care Team were around R$95,434.00 (US$48,690.82) a year. The Ministry of Health’s financial incentives for investments accounted for 41.8% of the implementation investments, whereas the municipality contributed with a 59.2% share of the total. Regarding operational costs, the Ministry of Health contributed with 33.1% of the total, whereas the municipality, with 66.9%. Concerning the operational costs, the element of heaviest weight was salaries, which accounted for 84.7%.CONCLUSIONS Problems with the regularity in the supply of inputs and maintenance of equipment greatly influence the composition of costs, besides reducing the supply of services to the target population, which results in the service probably being inefficient. States are suggested to partake in funding, especially to cover the team’s operational cost.

문화콘텐츠 관련 융복합 기업들의 주가동향 및 향후 투자가치 분석

본 연구에서는 종합주가지수와 코스닥지수, 문화콘텐츠 산업과 관련이 높은 오락⋅문화, 디지털콘텐츠 지수를 이용하였다. 지난 2004년 3월에서 2015년 7월까지 총 597주 동안 각각의 주가지수 및 수익률 동향을 파악하였다. 각 주가지수의 수익률, 변동성, 상관관계, 동조화현상 등을 비교 분석하여 콘텐츠관련 주식들이 투자가치가 있는지 살펴보았다. 향후 문화콘텐츠 산업의 높은 성장 가능성을 보았을 때 관련 주식들의 투자 가능성에 기대를 걸어보았다. 분석 결과 지난 2008년도 글로벌 금융위기 이후 문화콘텐츠 관련 주식들이 더 높은 상승률을 보여주었다. 최근 문화콘텐츠 산업에 대한 관심이 높아지면서 점점 투자가치 메리트가 증가하고 있음을 볼 수 있었다. 향후 문화콘텐츠 산업이 계속 발전할 것으로 예상되어 이들 기업에 대한 투자자들의 많은 관심이 이어지면서 문화콘텐츠관련 기업들의 투자가치 상승에 많은 기대를 걸어본다.

Establishing and Delivering Quality Radiation Therapy in Resource-Constrained Settings: The Story of Botswana.

There is a global cancer crisis, and it is disproportionately affecting resource-constrained settings, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Radiotherapy is a critical and cost-effective component of a comprehensive cancer control plan that offers the potential for cure, control, and palliation of disease in greater than 50% of patients with cancer. Globally, LMICs do not have adequate access to quality radiation therapy and this gap is particularly pronounced in sub-Saharan Africa. Although there are numerous challenges in implementing a radiation therapy program in a low-resource setting, providing more equitable global access to radiotherapy is a responsibility and investment worth prioritizing. We outline a systems approach and a series of key questions to direct strategy toward establishing quality radiation services in LMICs, and highlight the story of private-public investment in Botswana from the late 1990s to the present. After assessing the need and defining the value of radiation, we explore core investments required, barriers that need to be overcome, and assets that can be leveraged to establish a radiation program. Considerations addressed include infrastructure; machine choice; quality assurance and patient safety; acquisition, development, and retention of human capital; governmental engagement; public-private partnerships; international collaborations; and the need to critically evaluate the program to foster further growth and sustainability.

Value Chain Analysis for Derived products from Paddy: a Case of Karnataka State

Paddy soon after harvesting, duetoits importance as basic food, the largest area under cultivation and the prevailing agro economic conditions of farmers, constitutes a wide length and partners in its supply chain. Once paddy is hulled in mills it gives the main product rice, cut rice and by products husk and rice bran. This paper attempts to find out through empirical research, the practices, end products and estimates of value creation, value realization and value loss to the stakeholders across its extended value chainof paddy in the state of Karnataka. With the existing estimates for legitimate variables of the analysis, it is found that supply chain of paddy is a very complex processdominatedbynetwork of intermediaries called “mill owners and stockists” who make an investment worth not less than Rs.8000 Crores.(where $13.3 bn should be $1.33 bn) every year during harvesting through stocking, milling and packing and create a value above 45% of their investment in the value chain. In the process it is observed that farmer is the only stakeholder who is paid least and supply chain management of paddy suffers from huge losses to the government as more than 65% farmers sell paddy to the local agents of “mill owners and stockists”. Taking stock of the issues and opportunities, a conceptual model is suggested using e-governance and Public Private Partnership(PPP) in managing the supply chain of paddy which ensures fool proof mechanism not only to control prevailing losses but also arrives at a unique wealth creation opportunity, which can redefine the face of agricultural developments in the state.

