Practical Portfolio Research Articles

Doctor of Nursing Practice Portfolio: Integration of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Doctor of Nursing Practice Portfolio: Integration of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

The resilience of transplanted seagrass traits encourages detection of restoration success

Restoration of coastal ecosystems, particularly those dominated by seagrasses, has become a priority to recover the important ecosystem services they provide. However, assessing restoration outcomes as a success or failure remains still difficult, probably due to the unique features of seagrass species and the wide portfolio of practices used on transplanting actions. Here, several traits (maximum leaf length, number of leaves, leaf growth rate per shoot, and leaf elemental carbon and nitrogen contents) of transplanted seagrass Posidonia oceanica were compared to reference meadows in five sites of Western Mediterranean Sea in which restoration were completed in different times. Results have evidenced the resilience of transplanted P. oceanica shoots within a few years since restoration, as traits between treatments changed depending on the elapsed time since settlement. The highlighted stability of the restoration time effect suggests that the recovery of the plants is expected in four years after transplanting.

Nested Simulation for Conditional Value-at-Risk with Discrete Losses

Nested simulation has been an active area of research in recent years, with an important application in portfolio risk measurement. While majority of the literature has been focusing on the continuous case where portfolio loss is assumed to follow a continuous distribution, monetary losses of a portfolio in practice are usually measured in discrete units, oftentimes due to the practical consideration of meaningful decimal places for a given level of precision in risk measurement. In this paper, we study a nested simulation procedure for estimating conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR), a popular risk measure, in the case where monetary losses of the portfolio take discrete values. Tailored to the discrete nature of portfolio losses, we propose a rounded estimator and show that when the portfolio loss follows a sub-Gaussian distribution or has a sufficiently high-order moment, the mean squared error (MSE) of the resulting CVaR estimator decays to zero at a rate close to [Formula: see text], much faster than the rate of the CVaR estimator in the continuous case which is [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] denotes the sampling budget required by the nested simulation procedure. Performance of the proposed estimator is demonstrated using numerical examples.

How do the people that feed Europe feed themselves? Exploring the (in)formal food practices of Almería’s migrant and seasonal food workers

The EU's Farm to Fork strategy (European Commission European Commission. 2020. Farm to Fork strategy. https://food.ec.europa.eu/horizontal-topics/farm-fork-strategy_en. Accessed 31 August 2023.) highlights the need for a resilient food system capable of providing affordable food to citizens in all circumstances. Behind the provision of affordable food for EU citizens there is the effort of many migrant and seasonal food workers (MSFWs). In Almería, Spain, the area with the biggest concentration of greenhouses in the world, MSFWs face vulnerability in the form of physical and institutional invisibility despite performing the essential task of providing affordable food for the EU’s food system. This paper aims to move on from structuralist concerns and place MSFWs’ lived experiences at the center, including the (in)formal nature of their food practices, to understand how the people that feed Europe feed themselves. A combination of social practice theories and diverse economies is used to explore MFSWs’ daily food routines. These theories are used as lenses that inform the data collection process, performed through semi-structured interviews, photography, and observations. The findings of the study reflect a dynamic portfolio of (in)formal practices that evolve based on the length of stay in the county. These practices demonstrate how the EU food system resilience relies on the diverse economies of migrant settlements. We conclude that informality is a reality in the EU food system, and that shedding light on previously hidden food practices and their structures can help us envision food security interventions that are inclusive for all actors involved.

Dentists can elevate their practice portfolio and offering to patients by joining the next generation of Invisalign providers.

Dentists can elevate their practice portfolio and offering to patients by joining the next generation of Invisalign providers.

Supply Chain Finance techniques and risks

Supply Chain Finance is as a portfolio of financing and risk mitigation practices and techniques to optimize the management of the working capital and liquidity invested in supply chain processes and transactions. SCF techniques existing on the market can be divided into three categories: receivable purchase, advanced payable, and loans. These financing solutions are significantly ‘eventdriven’, since they aim at satisfying the financial requirements of buyers and sellers, that are triggered by purchase orders, invoices, receivables, other claims, and related pre-shipment and post-shipment processes along the increasingly complex supply chains in which they are involved. Along the way from raw material procurement to production, sales and end-users, several source of risks can threaten the possibility of completing the transactions and the regular functioning of supply chain finance. Digitization can help in managing these risks, facilitating the control of the factors underlying them.

