Societal Utility Research Articles

A new integrated system for carbon capture and clean hydrogen production for sustainable societal utilization

Both hydrogen production and carbon dioxide removal are considered in this study as two of the critical pieces to achieve the ultimate sustainability target. This study proposes and investigates a new variation of potassium hydroxide thermochemical cycle in order to combine hydrogen production and carbon dioxide removal synergistically. An alkali metal redox thermochemical cycle is developed to utilize the potassium hydroxide uniquely through a nonequilibrium reaction. Also, the multigeneration options are explored by employing two-stage steam Rankine cycle, multi-effect distillation desalination, and Li-Br absorption chiller, which is integrated with potassium hydroxide thermochemical cycle for hydrogen production, carbon capture, power generation, water desalination, and cooling purposes. A comparative assessment under different scenarios is carried out. The energy and exergy efficiencies of the hydrogen production thermochemical cycle are found to be 44.2 % and 67.66 % when the hydrogen generation reaction is carried out at 180 °C and the separation reactor temperature is set at 400 °C. Among the multigeneration scenarios considered, a trigeneration option for producing hydrogen, power and freshwater provides the highest energy efficiency as 66.02 %.

Exploring Utilitarianism

This study explores the contrasting conceptions of virtue in Western philosophy and Islam. Western philosophers predominantly advocate a utilitarian perspective, emphasizing individual and societal utility as the ultimate moral criterion. Happiness and maximum benefit are prioritized, with little consideration for the broader welfare of others. In contrast, Islamic thought diverges, incorporating notions of sacrifice and communal welfare alongside material pursuits. Professionalism and materialism, central to Western ideals, are critiqued within an Islamic framework for their emphasis on acquisition at the expense of altruism.

Optimal pricing and patient satisfaction optimization for healthcare providers

The importance of health systems for societies makes it necessary to examine them from a scientific perspective and improve healthcare. Healthcare service prices determine patients' decisions, so setting them correctly is crucial to creating balance in the system. In this research, we propose a bi-level model that includes private providers and the government to suggest optimal prices for healthcare services. The pricing method is suggested based on service quality and patient waiting time, and patients are categorized in two ways: 1) by the severity of their disease and the urgency of their condition, and 2) by their income and sensitivity to service prices. We aim to maximize service providers' profit at an optimal price while maximizing patient satisfaction. To achieve maximum patient utility, the government proposes contracts that increase overall societal utility. This research proposes and compares four cases: non-contract, cost-sharing contract, subsidy contract, and differentiated subsidy contract. Based on Stackelberg's game theory, we consider the government the leader and the private service provider the follower. Numerical results of the research show that the cost-sharing contract allocates support to all patients in society, but it does not achieve significant utility for the whole society, despite covering more patients. The subsidy contract allocates a more significant amount of subsidy to fewer patients and covers only those with an urgent condition. Differentiated subsidy contracts allocate subsidies according to price-sensitive groups, resulting in better use of budget expenditures. The managerial insight of this research, leads managers to consider contracts.

A Health State Utility Study to Elicit Societal Values Associated with Pulmonary Hypertension.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a rare, severe, and progressive pulmonary vascular disease, which includes five subgroups with similar presentation. Symptoms include dyspnea, and fatigue, and can significantly impact one's health-related quality of life (HRQL). Although treatments are mainly medical, PH group 4, chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), can be managed with procedures, ie pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) and balloon pulmonary angioplasty (BPA). Currently, drugs in Europe are only approved for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and CTEPH therefore the aim of this study was to elicit novel societal health state utilities in the UK for PAH and CTEPH based on disease severity, functional class (FC), clinical events, and treatment procedures specifically for CTEPH. Six health states were defined: World Health Organization (WHO)-FC II, WHO-FC III, and WHO-FC IV [defined by the New York Heart Association (NYHA)]; PH-related hospitalization; and "BPA procedure and recovery" and "PEA surgery and recovery". Health states were based on a targeted literature review and two rounds of interviews with clinical experts (N = 4) and patients (N = 6). Draft health states were validated in cognitive debriefing interviews with clinical experts (N = 3). Health states were valued by the UK general public (n = 200), using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and time trade-off (TTO) assessment with the lead time method. The mean TTO values/utilities were 0.81 (FC II), 0.80 (BPA), 0.78 (PEA), 0.59 (FC III), 0.28 (FC IV), and 0.25 (PH-related hospitalization). Each progression in FC was associated with worse TTO scores. This study reports societal utility values for PAH and CTEPH in the UK. It provides first utility estimates for states such as BPA procedure and recovery, PEA surgery and recovery and PH-related hospitalization for this population. The results show important distinctions between FC, treatment procedures, and hospitalization, and the significant burden of disease on HRQL.

