Simple Return Research Articles

They returned to the Chinese mainland, and what? A collaborative autoethnographic study on the career transitions of Chinese international doctorates from the West to the east

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to analyse the approaches of three Chinese international doctoral degree holders who received their doctoral education in the West in tackling the challenges of relocation and career transition to the East after completing their doctoral degrees. Through a collaborative autoethnographic research from June 2020 to December 2022, from the theoretical perspectives of institutional theory, the study reveals four tactics of institutional arbitrage, driven by resources, purpose, practice, and legitimacy, allowed the Chinese international doctoral degree holders to extend their international academic networks to the local context, adapt research purposes to fit national needs, introduce effective practices from the international academic community to local institutions, and advocate for the legitimacy of cutting-edge research in the local academic community. Through these tactics, the multiple logics of profession, corporation, market, and state were found to be strengthened in the institutional environment, thus supporting their career development. The study further proposes to view Chinese international doctoral degree holders’ relocation to China as an important component of the international mobility of knowledge workers, contributing to the formation of global scholarship, rather than a simple return journey to their homeland.

Essential Drivers of Customer Satisfaction in using Shopee Apps: A Perspective of Logistic Service Dimensions

This study was motivated by authors’ curiosity to study Shoppe as a booming e-commercecompany, while logistics services are critical for Shopee’s success in term of satisfyingits customers. This study aims to examine how factors of logistic dimensions affectcustomer satisfaction of Shoppe and is basic research. The authors applied a correlationalresearch type with a quantitative approach. The primary data were obtained directly fromrespondents by distributing a questionnaire. They were analyzed using SEM approachand Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) software. The results show that of 7hypotheses are supported. All factors of logistics dimensions: availability, delivery time,shipping cost, delivery reliability, product quality and condition, consumer complaintand return policy, and information quality affect customer satisfaction. This implies thatShoppe must make its stocks available, ensure its delivery time on time, pay attentionon its shipping cost, ensure the delivery of goods is in accordance with the conditionsapplied, the product packaging during shipping is not damaged, a simple return policy,provide information that meets expectations to satisfy its consumers. The present studycan shed light on the logistics services dimensions that align with customer expectationsin the e-commerce industry. Understanding these crucial logistics dimensions can enableShopee to better tailor their logistics operations to meet and exceed customer needs,ultimately resulting in satisfaction.

Accounting and Finance: Complementarity and Divergence

Abstract Penman (2023. Accounting for Uncertainty. Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium) develops a conceptual framework which reconciles accounting and finance in view to provide information for financial investment. His framework is based upon resolution of uncertainty over expectations as a convenient basis for accrual accounting. In this context, accrual accounting can be interpreted as a convenient instrument to protect the corporate capacity to generate future earnings on which the expected financial value is based upon. However, in order to fulfil this control function, accounting applies an additive process (simple return), while financial valuation imposes a multiplicative process (compound return) over the invested financial capital. This divergence between accounting and finance enables disentangling business profit – as determined by accounting – from money interest and ownership rent, paving the way to a theory of the business firm based upon its accounting structure, and enabling measures of financial performance consistent with this divergence.

Optimal Design and Analysis of a Hybrid Hydrogen Energy Storage System for an Island-Based Renewable Energy Community

Installations of decentralised renewable energy systems (RES) are becoming increasing popular as governments introduce ambitious energy policies to curb emissions and slow surging energy costs. This work presents a novel model for optimal sizing for a decentralised renewable generation and hybrid storage system to create a renewable energy community (REC), developed in Python. The model implements photovoltaic (PV) solar and wind turbines combined with a hybrid battery and regenerative hydrogen fuel cell (RHFC). The electrical service demand was derived using real usage data from a rural island case study location. Cost remuneration was managed with an REC virtual trading layer, ensuring fair distribution among actors in accordance with the European RED(III) policy. A multi-objective genetic algorithm (GA) stochastically determines the system capacities such that the inherent trade-off relationship between project cost and decarbonisation can be observed. The optimal design resulted in a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of 0.15 EUR/kWh, reducing costs by over 50% compared with typical EU grid power, with a project internal rate of return (IRR) of 10.8%, simple return of 9.6%/year, and return on investment (ROI) of 9 years. The emissions output from grid-only use was reduced by 72% to 69 gCO2e/kWh. Further research of lifetime economics and additional revenue streams in combination with this work could provide a useful tool for users to quickly design and prototype future decentralised REC systems.