Rotational fishing enables biodiversity recovery and provides a model for oyster (Ostrea edulis) habitat restoration.

Reefs formed by Ostrea edulis, the European native oyster, are among many biogenic habitats that have declined globally. European oyster habitats are now rare, and undisturbed examples have not been described. As more is understood of the ecosystem services provided by the reefs, oyster restoration efforts are on the rise, becoming a more prominent component of Europe's portfolio of marine conservation practices. It is therefore important to establish the relationship between the development of oyster reefs and their associated biotic community if the biodiversity benefits are to be accurately predicted and the progress of restoration projects assessed. The Loch Ryan oyster fishery in Southwest Scotland is the last of its type and uses a rotational harvest system where different areas are fished each year and then left for six years before they are fished again. This provided an opportunity to study the effect of oyster reef development and biodiversity gain at different stages of habitat recovery. In this study three treatments were surveyed for faunal biodiversity, oyster shell density and oyster shell percentage cover. Treatments were plots that had been harvested one year before, two years before, and six years before the study. The treatments were surveyed with SCUBA using a combination of video transects and photo quadrats. Oyster shell density, oyster shell percent cover and macrofaunal biodiversity differed significantly between treatments, with the highest values observed in the six-year treatment. Shell density was 8.5 times higher in the six-year treatment compared to the one-year treatment, whilst Shannon-Wiener's diversity was 60.5% higher, and Margalef's richness 68.8% higher. Shell density and percent cover had a significant positive relationship with macrofaunal biodiversity. This is probably due to the provision of increased structural complexity in the matrix of live and dead oyster shells. Projecting forward the trend of biodiversity increase in relation to time since disturbance indicates that full recovery would take approximately ten years in which time diversity (Shannon-Wiener) would probably have doubled. The findings from the present study indicate the probable biodiversity benefits of oyster habitat restoration and a cost-effective metric (shell density) to judge progress in restoration projects.

A Systematic Review: Landscape of Private Equity in Dermatology From Past to Present.

The primary objective of this abstract is to define the growing trend of private equity (PE) backed consolidation of dermatology practices and explore its impact on patient care. The secondary objective is to better inform dermatologists of the acquisition process as well as how practices are valued in the event of a leveraged buyout. A systematic review was conducted using PRISMA guidelines using PubMed/MEDLINE and Web of Science in July 2021. Studies included were graded using the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine 2011 Levels of Evidence.1 A total of 18 articles met the inclusion/exclusion criteria. With the current environment of low interest rates combined with increasing cost of medical operations and non-clinical administrative burdens, PE is positioned to expand exponentially in total value through leveraged buyouts of solo and small dermatology groups.2 Selling dermatologists receive payment in form of upfront cash, and equity in escrow incentivizes them to continue the growth of their clinic so that it can be consolidated into a larger portfolio of practices to be sold to another buyer in 3-7 years at a far higher valuation. Within the fragmented $8.4 billion-dollar dermatology space, PE-backed practices represent approximately 10-15% of all private practices.3-5 Dermatologists should be aware of both the risks and the rewards of acquisition by PE given the fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and their patients. J Drugs Dermatol. 2023;22(4): doi:10.36849/JDD.6892 Citation: Sung CT, Salem S, Oulee A, et al. A systematic review: Landscape of private equity in dermatology from past to present. J Drugs Dermatol. 2023;22(4):404-408. doi:10.36849/JDD.6892.

