Non-material Costs Research Articles

Applying claim reduction criteria in selecting efficient contractors with the two-step grey data envelopment analysis approach

PurposeThe application of correct contractor selection strategies leads to the selection of a qualified contractor and, as a result, the on-time delivery of the project with the desired quality and within the predetermined budgetary constraints. For this reason, evaluating and qualifying contractors before reviewing the proposed prices has been considered an important issue. One factor that disrupts the project completion process and the failure to achieve pre-planned goals effectively is the occurrence of contractors' disputes and claims in projects. To this end, the present study explores claim-reduction strategies for selecting effective contractors in an uncertain environment to reduce possible problems.Design/methodology/approachThe two-step grey data envelopment analysis (GDEA) approach was used to measure efficiency as a powerful tool in selecting efficient contractors during tenders. This approach can extend the applications of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) models. In other words, given some uncertainties, the unavailability of some data, and the problems with the DEA model, the two-step GDEA model was used to rank the contractors. The data confirmed the satisfactory outcomes from the selected model.FindingsThe preliminary assessment of contractors is a pre-tendering process and a step in categorizing contractors, excluding contractors lacking required qualifications, and selecting efficient contractors. At first, it will help the employer to exclude inexperienced and unqualified contractors, save resources and time, reduce threats, replace opportunities with threats, and reduce material and non-material costs during the completion of the project until the projects are put into operation. Consequently, this approach reduces claims to a minimum level and increases the organization's effective material and non-material profit.Originality/valueOil and gas plans and projects have a significant, sensitive, and decisive role in the economic, social, political, cultural, infrastructural, and all-round development of Iran; This is while most of the financial resources needed to implement the development and programs across the country come from oil revenues. Studies have indicated that despite the importance of these plans and projects, many of them are not completed successfully, and this causes irreparable losses to the country's economy and development in various fields.HighlightThe findings of this study can be used by organizations to select more effective contractors to assign projects and plans to them.The preliminary assessment of contractors is a pre-tendering process and a step in categorizing contractors, excluding contractors who lack required qualifications, and finally selecting efficient contractors.At first, it will help the employer to exclude inexperienced and unqualified contractors, save resources and time, reduce threats, replace opportunities with threats, and reduce material and non-material costs during the completion of the project until the projects are put into operation.This approach also gives credit to the employer during the execution period and contributes to assessing unqualified contractors and reducing the temptation to hand over the project to an unqualified contractor but with a lower bid price.Consequently, this approach reduces claims to a minimum level and increases the effective material and non-material profit of the organization.Moreover, it provides an extra-organizational evaluation for contractors, motivating them to upgrade their capabilities and optimally allocate material and non-material resources, especially human resources.

Possibilities of physical therapy and electrophysical modalities in the complex therapy of pneumonia

Pneumonia is one of the most common infectious diseases and the leading infectious cause of death worldwide. High rates of morbidity, frequency of complications, mortality, the emergence of new highly virulent strains of pneumonia pathogens, antibiotic resistance determine the global medical and social problem of community-acquired pneumonia. The economic consequences of pneumonia are represented not only by direct medical costs (the cost of maintaining a patient in a medical institution, the cost of medical services, the cost of medicines, laboratory and instrumental studies, other medical procedures, etc.), but also include non-material costs from pneumonia, which include pain, psycho-emotional experiences of the patient due to a decrease in the quality of life during the illness. One of the directions of increasing the effectiveness of pneumonia therapy is the widespread introduction of physical therapy (PT) and electrophysical modalities (EM) into complex treatment, which are an important part of the medical rehabilitation for pneumonia, aimed at the speedy restoration of the health and working capacity of patients. The effectiveness of EM in the treatment of pneumonia is due to the versatile therapeutic effect of physical factors that have anti-inflammatory, desensitizing, bacteriostatic, broncholytic, mucolytic, immunostimulant effects, improve blood supply to the lungs. PT contributes to the normalization of pulmonary ventilation, has an expectorant effect, strengthens the respiratory muscles, accelerates the resorption of the inflammatory focus, prevents the formation of pleural adhesions, activates blood and lymph circulation. PT and EM are relevant in the comprehensive treatment of community-acquired pneumonia since they accelerate the regression of clinical symptoms, decrease the drug load, reduce the duration of inpatient treatment, that is confirmed by the results of clinical studies. We assume that the inclusion of PT and EM in the comprehensive treatment of pneumonia can lead to minimizing the total cost of the disease while reducing the duration and volume of drug treatment.

