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This paper is devoted to asymptotic analysis for a continuous-time risk model with the insurance surplus process and the log-price process of the investment driven by two dependent jump-diffusion processes. We take into account arbitrary dependence between the insurance claims and their corresponding investment return jumps caused by a sequence of systematic factors, whose arrival times constitute a renewal counting process. Under the framework of regular variation, we obtain a simple and unified asymptotic formula for the finite-time ruin probability as the initial wealth becomes large. It turns out that, in the weakly dependent case, the tails of the claims determine the exact decay rate of the finite-time ruin probability while the investment return jumps only contribute to the coefficient of the asymptotic formula; however, in the strongly dependent case, they both produce essential impacts on the finite-time ruin probability which is under-estimated in the weakly dependent case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product variety, in combination with today's unstable market environment, brings strong challenges to manufacturing firms. Single-product assembly systems become difficult to implement as the return on investment is difficult to obtain with decreasing lot sizes and unstable customer demands. Multi-product assembly systems are a possible solution to this problem, as they allow to compensate demand fluctuations throughout the product mix. However, variety is a strong barrier to this kind of production systems. A new method is presented in this paper to identify multi-product assembly system architectures adapted to a product family, based on the identification of components for common positioning. This method has been applied to a supplier in the automotive industry and a return of experience of this case study is provided, highlighting its potentials and barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School and district leaders make annual decisions about investing their budgets in a multitude of educational programs. Policy directives set expectations for investing in programs that show evidence of improving student outcomes. However, evaluating many simultaneously-implemented programs under typical school operating conditions is challenging. We investigated three methods – cost-effectiveness analysis, program value-added analysis, and academic return on investment – to assess how each one fares against three criteria: rigor of methodology, difficulty of execution, and usability of results for decision-making. We apply each method to three programs implemented in a large, U.S. school district: Reading Recovery, Restorative Practices, and school nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individualized case management services that identify and provide support for treatment, housing, and employment may improve opportunities for success for those housed in community residential facilities (CRFs) upon release, particularly when evaluated against the goals of reducing the length of stay in the CRF and reducing the rate of return to prison among a targeted parole population with severe mental health needs and moderate-to-high criminogenic risk. Following an experimental design with random assignment design, this study evaluated 349 participants who were eligible for specialized case management services while housed and released from a CRF between January 2018 and June 2019. Findings reveal that participants who received specialized service referrals significantly decreased their length of stay in the CRF compared to the control group. Successful program completion was further related to a reduced length of stay and a significant reduction in the likelihood of returning to prison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we consider a renewal risk model with by-claims, where the price process of the investment portfolio follows an exponential Lévy process. We further assume that the main claim is a one-sided linear process and there exists a certain dependence structure between the innovations and by-claims. In the presence of heavy tails, we obtain a series of uniform formulas in finite and infinite intervals. In order to better describe the obtained results, we carry on the numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Catholic Church embarked upon an ambitious project of property development in the nineteenth century that transformed the Irish built environment and landscape. People responded energetically to fundraising drives for churches, convents, monasteries and welfare-focused institutions. The acquisition of significant property and substantial capital by the Irish Catholic Church was a major source of its power, which continued into independent Ireland. Much of this wealth came to the Catholic Church through bequests, donations, and returns on investment, which were managed by the relevant dioceses and orders. This article focuses on the episcopacy of Archbishop William Walsh of Dublin during the 1880s and 1890s to understand the way in which the management of the archdiocese of Dublin's financial resources shaped the social, economic, and political development of Ireland's capital city. By focusing on the management of one of the most significant bequests under Walsh's supervision – the Egan Bequest – a complex story of religion, investment and infrastructure building is revealed. This activity helped produce a model of investor capitalism that shaped Dublin in ways that remain contested to this day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the impact of product complexity on product lifetime. As product lifetime increases, firms have a longer time to develop new products and gain a higher return on investment. This study posits that product complexity has an effect on product lifetime and then investigates a product portfolio strategy for product complexity by using Korean mobile phone data released from 2004 to 2013. The impact of product complexity on product lifetime is investigated by pooled ordinary least squares regression. Then, we derive a product portfolio strategy that increases product complexity using panel data analysis. The results show that an increase in product complexity lengthens product lifetime and that a firm needs to design its product portfolio by concentrating its resources and capabilities on releasing products of the latest product type. The findings of this study can help a firm establish