Monetary Constraints Research Articles

Toward Expanded Access to Cancer Care With Cost Awareness: An Optimization Modeling Analysis of Rwanda.

Cancers are a growing cause of mortality especially in low- and middle-income countries in Africa. Rwanda is no exception. Two cancer centers currently provide care to the public, but there are both political and human interest in expanding access to tertiary cancer care. Improved geographic access could lead to both better patient outcomes and a better understanding of the existing cancer burden across Rwanda. To identify cost-aware ways of expanding geographic access, we adopt an optimization approach and identify expansion plans that minimize the average travel time to a cancer center across the country while remaining under a given monetary budget. Three additional hospitals could reduce average travel times by 40%, with the largest decrease in travel times observed in populations with long travel times. However, such an expansion would require a 50% increase in the number of in-country oncologists. We find that oncologist scarcity, as opposed to monetary constraints, is likely to be a limiting factor for improved access to cancer care. We present an array of expansion plans and suggest that further modeling approaches that incorporate oncologist scarcity can help deliver better policy recommendations.

Exploring local perceptions and drivers of engagement in biodiversity monitoring among participants in payments for ecosystem services schemes in southeastern Mexico.

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are widely applied incentive-based instruments with diverse objectives that increasingly include biodiversity conservation. Yet, there is a gap in understanding of how to best assess and monitor programs' biodiversity outcomes. We examined perceptions and drivers of engagement related to biodiversity monitoring through surveys among current PES participants in 7 communities in Mexico's Selva Lacandona. We conducted workshops among survey participants that included training and field deployment of tools used to monitor biodiversity and land cover, including visual transects, camera traps, acoustic recorders, and forest cover satellite images. We conducted pre- and postworkshop surveys in each community to evaluate changes in respondents' perceptions following exposure to biodiversity monitoring training and related field activities. We also reviewed existing research on participatory environmental management and monitoring approaches. One quarter of current PES participants in the study area participated in our surveys and workshops. The majority stated interest in engaging in diverse activities related to the procedural aspects of biodiversity monitoring (e.g., planning, field data collection, results dissemination) and acknowledged multiple benefits of introducing biodiversity monitoring into PES (e.g., knowledge and capacity building, improved natural resource management, and greater support for conservation). Household economic reliance on PES was positively associated with willingness to engage in monitoring. Technical expertise, time, and monetary constraints were deterrents. Respondents were most interested in monitoring mammals, birds, and plants and using visual transects, camera traps, and forest cover satellite images. Exposure to monitoring enhanced subsequent interest in monitoring by providing respondents with new insights from their communities related to deforestation and species' abundance and diversity. Respondents identified key strengths and weaknesses of applying different monitoring tools, which suggests that deploying multiple tools simultaneously can increase local engagement and produce complementary findings and data. Overall, our findings support the relevance and usefulness of incorporating participatory biodiversity monitoring into PES.

How many microplastics do you need to (sub)sample?

Analysis of microplastics in the environment requires polymer characterization as a confirmation step for suspected microplastic particles found in a sample. Material characterization is costly and can take a long time per particle. When microplastic particle counts are high, many researchers cannot characterize every particle in their sample due to time or monetary constraints. Moreover, characterizing every particle in samples with high plastic particle counts is unnecessary for describing the sample properties. We propose an a priori approach to determine the number of suspected microplastic particles in a sample that should be randomly subsampled for characterization to accurately assess the polymer distribution in the environmental sample. The proposed equation is well-founded in statistics literature and was validated using published microplastic data and simulations for typical microplastic subsampling routines. We report values from the whole equation but also derive a simple way to calculate the necessary particle count for samples or subsamples by taking the error to the power of negative two. Assuming an error of 0.05 (5 %) with a confidence interval of 95 %, an unknown expected proportion, and a sample with many particles (> 100k), the minimum number of particles in a subsample should be 386 particles to accurately characterize the polymer distribution of the sample, given the particles are randomly characterized from the full population of suspected particles. Extending this equation to simultaneously estimate polymer, color, size, and morphology distributions reveals more particles (620) would be needed in the subsample to achieve the same high absolute error threshold for all properties. The above proposal for minimum subsample size also applies to the minimum count that should be present in samples to accurately characterize particle type presence and diversity in a given environmental compartment.