Information, Expertise, and Authority: The Many Ends of Epidemics

What does it mean for an epidemic to end, and who gets to declare that it is over? This multidisciplinary spotlight issue provides 18 case studies, each examining specific epidemics and their ends as well as the methodologies used to measure, gauge, and define an epidemic's end. They demonstrate that an epidemic's end is often contentious, raising issues of competing authority. Various forms of expertise jostle over who declares an end, as well as what data and information should be used to measure and define the end of an epidemic. As a result, it is more accurate to describe multiple endings to an epidemic: the medical end, the political end, and the social end. At the same time, multidisciplinary research into the ends of epidemics highlights the crucial role of information and measurement in an epidemic's end, as well as the ways in which ending forces observers to rethink and reconceptualize time. Whereas the declaration of an epidemic suggests a neatly defined period of emergency, the end is a messy process incorporating competing accounts of what went wrong and fears of the next epidemic, in which cycles of multiple diseases and overlapping social crises disrupt a simple return to normal life, articulating the nature of epidemics not just as medical phenomena, but also as fundamentally political and social ones. The end period therefore looks both forward and backward, often applying “lessons learned” from the history of the ended epidemic to the future, in anticipation of the next outbreak. Re-envisioning the future is a way to analyse and understand the past epidemic, and thereby to restore human agency into society's relationship with disease.

Statistical Analysis Dow Jones Stock Index—Cumulative Return Gap and Finite Difference Method

This study was motivated by the poor performance of the current models used in stock return forecasting and aimed to improve the accuracy of the existing models in forecasting future stock returns. The current literature largely assumes that the residual term used in the existing model is white noise and, as such, has no valuable information. We exploit the valuable information contained in the residuals of the models in the context of cumulative return and construct a new cumulative return gap (CRG) model to overcome the weaknesses of the traditional cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) and buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHAR) models. To deal with the residual items of the prediction model and improving the prediction accuracy, we also lead the finite difference (FD) method into the autoregressive (AR) model and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The empirical results of the study show that the cumulative return (CR) model is better than the simple return model for stock return prediction. We found that the CRG model can improve prediction accuracy, the term of the residuals from the autoregressive analysis is very important in stock return prediction, and the FD model can improve prediction accuracy.

Economic Feasibility of Agricultural Biogas Production by Farms in Ukraine

Renewable energy generation in Ukraine is developing slower than state strategies and expectations, with the installations for energy generation based on biogas currently being among the lowest in terms of installed capacity. Most of those involved in energy generation from agricultural biogas are large enterprises, while the small and medium-sized farms are far less involved. Thus the article aims to assess the economic feasibility of biogas production from agricultural waste by specific farm types and sizes, with a special focus on small and medium-sized farms. The research results present findings in two dimensions, first defining the economic feasibility of biogas installations in Ukraine based on investment costs and the rate of return at both the current and potential feed-in tariff, and second, analyzing the influence of state regulation and support on the economic feasibility of agricultural biogas production in Ukraine. The results emphasize that the construction of small generation capacities does not provide sufficient funds under the current feed-in tariff to meet the simple return period expected by the domestic financing institutions. Except for the general support programs for agricultural activities, there are no support funds specifically for biogas producers, while there is tight competition with wind and solar energy due to diversified feed-in tariffs.

Fund Success and Assurance Frontiers

Investment fund investment strategies and asset allocations typically are based on a multiplicity of complex (possibly competing) goals that often are incorporated in a simple return target. The challenge is to develop a portfolio whose expected return at least equals the target but has a volatility less than a disaster-avoidance risk limit. However, such a goal-matching return only provides a 50/50 chance of success. Truly important goals may require a higher probability of success, such as 60%. This article focuses on efficient portfolios and the return they can provide with a specified probability of assurance. The key step is to map the efficient frontier into an <i>assurance frontier</i> that plots risk-adjusted returns with a 60% success probability. This frontier typically has a peak return that is the highest available risk-adjusted return. In some cases, this peak portfolio is at the risk limit. In other cases, even with a monotonically rising efficient frontier, the peak may fall well below the maximum volatility limit. <b>Key Findings</b> ▪ Portfolios with expected returns that just match a goal-based target may have only a 50/50 assurance of success (even after those targets have been properly revised to account for, e.g., inflation, fund expenses, and geometric effects). ▪ Portfolios that have the best risk-adjusted return can sometimes be found at a volatility that is well short of a fund’s maximum risk limit. ▪ Longer horizons generally lead to higher peak returns that can enhance prospects of success.