an optimal product portfolio that increases the return on investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consider a nonstandard compound renewal risk model with stochastic return on investments, where the price process of investment portfolio is modeled as an exponential Lévy process. In the presence of heavy tails and dependence structures among modeling components, we study the uniform asymptotics of the tail probability of stochastic discounted aggregate claims and the finite-time ruin probability for all time varying in a relevant finite or infinite interval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated the impact of using different contents and sources of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) on the bottom-up fatigue cracking of asphalt mixtures and the return on investment (ROI). Two RAP sources were used that primarily provided a significant difference in RAP binder Performance Grade (PG): Source A was a PG 76-22 while Source B was a PG 94-10. Bottom-up fatigue cracking was predicted using Level 1 of the AASHTOWare Pavement Mechanistic-Empirical Design (PMED) software. The ROI was then evaluated using FHWA RealCost. To increase the accuracies of the predictions, volumetric properties and blended binder properties were calculated based on the amount of RAP binder that actively blended with the virgin binder. The accuracies were also increased by determining the AASHTOWare PMED fatigue strength coefficients, $k_{\,f1}$ k f 1 , $k_{\,f2}$ k f 2 , and $k_{\,f3}$ k f 3 , using flexural bending beam fatigue tests rather than using the global defaults provided by this software. In conclusion, the ROI of the six RAP mixtures based on bottom-up fatigue cracking was found to be affected by both RAP content and RAP source, and because of the effect of RAP source, it could not be generalised that using either a higher or lower RAP content will always provide a higher ROI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regarding the causality nexus between the various dimensions of corporate governance (ownership structure, dividend policy) and financial performance (return on equity, return on assets, Tobin's Q), the empirical results are mixed. Therefore, this study tries to examine the existence and the direction of causal relationship between these major indicators in an emerging economy, namely Tunisia for a sample of 375 firm-years observations during the period 1996–2020. This study applies a bootstrap panel Granger non-causality test which takes into account cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity issues. Results show the existence of both unidirectional and bidirectional significant causal link between the pair of used variables. Overall, when comparing between Kónya and Dumitrescu and Hurlin approaches, the findings highlight and confirm the convergence of the direction of causality between all variables used in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hot pepper is one of the most important vegetables and spice crops cultivated in many parts of the world including Ethiopia. The crop is known for its nutritional value and as spice. It's productivity is low due to low availability of soil nutrients. Much research was conducted to investigate the response of pepper to inorganic fertilizers such as DAP and Urea. However, information about the effect of Blended fertilizers such as NPSB and its combination with Urea is scanty. This research was therefore conducted to investigate the response of hot pepper to blended NPSB and urea fertilizer rates at Kobo, North Wollo. Four rates of NPSB (0, 100, 200, and 300 kg ha−1) and four rates of urea (0, 50, 100, and 150 kg ha−1) in factorial combination were laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The results revealed that the interaction effect of NPSB and urea was significant on many of the parameters considered. Treatments that received fertilizer combination of 300 kg NPSB ha−1 and 150 kg urea ha−1 gave the tallest plants (79.76 cm) and maximum number of pods per plant (45.50), while Treatments that received fertilizer combination of 200 kg NPSB ha−1 and 150 kg urea ha−1 gave the highest total pod fruit yield (30.08t ha−1) and maximum marketable yield (29.48 t ha−1) in the study area. Application of combined 200 kg ha−1 NPSB and 150 urea kg ha−1is recommended for production of hot pepper at Kobo and similar agroecologies as the highest net benefit (3548.86 US$) with relatively high marginal rate of return (2258.91%) were recorded. However, as the present study was done only in one location for one season, it would be worthwhile to repeat it in order to arrive at a sound conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two-stage growth model (Danielson, 1998) empowers analysts to quantify the growth expectations supporting a firm's stock price. This article merges that two-stage growth model with the AIRR model developed by Magni (2010, 2013). The new model simplifies the calculation of the firm's expected competitive advantage period and the expected annual growth rate. The new model can be used to quantify expectations for both dividend and non-dividend paying firms and when the return on new investments or the required return on equity might not be constant in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crentz) is one of the most important root crops in tropical regions of the world. However, little or no study was carried out to determine the optimum rates of nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) for better cassava root yield. N and K fertilizers are the major factors limiting the growth and yield of cassava. Thus, this experiment evaluated the effect of N and K fertilizer rates on the growth, and yield of cassava. Four levels of N (0, 46, 92, and 138 kg N ha−1) and three levels of K (0, 60, and 120 kg K ha−1) were arranged in factorial combination in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The results revealed that the main effects of N fertilizer influenced all the studied parameters, while the main effect of K affected number of tubers per plant and tuber diameter. Interaction effect of N and K influenced fresh tuber yield of cassava. The highest fresh tuber yield of cassava was achieved from 92 kg N ha−1, whereas the lowest fresh tuber yield of cassava was obtained from the control plant. The economic analysis showed that higher net benefit and marginal rate of return were obtained from the application of 92 kg N ha−1, reflecting that it could be an optimum N for cassava