The householder is king: Engendering householder participation in bridging the performance gap in homes

Smart technologies are useful for performance monitoring i.e. to gather real-life evidence to address the design-performance gap, reduce emissions, optimise energy use, address energy inequalities, empower and engage citizens. Smart home performance monitoring therefore has wider connotations of societal utility. However, current technology adoption models do not address this question of societal value. This study investigates the correlations between acceptance, adoption, affordance, and active citizenship as the basis for householder participation in smart performance monitoring ‘for the common good’. The aim is to propose an integrated framework for engendering householders' participation in bridging the performance gap. The research design combined theoretical and methodological triangulation. First, it reviewed and consolidated existing technology adoption models to establish a conceptual household participation framework. Then, a survey was deployed until 972 nationally representative sample was achieved. Lastly, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test goodness-of-fit hypotheses, to validate the framework. The result confirms that smart home performance monitoring implementation promote acceptance first by addressing citizenship/active participation factors. Therefore, policy initiatives should prioritise issues of trust, capacity for sustainable, social and technology innovativeness, and cost-benefit. Then resolve affordance factors such as perceived cost, performance expectancy, data security and perceived savings to promote adoption. Significantly, hedonic value, and social influence were not proven as effective for promoting participation. Therefore, the proposed participation framework contributes new theoretical and strategic insights into how smart home performance monitoring can be deployed to address the performance gap and aid the transition to net zero homes.

Elicitation of Health State Utilities Associated with Progression from Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) Unresponsive Non-muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer (NMIBC).

The treatments for high-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) vary between bladder preserving intravesical approaches and radical cystectomy. The impact of these treatments on health-related quality of life may vary widely. The purpose of this study was to elicit the general public's perspective on quality of life, measured as utility scores associated with treatment for Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG)-unresponsive NMIBC and disease progression, for supporting economic evaluation of newly developed treatments for NMIBC. Part I involved the development and testing of health states describing NMIBC, which was informed by a rapid review, expert input and a patient advisor. Part II involved elicitation of societal utility values for the different health states. Time trade-off (TTO) interviews were conducted with members of the UK general public. Five health states described different NMIBC scenarios including disease recurrence and progression. Participants ranked each health state, followed by the TTO valuation exercise. Descriptors included NMIBC symptom severity, impact and treatment characteristics. In total, 202 members of the general public participated. The mean age was 46 (standard deviation [SD] 14.6) years. Sample mean (SD) EQ-5D-5L visual analogue scale (VAS) and index scores were 83.2 (12.3) and 0.89 (0.18), respectively. Mean utilities were 0.781 for No High-Grade Recurrence, 0.586 for High-Grade Recurrence, 0.572 for >1-Year Post-cystectomy and 0.283 for metastatic disease. The First Year Post-cystectomy path health state had a mean utility of 0.288. Pairwise comparisons found statistically significant differences between utilities (p < 0.001), except between High-Grade Recurrence and > 1-Year Post-cystectomy (p = 0.524). There were significant differences in utility scores by age and employment status. This study provides utility scores for health states describing living with NMIBC, which is associated with a significant health-related quality-of-life burden. These values address an existing gap in available data and have the potential to be used in models evaluating the cost-effectiveness of both current and newly developed treatments for bladder cancer.