Energy, exergy, exergoeconomic and exergoenvironmental analysis and optimization of quadruple combined solar, biogas, SRC and ORC cycles with methane system

The present work deals with a novel configuration of four cycles such as steam gas cycles and an organic Rankine cycle and a biogas Brayton cycle and a solar Brayton cycle are introduced for recovering energy from hot exhaust gas and its simulation and optimization are discussed. Also, a carbon-amine adsorption system has been utilized for separating and storing carbon dioxide from hot exhaust gases and convert it to methane. For this new system, exergy, economical exergy, energy, economic and environmental exergy evaluations have been performed. To analyze the different parts, their thermodynamic and economic models, EES and MATLAB software have been used to optimize the exergy-economic cycle in order to reduce costs and increase exergy. In this research, genetic algorithm has been used for optimization. At the optimal point, the values of exergy efficiency are equal to 61.7% and the cost of electricity generation is 6.36 cent per kilowatt hour. The results show that adding Rankine cycles to the gas cycles increments the exergy and energy efficiency to 73.7 and 71.8, respectively. Nevertheless, integrating the carbon capture unit with this system reduced the exergy and energy efficiency to 51.9% and 50.5%, respectively. Based on the economic results for the presented system, it is indicated that the simple return on investment and return on investment are both 1.5 years. In addition, internal rate and net present value of return were 0.68 and 3.13*09 $ respectively. This system can generate 327,160 kW of electricity in addition, the carbon capture system unit can prevent and convert 627,000 tons of carbon dioxide into methane fuel annually.

On Present Value Evaluation under the Impact of Behavioural Factors Using Oriented Fuzzy Numbers

In general, the present value (PV) concept is ambiguous. Therefore, behavioural factors may influence on the PV evaluation. The main aim of our paper is to propose some method of soft computing PV evaluated under the impact of behavioural factors. The starting point for our discussion is the notion of the Behavioural PV (BPV) defined as an imprecisely real-valued function of distinguished variables which can be evaluated using objective financial knowledge or subjective behavioural premises. In our paper, a BPV is supplemented with a forecast of the asset price closest to changes. Such BPV is called the oriented BPV (O-BPV). We propose to evaluate an O-BPV by oriented fuzzy numbers which are more useful for portfolio analysis than fuzzy numbers. This fact determines the significance of the research described in this article. O-BPV may be applied as input signal for systems supporting invest-making. We consider here six cases of O-BPV: overvalued asset with the prediction of a rise in its price, overvalued asset with the prediction of a fall in its price, undervalued asset with the prediction of a rise in its price, undervalued asset with the prediction of a fall in its price, fully valued asset with the prediction of a rise in its rice and fully valued asset with the prediction of a fall in its rice. All our considerations are illustrated by numerical examples. Presented examples show the way in which we transform superposition of objective market knowledge and subjective investment opinion into simple return rate.

Will Covid-19 put the public back in public transport? A UK perspective

Covid-19 has had a major impact on public transport systems across the world. Public financial support has been needed to maintain services in the face of drastically reduced ridership and adjustment to the need for social distancing. This paper explores the challenge this poses to current methods of delivery of public transport services and argues that a simple return to the status quo is unlikely as public transport adjusts to a new normal of more home working and fear of crowded spaces. In turn this impacts most on the transport disadvantaged. The paper argues that this may spell the end of the prevailing model of a deregulated competitive public transport that has prevailed in the United Kingdom and require a major rethinking of the way to provide an efficient and effective transport system. Such a rethink will depend on understanding the interplay of private and social norms and building public trust.