yield in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the stochastic volatility models for multivariate daily stock returns, it has been found that the estimates of parameters become unstable as the dimension of returns increases. To solve this problem, we focus on the factor structure of multiple returns and consider two additional sources of information: first, the stock index associated with the market factor and, second, the realized covariance matrix calculated from high-frequency data. The proposed dynamic factor model with the leverage effect and realized measures is applied to 10 top stocks composing the exchange traded fund linked with the investment return of the S&P 500 index and the model is shown to have a stable advantage in portfolio performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lymphoma Diagnostic Pathway (LDP) was developed based upon clinical best practice guidelines and implemented in large urban centers where lymphoma treatment is provided in Alberta, Canada. A return-on-investment analysis of the implementation of this care pathway was conducted to inform future sustainability and expansion. A cohort design with propensity score matching and difference-in-difference estimation methods were used comparing both cost and return (reduced health service utilization) between patients who were diagnosed within the LDP and those who were diagnosed outside the LDP. LDP resulted in $1800 avoided HSU costs per patient. The LDP has been found to be cost-saving with an ROI of 5.3 (ranging from 3.95–8.97) – for every $1 invested, LDP resulted in a $5.30 return for the health system due to capacity improvements in ED, inpatient, outpatient, and a reduction in GP service utilization. Further study of implementation including patient/provider satisfaction and uptake is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of advanced security technologies, such as modeling and simulation in support of vulnerability assessment, has continued to find acceptance in both the operator and the regulatory realms. A critical component to gaining acceptance for modeling and simulation is employing a proven analysis process using best practices and proven tools. These processes and tools allow security managers to be responsive to changing threats and management/financial constraints by quantifying a site's level of security under different attack scenarios and defensive configurations. Based on best practices and performance data from government agencies, modeling and simulation experts have proposed a process to compute security system effectiveness for commercial nuclear sites. This process will allow decision makers to use a risk-informed approach to quantify security risk at their sites. This also includes a formal accreditation and review process that will provide decision makers and regulators confidence into the development of the defense strategy. Providing a consistent means to assess security, using government-provided or other agreed-upon performance data, will allow sites to compare new and more cost-effective strategies directly with existing/approved strategies to perform a cost-benefit analysis and return on investment estimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minsky, the father of the financial instability hypothesis was concerned with how instability in business sector balance sheets could contribute to overall financial instability. Minsky did not consider the household balance to be important, and until 1990 taking that perspective was not problematic. However, as the level of household net wealth increased significantly through the 1990s, the household sector became an important player in the financial sector balances game. This article analyzes the role of household debt in economic growth from the post-Keynesian approach. We find that household debt does matter to financial stability. It influences the consumption levels of households, the rate of return on mortgage and other debt held by banks and other financial institutions, the rate of return on the production of goods and services, and the overall well-being of households in our economy. The issue of household debt can be tackled from two sides. From the income side, creating a work environment favorable to unions and a job guarantee program would help. From the expenditure side, providing Medicare, childcare, eldercare, higher education, and potentially housing, would remove the reasons why household acquire sometimes unsustainable debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had a significant impact on business and economies globally. This paper aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on firm performance in China's high-tech industries. The population of this paper is 116 companies listed on the sci-tech innovation board (STAR market) of the Shanghai stock exchange. DuPont analysis is applied to measure firm performance including return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), asset turnover ratio (ATO), and profit margin. The empirical results show that the COVID-19 pandemic has a significant and negative impact on ROE, ROA, and ATO in high-tech industries, and research and development (R&D) investment has a moderating role in the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and firm performance. The findings may play a guiding role for corporate managers and policymakers to overcome this formidable crisis in the era of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the correlates of optimism bias and its impact on World Bank project performance. We measure optimism bias in different ways using estimated Economic Rates of Return (ERR) of projects at approval and closure. We examine over 2,800 World Bank projects that were appraised between 1960 and 2019. We find that approximately 60% of projects in the sample were prone to optimism bias. Correlates of optimism bias include both project and country characteristics. Findings also indicate that the incidence of optimism bias reduces the chance of a satisfactory project performance rate at the time of evaluation by 17–20%. Recommendations include embracing complexity and uncertainty in considering projects for approval, providing organizational incentives for ensuring projects are successful rather than ERRs being accurate, shifting some resources from appraisal to implementation, and changing the nature of project supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the macroeconomic gains to Asia-Pacific economies from liberalising foreign