Understanding gender differences on the choices of a portfolio of climate-smart agricultural practices in sub-saharan Africa

Gender-based intra-household differences in resource ownership, management and control are important bargaining powers on the division of authority regarding agriculture-related decisions within the household. Yet, not much is known about the gender role played by intra-household resource distribution between spouses on the adoption of a portfolio of Climate-smart Agriculture (CSA) practices. In this study, we use plot-level panel data from four Sub-Saharan African countries, namely Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi, and Nigeria. We employ a correlated random effect Tobit regression model to examine how land ownership, plot management and control of outputs by the spouses individually and jointly influenced the rate of adoption of multiple CSA practices. We find that the gender-linked adoption of CSA practices is more likely to be made if plot management rights overlap with land ownership and control of economic rights from the land along gender lines. The result implies that women do have a role in the decision to adopt CSA practices due to their intra-household bargaining power. The findings indicate interesting nuances with respect to gender-differentiated impacts of policies to enhance resource entitlement and decision making thereby increasing adoption of a portfolio of CSA practices.

Portfolios of sustainable practices for packaging in the circular economy: an analysis of Italian firms

PurposeThis study analyzes sustainable practices adopted by Italian firms to enhance the circularity of packaging and related results in terms of environmental improvements.Design/methodology/approachThe authors developed an empirical analysis using publicly available data from the National Consortium of Packaging (CONAI) in Italy, which consists of 603 circular packaging projects. The authors ran both descriptive and prescriptive analyses to determine individual sustainable practices and portfolios adopted to enhance packaging circularity and to verify related reductions in terms of CO2 emissions as well as energy usage and water consumption.FindingsThe findings reveal that firms are more accustomed to focusing on single sustainable practices than on portfolios of practices to achieve packaging circularity. Raw material saving and logistics optimization are the most frequent sustainable practices adopted by firms to improve circularity of packaging. The reuse of packaging allows firms to simultaneously reduce CO2 emissions, energy usage and water consumption. Preferences in terms of portfolio of sustainable practices are strictly linked to the types of materials used for packaging and environmental targets.Originality/valueThe authors investigate environmental practices that firms adopt to support packaging circularity, and the authors detect portfolios of sustainable practices that positively impact environmental performance indicators. This research extends a significant glimpse into the portfolio of sustainable practices for packaging in the circular economy implemented by firms, filling academic gaps and indicating business opportunities and avenues for economic development.

The Impact of Digital Technologies and Sustainable Practices on Circular Supply Chain Management

Background: This study investigates how firms can enhance the functionality of their circular supply chains (CSCs) by adopting a portfolio of sustainable practices as well as digital technologies to increase performance. It analyzes the benefits that firms can obtain when investing in specific technologies to boost the impact of technologies and sustainable practices on CSCs, and further increase performance. Methods: We test several hypotheses by using structural equation modeling as well as multi-group analysis to verify whether CSCs can be achieved through sustainable practices and technologies and improve the firms’ performance. Results: The empirical results partially support the research hypotheses. While the main research hypotheses are fully supported, the analysis of single digital technologies reveals that only a few solutions can contribute to both the management and the improvement of the CSC. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that the identification of green suppliers and ad hoc environmental regulations, combined with attention to the origin and provenance of raw materials, can promote a CSC. Moreover, transportation management systems (TMS) and the internet of things (IoT) are efficient technologies for managing transportation and product flow in the CSC. Furthermore, machine learning (ML) is effective in making positive green decisions, and 3D printing can extend product life.

Implementing a multisector public-private partnership to improve urban hypertension management in low-and middle- income countries

BackgroundCardiovascular disease presents an increasing health burden to low- and middle-income countries. Although ample therapeutic options and care improvement frameworks exist to address its prime risk factor, hypertension, blood pressure control rates remain poor. We describe the results of an effectiveness study of a multisector urban population health initiative that targets hypertension in a real-world implementation setting in cities across three continents. The initiative followed the “CARDIO4Cities” approach (quality of Care, early Access, policy Reform, Data and digital technology, Intersectoral collaboration, and local Ownership).MethodThe approach was applied in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, Dakar in Senegal, and São Paulo in Brazil. In each city, a portfolio of evidence-based practices was implemented, tailored to local priorities and available data. Outcomes were measured by extracting hypertension diagnosis, treatment and control rates from primary health records. Data from 18,997 patients with hypertension in primary health facilities were analyzed.ResultsOver one to two years of implementation, blood pressure control rates among enrolled patients receiving medication tripled in São Paulo (from 12·3% to 31·2%) and Dakar (from 6·7% to 19·4%) and increased six-fold in Ulaanbaatar (from 3·1% to 19·7%).ConclusionsThis study provides first evidence that a multisectoral population health approach to implement known best-practices, supported by data and digital technologies, and relying on local buy-in and ownership, can improve hypertension control in high-burden urban primary care settings in low-and middle-income countries.

