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This study analyzed the statement "diversification is a free lunch". We empirically showed that diversification is only a free lunch under uncertainty or ignorance, confirming Warren Buffett's "diversification is protection against ignorance". Using historical returns of the S&P500 constituents illustrated that diversification not only decreased the risk but also the returns if the expected returns could be estimated. The findings of this study highlight that diversification reduces risk but that the risk reduction is not for free. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises often face severe challenges during the global economic crisis, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises are encouraged to have strategies and innovations in order to face the crisis. This study aims to analyze catering business model strategies and innovations in improving post-pandemic competitiveness. This research uses qualitative methods with data collection through observation, literature review and in-depth interviews. Observations were made on three Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises engaged in catering. In-depth interviews were conducted with five Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises who were willing to be asked for information directly. This data analysis uses data reduction, data presentation and conclusions. The results of this study highlight several streams of catering business strategies and innovations carried out by MSMEs after the post Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises can also turn challenges into opportunities through product innovation. This research has implications for adequate preparation and understanding of strategies and business model innovations that can be done to reduce the negative impact of the global crisis. Thus, this study can help the government in supporting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to be able to overcome the global crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research endeavors to conduct a thorough investigation into pediatric health in the Papua and West Papua regions of Indonesia, employing a multifaceted approach that integrates data from various sources including RISKESDAS, SUSENAS, and remote sensing indicators such as NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and PDSI (Palmer Drought Severity Index). By amalgamating socio-economic data, health metrics, and environmental variables, the study seeks to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing child health. Advanced analytical tools, notably the Generalized Linear Latent Variable Model (GLLVM), are utilized to conduct a dual-analysis of the intricate interplay between health indicators and environmental variables. The incorporation of NDVI and PDSI, derived from remote sensing data, introduces an ecological dimension to the investigation, facilitating a nuanced exploration of the impact of vegetation health and drought severity on pediatric health outcomes. This interdisciplinary research endeavors to unveil correlations, patterns, and potential causal relationships between environmental factors and the prevalence of various health issues among children, including pneumonia, acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, underweight, and stunting. The anticipated results aim to not only enrich our understanding of pediatric health in Papua and West Papua but also to contribute to broader discussions concerning the complex connections between health, socio-economic conditions, and environmental variables. By integrating remote sensing data with health and socio-economic datasets, this study provides a comprehensive perspective, enabling a more robust assessment of the determinants of child well-being. The insights gleaned from this research are poised to have significant implications for policymakers, environmental scientists, and public health professionals, informing the development of strategies aimed at enhancing child health outcomes in these regions. Furthermore, this study underscores the importance of initiatives like the Free Lunch and Milk Program proposed by Prabowo and Gibran in the 2024 Indonesian Presidential Election, emphasizing the critical role of holistic approaches in addressing the multifaceted challenges surrounding child health and well-being.