investment flows. It first presents an intertemporal theoretical framework to convey, in principle, how higher national income stems from the narrowing of the gap between domestic and foreign rates of return on capital. Using a computable general equilibrium model it then empirically quantifies the impact on investment, the capital stocks, the external accounts and national income of a one percentage point reduction of the rate of return on capital due to further liberalisation of impediments to foreign investment. The results show national income gains for Asia-Pacific economies are on average around 0.3 percent per annum, which compounded through time implies significant long-term improvement in living standards in the region. This suggests APEC should afford greater priority to foreign investment liberalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campus outreach is a key part of an academic library's service mission. However, the literature demonstrates a lack of assessment around library outreach, particularly from an institution-wide or programmatic perspective. The University of Houston Libraries assembled a team to evaluate return on investment for the Libraries outreach activities in service of meeting student success goals. This article shares the methodology, results, and recommendations made as a result of this project, with implications for outreach programs at other academic libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a penalized estimation method for finite mixture of ultra-high dimensional regression models. A two-step procedure is explored. Firstly, we conduct order selection with the number of components unknown. Then variable selection is applied to ultra-high dimensional regression models. A specific EM algorithm is designed to maximize penalized log-likelihood function. We demonstrate our method by numerical simulations which performs well. Further, an empirical study of return on equity (ROE) prediction is shown to consolidate our methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite generally low return on investment, modular-mini refineries from simple diesel production units to more sophisticated refineries are increasingly becoming a choice of flexible and cost-effective supply for oil producers in remote regions, particularly in developing economies with reasonable to rich oil resources. The new wave of mini refineries includes the modular refinery in Fujairah, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria's burgeoning market for mini-refineries and their increasing role in the development strategy of Indonesia. Honeywell International reports a market for its readymade mobile refineries in war-torn Iraq. Significant rationalization of the refining industry during last three and half decades and considerations like changing environmental legislations or investment incentives to mitigate security of supply issues and sudden finds of light sweet crude as in USA, have all led to change in investment pattern in the refining industry, thereby leading to the growth of modular-mini refineries in different nations. This has been further supported by factors like ability to boost industrialization growth and development of the country. Relatively low capital cost, speed and ease of construction are the other main advantages of modular-mini refineries. The necessary conditions for such viable investment usually include a location in close proximity and access to oil supplies, and being close to markets with considerable logistical advantages that reduce the high cost of distribution to remote locations. This article is an attempt to review the current status of modular-mini refineries as business opportunities in developing economies like Nigeria and Indonesia, based on published information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign direct investment (FDI) and tourism are listed as essential components of economic growth in many countries. However, empirical evidence remains controversial and ambiguous. This paper investigates the long-run effects of international tourism and FDI inflows on the rate of economic growth in Spain as an economy with a great GDP share of tourism and FDI. By employing a non-linear ARDL analysis, this study suggests that although international tourism development improves the economic growth rate, it might be wishful thinking to improve this rate by increasing the current rate of FDI in this country if the quality of FDI and its rate of return is as low as in the past. The reasons and solutions are explored in detail, and policy implications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study extends the continuous-time smooth ambiguity preferences model by introducing a Poisson jump component into the agent's consumption process. Under this setting, we examine the effect of ambiguity with respect to both Brownian motion and a Poisson jump process on asset prices. Using reasonable values for preferences parameters, our model replicates historical moments of the U.S. asset returns, including the equity premium, equity volatility, and risk-free rate. Our model also generates substantial equity variance premium and a mildly downward sloping volatility curve of equity options that are consistent with the U.S. data. In addition, our model captures the predictive power of the variance premium with respect to equity returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bridges are critical components in the extensive European transportation network, most of them built as part of the post-World War II reconstruction effort. This means that society is facing the beginning of the end of their design life, showing the necessity of enhanced approaches, complementing visual inspections, to improve the efficiency in bridge management. Knowing in advance the Return on Investment (RoI), of such enhanced approaches, becomes appealing information for decision-makers. This work introduces a formulation for the quantification of the Value of Information (VoI, i.e. the RoI) of a pro-active Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) tool devoted to early damage detection. A comprehensive case study—the Lezíria Bridge—is used by benefiting from (i) an SHM system operating since construction, 2006, and an accurate FE model of the structure. The structural behaviour and sensors' measurements for a set of likely damages are anticipated via the mentioned FE model. Based on this, it is shown that RoI can go up, approximately, between +11.7% and +13.1%. How these values