Rural livelihoods, community-based conservation, and human–wildlife conflict: Scope for synergies?

Halting biodiversity loss is a major contemporary challenge. Nature protection can help conserve biodiversity, but increasing wildlife numbers inside protected areas and shrinking habitats intensify interactions between humans and wildlife, potentially causing human–wildlife conflict (HWC). Contemporary narratives of HWC highlight detrimental effects on households' socioeconomic outcomes. Despite a wealth of literature on HWC, many studies remain descriptive and little inferential evidence has been provided. Here we identify the determinants and effects of reported HWC on household outcomes using spatial predictors and an original farm-household dataset collected in Namibia's share of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. In addition to dependence on agriculture, we find that community-based conservation, the share of a community's area set aside for conservation, and habitat connectivity are key drivers of HWC. Contrary to contemporary narratives of HWC, we find that reported conflicts did not have strong negative effects on household income and livelihood diversity. Conversely, community-based wildlife conservation increases income and livelihood diversity among participating households. It is, however, also associated with food insecurity concerns. Such concerns may be driven by comparatively higher restrictions related to land use planning and zoning that constrain productive land uses, such as agriculture. Our findings suggest that community-based conservation can create development synergies for households in favorable environments, despite increasing HWC risks. However, potential trade-offs including non-material costs warrant further research.

Reliability-based bottom-up manufacturing cost optimisation for composite aircraft structures

A novel methodology is presented for the reliability-based manufacturing cost optimisation of composite aircraft structures. A comprehensive bottom-up costing approach is employed, enabling precise manufacturing cost estimation in terms of material, machine, labour, tooling, and indirect costs. This approach splits the manufacturing process into many individual activities, which can be combined in many different ways, allowing the proposed optimisation methodology to be applied to a wide range of composite aircraft structures. A genetic algorithm (GA) is coupled with a deep neural network (DNN) to efficiently determine the optimal composite ply stacking sequence for every part of an assembled structure. A numerical example featuring a composite-stiffened aircraft fuselage panel is investigated. The reliability of the panel is measured in terms of its buckling resistance, and its manufacturing cost is estimated based on the individual costs of over 20 activities. The labour times for each activity were estimated based on data collected from an aerospace company specialising in the manufacture of advanced composite aircraft structures. Results indicate that material, machine, labour, and tool costs can vary significantly depending on the level of structural reliability required, demonstrating the importance of accounting for non-material costs when designing composite aircraft structures.

System dynamics model for intra-city multimodal transportation considering behavioral indicators and demand under uncertainty conditions

PurposeBy designing a system dynamics model in the form of a multimodal transportation system, this study for the first time seeks to reduce costs and time, and increase customer satisfaction by considering uncertainties in the intra city transit system, especially demand uncertainty and provide a prototype system to prove the capability of the dynamical system.Design/methodology/approachThe paper tried to model the factors affecting the intra city multimodal transportation system by defining different scenarios in the cause-and-effect model. The maps and results developed according to system dynamics modeling principles are discussed.FindingsFour scenarios were considered given the factors affecting the urban transportation system to implement the transportation information system for reducing the material and non-material costs of wrong planning of the intra city transit system. After implementing the scenarios, scenario two was selected under the following conditions: advertising for cultural development, support of authorities by efforts such as street widening to reduce traffic, optimize infrastructure, increase and optimize public transport and etc.Originality/valueThe value of this paper is considering uncertainty in traffic optimization; taking into account behavioral and demand indicators such as cultural promotion, official support, early childhood learning, traffic hours and the impact of traveler social status; investigating the factors affecting the system under investigation and the reciprocal effects of these factors and real-world simulation by considering the factors and effects between them.