We study the impact on children's bodyweight of switching from means-tested to universal provision of nutritious free school meals in England. We exploit the roll-out of universal provision across Local Authorities to estimate effects at different ages and durations of exposure, based on nurse-collected, population-wide health data for state school children. Exposure to universal free lunches reduces obesity prevalence and BMI among children aged 4–5 and 10–11, but older children's bodyweights are less responsive than younger children's. We find tentative evidence that effects may be cumulative, as impacts are largest for those exposed to universal free school meals throughout primary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The objective of this study was to evaluate the acceptance of an employer-led free lunch initiative and its effect on health, diet, and attitudes towards health and diet amongst employees in a small workplace in Northern Ireland. Methods This was a controlled, employer-led pilot intervention, which was evaluated through a mixed methods approach. Results Seventeen participants from the intervention site and 14 participants from the control site completed all assessments. Post-intervention, there was no difference in change in dietary measures between the sites, except for saturated fat intake during weekdays (IS: − 1.3% of calories, SD: 4.3; CS: 2.8% of calories, SD: 6.6; P-value

Background: In the aftermath of the COVID-19 public health emergency, it is important to understand the extent of socioeconomic burdens of long COVID, defined as continuation of symptoms after initial infection, including food insecurity., Objective: This study aimed to assess the association between long COVID and family food insecurity among low-income individuals (or any of their family members living with them) who were participants and nonparticipants in public food assistance programs (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP], Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children [WIC], and National School Lunch Program [NSLP]) in the United States., Design: The study used an observational cross-sectional design., Participants/setting: Data on 7151 adults (aged 18+ years), with family income of < 200% of the Federal Poverty line, from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey, were analyzed., Main Outcome Measures: Level of family food security, based on responses to a set of 10 questions measuring family's food security during the past 30 days., Statistical Analyses Performed: Multinomial logistic regression models were estimated to obtain relative risk ratios of marginal and low/very low food security, relative to the base outcome of high food security, for long COVID status. Multivariable models were estimated separately for the full sample and for subgroups of food assistance participants and nonparticipants. A seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) specification was estimated to assess whether the estimates were different across the participant and nonparticipant subgroups., Results: Compared with individuals who never had COVID-19, the adjusted relative risks of experiencing marginal and low/very low food security were 1.42 (95% CI, 1.00-2.02) and 1.43 (95% CI, 1.08-1.91) times higher, respectively, for individuals who had long COVID. Although the adjusted risks were not observed to be statistically significant in the participant subgroup, among nonparticipants, adjusted relative risk ratios were 2.34 (95% CI, 1.43-3.82) and 1.56 (95% CI, 1.02-2.39), respectively. SUR results showed that relationships between long COVID and food insecurity were only different for marginal and not low/very low levels of food security between food assistance participant and nonparticipant groups., Conclusions: Study findings highlight a significantly higher risk of marginal and low/very low- food security among low-income adults who had long COVID, especially those who were nonparticipants in public food assistance programs. Further research is warranted to explore the causal pathways of this relationship for informing policies to mitigate the burden of long COVID., (Copyright © 2024 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This paper investigates the impact of extending free school lunch to all students, regardless of income, on academic performance in New York City middle schools. Using a difference‐in‐differences design and unique longitudinal, student‐level data, we derive credibly causal estimates of the impacts of "Universal Free Meals" (UFM) on test scores in English Language Arts (ELA) and mathematics, and participation in school lunch. We find UFM increases academic performance by as much as 0.083 standard deviations in math and 0.059 in ELA for non‐poor students, with smaller, statistically significant effects of 0.032 and 0.027 standard deviations in math and ELA for poor students. Further, UFM increases participation in school lunch by roughly 11.0 percentage points for non‐poor students and 5.4 percentage points for poor students. We then investigate the academic effects of school lunch participation per se, using UFM as an instrumental variable. Results indicate that increases in school lunch participation improve academic performance for both poor and non‐poor students; an additional lunch every two weeks increases test scores by roughly 0.08 standard deviations in math and 0.07 standard deviations in ELA. Finally, we explore potential unintended consequences for student weight outcomes, finding no evidence that UFM increases the probability that students are obese or overweight. We also find no evidence of increases in average body mass index (BMI). Instead, we find some evidence that participation in school lunch improves weight outcomes for non‐poor students. Results are robust to an array of alternative specifications and assumptions about the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the acceptance of an employer-led free lunch initiative and its effect on health, diet, and attitudes towards health and diet amongst employees in a small workplace in Northern Ireland. Methods: This was a controlled, employer-led pilot