Exploring the Role of Context in Management Innovation Generation: A Case Study of a Pakistani Business Firm

Management innovation is an important source of sustained competitive advantage because of its context-specific nature. The current research contributes towards advancing an indigenous management innovation theory in the context of Pakistan. Previously, many studies have been conducted to build this theory in the context of developed economies. The current study draws mainly on institutional perspective. It explores how several individual and organizational contextual factors enable a business firm to implement a portfolio of new management practices to manage innovation in the textile sector. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. It resulted in exploring three contextual factors which remain critical to produce specific management innovations imperative for a company’s success. The findings allow the construction of propositions through encouraging future research. The implications for management theory and practice are also provided.

Climate-smart agricultural practices influence the fungal communities and soil properties under major agri-food systems.

Fungal communities in agricultural soils are assumed to be affected by climate, weather, and anthropogenic activities, and magnitude of their effect depends on the agricultural activities. Therefore, a study was conducted to investigate the impact of the portfolio of management practices on fungal communities and soil physical-chemical properties. The study comprised different climate-smart agriculture (CSA)-based management scenarios (Sc) established on the principles of conservation agriculture (CA), namely, ScI is conventional tillage-based rice-wheat rotation, ScII is partial CA-based rice-wheat-mungbean, ScIII is partial CSA-based rice-wheat-mungbean, ScIV is partial CSA-based maize-wheat-mungbean, and ScV and ScVI are CSA-based scenarios and similar to ScIII and ScIV, respectively, except for fertigation method. All the scenarios were flood irrigated except the ScV and ScVI where water and nitrogen were given through subsurface drip irrigation. Soils of these scenarios were collected from 0 to 15 cm depth and analyzed by Illumina paired-end sequencing of Internal Transcribed Spacer regions (ITS1 and ITS2) for the study of fungal community composition. Analysis of 5 million processed sequences showed a higher Shannon diversity index of 1.47 times and a Simpson index of 1.12 times in maize-based CSA scenarios (ScIV and ScVI) compared with rice-based CSA scenarios (ScIII and ScV). Seven phyla were present in all the scenarios, where Ascomycota was the most abundant phyla and it was followed by Basidiomycota and Zygomycota. Ascomycota was found more abundant in rice-based CSA scenarios as compared to maize-based CSA scenarios. Soil organic carbon and nitrogen were found to be 1.62 and 1.25 times higher in CSA scenarios compared with other scenarios. Bulk density was found highest in farmers' practice (Sc1); however, mean weight diameter and water-stable aggregates were found lowest in ScI. Soil physical, chemical, and biological properties were found better under CSA-based practices, which also increased the wheat grain yield by 12.5% and system yield by 18.8%. These results indicate that bundling/layering of smart agricultural practices over farmers' practices has tremendous effects on soil properties, and hence play an important role in sustaining soil quality/health.

Roadmap for achieving net-zero emissions in global food systems by 2050

Food systems (FSs) emit ~ 20 GtCO2e/y (~ 35% of global greenhouse gas emissions). This level tends to raise given the expected increases in food demands, which may threaten global climate targets. Through a rapid assessment, evaluating 60+ scenarios based on existing low-emission and carbon sequestration practices, we estimate that intensifying FSs could reduce its emissions from 21.4 to − 2.0 GtCO2e/y and address increasing food demands without relying on carbon offsets (e.g., related to afforestation and reforestation programs). However, given historical trends and regional contexts, a more diverse portfolio of practices, including diet shifts and new-horizon technologies, will be needed to increase the feasibility of achieving net-zero FSs. One likely pathway consists of implementing practices that shift food production to the 30th-percentile of least emission-intensive FSs (~ 45% emissions reduction), sequester carbon at 50% of its potential (~ 5 GtCO2e/y) and adopt diet shifts and new-horizon technologies (~ 6 GtCO2e/y). For a successful transition to happen, the global FSs would, in the next decade (2020s), need to implement cost-effective mitigation practices and technologies, supported by improvements in countries’ governance and technical assistance, innovative financial mechanisms and research focused on making affordable technologies in the following two decades (2030–2050). This work provides options and a vision to guide global FSs to achieving net-zero by 2050.