Complex psychotherapeutic support of patients with dementia and their family members

In Ukraine, the main burden of caring for a patient is borne by his relatives. As the patient’s condition worsens, the burden on the caregiver also increases, the problem of maladjustment of dementia patients’ relatives is urgent, because this disease not only worsens the quality of patient’s life, but also leads to large material and non-material costs due to the need for constant monitoring of persons with severe forms of dementia. In order to achieve the set goal, a comprehensive clinical psychopathological and psychodiagnostic examination of 93 dementia patients (45 women and 48 men) and 97 of their relatives who provided care for the patients (56 women and 41 men) was conducted by us. For the majority of examined women and men, relative with dementia became a psychotraumatic situation. Based on the received data, it was developed a program of medical and psychological support for patients with dementia and their family members, which is aimed at their reorientation from fixation on the problems as a result of the disease, to focusing on adaptation and resocialization of the patient, restoration of life satisfaction, optimization of interpersonal interaction. The program included the complex use of psychotherapy, psychoeducation and occupational therapy methods. As the results of the dynamic observation showed, against the background of the application of the proposed system of medical and psychological support, stable positive dynamics of the psychological state of dementia patients and their family members were noted, with a statistically significant reduction in anxiety-depressive states, a decrease in family conflict, and the harmonization of marital relations. The positive dynamics of family functioning was noted with the prevalence of an adequate attitude of relatives to the disease, understanding complexity of the disease, optimization of compliance, a conscious willingness to follow the doctor’s recommendations with the formation of realistic expectations for treatment. Keywords: cognitive disorders, mental health support, resocialization, complex therapy.

Wpływ kwarantanny na zdrowie psychiczne podczas pandemii COVID-19

Coming in 2019 and the very rapid dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, led to the announcement of unprecedented recommendations by the WHO. Their goal was to limit and slow the spread of this potentially deadly infection in the population. The basic recommendations were disinfection, use of personal protective equipment with social distancing. National governments decided on collective quarantines for fear of overloading health care systems in the first months of 2020. There have been shorter or longer periods of extinction of economy in order to limit interpersonal contacts. This strategy proved effective, but its economic costs were very high. Non-material costs, related to mental health are more difficult to quantify and describe. The article is an attempt to analyze the knowledge about influence of social isolation during quarantine on mental state based on research conducted before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The stress associated with being in quarantine mainly affects the occurrence of anxiety and depression. Their intensity depends on belonging to particularly sensitive groups. Further in-depth and methodologically correct long-term studies on large populations are necessary. The results of such studies can guide clinicians and public health managers.

Costs of in-house genomic profiling and implications for economic evaluation: a case example of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

Objectives Genomic profiling in oncology is vital for determining eligible patients for mutation-specific targeted therapies. Use of commercial genomic testing has the potential to improve patient outcomes. Economic evaluations of in-house genomic profiling typically only include material costs while external commercial services include many other factors. Using non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as an example, this study sought to characterize the unique challenges of costing testing services and their impact on results of economic evaluations. Methods Structured interviews with Canadian oncologists, pathologists, and laboratory directors were conducted to identify material and non-material costs associated with genomic-testing laboratories to allow estimation of a more complete cost of in-house testing, with NSCLC cost-per-test calculated using annual operational costs and NSCLC-specific testing volume. A health and budget impact model of in-house versus external commercial profiling services was used to compare the impact of non-material costs on results. Results In-house testing costs, limited to materials, was $133/single-gene test and $1,400/panel. For a laboratory running 1,300 in-house tests/year, total annual non-material costs included equipment maintenance ($6,842), labor ($502,313; technicians, administrative, and medical staff), shipping/reporting and software updates ($146,050), for an additional $519/test. The combined cost of $652/single-gene and $1,919/panel was compared to a cost of $6,194 for a commercial external test. Based on current Canadian testing patterns and anticipated utilization of external testing, inclusion of in-house non-material costs reduced the estimated 3-year budget impact by 12%. Conclusion When conducting economic evaluation to assess the value of introducing external tests, it is critical that non-material costs of standard testing strategies be measured and incorporated.

Non-material costs of wildlife conservation to local people and their implications for conservation interventions

In assessment of costs (and benefits) of wildlife conservation, conventional economic valuation frameworks may inadequately address various non-tangible values and neglect social, cultural and political contexts of resources and their use. Correspondingly, there seems to be much more focus on quantifying the economic, material benefits and costs of wildlife conservation than the non-material aspects that also affect human well-being. In addition, current research on the costs of wildlife conservation tends to be discipline-focused which constrains comparability, often causing conceptual ambiguity. This paper is an attempt to address this ambiguity. While there is growing acknowledgement of the material costs of wildlife conservation, we contend that employing a broader, composite social well-being approach may provide better conceptual insights on—and practical options for—managing various non-material impacts of wildlife conservation for local people. Non-material impacts such as negative physical or psychological experiences, trauma, feelings of fear and anxiety cannot directly be measured by or converted to money but such impacts still lead to human ill-being. Thus, taking these impacts into account is critical for the broader sustainability of wildlife conservation, making understanding and addressing them a key socio-ecological issue.