PCR176 Time Trade-Off Utility Values for Health States Characterizing Progressive Muscular Degeneration in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)

The progression of DMD is characterized by loss of ambulation (LOA) and upper limb function, cardiorespiratory impairment, and early mortality. Published utility values are limited, and generally restricted to health states defined solely by ambulatory status. The objective of this study was to estimate societal utility values for health states describing the progression of DMD.

Cost-effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with high-risk stage II and stage III colon cancer in South Africa.

6599 Background: Colon cancer (CC) incidence is rising globally, and case fatality rates are greatest in low-income settings, such as South Africa (SA). Adjuvant chemotherapy is standard of care for high-risk stage II and stage III CC in the US. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy for CC in SA public hospitals. Methods: We developed a decision-analytic Markov model comparing lifetime costs and outcomes for 60-year-old high-risk stage II and stage III CC patients treated in a SA public hospital with no adjuvant chemotherapy, versus: capecitabine and oxaliplatin (CAPOX) for 3 or 6 months or capecitabine for 6 months. High-risk stage II was defined as ≥1 of: T4 disease; poorly differentiated tumor; lymphovascular/perineural invasion; &lt;12 lymph nodes dissected, bowel obstruction/perforation. Transition probabilities were derived from clinical trials estimating toxicity, disease recurrence, and survival. Costs from a SA societal perspective and utility estimates were obtained from literature and local expert opinion. The primary outcome was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) in international dollars (I$) per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted, with a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold equal to 2021 GDP/capita of SA (I$13,764). Results: CAPOX for 3 months was the cost-effective strategy for stage III CC at a lifetime cost of I$5,284 and 5.55 DALYs averted, compared to no adjuvant treatment. All other strategies were absolutely dominated. For high-risk stage II CC, CAPOX for 3 months was the cost-effective strategy (ICER = I$711/DALY averted). No adjuvant chemotherapy was on the efficiency frontier, with a lower lifetime cost, but no DALYs averted. The results of one-way deterministic sensitivity analyses showed that the model is most sensitive to CC recurrence rate. In a probabilistic sensitivity analysis, CAPOX for 3 months was optimal in 88% of iterations for high-risk stage II CC and 79% of iterations for stage III CC. Conclusions: CAPOX for 3 months is the cost-effective adjuvant treatment for high-risk stage II and stage III CC in SA public hospitals. This strategy offers the highest quality of life benefit for the lowest cost and is well within the WTP threshold for SA. The optimal strategy in other settings will vary according to local WTP thresholds. Base case estimates of cost-effectiveness, in order of cost. [Table: see text]

Crowdfunding: Exploring the Factors That Could Motivate People to Raise Fund or Make Investment Through Crowdfunding Platforms in Emerging Countries

This study aims to explore the factors motivating the prospective investors towards adopting crowdfunding for making investments and assess the impact of motivators on the intention of the investors to invest in the crowdfunding projects in emerging countries. This study used a survey research to collect perceptions regarding motivators for crowdfunding investments. Also, a structural modelling equation has been adopted to model and analyse data. Motivators like monetary utility, personal utility, campaign and campaign owner, social and sense of belongingness and societal utility have been identified from the literature and empirically investigated in the study. This study has been conducted in an emerging country which could limit its generalization for this spectrum. Further studies considering the perceptual factors herein adopted could be run in developed countries in order to understand if the findings remain the same or any other contrasting evidence is observed. The model built in this study could be used by anyone who is planning to raise funds through crowdfunding. The crowdfunding platforms through the research findings can extend advice to the fund seeker and ensure that campaigns posted on his portal has the necessary ingredients. The model built is positively an initial attempt to understand the motivators which pushes the prospective investors towards crowdfunding campaigns in emerging countries. This study contributes especially to the emerging countries, in which crowdfunding concept and initiatives are still few widespread. By the understanding of perceptual factors, policy-makers may act successfully on fostering initiatives regarding crowdfunding developments. This can enhance economic and social aspects of those countries through several innovation developments. The existing literary talks about crowdfunding in developed economies, very few studies have taken place in emerging economies and moreover no study has focused on building a model which could encompass all the factors impacting investors’ decision making towards crowdfunding. This research is novel since the concept of crowdfunding is relatively new and the factors which could possibly motivate the prospective investors to consider projects for investments are not known, mainly in emerging countries and hence has been studied in the current research.

