Margin Index Research Articles

Regional Variation in Palliative Care Receipt in Ontario, Canada.

Background: Delivery of health services in the province of Ontario is organized into 14 Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), and further into 76 LHIN subregions, making these a natural unit of comparing the regional differences in palliative care receipt among decedents who were identified as having palliative care needs. Objective: To assess the presence and magnitude of the remaining regional variation in palliative care receipt in Ontario after accounting for demographic and socioeconomic differences between the LHIN subregions, and therefore to assess whether the standardized proportion of palliative care receipt as a performance indicator can capture potential performance-related issues. Design: A retrospective cohort study based on Ontario administrative data sources. Setting/Subjects: Ontario residents who died between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016 and were identified as having palliative care needs. Measurements: Date of death, diagnostic codes used for determining palliative care needs, and services receipt in last year of life were identified from multiple administrative databases. Demographic and socioeconomic information were derived from linking decedents' postal codes to Statistics Canada Census data and Ontario Marginalization Index. Results: Statistically significant variation ranging from 63% to 75% in palliative care receipt exists between Ontario subregions even after accounting for demographic and socioeconomic differences, including age, sex, rurality, income quintile, and the four dimensions of the Ontario Marginalization Index. Conclusions: Annual directly standardized proportion of palliative care receipt can be used as a performance indicator to detect regional differences in service receipt while adjusting for regional differences in the characteristics of the decedent populations. The factors to be adjusted for can be chosen based on the comparison of interest.

Effect of capacity building in alleviating poverty and improving forest conservation in the communal forests of Mexico

Abstract Community Forestry has been identified as a secure, profitable, and equitable strategy to reach the dual goal of forest conservation and poverty alleviation. This research contributes to the literature exploring the effects of local capacity building in forest communities by analyzing the Community Forestry Program (CFP) in Mexico. This program provides grants to enhance four types of local capacities: human, social, economic, and environmental. We used a quasi-experimental approach to quantitatively compare matched treatment and control communities regarding the effect of these interventions on two response variables: poverty alleviation and forest cover conservation. The treatment and control communities were assessed at two points in time: pre-intervention and after a 5-year treatment period. This approach was possible because we had access to a rich database of CFP grants containing more than 20,000 records from which we identify 5074 that meet the criteria for our study. Impact on poverty is assessed using a Marginality Index produced by a federal agency. Effect on forest cover conservation is evaluated by using two proxies, the rate of change on: forest cover and on forest cover fragmentation. Our results show that enhancement of only human/social capacities or all capacities as a package significantly reduce poverty. However, the first ones have a greater impact that the latter ones. Neither human/social capacities enhancement, nor all-capacities enhancement had a statistically significant effect on forest cover conservation. These findings can assist in better designing and targeting future CFP grants in Mexico. Also, they have implications for public policy since capacity building is cheaper than any other poverty alleviation mechanism such as direct cash transfers or subsidies. Furthermore, they have long-lasting impacts that do not require regular periodical contributions and they don’t discriminate by gender, or by the requirement on individual community members of having land ownership rights within the community’s land holdings.

Prioritization to protect springs for public urban water supplies, based on multi-criteria evaluation and GIS (State of Mexico, Mexico)

The problematic that commonly arises when protecting springs that supply water for human consumption requires a methodological process to prioritize springs that are used for this purpose according to their greatest need for protection from contamination and exploitation processes. To this end, the stages included in the present study were: a) regionalization of the study area (State of Mexico, Mexico) considering physical variables, which included precipitation, hydrogeological functioning, and geoforms; b) selection of the springs used for human supply that have the greatest exploitation flows, as registered in the Public Water Rights Record; and c) prioritization of springs to be protected based on a multi-criteria evaluation (MCE), considering criteria such as exploitation flow, land use, population to be supplied, conservation of spring water collection systems, existence of alternative supply sources, and marginalization index of nearby populations. Regionalization enabled identifying regions that were homogeneous in terms of the characteristics of the springs and their physical environment. Six of those regions with the largest territorial areas were selected, where 88% of the springs used for human consumption were located. Within each selected region, the springs that were representative of exploitation flow were identified, and a total of 23 were included. Lastly, MCE permit to identify six springs (one in each region) that were priorities for protection. The prioritization of the springs to be protected in each of the six regions selected will facilitate the future application of protection methods based on the physical characteristics of the springs and their physical and socioeconomic environments. Considering also the characteristics of groundwater flow in the feeding areas of the springs.