were reached are explained from a pedagogical and comprehensive perspective, focussing on how to benefit effectively from the installed monitoring system in the future considering the inevitable ageing of the structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most attractive indexes to select the best investment decision is internal rate of return (IRR) measure, but it has some significant faults both in practice and theoretically. Multiple attempts have been made to resolve the IRR challenges, but none of them are perfect. This article presents the Modified Simple Average Internal Rate of Return criterion as a profitability index for calculating a unique rate of return for all various types of cash flow streams so that obtained results are consistent with the net present value method in accept/reject decisions. The presented method is simple to compute and is capable of resolving all known IRR defects including when the resulting rate is greater than −1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different solar dryer designs are available in the literature. However, it is essential to understand how the performance of the dryer designs contributes to environmental sustainability by reducing waste in the exergy-loop and mitigate CO2 emission into the atmosphere. The exergy-based sustainability indices include waste exergy ratio, lack of productivity (LOP), sustainability index, environmental destruction coefficient and exergy recovery ratio. The paper also introduces exergy return on investment (ExRoI) by applying an extended exergy accounting approach with the inclusion of exergy influx of material resources, capital and labor in the exegetic computations of the sustainability index. Four solar dryers consisting of an indirect solar-cabinet dryer, mix-mode solar dryer, hybrid solar dryer and a double-partitioned single-pass-collector solar dryer with a wind generator were used as a case study. Comparatively, the ExRoI is lower than the standard exergy-efficiency for the four dryers by 6.87 to 91.61%. In contrast, the standard exergy-based sustainability index was higher by 5.4 to 61.2%. Total invested exergy ranged from 0.04TJ to 0.081TJ. The values of waste exergy ratio, LOP, ERR, EDC, and carbon credit ranged from 0.47 to 0.79, 0.566 to 16.45, 5.44 × 10−4 to 1.37 × 10−1, 1.57 to 17.45 and 231.45 to $2908, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The newly elected South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, set an ambitious objective to attract US$100 billion Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) for South Africa's sustainable socio-economic development. This paper determines differential factors that influence the flow of FDI into South Africa. The objective of this study is to assess factors that affect the flow of FDI into South Africa. Data analysis is performed from the 217 foreign exchange practitioners, registered and working at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in South Africa by performing both ordered logit and Bayesian analyses. Our results showed that the following are the most important FDI determinants factors: (1) the provision of economic incentives; (2) trade regulation and policies; and (3) high expectations of economic return on investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large enterprises have been at the forefront of environmental management with active participation in industrywide programs and adoption of a 'beyond compliance' approach. The present study revisits the premise of environmental–financial linkage in an Indian context with a focus on large listed enterprises. We develop a comprehensive dataset of 459 large listed Indian companies covering major manufacturing and service sectors of the economy over an eleven-year period from 2008–09 to 2018–19. Static and dynamic regression models are used to gauge the impact of environmental management practices on firm profitability (Return on Assets and Return on Equity) and market valuation (Tobin Q, Market to Book Value Ratio and Excess Valuation to sales ratio). Empirical results suggest a positive impact of environmental management on firm profitability and market valuation. These results are of interest to corporate and policy makers for recognizing the financial implications of corporate environmental management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of Bacillus subtilis PB6 supplementation on productive performance, egg quality and hatchability of broiler breeder hens. A total of 20,000 broiler breeder hens (ROSS 308), 57 weeks old, were assigned to the two equal groups as follows: The first group was fed a basal diet and the second group was fed the basal diet that supplemented with the Bacillus subtilis PB6 (2 × 107 cfu/g) at the rate of 1 g/kg of diet. Results indicated that adding Bacillus subtilis significantly improves egg production (P < 0.05). The body weights and egg weight were not affected by the dietary treatments (P > 0.05) but Bacillus subtilis improved the egg haugh unit (P < 0.05). Adding Bacillus subtilis significantly increased hatching egg, eggshell thickness and egg hatchability (P < 0.05). A highly significant improvement was noticed in the faecal score of the group fed with Bacillus subtilis (P < 0.01). Adding Bacillus subtilis increased the level of total cholesterol (P < 0.01) and decreased the blood heterophil to lymphocyte ratio (P < 0.01) in breeders' serum. It is concluded that Bacillus subtilis PB6 supplementation at the level of 1 g/kg of broiler breeder diet, significantly improve the egg production, egg quality, hatchability, faecal score and return on investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study revisits the topic of predicting aggregate equity returns out-of-sample by conditioning on economic variables through Bayesian model averaging (BMA). Besides simultaneously addressing parameter instability and model uncertainty, I suggest a new model feature, namely, predictors in a given model can also impact the dependent variable through the conditional volatility process. The suggested econometric framework is straightforward to implement without requiring simulation. Likewise, the user can easily decide, which aspects of the predictive channel should to be switched on, off or altered. I apply the suggested framework to the well-known [Goyal, A. and Welch, I., A comprehensive look at the empirical performance of equity premium prediction. Rev. Financial Stud., 2008, 21, 1455–1508] dataset. An extensive out-of-sample prediction