Towards an Ideology-Free, Truly Mechanistic Health Psychology.

Efficient transfer of concepts and mechanistic insights from the cognitive to the health sciences and back requires a clear, objective description of the problem that this transfer ought to solve. Unfortunately, however, the actual descriptions are commonly penetrated with, and sometimes even motivated by, cultural norms and preferences, a problem that has colored scientific theorizing about behavioral control—the key concept for many psychological health interventions. We argue that ideologies have clouded our scientific thinking about mental health in two ways: by considering the societal utility of individuals and their behavior a key criterion for distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy people, and by dividing what actually seem to be continuous functions relating psychological and neurocognitive underpinnings to human behavior into binary, discrete categories that are then taken to define clinical phenomena. We suggest letting both traditions go and establish a health psychology that restrains from imposing societal values onto individuals, and then taking the fit between behavior and values to conceptualize unhealthiness. Instead, we promote a health psychology that reconstructs behavior that is considered to be problematic from well-understood mechanistic underpinnings of human behavior.

A Dynamic Rationalization of Distance Rationalizability

Distance rationalizability is an intuitive paradigm for developing and studying voting rules: given a notion of consensus and a distance function on preference profiles, a rationalizable voting rule selects an alternative that is closest to being a consensus winner. Despite its appeal, distance rationalizability faces the challenge of connecting the chosen distance measure and consensus notion to an operational measure of social desirability. We tackle this issue via the decision-theoretic framework of dynamic social choice, in which a social choice Markov decision process (MDP) models the dynamics of voter preferences in response to winner selection. We show that, for a prominent class of distance functions, one can construct a social choice MDP, with natural preference dynamics and rewards, such that a voting rule is (votewise) rationalizable with respect to the unanimity consensus for a given distance function iff it is a (deterministic) optimal policy in the MDP. This provides an alternative rationale for distance rationalizability, demonstrating the equivalence of rationalizable voting rules in a static sense and winner selection to maximize societal utility in a dynamic process.

An Assessment of the Macroeconomic Implications of COVID-19 in Nepal: Evidence from SIR –Macro Model Analysis

This paper assesses the macroeconomic implications of COVID-19 in the context of Nepal. The study uses a susceptible, infected, and recovered macro model (SIR-Macro model) where epidemiological variables are interacted with macroeconomic variables namely consumption and working hours to simulate the implication. The model estimates show that the containment measures of the government reduced the spread of the disease by 17 percent. However, the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant negative impact on macroeconomic outputs. On average, both consumption and working hours declined by 20 percent which otherwise would be more serious if no containment measures were adopted. In addition, the study also finds that the impact has been heterogeneous across susceptible, infected, and recovered population. Interestingly, the study also indicates that the individual utility lowered while societal utility improved with containment policies.