Prevalence of HIV/STIs and correlates with municipal characteristics among female sex workers in 13 Mexican cities.

To identify correlates of HIV/STI prevalence among 13 cities with varying sizes of female sex worker (FSW) populations and municipal characteristics in Mexico. FSWs underwent interviews and testing for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. Logistic regression explored variations in HIV/STI prevalence. Among FSWs (n=1 092), prevalence across 13 sites was: HIV: 0.4% (range: 0%-1.4%): syphilis: 7.8% (range: 0%-17.2%); chlamydia: 15.3% (range: 5.7%-32.2%); gonorrhea:2.9% (range 0%-13.8%), and any HIV/STI: 23% (range: 9.9%- 46%). Municipalities with high human development scores and a lower municipal marginalization index had higher odds of combined HIV/STI prevalence. After controlling for sitespecific variability in municipal characteristics, greater risk of HIV/STIs was associated with lower education, having a spouse diagnosed or treated for an STI, unaffordability of condoms, and having non-Mexican clients. Prevalence of HIV/STIs varies across Mexican municipalities indicating the need for surveillance to identify hotspots for targeted resource allocation.

Security‐level classification based on power system partitioning

Secure and reliable operation of power systems is a crucial factor to the security of power supply, and security assessment is an effective way to evaluate the quality of security. In order to evaluate the specific security status of a power system, a novel method for security-level classification (SLC) based on power system partitioning is proposed here. In this method, power system is partitioned into different subareas satisfying different N - k contingencies. Then, the mutual power supply between each subarea is coordinated to obtain the total supply capacity (TSC) under N-k contingencies. The security margin (SM) index, average system disequilibrium (ASD) index, and comprehensive safety index (CSI) are applied to assess the security of power system. Besides this, the threshold crossing (TC) index and the loss rate of load (LRL) index are applied to assess the unsafe conditions of power systems. According to the above procedures, the power system security states are classified into five levels, and a quantitative criterion to determine the exact security level is also given. Finally, a practical power system and the IEEE 118-bus test system are adopted to validate the feasibility of security classification based on N-k contingencies partition.

Exploring the multiscale changeability of precipitation using the entropy concept and self-organizing maps

Abstract This study utilized a spatio-temporal framework to assess the dispersion and uncertainty of precipitation in Iran. Thirty-one rain gauges with data from 1960 to 2010 were selected in order to apply the entropy concept and study spatio-temporal variability of precipitation. The variability of monthly, seasonal and annual precipitation series was studied using the marginal disorder index (MDI). To investigate the intra-annual and decadal distribution of monthly and annual precipitation values, the apportionment disorder index (ADI) and decadal ADI (DADI) were applied to the time series. The continuous wavelet transform was used to decompose the ADI time series into time-frequency domains. The decomposition of the ADI series into different zones helped to identify the dominant modes of variability and the variation of those modes over time. The results revealed the high disorderliness in the amount of precipitation for different temporal scales based on disorder indices. Based on the DI outcome for all rain gauges, a self-organizing map (SOM) was trained to find the optimum number of clusters (seven) of rain gauges. It was observed from the clustering that there was hydrologic similarity in the clusters apart from the geographic neighborhood.