Elephant Based Volunteer Tourism in Sri Lanka (On the Perception of Volunteer Service Providers and Volunteer Participants in Elephant Related Activities)


 
 
 Volunteer tourism is an emerging sector of modern tourism. Elephant based volunteering activities, which means activities related to conservation and protection of animal rights and welfare related to elephants, plays a contemporary role among them, that perceive the aspect of animal conservation and preservation while also promoting tourism which describes both well-being of the elephants and tourism markets. This study is a collaboration to depict these types of contemplating the current profile of elephant-related activities and volunteer tourism in Sri Lanka, while creating and promoting a niche market for elephant-based volunteer tourism that would guide to identify and understand volunteer service providers and volunteer participant‘s perspective of captive and non- captive elephant welfare. The researcher has selected Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, Wasgamuwa National Park, Hurulu Eco Park and Minneriya Forest Reserve as the research sites for the study. The population of the study is consisted with all the participants of elephant-based volunteer programs and volunteer service providers related to the elephant related activities of Sri Lanka. As the sample the researcher selected 30 participants who they are both volunteer service providers and volunteer participants from the areas of selected research sites. For selecting the sample, the researcher adopted purposive sampling technique. Qualitative method is adopted for the study and structured interviews were used as primary data resource, while journal articles, research papers, books and online sources were used as secondary data sources and thematic analysis method was utilized in analyzing the data. According to the findings the elephants are using in entertainment purposes which are; elephant back riding, elephant shows, perahara events, elephant seeing safaris, elephant based souvenirs and products and photography. As the data analysis the short comings in elephant-based tourism are lack of awareness about the concepts throughout the country, lack of government involvement and unavailability of strict legal structure, lack of consideration about the animal welfare by the respective organizations and restriction of animal freedom. Major opportunities generated by the elephant-based volunteering activities includes generation of good income through the tourism industry and volunteering is a major tool of self-improvement. When searching for the challenges in promoting elephant-based volunteering activities the following are identified; language barriers, unacceptable human behavior and attitudes, monetary constraints and improper uses of private tour operators. When discussing about promoting elephant-based volunteering activities, based on the research it can be suggested to use social media for promoting, holding awareness programs in forest areas as well as in urban areas, conducting collaborative research studies and taking measures to alter the attitudes of people.
 
 
 
 
 Keywords: Volunteer tourism, Elephant-based tourism, Animal welfare, Volunteer service providers
 
 
 
 
 
 

Formulating an optimization algorithm for optimal planning and assessment of rule-based hybrid load following micro-combined heat and power systems

This manuscript presents a logical-based method with a constrained programming approach for making use of the principle. The proposed optimal approach is the improved chameleon swarm algorithm (ICSA). The navigating and hunting behavior of CSA is improved with the crossover and mutation processes, and it is defined as the ICSA approach. The proposed hybrid approach is the number one power consumption, greenhouse gas, and total annual cost (TAC), in addition to including conditions largely based entirely on the monitoring approach, which is a mixture of those standards. These three power-corresponding parameters have been exploited to examine the overall performance of every method corresponding to the absorbed power providers employing the construction call for requests. The calculation of the established effectiveness for four varieties of residents’ homes suggests the not-infrequent place hybrid method. This increases the exploitation of the cogeneration system as well as the proposed method because the most appropriate techniques include measures capable of obtaining excellent conciliation answers done with TAC at 55%, primary energy consumption (PEC) at 14%, and greenhouse generation (GHG) at 9% discounts correspondingly. However, the proposed method obtains optimum discounts in TAC and optimum overall performance for power matching by utilizing identical boundaries for GHG and PEC in assessment to the always infrequent place hybrid technique. The prey-in cost for energy era with nearly 60 in TAC is perceived as the maximum leading monetary constraint for sensibility evaluation when micro-cogeneration units use over 3% gain and are the most disrupted outcome for randomly evaluated.