Cost-effectiveness of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer in the South African public healthcare setting.

e18849 Background: Colon cancer incidence and mortality rates are increasing in low- and middle-income countries, such as South Africa (SA). Adjuvant chemotherapy after curative resection for stage III colon cancer prolongs overall survival, but it is unclear which regimen is most cost-effective in resource-constrained settings, such as the SA public healthcare system. Methods: A decision-analytic Markov model was developed to compare lifetime costs and health outcomes for 60-year-old stage III colon cancer patients treated with six adjuvant chemotherapy regimens in a public hospital in SA: fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin (FOLFOX) for 3 and 6 months, capecitabine and oxaliplatin (CAPOX) for 3 and 6 months, capecitabine for 6 months, and fluorouracil/leucovorin (5-FU/LV; Mayo regimen) for 6 months. Transition probabilities were derived from clinical trials to estimate risks of toxicity, disease recurrence, and survival. Costs from a SA societal perspective and utility estimates were obtained from literature and local expert opinion. The primary outcome was the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) in international dollars (I$) per disability-adjusted life year (DALY) averted, with a willingness-to-pay (WTP) threshold of one times the 2020 GDP per capita of SA (I$13,006.57; ZAR89,225). Results: Our model found CAPOX for 3 months to be the most cost-effective strategy, at a lifetime cost below the local WTP threshold (I$5,380.82; ZAR36,912.44) and 5.74 DALYs averted, compared to no chemotherapy. FOLFOX for 6 months was also on the efficiency frontier, with a higher total cost (I$22,747.47; ZAR156,047.64) and 0.18 additional DALYs averted (ICER = I$99,021.35/DALY averted). All other strategies were absolutely dominated. One-way sensitivity analyses found that FOLFOX for 6 months is optimal when the administration cost (i.e.: port and pump) falls to 20% of the base case price. Conclusions: In the SA public healthcare system, CAPOX for 3 months is the most cost-effective adjuvant treatment for stage III colon cancer. FOLFOX for 6 months, with a greater effectiveness, may be cost-effective if the administration cost decreases significantly. The optimal strategy in other settings may vary according to the local WTP threshold.[Table: see text]

Food/Feed and Environmental Risk Assessment of Herbicide-tolerant and Insect-resistant Genetically Modified Maize NK603 x MON810 for Import, Processing, Food and Feed Uses under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (EFSA/GMO/UK/2004/01)

Food/Feed and Environmental Risk Assessment of Herbicide-tolerant and Insect-resistant Genetically Modified Maize NK603 x MON810 for Import, Processing, Food and Feed Uses under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (EFSA/GMO/UK/2004/01)

Health-related quality of life in metachromatic leukodystrophy based on a societal utility study in the UK

Health-related quality of life in metachromatic leukodystrophy based on a societal utility study in the UK

Open Data, Collaborative Working Platforms, and Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Building an Early Career Scientist Community of Practice to Leverage Ocean Observatories Initiative Data to Address Critical Questions in Marine Science

Ocean observing systems are well-recognized as platforms for long-term monitoring of near-shore and remote locations in the global ocean. High-quality observatory data is freely available and accessible to all members of the global oceanographic community—a democratization of data that is particularly useful for early career scientists (ECS), enabling ECS to conduct research independent of traditional funding models or access to laboratory and field equipment. The concurrent collection of distinct data types with relevance for oceanographic disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, and geology yields a unique incubator for cutting-edge, timely, interdisciplinary research. These data are both an opportunity and an incentive for ECS to develop the computational skills and collaborative relationships necessary to interpret large data sets. Here, we use observatory data to demonstrate the potential for these interdisciplinary approaches by presenting a case study on the water-column response to anomalous atmospheric events (i.e., major storms) on the shelf of the Mid-Atlantic Bight southwest of Cape Cod, United States. Using data from the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) Pioneer Array, we applied a simple data mining method to identify anomalous atmospheric events over a four-year period. Two closely occurring storm events in late 2018 were then selected to explore the dynamics of water-column response using mooring data from across the array. The comprehensive ECS knowledge base and computational skill sets allowed identification of data issues in the OOI data streams and technologically sound characterization of data from multiple sensor packages to broadly characterize ocean-atmosphere interactions. An ECS-driven approach that emphasizes collaborative and interdisciplinary working practices adds significant value to existing datasets and programs such as OOI and has the potential to produce meaningful scientific advances. Future success in utilizing ocean observatory data requires continued investment in ECS education, collaboration, and research; in turn, the ECS community provides feedback, develops knowledge, and builds new tools to enhance the value of ocean observing systems. These findings present an argument for building a community of practice to augment ECS ocean scientist skills and foster collaborations to extend the context, reach, and societal utility of ocean science.