evaluation demonstrates that averaging over predictor combinations in a model that allows lagged predictors to impact aggregate equity returns exclusively through the conditional volatility process results in statistically significant more accurate density predictions relative to the benchmark, especially when predicting the left tail of the conditional distribution. One also observes economic gains in favor of certain BMAs. Here, the BMA that allows predictors to impact equity returns through the conditional mean as well as the conditional volatility process is the top performer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite enthusiasm for inpatient ward redesign, coordinated models require high effort with uncertain return on investment. Objective: We aimed to reduce mortality and achieve a benchmark of zero preventable deaths by committing to an interprofessional model, including partnered nurse-physician unit leadership, geographic localization, and structured interdisciplinary bedside rounds (SIBR). Methods: An observational pre-post design with 5-year follow-up studied the transition of a medical unit to an Accountable Care Unit (ACU). This geographic model enables partnered nurse-physician leadership and patient-centered workflows, including daily interdisciplinary bedside rounds. Potentially additive or confounding hospital-wide safety initiatives were tracked. Yearly mortality was compared using multivariable logistic regression and reported as odds ratio (OR). For the pre-specified goal of no preventable deaths, we report unexpected deaths, defined as those occurring without documentation of comfort as the goal of care. Results: 12,158 inpatients (55.1% female, mean [sd] age 62.2 [19.7]) were observed over 6 years. Reduction in the risk-adjusted mortality was observed following ACU implementation, with Year 2 significantly lower than the pre-implementation year (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 0.58 [0.35–0.94]). Risk-adjusted mortality was similar in Year 3 (aOR = 0.64 [0.39–1.0]) but returned to baseline for Years 4 and 5. Unexpected deaths reached zero in Year 3 and plateaued in Years 4 and 5 at a rate below pre-implementation year (~0.1% vs. 0.38%). Conclusions: A geographic ACU with nurse-physician partnered leadership and daily structured interdisciplinary bedside rounds can reduce total and unexpected mortality. However, maintenance requires constant effort and, in the real world, multiple confounders complicate study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fourth industrial revolution known as Industry 4.0 is reshaping and evolving the way industries produce products and individuals live and work therefore, gaining massive attraction from academia, business, and politics. The manufacturing industries are optimistic regarding the opportunities that Industry 4.0 may offer such as improved efficiency, productivity and customization. The present research contributes to the Industry 4.0 literature by identifying, modeling, analyzing, and prioritizing the challenges in implementing Industry 4.0 in manufacturing industries. In doing so, the article first introduces the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to develop the hierarchical relationships among the challenges and analyzes their mutual interactions. Further, "Matrice d'Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliquee aun Classement" (MICMAC) analysis is used to categorize the challenges into four categories, namely autonomous, driver, dependent, and linkage based on their driving power and dependence power. Moreover, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (F-AHP) methodology is used to prioritize the challenges based on three criteria: driving power, dependence power, and change management. The hierarchical model developed through ISM methodology shows that "lack of vision and leadership from top management (C12), lack of skills training program and education (C2), and uncertainty of return on investment (C9)" are the major challenges in implementing Industry 4.0 in manufacturing industries. The findings of F-AHP analysis suggest that "lack of vision and leadership from top management (C12), lack of skilled workforce (C3), lack of skills training program and education (C2), and uncertainty of return on investment (C9)" are some of the major challenges of implementing Industry 4.0. Finally, the obtained results show how challenges affect other so that to uncover the root cause triggering the other challenges. The industrial practitioners and managers can then take advantage of these analyses to know which challenge acts as the main barrier in implementing Industry 4.0 and to be focused first in order to reach a solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Column Editor's Note.This column focuses on formal collaboration and networking among libraries through consortia. It offers in-depth examinations of issues facing modern library consortia including (but not limited to) e-resource licensing, ebooks, next generation integrated library systems, shared print archiving, shared digital repositories, governance and other relevant topics. Contributions are accepted for this column and must be submitted to George Machovec (george@coalliance.org). Contact the column editor for suggested topics, deadlines and formatting. ConnectNY has been involved in consortial e-book projects since 2010. Based upon the experience of these group e-book projects, we will explore different methods for assuming the shared cost of group e-book programs and then describe ways in which DDA programs may promote a positive Return on Investment (ROI) for groups as compared to individual institutions. We will argue that while use is a factor that can be taken into account when distributing cost amongst members, a budget-based percentage approach will allow consortia to effectively initiate and manage such projects over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In a sector characterised by patenting, direct appropriations and returns from investment, the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) constitutes a radically different public-private and entirely open access approach to pre-competitive research. This paper discusses the significance of findings from the first independent review of the SGC. We argue that the SGC offers a shared knowledge resource for drug discovery which is distinctive from other types of knowledge production and, as such, provides a knowledge infrastructure for the wider scientific