Impacts of hunting prohibitions on multidimensional well-being

Prohibitions against wildlife hunting often have impoverishing outcomes for rural households. Previous research has emphasized the financial losses and attributed material deprivation as the motivation for illegal wildlife hunting. However, this narrow focus does not capture the values rural communities ascribe to hunting nor consider the broader outcomes hunting bans have on multidimensional well-being. In this study, we utilize Amartya Sen's capability approach to gain a deeper understanding of hunting bans' effects. Iterative content analysis of 435 interviews with respondents from three study sites located within or near protected areas in southern Africa revealed that individuals hunt for three primary reasons: to procure meat for household consumption, to manage human-wildlife conflict, and to generate revenue via commercial poaching. When detailing the impacts of hunting prohibitions, respondents overwhelmingly emphasized the instrumental value of hunting. They described significant material losses that are deeply intertwined with a broad range of non-material costs to well-being. The strongest objections to wildlife regulations centered on how they serve to humanize animals while de-humanizing people. Additionally, the non-material impacts of hunting bans exacerbated discontent with material losses arising from conservation. We find a need to critically examine the non-material losses of conservation given their potential to alienate rural communities, increase resistance, and undermine local residents' voluntary participation in conservation efforts.

Application of Structure Monitoring Systems to the Assessment of the Behaviour of Bridges in Mining Areas

Structure monitoring systems are increasingly used to assess the technical condition and improve the safety of structures. Monitoring the structural behaviour becomes necessary in the case of structures located in areas with complicated ground conditions. Due to the risk of failures and the resulting economic and non-material costs, monitoring should be in particular applied to linear structures, including railways, tramlines, motorways and expressways, as well as related facilities (e.g. bridges). Monitoring shall consist in regular observations, measurements and documenting all significant data during construction, after its completion and during usage, and in analysing and evaluating the results. This paper presents the application of structure monitoring systems to the assessment of the behaviour of bridges exposed to the impact of mining operations.

Faktor yang Memengaruhi Pemilihan Metode Kontrasepsi

Contraception was the most effective way to control the population growth. The most widely favored in Indonesia was a short-term contraceptive methods. High attainment acceptor on short-term contraceptive methods because short-term contraceptive methods was a methods contraception affordable, while the fees for the long-term contraceptive methods was more expensive. The incidence of injectable contraceptives and pills drop-out was higher than the long-term contraceptive methods that contributed to the failure of population growth control program. This study to analyze the factors that affect the selection contraceptive methods. This study was an observational study with cross sectional design. Sampling with systematic random and obtained were 79 acceptors. The independent variables were the cost of contraceptive use, non-material costs (experience side effects), cultural obstacle, social adjustments obstacle, physic and mental health obstacle, and accessibility obstacle. Data collected using the questionnaire and analyse by multiple logistic regression. The results showed that the significant factor were the cost of contraceptive usage (pvalue = 0.002), the cost of non-material (experience side eff ects) (pvalue = 0.007), and factors that didn’t have signifi cant influence were cultural obstacle (pvalue = 0.105), social adjustments obstacle (pvalue = 0.999), physic and mental health obstacle (pvalue = 0.920), and accessibility obstacle (pvalue = 0.438). The conclusion were the cost of contraceptive use and non-material costs (experience side eff ects) aff ected the selection of contraception. It was need the cooperation between religious leaders, community leaders, and health care workers in a common understanding on the cost of contraceptive usage.

Economic Contribution in Criminology: Economics of Crime

The economic analysis of crime points out to the link between economics and criminology. Many researchers starting from Engels, Bonger, Pausukanis, Kirchheimer, William Chambliss, Richard Quinney and others make a correlation between economics and criminology. Crime is closely associated with poverty, social status in the society, and many other economic problems, as crime produces material and non-material costs. Researches in the United States showed that the years with economic growth were followed by an increase in the crime rate. A growth in crime also appeared in the years when there was an increase in the income per capita. Basically there are primary and secondary economic impacts of crime.In this paper we will try to present the influence of crime on economics. We will also analyze the movement of the crime rate in the gross domestic product in the Republic of Macedonia. Furthermore, we will offer manners for the use and usefulness of the economic analysis of crime, offering a solution to the policy makers on how to improve the situation in society.