PRO131 A Societal Utility Study to Elicit Values for Stages of Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD) in the United Kingdom

Metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) is an ultra-rare, neurodegenerative disease which leads to motor and cognitive decline, and premature death. Hitherto, its impact on health-related quality of life (HRQL) of infants and juveniles has not been quantified. The aim of this study was to elicit societal utility values for infantile and juvenile MLD to support the economic evaluation of therapies. Health states were segregated by age of disease onset: infant (<30 months) and juvenile (30 months to 16 years). Infant health states were defined by the Gross Motor Function Classification (GMFC-MLD); whilst juvenile health states were defined by GMFC-MLD and by Development Quotient (DQ) scores for three cognitive functioning levels from normal/mild, moderate, and severe. Health state descriptions were informed by literature review and interviews with clinical experts (N=6) - who also validated the draft states in cognitive debriefing interviews. The finalised health states were valued by UK general public (n=101) who completed a visual analogue scale (VAS) and time trade-off (TTO) assessment with the lead time method. Amongst infantile states, the mean TTO values ranged from 0.71 (GMFC-MLD1) to -0.47 (GMFC-MLD6). Each decline in GMFC-MLD was associated with worsening TTO and VAS scores. The juvenile states had considerably lower utility values than infantile states and also declined with worsening cognitive status. In the normal cognitive group, the mean utility values ranged from 0.90 (GMFC-MLD1) to -0.07 (GMFC-MLD4). In the moderate group, the mean scores ranged from 0.85 (GMFC-MLD0) to -0.62 (GMFC-MLD6). In the severe group, mean scores ranged from 0.37 (GMFC-MLD0) to -0.70 (GMFC-MLD5). This study has generated de novo utility estimates for infantile and juvenile MLD health states, and is one of the first studies to measure the cognitive dimension of an ultra-rare disease. The utility values confirm that the preferences of the general public recognise the severity of MLD.

Determinations of strategy responding to COVID-19

This study explores what determines the selection of strategies by governments responding to COVID-19. To answer the question, we propose concepts of individual utility and societal utility and build a simple model. By applying the model, we predict that countries with an individualist culture would adopt more passive strategies while countries with a collectivist culture would adopt more active strategies. The comparison between strategies adopted in China and in the United Kingdom supports the prediction. Furthermore, as the spread of COVID-19 virus continues, governments’ response may change and individualist countries may switch to more active strategies. So we extend our model to incorporate the dynamics of strategy selection, and explain the switch between passive and active strategies. We then predict in particular that facing the unexpected infections and deaths, the countries with an individualist culture would temporally adopt a relatively more active strategy responding to COVID-19. The evidence from Spain shows the dynamic feature of strategy selection as predicted by our model.

Food/Feed and Environmental Risk Assessment of Insect-resistant and Herbicide-tolerant Genetically Modified Maize GA21 from Syngenta Seeds for Food and Feed Uses, Import and Processing under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (EFSA/GMO/UK/2005/19)

Food/Feed and Environmental Risk Assessment of Insect-resistant and Herbicide-tolerant Genetically Modified Maize GA21 from Syngenta Seeds for Food and Feed Uses, Import and Processing under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (EFSA/GMO/UK/2005/19)

Food/Feed and Environmental Risk Assessment of Insect-Resistant and Herbicide-Tolerant Genetically Modified Maize Bt11 x GA21 in the European Union under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (EFSA/GMO/UK/2007/49)

Food/Feed and Environmental Risk Assessment of Insect-Resistant and Herbicide-Tolerant Genetically Modified Maize Bt11 x GA21 in the European Union under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 (EFSA/GMO/UK/2007/49)