Space–time prism and accessibility incorporating monetary budget and mobility-as-a-service

Recent years in time geography have witnessed a flourishment of space–time prism (STP) modeling extensions for enhancing realism. However, there is little research on the incorporation of monetary budget in STP models to capture personal potential mobility space more realistically. This study considers both time and monetary budget constraints in STP modeling in a multimodal supernetwork integrating mobility-as-a-service and trip chains. We develop an efficient two-stage bi-criterion bidirectional search method to identify Pareto path sets to construct the resulting STP for conducting a flexible activity between two anchor nodes. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and solution method, a case study with varying scenarios is conducted to evaluate the impacts of monetary budget on space–time accessibility and equality. The findings show that the ignorance of monetary budget overestimates accessibility and that MaaS, if not well designed, may not improve equality in accessibility as intended.

Immersive, interactive virtual learning environments increase accessibility in soil science

AbstractAs the use of online education increases, technologies to improve the quality of learning have been improving alongside it. One method of information dissemination is virtual learning environments (VLE), in which educators can tailor digital lessons according to their subject and the needs of their students. For soil science, and field‐based sciences in general, this technology holds great potential in addressing issues of accessibility. Field labs can be challenging due to monetary, time, and physical constraints; however, the use of VLE can allow for students to indefinitely access field settings in a safe and repeatable way with no additional cost. We have built the framework for and created an immersive soil science–based VLE in the Laramie Range Mountains, examining terrain and soils along six sites on a catena. When this VLE was used in a class of 26 upper level morphology and classification students as a supplemental field trip, scores before and after use were comparable; however, students reported an increase in engagement and interest in the VLE itself, as well a general increase in understanding of relationships between landscape processes and soil formation. Using this technology structure in distance learning enhances our ability to deliver high‐quality, immersive, accessible content as natural science education progresses.

Business process model for “crowdfunding cash waqf model”

Purpose Cash waqf is a powerful financial instrument that deals with the issue of liquidity constraints in waqf institutions. While there are several models of cash waqf operating in different countries, there is increasing demand for innovative cash waqf models, especially within the financial technology context. This paper aims to propose a practical alternative model of funding for waqf institutions using the concepts of crowdfunding and cash waqf. Design/methodology/approach This study evaluated the literature relevant to cash waqf models that have been implemented in different countries and proposed a new viable alternative model. Findings Results offer an alternative financing model, named crowdfunding cash waqf model, for waqf institutions to overcome monetary constraints and enable development projects to be completed. Practical implications The current study has important implications for both officials and relevant stakeholders. It is sought to bring better consistency between cash waqf donors, solving the liquidity problem faced by waqf institutions, enhancing the transparency of waqf institutions and their use of waqf funds, wealth circulation and financing businesses without interest-based loans (riba). By incorporating a crowdfunding and investment mechanism in the model, this method of collecting funds will assist governments in reducing their expenditure on waqf institutions and other social development programmes. Originality/value The proposed model differs from current methods of generating cash waqf, including those are also internet-based. The proposed model is devised to help waqf institutions achieve financial sustainability by including an investment mechanism in the model to sustain the development of waqf projects.

Clustering populations by health and social care with multiple long-term conditions: a cohort study - the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA).