The Influence of Insiders and Institutional Owners on the Value, Transparency, and Earnings Quality of Chilean Listed Firms

In 1980, Chile privatized its social security system, and currently there are five private pension funds managing approximately US$83 billion worth of retirement investments. The regulations provide for pension funds to appoint a member to the board of directors, and influence the appointment of auditors. Thus, institutions are playing a major role in Chile's transition a market-based financial system. The study uses data from 70 firms from 1995-2005 to test the impact of these institutional changes on firm value, transparency levels and earnings quality. The study finds that insider ownership levels and institutional ownership positively affects firm value but these factors, and the pension fund representation on firm boards negatively affects the transparency index. Further, institutional ownership levels also encourage the entrenched owners to use positive discretionary accrual to manage earnings. Using agency theory, we suggest that high insider ownership levels are an equilibrium that helps managers co-opt institutions by providing access to information, which bestows private benefits control to stakeholders aligned with entrenched insiders' interests.

Personal Care Savings Bonds: A New Way of Saving Towards Social Care in Later Life

An ageing population ushers in a completely new era requiring society to find new solutions to funding social care and looking after older people. This is not a temporary issue that will go away and there are no quick economic fixes. In the U.K. it is estimated that the population aged 75+ will double from 5 million to 10 million by 2040. Financial building blocks are needed to pay for social care that will be sustained for decades and provide extra security for the individual. This paper proposes a new savings product called Personal Care Savings Bonds (PCSBs), which are designed to encourage saving for social care by providing extra money at the time of greatest financial need. PCSBs are likely to be attractive to older people who have only a basic pension and modest savings, but also to other age groups, as they not only attract interest but also pay prizes. Based on reasonable assumptions, the paper shows how the fund could build into a substantial investment worth £70 billion with regular monthly prize pay-outs. In concept they are somewhat similar to Premium Bonds, another U.K. personal savings product that has been successfully operating since 1956.

Congruence Couple Therapy for Pathological Gambling: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

A multi-site pilot randomized controlled trial of Congruence Couple Therapy (CCT) for problem gambling was conducted in Ontario and Alberta, Canada from 2009 to 2011. The purpose was to assess the feasibility of a full trial and to identify methodological modifications to enhance future trials. The sample (N = 30; 15 couples) consisted of 66% male gamblers and 34% female. Mean age of sample was 49.1 years. Baseline mean DSM-IV gambling score was 8.7/10. Retention of the treatment couples was 89% at 2-month follow-up. Retention of control couples was 78%. A randomized controlled design compared the status of couples in treatment condition to control condition. Treatment couples received 12-week CCT while control couples received three brief check-ins over 12 weeks. No significant difference was found between treatment and control group at baseline on all measures. At (1) week 12 post-treatment, and (2) week 20 follow-up, significant treatment effects were found for gambling symptoms (p = 0.008; p = 0.041), mental distress (p = 0.001; p = 0.035), and family systems function (p = 0.023; p = 0.054) between treatment and control group. Within group changes for treatment couples over time were significant for mental distress (p = 0.000), dyadic adjustment (p = 0.002), and family systems function (p = 0.000). On similar measures, control group showed non-significant improvement. Future methodological changes, advantages and disadvantages of multi-site partnerships with community treatment agencies are discussed. Of interest is that control participants showed unintended improvement. CCT as a treatment was favourably accepted by counselors, problem gamblers and their spouses. Positive outcome trends ranging from small to large effect size on key measures indicate that a full-scaled trial will require approximately 140 couples and is an investment worth pursuing.