Multi-objective Network Reconfiguration Considering V2G of Electric Vehicles in Distribution System with Renewable Energy

Abstract With the fluctuation and intermittence of distributed generation (DG) and electric vehicle (EV), it is important to ensure the safe and stable operation of distribution system. This paper presents a multi-objective approach of network reconfiguration considering vehicle-to-grid (V2G) electric vehicles in distribution system with renewable energy access. Firstly, the multi-objective function includes the network loss index, the voltage deviation index and the voltage stability margin index. The weight of each index is determined by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Secondly, the charging and discharging strategies of two kinds of electric vehicles are analyzed considering the renewable energy access. Finally, the improved genetic algorithm (GA) is used to solve this problem. The probabilistic statistical models are used to describe EV, and the Monte Carlo method is used to calculate the power. The proposed approach is verified on IEEE33 nodes system.

Analisis Beneish Ratio Index untuk Mendeteksi Fraudulent Financial Reporting pada Perusahaan Perbankan yang Terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia Periode 2015-2016

This study aims to determine the percentage of Banking in Indonesia Stock Exchange listed 2015-201 were classified as non manipulators and manipulators. The object of this study is all Banking companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange to publish audited financial statements for the financial year 2015 to 2016. The sampling technique is by using purposive sampling where the sample is determined based on certain criteria specified by the author and have limitations in terms of generalization , Methods of data collection using the method of documentation. Data analysze technique used is quantitative descriptive analysis using Beneish Ratio Index. The variable in this study is the Days' Sales In Receivables Index (dsri), Gross Margin Index (GMI), Asset Quality Index (AQI), Sales Growth Index (SGI), and Total Accruals To Total Assets Index (TATA). The research result is an index analysis showed that the ratio of 2 (two) or 7,41% of the company samples classified as Manipulators. Companies that belong to the category of companies Manipulators have indications commit fraud (fraud) to the presentation of financial statements. Ratio index analysis showed that 16 (sixteen) companies, or 59,26% of the company samples classified as Non Manipulators. Companies belonging to the company Non Manipulators do not have any indication of fraud (fraud) against the not categorize of financial statement presentation as well as the company Manipulators Non company entered in the class of Grey / Grey Company, this group amounted to 9 companies or 33,33 % of companies sampled

Effect of stubble height and irrigation management on the growth, botanical composition and persistence of perennial ryegrass, tall fescue and chicory swards in cool-temperate Tasmania

The profitability of dairying in south-eastern Australia can be improved by increasing pasture production during summer–autumn, when growth rates for the existing perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) feedbase are low. A study undertaken in cool-temperate north-west Tasmania examined the effect of stubble height and irrigation management on swards of perennial ryegrass, continental (summer-active) tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) and chicory (Cichorium intybus L.). Irrigation treatments included full irrigation (~20mm applied at every 20mm precipitation deficit), deficit irrigation (~20mm applied at alternate full-irrigation events) and rainfed (no irrigation). All species achieved greater summer–autumn yields when repeatedly defoliated to stubble heights of 35 or 55mm than when defoliated to 115mm, irrespective of irrigation treatment. Swards were managed under a common defoliation schedule of nine defoliation events in 12 months. Under full irrigation, second-year tall fescue achieved a greater summer–autumn yield than perennial ryegrass (by 10%, or 0.7 t DM ha–1), highlighting the potential role of tall fescue in north-west Tasmania. This was further demonstrated by the high marginal irrigation water-use index values (1.6–2.7 t DM ML–1) of tall fescue. By contrast, summer–autumn growth achieved by chicory was less than or equal to perennial ryegrass.

Analysis of Vertical Misfit of Crowns Fabricated with CAD/CAM Technology using Two Scanning Techniques: Direct and Indirect

The study evaluated the marginal vertical misfit of feldspathic ceramic crowns fabricated by the computer-aided design (CAD)/computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) technology and compared the two methods of scanning techniques: direct digital impression and indirect digital impression. The titanium specimens were divided into two groups: scanning with the direct digital impression (DDI) at the milled prosthetic abutment level and indirect digital impression (IDI) at the cast model and after milled feldspathic ceramics blocks. Vertical marginal misfit was analyzed. The t-test was used for the analysis of the comparison factor between the groups and the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test, and post hoc Tukey test was used to compare the variance of crown analysis regions within the group. A significance level of 5% was considered for the analyses. There was no significant difference in vertical marginal misfit between the groups of DDI and IDI (p = 0.345). In relation to each region measured within the studied groups, it was observed the similarity between the six regions analyzed in the DDI group (p >0.05) and IDI group, a significant difference between two areas. The vertical marginal adaptation was similar between digital scanning methods. Based on the data evaluated, vertical marginal adaptation indices were within acceptable clinical standards. The direct digital scanning in unit bodies was reliable, pointing that the coating of titanium dioxide in the titanium abutment did not negatively influence the vertical marginal adaptation of the feldspathic ceramic crowns.