The integration of health and social care services is a potential solution for improving care, despite monetary constraints and increasing demand. How two or more multiple long-term conditions (MLTC) cluster, interact and associate with socioeconomic factors, and affect access to unscheduled primary healthcare services is understudied. To cluster an MLTC population by health and social care, examine clusters, and quantify associations with health outcomes. A retrospective cohort study was conducted using the ELSA database (2002 to 2019) on 19802 participants aged ≥50 years. Ten major health conditions, and social care need, including difficulty in activities of daily living (ADL) and mobility, for example, were used to cluster MLTC by latent class modelling. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to establish further association. The mean age of the participants at baseline (wave 2) was about 66 years and 55% of participants were female, with more than 60% developing MLTC in their lifetime (waves 2 to 9). Of the five distinct latent clusters, cluster 5 was the most significant cluster composed of lung diseases, stroke, dementia, and high ADL and mobility difficulty scores. The majority of the participants were aged 70-79 years, female, and married. The odds of having a longer nursing home stay were 8.97 (95% confidence interval = 4.36 to 18.45), and death was 10% higher in this cluster compared to the highest probability cluster 4 in the maximally adjusted regression model. This study identified MLTC clusters by social care need with the highest primary care demand. Targeting clinical practice to prevent MLTC progression for these groups may lessen future pressures on primary care demand.

Do-It-Yourself Socialism: Home Construction Credits, Private Property and the Introduction of the Self-Build Programme in Hungary, 1954–1956

Ideology and state ownership are supposed to have characterised socialist housing. This article argues that economic and monetary constraints were also dominant in shaping housing policy in early socialist Hungary. These factors increasingly compelled the regime to promote private home ownership through state-subsidised credits. Despite high public interest in the programme, however, neither wealth, personal connections nor ideology alone could condition the outcome of home-build applications due to severe shortages. This impasse put the regime at a crossroads of whether to pursue needs-based housing or to introduce ‘profitability’ considerations in credit checks for self-build. This article argues that the Nagy government's pursuit of the latter option increasingly undermined the ideological basis of communism. The scheme's failure not only made citizens receptive to radical change in 1956 but also put the regime on a new trajectory where private wealth accumulation and self-provisioning became inseparable from the economic legitimacy of communism in Hungary.

The independent woman—locus of control and female labor force participation

This paper contributes to the research on heterogeneity in labor force participation decisions between women. This is done by discussing the role of the personality trait locus of control (LOC), a measure of an individual’s belief about the causal relationship between behavior and life outcomes, for differences in participation probabilities. The association between LOC and participation decisions is tested using German survey data, finding that internal women are on average 13 percent more likely to participate in the labor force. These findings are also found to translate into higher employment probabilities at the extensive and intensive margin as well as in a lifetime perspective. Additional analyses identify a strong heterogeneity of the relationship with respect to underlying monetary constraints and social working norms. In line with the existing literature, an important role of LOC for independence preferences as well as subjective beliefs about returns to investments are proposed as theoretical explanations for the findings.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Food Security of UK Adults Aged 20-65 Years (COVID-19 Food Security and Dietary Assessment Study).

The first UK lockdown greatly impacted the food security status of UK adults. This study set out to establish if food procurement was adapted differently for different income groups and if this impacted dietary intakes disproportionately. Adults (n = 515) aged 20-65 years participated in an online survey with 56 completing a 3-4 day diet diary. Food availability was a significant factor in the experience of food insecurity. Similar proportions of food secure and food insecure adapted food spend during lockdown, spending similar amounts. Food insecure (n = 85, 18.3%) had a 10.5% lower income and the money spent on food required a greater proportion of income. Access to food was the biggest driver of food insecurity but monetary constraint was a factor for the lowest income group. The relative risk of food insecurity increased by 0.07-fold for every 1% increase in the proportion of income spent on food above 10%. Micronutrient intakes were low compared to the reference nutrient intake (RNI) for most females, with riboflavin being 36% lower in food insecure groups (p = 0.03), whilst vitamin B12 was 56% lower (p = 0.057) and iodine 53.6% lower (p = 0.257) these were not significant. Coping strategies adopted by food insecure groups included altering the quantity and variety of fruit and vegetables which may have contributed to the differences in micronutrients.