The Premium Reduction of European, American, and Perpetual Log Return Options

Traditional plain vanilla options may be regarded as contingent claims whose value depends upon the simple returns of an underlying asset. These options have convex payoffs, and as a consequence of Jensen’s inequality, their prices increase as a function of maturity in the absence of interest rates. This results in long-dated call option premia being excessively expensive in relation to the fraction of a corresponding insured portfolio. We show that replacing the simple return payoff with the log return call option payoff leads to substantial premium savings while providing the similar insurance protection. Call options on log returns have favorable prices for very long maturities on the scale of decades. This property enables them to be attractive securities for long-term investors, such as pension funds. TOPICS:Options, pension funds Key Findings ▪ This article develops valuation and risk techniques for a log return payoff option under a Geometric Brownian Motion. ▪ A comparison is made between premium advantages of the log return contract to those of traditional European options. ▪ A pricing and optimal excise boundary formula for perpetual and finite maturity American log return options id derived. ▪ This article examines long-term insurance applications of the new contract that are prohibitively expensive for traditional options.

The Little Nyonya: reframing confucian filiality and family rituals for a global Singapore

ABSTRACT The Little Nyonya is a Singapore produced Chinese-language historical television drama centring on the struggles of its heroine Yueniang in negotiating turbulent relationships among three Chinese Peranakan merchant families in Singapore and Melaka. Her life choices are made within the framework of Confucian moral binaries of filial piety and a traditional paternalism that distinguishes righteous protagonists from villainous antagonists. By focusing on Yueniang’s breaking of gender barriers through her inclusion of matrilineal ancestors and descendants as well as non-Chinese spouses in the Confucian family, her assumption of ritual family leadership, and her adoption of the roles of the Confucian merchant and cultural connoisseur, this article seeks to highlight screen portrayals of reformative notions of Confucianism in Asian television. The Little Nyonya’s dynamic reconfiguration of Confucianism mirrors the contemporary Singapore state’s ideological constructions on modernized ‘Asian values’ rather than a simple return to ancient Chinese discourses.

Roman Imperialism and the Transformation of Rural Society in a Frontier Province: Diversifying the Narrative

AbstractThis paper studies rural populations in the Roman frontier province of Germania inferior, employing a perspective that allocates more space to the exploitative and repressive aspects of Roman rule. We draw attention to an alternative series of topics than the ones currently presented in rural archaeology. This includes attention to situations of crisis and instability, to fundamental reordering of rural populations, to issues of migration and to the interconnectivity of rural developments and imperial power structures. While these topics are usually considered as ‘historically given’, they are rarely the subject of serious archaeological research. This attempt at a more historicising approach does not mean a simple return to the traditional paradigm ofhistorische Altertumskunde. Much better equipped than our predecessors of two or three generations ago, we archaeologists of the 21st century are able to engage in a critical and creative dialogue with historical sources and models.

Responsible Return to Essential and Non-Essential Surgery During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Non-essential surgery had largely been suspended during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Enormous amounts of resources were utilized to shift surgical practices to a “disaster footing” with most elective surgeons assuming new roles to offset the anticipated burden from surgical and medical personnel delivering acute care. As the number of COVID-19-infected patients began to plateau in the state of Ohio, a four-phase “Responsible Return to Surgery” approach was adopted in concert with the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Hospital Association. This approach was adopted understanding that a simple return to the status quo prior to the COVID-19 pandemic might be harmful to patients, providers, and staff. The discrete phases undertaken at our quaternary care institution for a responsible return to non-essential surgery are outlined with the goal of ensuring timely care, minimizing community transmission, and preserving personal protective equipment. Operationalizing these phases relied upon the widespread use of telehealth, systematic COVID-19 testing, and real-time monitoring of hospital and personal protective equipment resources.

The financial investment decision of non-financial firms in China

This paper constructs a portfolio model to analyze the determinants of the financial investment decision of non-financial firms in China. Unlike the literature assuming that financial investments are riskless, our model allows risks in both fixed and financial investments. We show that this extension provides an analytically similar but economically different model from the literature. In particular, it is relative risk and risk-adjusted return gap, not pure risk and simple return gap that enter into firms’ financial investment decision model. Using firm-level panel data of 1902 firms listed in Chinese stock market over the period from 2006 to 2016 with semi-annual frequency, we find that the ratio of fixed investment risk over total risk dominates financial investment decisions of non-financial firms. However, rates of risk-adjusted return gap between financial and fixed investments play no role in Chinese firms’ financial investment decisions, which is in stark contrast to the results using a model assuming riskless financial investments. The baseline findings are robust to alternative measures of financialization and investment risk and different firm sizes, ownership structures and time periods.