Impact of marginalization on tobacco use in individuals diagnosed with head and neck Cancer

BackgroundConsiderable evidence now indicates that individuals living in underprivileged neighbourhoods have higher rates of mortality and morbidity independent of individual-level characteristics. This study explored the impact of geographical marginalization on smoking cessation in a population of individuals with a diagnosis of head and neck cancer. The aims of this study were twofold: (1) assess the prevalence of smoking cessation in those with a previous diagnosis of head and neck cancer, (2) analyze the determinants of smoking alongside area-based measures of socioeconomic status.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional study. We administered a self-reported nicotine dependence package to participants between the ages of 20–90 with a previous mucosal head and neck cancer diagnosis and with a history of tobacco use. Using the Canadian Marginalization (CAN-Marg) Index tool based on 2006 Canada Census data we compared the degree of marginalization to the smoking status. For those individuals who were currently smoking, nicotine dependence and readiness to quit were assessed. A summative score of marginalization was compared to smoking status of individuals.ResultsThe results from this study indicate that the summative level of marginalization developed from the combined factors of residential instability, material deprivation, ethnic concentration and dependency may be important factors in smoking cessation.ConclusionsThis analysis of determinants of smoking alongside area-based measures of socioeconomic status may implicate the need for targeted population-based smoking cessation interventions.

Does corporate sustainability practices have an impact on financial performance: A study based on BIST manufacturing firms

Purpose- Corporate Sustainability notion has become very important in recent years with sustainable development, which is defined as fulfillment of current needs without risking fulfillment of future generations' needs. Especially in the last two decades, the relationship between financial performance and corporate sustainability has been questioned extensively in large masses particularly business and academic world. The purpose of this study is to analyze the corporate sustainability practices and its impact on financial performance. Methodology - It focuses on relationship between corporate sustainability practices and financial performance. In order to reach this aim corporate sustainability checklist is established and companies are classified according to their sustainability levels. Publicly traded companies from BIST 100 (excluding finance sector) are used as a sample. Data is gathered from theirs annual reports for the years between 2012-2017. Findings- MANOVA analysis is used to analyze the relationship between the sustainability levels and the financial performance indicators. The results implied that sustainability levels have statistically significant effect between the group means of 3 variables. These are Current Ratio, Gross Profit Margin and Corporate Governance Index. For Current Ratio variable, there is a significant difference between sustainable and least sustainable category for 10 % significance level. For CG Index variable, there is a significant difference between most sustainable and sustainable category and most sustainable and least sustainable category for 5 % significance level. For Gross Profit Margin variable, there is a significant difference between most sustainable and sustainable category for 5 % significance level. Conclusion- In many studies it is found that there is a positive relationship between corporate social sustainability and firm financial performance. Our study supports that companies incorporate sustainability issues into their business operations are better able to leverage their resources toward stronger financial performance and shareholder value creation.We were able find a significant relationship between Current Ratio, Gross Profit Margin and Corporate Governance Index. The paper contributes to the literature by offering a more holistic approach to corporate sustainable performance measurement and its relationship between financial performance.