High throughput embryonic zebrafish test with automated dechorionation to evaluate nanomaterial toxicity

Engineered nanomaterials pose occupational health and environmental concerns as they possess unique physical and chemical properties that can contribute to toxicity. High throughput toxicity screening methods are needed to address the increasing number of nanomaterials in production. Here we used a zebrafish photomotor response (PMR) test to evaluate a set of fifteen nanomaterials with military relevance. Automated dechorionation of zebrafish embryos was used to enhance nanomaterials bioavailability. Optimal PMR activity in zebrafish embryos was found at 30–31 hours post-fertilization (hpf). Behavioral and toxicological responses were measured at 30 and 120 hpf; behavioral responses were found for thirteen of the fifteen nanomaterials and acute toxicity (LC50) levels for nine of the fifteen nanomaterials below the maximum test concentration of 500 μg/ml. Physico-chemical characterization of the nanomaterials detected endotoxin and bacterial contamination in two of the tested samples, which may have contributed to observed toxicity and reinforces the need for physical and chemical characterization of nanomaterials use in toxicity testing. The zebrafish PMR test, together with automated dechorionation, provides an initial rapid assessment of the behavioral effects and toxicity of engineered nanomaterials that can be followed up by physico-chemical characterization if toxicity is detected, reducing the amount of time and monetary constraints of physico-chemical testing.

Context-Aware Wireless Connectivity and Processing Unit Optimization for IoT Networks

A novel approach is presented in this work for context-aware connectivity and processing optimization of Internet of Things (IoT) networks. Different from the state-of-the-art approaches, the proposed approach simultaneously selects the best connectivity and processing unit (e.g., device, fog, and cloud) along with the percentage of data to be offloaded by jointly optimizing energy consumption, response time, security, and monetary cost. The proposed scheme employs a reinforcement learning algorithm and manages to achieve significant gains compared to deterministic solutions. In particular, the requirements of IoT devices in terms of response time and security are taken as inputs along with the remaining battery level of the devices, and the developed algorithm returns an optimized policy. The results obtained show that only our method is able to meet the holistic multiobjective optimization criteria, albeit, the benchmark approaches may achieve better results on a particular metric at the cost of failing to reach the other targets. Thus, the proposed approach is a device-centric and context-aware solution that accounts for the monetary and battery constraints.

Determinants of sustainable food consumption

Conventional meat consumption is increasingly being seen as unsustainable. Environmental factors, the welfare of animals, and consumer health are among the subjects that consumers are becoming more conscious of as they learn about the bad features of conventional meat. However, plant-based meat alternatives are not widely accepted yet. The purpose of this research was to investigate the determinants that influence Thai consumers' willingness to switch to more plant-based meats. Employing a sample of 585 Thai consumers to validate the model via an online self-administered questionnaire. Customers that are concerned about the environment and animal welfare are more likely to adopt positive attitudes. Plant-based meat purchase intentions are positively influenced by attitudes, while perceived monetary constraints dramatically diminish the intention. Subjective norms are important in a collective culture. The cognitive reaction to plant-based meat aims to trigger expected pride and guilt, which determines the best course of action. Furthermore, limited availability and lower sensory appeal compared to conventional meat were the main challenges for Thai consumers. It has been shown that increased consumer knowledge about sustainable food is associated with a more positive attitude and an inclination to consume plant-based meat.

Market‐inspired framework for securing assets in cloud computing environments

AbstractSelf‐adaptive security methods have been extensively leveraged for securing software systems and users from runtime threats in online and elastic environments, such as the cloud. The existing solutions treat security as an aggregated quality by enforcing “one service for all” without considering the explicit security requirements of each asset or the costs associated with security. Dealing with the security of assets in ultra‐large environments calls for rethinking the way we select and compose services—considering not only the services but the underlying supporting computational resources in the process. We motivate the need for an asset‐centric, self‐adaptive security framework that selects and allocates services and underlying resources in the cloud. The solution leverages learning algorithms and market‐inspired approaches to dynamically manage changes in the runtime security goals/requirements of assets with the provision of suitable services and resources, while catering for monetary and computational constraints. The proposed framework aims to inform the self‐adaptive security efforts of security researchers and practitioners operating in dynamic large‐scale environments, such as the Cloud. To illustrate the utility of the proposed framework it is evaluated using simulation on an application based scenario, involving cloud‐based storage and security services.