Lessons from a next generation carbon ranching experiment

Identifying grazing practices that maximize food production and soil carbon sequestration is of global importance. Currently, we cannot reliably predict which grazing practice will accrue the most soil organic carbon (SOC) partly because of confusion created by an abundance of low-quality experiments. Data quality has likely suffered because adequate treatment replication requires a lot of land, meaningful scale introduces heterogeneity among replicates, and pre-existing differences are often not taken into account. Here we tested the effects of five grazing treatments on SOC stocks with a gold standard randomized controlled trial (RCT) with pre-treatment data. Treatments were no grazing, severe summer grazing, moderate fall grazing, severe fall grazing, and the conventional approach for the system of moderate summer grazing. Because grazing experiments are often little-replicated, we also gauged the dependence of results on pre-treatment data by comparing the results of analyses with vs without pre-treatment data. We also tested for relationships between plant (root biomass, plant species composition) and soil properties (mass, nitrogen concentration) and SOC. After applying treatments for 5-yr, the no grazing and severe summer and fall grazing treatments accrued 0.85 to 1.22 kg × m−2 (0–60 cm soil depth) more SOC than conventional moderate summer grazing and represent appreciable (i.e. >4 per mille per yr) increases in SOC stocks. Furthermore, the entire portfolio of new grazing practices increased SOC accrual compared to conventional management. Given the divergent characteristics of the newly applied practices, sustainable accrual of SOC may depend on management heterogeneity. Accrual of SOC was likely driven by a reduction in SOC mineralization related to increased soil density and nitrogen, decreased root biomass, and change in plant species composition. Our findings counter the prevailing view that plant material inputs are the primary driver of SOC accrual in grazing lands. In other words, SOC accrual was mainly associated with indicators of decreased SOC mineralization (C outputs). We also found unique results for analyses with and without pre-treatment data, thereby indicating the risk of unreliable results for little-replicated RCTs without pre-treatment data. Robust generalizations on grazing practices that will reliably and sustainably maximize the rate of SOC accrual for a specific system, climate and timeline are still lacking, but further focus on factors affecting SOC mineralization will facilitate their development.

Research On Finding Optimal Portfolios Based on Markowitz Mean-Variance Model -- Constructing Efficient Frontier and Portfolio with Highest Sharpe Ratio Using 4 Assets in Chinese Market

Markowitz mean-variance model is the foundation of modern investment science, and how to apply this model to construct optimal portfolios is always of interest. This paper uses the Markowitz mean-variance model and four typical assets in Chinese market to construct efficient frontier with highest expected return rate at each risk level and lowest risk at each expected return rate level, and the portfolios with the highest Sharpe ratio. There are three main results in this paper. Firstly, the efficient frontier has the U shape and V shape rotated clockwise in the case of excluding and including risk-free asset respectively. Secondly, the theoretical efficient frontier obtained from mathematical formulas approximately coincide with those from the simulation experiments. Thirdly, the portfolio with the highest Sharpe ratio always occurs in the intersection point of the efficient frontier and its tangent line that passes through the risk-free asset. The results from this paper provide a convenient method of using mathematical formula for investor to construct optimal portfolios in real practice.