The effect of macroeconomic variables on the performance of non-life insurance companies in Bangladesh

This study examines the impact of some selected macroeconomic variables on the performance of the non-life insurance companies of Bangladesh. Here, we consider 32 such companies that are operating in the country. These companies are observed over the period of 7 years (2009–2015) giving rise to 224 panel observations. In our study, we use two performance measures, like return on asset (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) as dependent variables. The explanatory variables are categorized as macroeconomic factors and firm-specific factors. Former includes variable such as inflation rate, GDP growth rate, interest rate, and exchange rate. To measure the firm-specific factors, we use eight proxy variables such as age, size, loss ratio, solvency margin, assets tangibility, liquidity ratio, debt ratio, and management competence index as explanatory variables. The research employs panel data regression methodology to examine the effects of macroeconomic variables on the performance of the aforementioned companies. The regression results of our study suggest that except interest rate, none of the macroeconomic variables has statistically significant influence on the performance of non-life insurance companies. These results, indeed, gainsay with economic theories. On the other hand, the firms’ specific factors; e.g., age, sizes, loss ratio, solvency margin, tangibility of assets, and management competence index have statistically significant impact on the performance of the non-life insurance sector of Bangladesh. Thus, the interest rate along with firm-specific factors can be identified as determinants of the performance of the Bangladeshi non-life insurance companies. This analysis obviously provides some noteworthy new information to different stakeholders of the Bangladesh non-life insurance sector. In particular, the findings of the study are expected to be useful to both domestic and foreign investors to make more rational decisions regarding selection of insurance companies’ stocks for their portfolios at Dhaka stock exchange. Public policy authorities may also use the same results to formulate sound policies to ensure economic growth and stability of the nation.

Involving the Water–Energy–Food Nexus in Integrating Low-Income and Isolated Communities

This work presents a general mathematical programming model for satisfying water, energy, and food needs in isolated and low-income communities involving different process integration approaches. The problem consists in determining the optimal and sustainable configuration to satisfy the energy, water, and food demands of the inhabitants. Also, the use of waste-to-energy technologies is proposed to handle the municipal solid waste correctly and obtain valuated products from wastes to reduce the environmental impact. A multiobjective analysis is presented considering the consumption of fresh water, the greenhouse gas emissions, and the cost of the integrated system as objective functions. As a case study, the community with the lowest index of poverty and marginalization from the State of Guerrero in Mexico is presented. The results show that it is possible to satisfy the water, energy, and food needs in isolated communities accounting for integrated processes. Besides, it is possible to obtain trade-off s...

Optimization of support vector machine parameters for voltage stability margin assessment in the deregulated power system

Recently, the electric power systems are operated relatively close to their operational limits due to worldwide deregulated electricity market policies. The power systems are being operated with high stress, and hence sufficient voltage stability margin is necessary to be managed to ensure secure operation of the power system. A particle swarm optimization-based support vector machine (SVM) approach for online monitoring of voltage stability has been proposed in this paper. The conventional methods for voltage stability monitoring are less accurate and highly time-consuming consequently, infeasible for online application. SVM is a powerful machine learning technique and widely used in power system to predict the voltage stability margin, but its performances depend on the selection of parameters greatly. So, the particle swarm optimization is applied to determine the parameter settings of SVM. The proposed approach uses bus voltage angle and reactive power load as the input vectors to SVM, and the output vector is the voltage stability margin index. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is tested using the IEEE 14-bus test system, IEEE 30-bus test system and the IEEE 118-bus test system. The results of the proposed PSO-SVM approach for voltage stability monitoring are compared with artificial neural networks and grid search SVM approach with same data set to prove its superiority.

Non‐parametric statistics‐based predictor enabling online transient stability assessment

Online transient stability assessment (TSA) is of great necessity for fast awareness of transient instability caused by fault contingencies. In this paper, a non-parametric statistics based scheme is proposed for response-based online TSA. A critical clearing time-based stability margin index is defined as the predictive output and 14 kinds of severity indicators are proposed as input features for the TSA predictor. With no prior knowledge of the correlation structure, the non-parametric additive model is used as the basis of the predictor. To screen out the weakly correlated indicators and reduce the dimensionality of the input space, two-stage feature selection is fulfilled by non-parametric independence screening and group Lasso penalised regression successively. The predictor is then learnt by least-squares regression in the reduced multi-feature space. With phasor measurement unit measurements at generator buses, severity indicators can be computed in the real-time and fast evaluation of post-fault stability margin can be made by the offline-trained predictor. The effectiveness of the proposed non-parametric statistics based scheme is demonstrated in a modified New England 39-bus system and a practical 756-bus transmission system in China.