intervention, which was evaluated through a mixed methods approach. Results: Seventeen participants from the intervention site and 14 participants from the control site completed all assessments. Post-intervention, there was no difference in change in dietary measures between the sites, except for saturated fat intake during weekdays (IS: − 1.3% of calories, SD: 4.3; CS: 2.8% of calories, SD: 6.6; P-value < 0.05). Qualitative information was summarised to highlight employees' expectations and experiences with the intervention. Conclusion: This study highlights the challenges that need to be considered when implementing a free lunch initiative for staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on archival data from an urban school district, this retrospective correlational study examined the extent to which certain types of student-school counselor contacts, based on a student-report high school exit survey, could predict high school students' postsecondary enrollment in 2- and 4-year colleges within 5 years of graduating from high school. In addition to these variables, information such as ethnicity, grade point average, and free and reduced lunch status were used to identify other trends in the data. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that counselor contact regarding college planning and attendance and demographic information regarding free and reduced lunch status were significant predictors of postsecondary enrollment. Counselor contact regarding goal setting, concerns about grades, and needing more college information did not significantly predict postsecondary college enrollment. Findings suggest some school counselor duties can serve as sources of social capital, which can help increase student social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures of socioeconomic status (SES) are widely used in educational research and policy applications in no small part because of a deeply rooted belief of the importance of SES. This paper argues that the usefulness of common SES measures can be undermined by (a) an atheoretical approach to conceptualizing SES and selecting measures, which creates uncertainty about what SES represents; (b) modest correlations between SES measures and outcome variables that limit the effectiveness of SES as a control variable in statistical analyses; and (c) the continued use of the profoundly flawed eligibility for a free/reduced-price lunch variable. These factors can produce biased inferences and speak to an important gap between the perceived impact of SES in educational settings and the usefulness of common SES measures and also can provide a prescription for change that promotes a deeper understanding and more effective use of SES in educational research and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Co-optimization problems often involve settings in which the quality (utility) of a potential solution is dependent on the scenario within which it is evaluated, and many such scenarios exist. Maximizing expected utility is simply the goal of finding the potential solution whose expected utility value over all possible scenarios is best. Such problems are often approached using coevolutionary algorithms. We are interested in the design of generally well-performing black-box algorithms for this problem, that is, algorithms which have access to the utility function only via input–output queries. We research this matter by focusing on three main questions: 1) are some algorithms strictly better than others when judged in aggregation over all possible instances of the problem? that is, is there “free lunch”? 2) do optimal algorithms exist? and 3) if so, do they have a tractable implementation? For a specific expected-utility maximization context, involving several assumptions and performance choices, we answer all three questions affirmatively and concretely: we provide examples of free lunch; we describe the general operation of optimal algorithms; we characterize situations when this operation has a very simple and efficient implementation, situations when the computational cost can be significantly reduced, and situations when tractability of optimal algorithms might be out of reach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

January 6th 2017 marked Finland's 100th birthday. After many centuries under Swedish ruling, Russia took control of Finland in 1809. The era of Grand Duchy of Finland took over the country. This period lasted a bit longer than a century before Finland became its own nation. It is worth noting that during those centuries neither Swedish nor Russian was the language the native Finns were speaking. To put this fact into perspective, still today we sometimes hear the old saying by Adolf Arvidsson: "We are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us, therefore, be Finns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper aims to characterize the absence of arbitrage in the context of the Arbitrage Theory proposed by Kreps (1981) and Clark (2000) which involves a certain number of well-known financial markets. More specifically, the framework of this model is a linear (topological) space X in which a (convex) cone C defines a vector ordering. There exist markets for only some of the contingent claims of X which assign a price p i to the marketed claim m i . The main purpose of this paper is to provide some novel algebraic characterizations of the no arbitrage condition and specifically to derive the decomposability of discount functions with this approach. Methods: Traditionally, this topic has been focused from a topological or probabilistic point of view. However, in this manuscript the treatment of this topic has been by using purely algebraic tools. Results: We have characterized the absence of arbitrage by only using algebraic concepts, properties and structures. Thus, we have divided these characterizations into those concerning the preference relation and those involving the cone. Conclusion: This paper has provided some novel algebraic properties of the absence of arbitrage by assuming the most general setting. The additivity of discount functions has been derived as a particular case of the general theory.