community. We distinguish three ways in which this infrastructure functions as a model for investing in, extracting value from, and generating knowledge for the field. Our analysis suggests there is a future for open science models such as the SGC in health research and innovation, but that such models raise a set of challenges over the role of different public and private institutional actors and the way in which value is extracted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using cross-sectional data, collected via a survey from the Greek healthcare sector, we estimate both the private (direct) and public/social (indirect) returns to education from an increase in an employee's educational level. By utilising a spatial econometrics approach, we control for the aggregation problems that plague the majority of the existing literature. The results demonstrate the existence of statistically and economically significant spillover effects, irrespective of whether the educational 'distance' between employees is increased or decreased, and indicate that traditional estimates of the rate of return to education are significantly biased when not accounting for spillover effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Priorities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 6|18 Initiative include outpatient asthma self-management education (ASME) and home-based asthma visits (home visit) as interventions for children with poorly-controlled asthma. ASME and home visit intervention programs are currently not widely available. This project was to assess the economic sustainability of these programs for state asthma control programs reimbursed by Medicaid. We used a simulation model based on parameters from the literature and Medicaid claims, controlling for regression to the mean. We modeled scenarios under various selection criteria based on healthcare utilization and age to forecast the return on investment (ROI) using data from New York. The resulting tool is available in Excel or Python. Our model projected health improvement and cost savings for all simulated interventions. Compared against home visits alone, the simulated ASME alone intervention had a higher ROI for all healthcare utilization and age scenarios. Savings were primarily highest in simulated program participants who had two or more asthma-related emergency department visits or one inpatient visit compared to those participants who had one or more asthma-related emergency department visits. Segmenting the selection criteria by age did not significantly change the results. This model forecasts reduced healthcare costs and improved health outcomes as a result of ASME and home visits for children with high urgent healthcare utilization (more than two emergency department visits or one inpatient hospitalization) for asthma. Utilizing specific selection criteria, state based asthma control programs can improve health and reduce healthcare costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on developing new ways to help faculty innovate, in case with respect to research projects. Topics discussed include information on Mcubed, a new seed funding program at the University of Michigan, which distributes resources for projects based on public accountability and researcher buy-in; benefits of the program involving return on investment; and concern over absence of evidence of effectiveness about peer review.

Risk-based capitalization (RBC) is an insurance regulation policy aimed at protecting policyholders. But effects of this policy on insurers' performance are conjectural as empirical studies are scarce. This study investigates RBC influence, in the context of capital structure, on return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and earnings per share (EPS) of insurers using 2SLS fixed and random effect models. From the results, RBC improved ROA and EPS significantly, but reduced ROE insignificantly. It concluded that RBC policy make a significant positive contribution to ROA and EPS. ROE is not significantly affected by RBC policy for the period under review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salalah is known for its Al-Khareef unique weather that is marked by influx of tourists into the community resulting in high electrical load demand during the Al-Khareef season. This paper investigates the viability of two hybridised energy systems for application in Salalah community. The result demonstrated that the Photovoltaic, Wind and Battery combination is more cost effective in terms of energy consumption, initial cost and renewal price, in comparison to the other hybrid energy system. The Homer Pro software, return on investment and internal rate of return analysis showed that the Photovoltaic/Wind/Battery scheme commands higher economic and environmental viability, presenting the Photovoltaic, Wind and Battery scheme as a better option to meet the power demand for Salalah city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider a perturbed risk model with stochastic return on investments. After discretizing of the renewal risk process, using the elementary properties of the classical conditional expectation, the Markov property and considerating the ordinary differential equation of a common density function of the inter-arrival times, we introduce a general integro-differential equation for the Laplace transform of the time of ruin with a positive initial surplus. The special cases, for different inter-arrival times distributions, are given in some details in the discrete renewal risk process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School leaders are tasked with addressing a variety of academic, behavioral, and social–emotional concerns but struggle to do so with limited resources. Because resources are limited, researchers and practitioners need to consider not only what works but also at what cost. Economic evaluations apply specific methods to assess and contextualize the costs and effects of evidence-based practices to help compare interventions and proactively inform resource allocation, but these have rarely been conducted in school psychology. The goals of this special issue are to define economic evaluation methods that could be used in school psychology, to highlight research examining the cost-effectiveness of evidence-based practices, and to examine the costs of translating and scaling evidence-based practices to bridge the research–practice gap. In this introductory article, we describe several methods for conducting