ACTIVE POWER LOSS REDUCTION AND IMPROVEMENT OF STATIC VOLTAGE STABILITY MARGIN INDEX BY WATERWAY ALGORITHM

In this paper, the Waterway Algorithm (WA) is used for Active Power Loss Reduction and improvement of Static Voltage Stability Margin Index. The design of the Waterway Algorithm (WA) is imitated from nature and the whole waterway process which involves the flow of streams and rivers into the sea in the natural world. The proposed Waterway Algorithm (WA) algorithm has been tested on standard IEEE 30 bus test system and simulation results show clearly about the superior performance of the proposed algorithm in reducing the real power loss and upgrading the Static Voltage Stability Margin Index.

Decentralized Load Shedding Method Based on Voltage Stability Margin Index Using Synchrophasor Measurement Technology

This study develops an analytical method for assessing the voltage stability margins of a decentralized load shedding scheme; it then examines the challenges related to the existing load shedding scheme. It also presents a practical application for implementing the proposed method, based on the synchrophasor measurement technology in modern power grid operations. By applying the concept of a continuously-computed voltage stability margin index to the configuration of the Thévenin equivalent system, the maximum transfer power could be used as an index to monitor the voltage instability phenomenon and thus determine the required load shedding amount. Thus, the calculated voltage stability margin might be a useful index for system operators in the critical decision-making process of load shedding. Dynamic simulations are performed on real Korean power systems as case studies. Simulation results, when comparing the existing and proposed methods, showed that there was a considerable reduction in the amount of load shedding in the voltage instability scenario. This indicates that the synchrophasor measurement technology has a considerable effect on the proposed load shedding method. The simulation results have validated the performance of the proposed method.

Validation of the Marginal Zone Lymphoma International Prognostic Index.

The Marginal Zone Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (MALT-IPI) was recently developed for use in patients with mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma based on age, serum lactate dehydrogenase level, and Ann Arbor stage. In this study, we aimed to validate the MALT-IPI. A total of 455 MALT lymphoma patients were included in this study from between January 2005 and February 2017. Event-free survival (EFS), progression-free survival (PFS), cause-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS) were the primary outcomes. Of the 455 patients, MALT-IPI low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups included 309 (67.9%), 126 (27.7%), and 20 (4.4%) individuals, respectively. When comparing the low-risk group (L MALT-IPI) with the intermediate-high-risk group (I-H MALT-IPI), EFS, PFS, CSS, and OS were significantly different (p =0.000, p = 0.000, p = 0.027, and p = 0.037). The International Prognostic Index and the Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index failed to predict the prognosis of MALT lymphoma. Use of the MALT-IPI significantly differentiated L MALT-IPI from I-H MALT-IPI with respect to EFS, PFS, CSS, and OS. MALT-IPI is a valuable tool for the prediction of MALT lymphoma prognosis.

Pendeteksian Kecurangan Laporan Keuangan dengan Beneish M-Score pada Perusahaan Perbankan Terbuka

This study aims to determine the percentage of firms listed on the BEI in 2014-2016 which are classified as non manipulator, gray company and manipulator by using five indexes of Days Sales in Receivable Index (DSRI), Gross Margin Index (GMI), Asset Quality Index (AQI), Sales Growth Index (SGI), and Total Accrual To Total Assets Index (TATA). The method of collecting data is documentation with the number of samples are 42 banking companies listed on BEI Year 2014-2016. Data analysis used is Beneish Ratio Index. The results revealed that the percentage of banking companies classified as non manipulator in 2014 amounted to 4.76%, by 2015 38.1% and in 2016 47.6%. The percentage of banking companies classified as gray company in 2014 amounted to 38.1%, by 2015 50% and in 2016 45.2%. Percentage of banking companies that are classified as manipulators in 2014 amounted to 57.1%, in 2015 11.9% and in 2016 7.14%.