Soft monetary constraint and shortage in the European sovereign debt economy

Soft monetary constraint and shortage in the European sovereign debt economy

The impact of transit monetary costs on transport inequality

Transport inequality analyses are often informed by accessibility estimates based solely on travel time impedance, ignoring other elements that might hinder access to activities, such as the monetary cost of a trip. This paper examines how and to what extent simultaneously incorporating both time and monetary costs into accessibility measures may impact transport inequality assessment. We calculate job accessibility by transit in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using cumulative opportunity measures under distinct combinations of temporal and monetary thresholds, and compare how inequality levels vary across different scenarios. We find that the most common research practice of disregarding monetary costs tends to overestimate accessibility levels. However, stricter monetary constraints do not necessarily result in more unequal scenarios. How accessibility inequality is affected by monetary costs is highly dependent on what combinations of temporal and monetary cut-offs are considered in the analysis. In the case of Rio, opting for lower monetary thresholds when looking at shorter trips leads to inequality levels lower than those found in the no monetary threshold scenario, but results in higher inequality levels when allowing for longer trips. We find that the impact of monetary costs on transport inequality estimates depend on a complex interaction between fare policies, the spatial organization and operational characteristics of transit systems, and the spatial co-distribution of opportunities and residential locations. The paper thus highlights that conclusions and policy recommendations derived from transport inequality analyses can be affected in non-intuitive ways by the interplay between temporal and monetary constraints. Future research should investigate how different combinations of travel time and monetary costs thresholds affect inequality estimates in different contexts.

Perceptions of diet diaries' usage in pediatric dental practice.

Diet diaries are a significant tool for dietary assessment and advice. There is paucity of studies assessing the usage of diet diaries by pediatric dentists during their patient management. Hence, this study was designed and conducted to explore the perceptions of the pediatric dentists regarding the possible difficulties and their solutions for the usage of diet diaries in their dental office. A questionnaire was designed to understand the awareness of pediatric dentists regarding the utility of diet diaries while preparing the diet modifications for their patients. The factors related with adherence of pediatric patients to the diet diaries were understood by using qualitative research method. The information regarding the diet was collected verbally by 78% of pediatric dentists. Monetary constraint (43%), time (35%), poor compliance (12%), and lack of skills (10%) were the other reasons. The results of the qualitative study showed that adhering to diet diaries was a multi-contextual phenomenon. Utilization of diet diaries by pediatric dentists and adherence to the diet modifications by the patients are very poor. A supportive health-care system, motivation of parents as well as children, along with an efficient tool seem to be needed for achieving success in utilization of diet diaries.

A Serviceable Treatment Option for Partially Edentulous Cases- From Traditional to Technological

Rehabilitating patients with partial edentulism always pose countless challenges to the clinicians. Despite of the popularity of fixed options many individuals opt for removable prosthesis as an alternative due to monetary constraints, local anatomic factors and several medical conditions contradicting the use of fixed prosthesis. This case report describes the oral rehabilitation of two patients exhibiting Kennedys class 1 and class 2 conditions, respectively. In the first case, the patient was already a cast partial denture wearer and reported to the Department of Prosthodontics for the replacement of the same due to broken mandibular partial denture. However, in the second case the patient sought replacement of the missing mandibular teeth in the form of a removable partial denture. In both the cases the cast partial dentures were fabricated using Computer Aided Designing and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD-CAM). The patients have shown enhancement in the fit of the prosthesis and at the same time shriveled the human handling faults, indistinctness, and surplus time period as well as the cost.