Didactic Design as the Basis for the Professional Spaces of Pedagogical Education

Problem statement reflects on the actual issues of creating the optimus for culturally oriented polylinguistic security of the current professional educational environment. Moreover, the focus is on its didactic design within the frameworks of pedagogical design determined as the most problematic aspect of the national education due to its permanent transformations. The goal of the article is to present a didactic design as a valuable component of the professional culture of the teacher of the future that requires reasonable conditions for effective interaction of the participants of the educational process. The research context is based on the leading principles of environmental and multifunctional approaches in pedagogical science and practice. Moreover, the pedagogical design focused on the ideal track of personal development in the aspect of changing the format of communication-oriented learning, functions as the leading methodological message of this micro-research. The results of the study are reflected in the presentation of a multi-level model for the formation of a portfolio of educational practices for students and adults of specialists. The portfolio positioned as a factor and condition for a positive impact on the online (e-learning; on-line) education market in a polyphonic sounding and multilingual content of the information and communication space, subject to language security. In conclusion, the conditions of genuine communication of participants in the creation of pedagogical design of continuing education are clarified in terms of maintaining psychological balance and in the aspect of critical understanding of the content-based technology of culturally oriented practices of professional formation and personal growth within the framework of the national project “Teachers of the Future”.

Energy and economic efficiency of climate-smart agriculture practices in a rice–wheat cropping system of India

Intensive tillage operations, indiscriminate use of irrigation water, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides and crop biomass burning have made the conventional rice–wheat (RW) system highly energy-intensive and inefficient. In the recent past, portfolios of climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAP) have been promoted as a potential alternative to improve the energy efficiency in conventional RW system. Therefore, to evaluate the energy input–output relation, energy flow and economic efficiency in various combinations of crop management options, a 3-year (2014–2017) on-farm study was conducted at Karnal, India. Various portfolio of management practices; Sc1-Business as usual (BAU) or Conventional tillage (CT) without residue, Sc2-CT with residue, Sc3-Reduce tillage (RT) with residue + recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF), Sc4-RT/Zero tillage (ZT) with residue + RDF, Sc5-ZT with residue + RDF + GreenSeeker + Tensiometer, Sc6-Sc5 + Nutrient expert were investigated. Present study results revealed that net energy, energy use efficiency and energy productivity were 11–18, 31–51 and 29–53% higher under CSAP (mean of Sc4, Sc5 and Sc6) in RW system than Sc1, respectively. However, renewable and non-renewable energy inputs were 14 and 33% higher in Sc1 compared to CSAP (4028 and 49,547 MJ ha−1), respectively, it showed that BAU practices mostly dependents on non-renewable energy sources whereas CSAP dependents on renewable energy sources. Similarly, the adoption of CSAP improved the biomass yield, net farm income and economic efficiency by 6–9, 18–23 and 42–58%, respectively compared to Sc1. Overall, the adoption of CSAP could be a viable alternative for improving energy use efficiency, farm profitability and eco-efficiency in the RW system.

Using Portfolio in Medical Education: a systematic review

IntroductionThe educational landscape of medical courses was transformed by competency based learning, triggering changes in necessities of new and different learning methods and assessment tools. One of these tools was the use of the learning and assessment portfolios. Portfolio is a collection of student work that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress and achievements. In medicine, portfolios are used to study critical thinking and self‐directed learning during the development from student to the professional and the general practitioners.ObjetiveThe aim of this review is to answer how and what is the purpose the learning portfolio is applied in medical educationMethodWe performed a systematic search of PUBMED electronic database, from 2011 to 2021, resulting in 740 articles. After the inclusion and the exclusion criteria were applied, we extracted and analyzed information from the selected articles. Descriptive statistical tools were used to characterize the profile of the articles.ResultsIn total, 48 qualitative studies were included, 75.0%(n=36) about undergraduate and graduate medical students portfolios. The most frequents outcomes were: assessment portfolio and competencies (25.0%), perception, satisfaction and use of portfolio by students (20.8%) and portfolio in reflexive practice and learning self‐regulation (18.8%).ConclusionMedical schools, in several countries, use educational portfolio, mostly as an educational tool for undergraduate, graduate (residence) students and, less frequently, for medical professionals for validation or revalidation of diplomas and specialist titles. The main purpose of using portfolios is to draw on student reflection and frequent feedback to assess learning outcomes and the development of skills and competences. The heterogeneity of methods, the lack of control groups and the small number of samples found in articles about the use of the portfolio in Medicine courses were weak points for comparing the outcomes.