economic evaluations, provide empirical demonstrations of these methods, and outline available resources for readers to conduct economic evaluations in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe an approach for calculating the rates of return of investments whose timing is uncertain. In the framework of the approach, we calculate the expected value of the rate of return. We extend the deterministic Endpoints and Modified Dietz rate of return models by viewing the investments transaction timings as random variables. Our main working assumption is that the transaction timings are uniformly distributed in a certain time interval. We study a series of new rate of return models that have a wide range of practical applications. Our results generalize some well-known rate of return formulas, including the renowned Modified Dietz formula. The models introduced in this paper provide one-period rates of return compliant with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) requirements. They can be used for GIPS-compliant calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses special libraries, which are libraries that specialize in specific subject matters, and focuses on ways to communicate the worth of these institutions. Reports on the value of special libraries from the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the Special Libraries Association (SLA) are discussed. Other topics discussed include the return on investment (ROI) of health libraries in Australia and library users' thoughts on the effectiveness of the libraries.

In this article we offer a simplified version of the alternative retirement planning model we originally proposed (De Villiers & Roux, 2019). Our method focuses on determining the sustainable lifestyle level (SLL) that an individual can currently afford while still saving enough towards retirement to sustain this lifestyle level up to retirement and beyond. The model is simplified by assuming that the real rate of return on retirement savings before retirement will be the same as the withdrawal rate of income from the accumulated savings during retirement. This method yields a much simpler SLL relationship in that it is more generally applicable albeit possibly less accurate. This approach should improve communication of the extent of the retirement savings challenge, possibly leading to better savings outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Jiang et al. (Statist. Probab. Lett. 101, 83–91) obtained the asymptotic formulas for the large deviations for the stochastic present value of aggregate claims in the renewal risk model with Pareto-type claims and stochastic return on investments, where the price process of the investment portfolio is described as a geometric Lévy process. In the paper, we extend the above results to a nonstandard compound renewal risk model with widely upper orthant dependent and dominatedly-varying-tailed claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profitability difference may exist across farmers' gender. This study examined profitability differences of male and female Scotch bonnet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) farmers, levels of profitability of Scotch bonnet pepper cultivation, comparison of production cost, output and profit, and identified factors affecting profitability in Scotch bonnet pepper production. Data from respondents obtained through multi-stage sampling were analyzed with descriptive and budgetary techniques. There was a mean gross margin (GM) of N42,126 for male and N16,929 for female farmers; N is the Naira, Nigerian currency, 1 USD = N300. The GM ratio was 0.81 and 0.91 for male and female farmers, respectively. Rates of return on investment were 23.8% for male and 9.5% for female; profit was N23,796 for males and N8,016 for female farmers. A difference occurred across gender in mean production cost per land area (N100,025.33 for males and N84,260.58 for females), output (375.55 kg for males and 286.62 kg for females), and profit (N23,789.00 for males and N8,016.35 for females). For both genders, profitability of Scotch bonnet pepper cultivation was mostly affected by poor pricing (96.0% for males and 100.0% of females), poorly organized market (88.0% for males and 100.0% of females), scarcity of improved inputs (76.0% of males and 80.8% of females), problem of pests and diseases (77.3% of males and 80.8% of females). Profitability level of Scotch bonnet pepper cultivation, especially for female farmers can be improved through adequate training and access to funds for purchasing basic production inputs and facilitating adequate market linkages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State, public, academic, and special libraries are conducting and publishing the results of studies aimed at showing the value of their services and resources. Librarians must be prepared and proactive so when asked to justify budget allocations they have the tools to show their library's value and understand the importance of expressing value in terms familiar to the administrators. By identifying stakeholders and obtaining their buy in, librarians can turn data into evidence of the organization's return on investment (ROI) in the library. ROI is a powerful tool to use when establishing credibility, accountability, and evidence demonstrating the library's value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of financial slack on the method of payment and financial performance of acquirers targeting African firms. Using panel data estimation techniques and controlling for, inter alia, firm and deal specific factors, we find no evidence that financial slack has a statistically significant influence on the means of payment. However, firms with high leverage have a higher propensity to acquire a target by using cash. Furthermore, we document a weak association between financial slack and acquirer post-acquisition performance. When we classify firms in terms of the degree of financial slack and considering the method of payment, we find that firms with a low degree of financial slack generate negative long-run operating returns. These results are consistent across the method of payment used. Conversely, firms with a high degree of financial slack that use cash and a combination of financing sources yield positive and statistically significant long-run operating returns. We further show that undervalued firms are significantly more likely to use cash as a form of payment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]