Development and assessment of adsorptive hydrogel: Process engineering and economic considerations

AbstractThis article addresses the production of an adsorbing hydrogel to be used for removal of heavy metals. A review of literature on hydrogel adsorption of heavy metals is highlighted. The adopted process is briefly described and typical adsorption results as compared to reported work are presented. The technical specifications of an industrial scale plant of appropriate capacity of 3000 ton/year are detailed. The total capital investment and the production cost have been estimated to be about $M 10.6 and 6.5, respectively. Financial analysis determined the effect of variation of selling price within the reported international range on financial indicators. Furthermore, analysis of the effect of variation by 10% increase/decrease of capital investment and annual operating cost has been also estimated. Indicators include net present value (NPV $M), internal rate of return (IRR%), and average simple return of return (Average. SRR%), which have been estimated as 24%, 18%, and 19%, respectively. The project proves to be techno‐economically viable under the estimated conditions for wider application.

Metabolismo en los edificios. Estudio de medidas para el ahorro del consumo de agua en tres centros docentes en Madrid

Estudios previos han investigado sobre el desempeño energético de centros docentes. Sin embargo, no parece haberse explorado suficientemente la relación entre consumo de energía y consumo de agua en este tipo de edificios. Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio empírico, basado en la metodología de la auditoría energética operativa, realizado en tres centros docentes ubicados en la Comunidad de Madrid. Los resultados sugieren que las medidas de ahorro en el consumo de agua, como implantar perlizadores, temporizadores o doble pulsadores, son relevantes en cuanto a la mejora de la eficiencia energética, suponen inversiones moderadas y obtienen unos periodos de retorno simple de la inversión atractivos para los gestores de los edificios. Se abren nuevas vías de investigación que apuntan a realizar el análisis de otros flujos de materia e información, de manera que se establezca la relación entre dichos flujos y el consumo de energía que llevan aparejados.

John Calvin on God’s calling

Building on Martin Luther’s (1483–1546) view that the whole world could be filled with the service to God, this article is an investigation of John Calvin’s (1509–1564) assertion that every person’s occupation is a post and a station assigned to him by God. Although some people, as others did to Calvin and other reformers, may argue that the article demonstrates insensitivity to the unemployed, I have argued that restricting the word “calling” to ecclesiastical function always distorts the biblical meaning of the term. The central question in this article is simply: What can the today’s society learn from Calvin’s doctrine of occupational calling? Said differently, if Calvin and other Reformers were still alive what could they say to today’s politicians, legislators, businessmen, bankers, traders, scientists, judges and other public servants? Noting that the medieval society completely distorted the biblical truth of calling, this paper calls for a simple return to Calvin’s doctrine of vocation calling. The discussion walks from Biblical texts through the key developments in theology particularly related to how vocation was understood in the early and medieval churches that culminated in the Reformers’ view. The article concludes by offering various suppositions of what Calvin could have commended to us today.

Equity Risk Premium in Pakistan: Comparative Estimates from Historical Returns, Dividend and Earnings Models

This paper compares the efficiencies of dividend and earnings growth models with a historical model in predicting the unconditional expected equity risk premium (ERP). Monthly data has been used from the period 2010 to 2018 from 2 sectors namely market (KSE100 Index), cement and banking. The research applies a two-step process. First, we estimate and compare the absolute expected ERP under three models: (a) dividend growth model (Gordon, 1959), (b) earnings growth model and (c) historical returns, to find out the most efficient model for forecast ERP. Next, the effectiveness of the model is tested using a panel regression analysis. ERPs have been calculated with two different mathematical approaches, a simple return and continuously compounding returns (log returns). The results show that the dividend growth model emerges as the most efficient model for 1. KSE100 Index’s, 2.commercial bank and 3. Cement sector for predicting ERP and hence, investors should follow dividend policy to value Pakistani companies.