Selecting the column configuration with lowest media replacement cost for small adsorption systems

A framework was developed for preliminary evaluation of the relative media replacement costs of three alternative column configurations used for adsorption systems with two vessels, such as those serving small systems. The media replacement cost is the cost of fresh media and the replacement service cost (including transportation, labor, and other non-material costs). Cost normalization methods were developed in part based on the data from US EPA Arsenic Treatment Technology Demonstration Program. Adsorption equilibrium and kinetics were modeled using the PSDM model and breakthrough curves were normalized using the target effluent to influent concentration ratio (C/Co) and the mass transfer zone fraction (%MTZBT). Two factors were found to be important for the relative replacement cost of each configuration – the frequency which at least one column needed replacement of media, and the cycle replacement cost (CRCost) which is a combination of the fresh media cost and the replacement service cost. The lead-lag configuration has the lowest annual replacement cost at low target C/Co, high %MTZBT, and high CRCost ratios. The parallel configuration performs better at high target C/Co, high %MTZBT, and high CRCost ratios. Although the single configuration (two columns operated in tandem and replaced simultaneously) has higher media consumption compared to lead-lag and parallel, it can result in the lowest replacement cost at short %MTZBT and very low CRCost ratios due to savings in the replacement service cost.

Evaluation of the Products Supplied by an Economic Interest Group: Big, Small and Medium Business Approach

Taking part in the activity of an economic interestgroup and creating collective products, business enterprisessuffer material and non-material costs. Thereforethere arises the wish to use collective products without anyeffort to create them, i. e. to apply “parasitic” strategy.The product supply strategy is worked out according toParet’s effectiveness condition when big, medium andsmall enterprises take part in the activity of an economicinterest group.The article presents the results of the analysis of aneconomic interest group based on the research by foreigneconomist in the aspect of the benefit and costs in participatingin a collective activity and distributing economysubject according to economic capacity into big, mediumand small business enterprises.The article distinguishes the main factors conditioningthe stimulation and hindrance of the activity of an economicinterest group. In order to better define the effectivenessof the activity of an economic interest group, thefactors reducing the effectiveness of group activity areclassified into interior and exterior destructive factors.

A Dutch treat: randomized controlled experimentation and the case of heroin-maintenance in the Netherlands

In 1995, the Dutch Minister of Health proposed that a randomized clinical trial (RCT) with heroin-maintenance for severe abusers be conducted. It took nearly four years of lengthy debates before the Dutch Parliament consented to the plan. Apart from the idea of prescribing heroin, the minister and her scientific advisers had to defend the quite high material and non-material costs that would arise from employing the randomized controlled design. They argued that the RCT represented the truly scientific approach and was the royal way to unambiguous results. In the present article, I question this common dual justification of RCTs. First, I situate the historical origins and the basic assumptions of the ideal experiment in 20th-century economic liberalism. Secondly, using the Dutch heroin experiment as an example, I discuss human-science experimentation as an attempt to create reality rather than merely record it. Finally, I discuss some surprising responses by heroin users. These responses display the assumptions of RCTs discussed in the historical section, and underline the importance of the culture of heroin use. In the epilogue, I suggest that cultural aspects of heroin consumption can best be studied by thorough ethnographic research.

How Do Groups Solve Local Commons Dilemmas? Lessons from Experimental Economics in the Field

The use of experimental settings to observe human behaviour in a controlled environment of incentives, rules and institutions, has been widely used by the behavioural sciences for sometime now, particularly by psychology and economics. In most cases the subjects are college students recruited for one to two hour decision making exercises in which, depending on their choices, they earn cash averaging US$ 20. In such exercises players face a set of feasible actions, rules and incentives (payoffs) involving different forms of social exchange with other people, and that in most cases involve some kind of externalities with incomplete contracts, such as in the case of common-pool resources situations. Depending on the ecological and institutional settings, the resource users face a set of feasible levels of extraction, a set of rules regarding the control or monitoring of individual use, and sometimes ways of imposing material or non-material costs or rewards to those breaking or following the rules. We brought the experimental lab to the field and invited about two hundred users of natural resources in three Colombian rural villages to participate in such decision making exercises and through these and other research instruments we learned about the ways they solve - or fail to - tragedies of the commons with different social institutions. Further, bringing the lab to the field allowed us to explore some of the limitations of existing models about human behaviour and its consequences for designing policies for conserving ecosystems and improving social welfare.