Management of interest rate risk

Interest rate risk is one of the biggest and most dangerous risks that a bank is exposed to. When a change of interest rates occurs, the incomes of a bank based on credits and securities endure significant changes. Banks resources also endure some changes. The change of interest rates changes the value of the assets and liabilities of the bank and it's net and investment worth . The change of interest rates also affects bank's balance sheet, income sheet statement and bank's share capital. .

THE IMPACT OF INTRODUCING A 24/7 EMERGENCY GASTROINTESTINAL (GI) BLEEDS SERVICE ON REDUCING HOSPITAL STAY AND MORTALITY IN A DISTRICT GENERAL HOSPITAL

IntroductionThe impact of introducing a 24/7 emergency gastrointestinal (GI) bleeds service on reducing hospital stay and mortality in a District General Hospital.Aims/BackgroundUpper GI bleed remains the commonest gastrointestinal emergency with...

PTH-071 The Impact of Introducing the 24/7 Emegrency Gastrointestinal Bleed Service on Reducing Hospital Stay and Mortality in a District General Hospital

IntroductionUpper Gastrointestinal (GI) bleed remains the commonest gastrointestinal emergency with a significantly high hospital mortality and prolonged hospital stay[1]. The aim of the study is to audit any difference of...

Dentascan - is the investment worth the hype ???

Open Bone Measurement (OBM) and Bone Sounding (BS) are most reliable but invasive clinical methods for Alveolar Bone Level (ABL) assessment, causing discomfort to the patient. Routinely, IOPAs & OPGs are the commonest radiographic techniques used, which tend to underestimate bone loss and obscure buccal/lingual defects. Novel technique like dentascan (CBCT) eliminates this limitation by giving images in 3 planes - sagittal, coronal and axial. To compare & correlate non-invasive 3D radiographic technique of Dentascan with BS & OBM, and IOPA and OPG, in assessing the ABL. Cross-sectional diagnostic study. Two hundred and five sites were subjected to clinical and radiographic diagnostic techniques. Relative distance between the alveolar bone crest and reference wire was measured. All the measurements were compared and tested against the OBM. Student's t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient. There is statistically significant difference between dentascan and OBM, only BS showed agreement with OBM (p < 0.05). Dentascan weakly correlated with OBM & BS lingually.Rest all techniques showed statistically significant difference between them (p= 0.00). Within the limitations of this study, only BS seems to be comparable with OBM with no superior result of Dentascan over the conventional techniques, except for lingual measurements.

What impact do healthcare digital libraries have? An evaluation of national resource of infection control at the point of care using the Impact-ED framework

Over the last decade billions of dollars’ worth of investments have been directed into ICT solutions for healthcare. In particular, new evidence-based digital libraries and web portals designed to keep busy clinicians up to date with the latest evidence were created in the UK and US. While usability and performance of digital libraries were widely researched, evaluation of impact did not seem to be sufficiently addressed. This is of major concern for healthcare digital libraries as their success or failure has a direct impact on patients’ health, clinical practice, government policies and funding initiatives. In order to fill this gap, we developed the Impact-ED evaluation framework measuring impact on four dimensions of digital libraries—content, community, services and technology. Applying a triangulation technique we analysed pre- and post-visit questionnaires to assess the clinical query or aim of the visit and subsequent satisfaction with each visit, mapped it against weblogs analysis for each session and triangulated with data from semi-structured interviews. In this paper, we present the complete description of the Impact-ED framework, a definition of the comparative Impact score and application of the framework to a real-world medical digital library, the National Resource of Infection Control (NRIC, http://www.nric.org.uk), to evaluate its impact at the point of care and demonstrate the generalisability of this novel methodology. We analysed the data from a cohort of 53 users who completed the registration questionnaire, of which 32 completed pre- and post-visit questionnaires of which 72 sets were matched for analysis and five users out of these were interviewed using Dervin’s method. NRIC is generally perceived to be a useful resource with 93 % of users reporting it provides relevant information regularly or occasionally (\(n=28\)) and provided relevant information in over 65 % of visits (\(n=47\)). NRIC has a positive impact on user knowledge in over half of visits to the library (52.8 %), NRIC actual impact score \(I_{\text{ a}} = 0.65\) and the study revealed several areas for potential development to increase its impact.