The Impact of Cardiovascular Prevention on the Cost Benefit of Influenza Vaccination for Australian Adults aged 50–64 years old

Farmers are faced with challenges of producing enough food and the use of traditional methods seems not to keep pace with the ever-growing demand of the populace thus creating increased concern in food scarcity. Although it has been identified that smart tools will enhance the production pace needed in the Agricultural sector, unfortunately, most of these tools are designed for farmers without their inputs, thus creating tools that are not meeting demands. This study focused on a farmer-centered design, development, and deployment approach to improving farm productivity. The design thinking approach was used to identify the specific need of the farmers in selected areas, ideas were created using brainstorming sessions involving experts in the field, and prototypes were developed and deployed to evaluate the impact performance. The result shows that the proposed system improved the cost-benefit ratio of crop farming from 2.14 to 2.26. This is a 12% productivity increase.

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Firms Political Connections and Winning Government Contracts

International Journal of Economics and Finance ◽

10.5539/ijef.v8n2p19 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 19 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Saidatou Dicko

Keyword(s):

Cost Benefit ◽

Political Connections ◽

Government Contracts ◽

Competitive Advantages ◽

Governmental Organizations ◽

Canadian Context ◽

Cost Benefit Ratio ◽

Corporate Actions ◽

The Cost ◽

The Impact

This study investigates the impact of political connections on the awarding of government contracts to Canadian companies. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) analyses were performed on a sample of S&P/TSX companies from 2010 to 2014 inclusively. The results show that political connections are positively and significantly associated with the winning of government contracts. Politically connected firms obtain more government contracts and higher contract values than non-connected firms. Political connections thus appear to be directly associated with securing government contracts in the Canadian context. Firms can view political connections as a non-market, long-term strategy to help them gain competitive advantages and improve their performance. Accordingly, they tend to appoint directors and managers taking these connections and the advantages that can be gained into account. However, they must seriously consider the cost-benefit ratio of this strategy. For example, the costs incurred could be ethical in nature and firms could find themselves in a position of conflict of interest that could lead to extensive negative media exposure. These results alert regulatory and governmental organizations to the need for them to remain vigilant and to strengthen corporate governance regulations to prevent the excesses and abuses that could arise from firms’ political actions. Our study is the first to demonstrate a direct relationship between corporate political connections and government contracts in the Canadian context. The results confirm the growing interdependence between politics and business, particularly the increase in the number of corporate actions intended to influence government decisions.

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The Cost of Cost-Sharing: The Impact of Medicaid Benefit Design on Influenza Vaccination Uptake

Vaccines ◽

10.3390/vaccines5010008 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 8 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Charles Stoecker ◽

Alexandra Stewart ◽

Megan Lindley

Keyword(s):

Influenza Vaccination ◽

Cost Sharing ◽

Benefit Design ◽

Vaccination Uptake ◽

The Cost ◽

The Impact

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Student Perceptions of a Trial of Electronic Text Matching Software: A Preliminary Investigation

Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice ◽

10.53761/1.2.3.4 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 31-43

Author(s):

D. Green ◽

◽

I. Lindemann ◽

K. Marshall ◽

G. Wilkinson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Student Perceptions ◽

Preliminary Investigation ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Perceived Usefulness ◽

Detection Methods ◽

Potential Benefits ◽

English Speaking ◽

The Cost ◽

The University ◽

The Impact

It is accepted that using electronic detection methods has benefits within an overall strategy to promote academic integrity in an institution. Little attention has been paid to obtaining student perceptions to evaluate the cost/benefit of using such methods. This study reports on the evaluation of a trial of Turnitin software. 728 students responded to a survey about their thoughts on plagiarism and being involved in the trial. This study found that students were generally unsure about the benefits and whether the university should use the software. In particular, two groups of students showed significant differences to the rest of the students sampled. While Non English Speaking Background (NESB) students reported higher levels of perceived usefulness of the software, they also reported higher levels of anxiety about the impact on them. Law students reported lower levels of perceived usefulness of the software and higher levels of concern and mistrust. The impact of such perceptions on the learning environment needs to be investigated. Special attention may be needed in introducing such software to different groups of students in order to limit possible deleterious effects and enhance potential benefits.

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Next level proctored exam for proficiency testing in Primary Care Education: an observatory study on efficiency and accuracy and on exam outcome. (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.23834 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Birgitte Schoenmakers ◽

Johan Wens

Keyword(s):

Background Noise ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Critical Event ◽

Future Research ◽

Test Accuracy ◽

Primary Care Education ◽

Technical Issues ◽

The Cost ◽

The Impact

BACKGROUND The COVID19 pandemic affected education and assessment and led to a complex planning. Therefore, we organised the proficiency test for admission to Family Medicine as a proctored exam. To prevent from fraud we developed a virtual supervisor app tracking and tracing candidates’ behaviour. OBJECTIVE To assess efficiency and accuracy of the proctored exam procedure and to test the impact on the exam scores. METHODS The app operates on three levels to register events: recording of actions, analyses of behaviour and live supervision. Each suspicious event is given a score. To assess efficiency we inventoried the technical issues and the interventions. To test accuracy we counted the number of suspicious students and behaviours. To test the impact of the supervising app on students’ exam outcome we compared the scores between the proctored and the on campus group. Candidates were free to register for off or on campus participation. RESULTS 593 candidates subscribed to the exam: 472 (79%) candidates used the supervisor app and 121 (20%) were on campus. Test results of both groups were comparable. We registered 15 technical issues in off campus context. Two candidates experienced a negative impact on the exam due to the technical issue. The app detected 22 candidates with a suspicious level >1, mainly increased due to background noise. All events occurred without fraud purpose. CONCLUSIONS This pilot study demonstrated that a supervisor app with recording and registration behaviour is able to detect suspicious events without an impact on the exam. Background noise was the most critical event. There was no fraud detected. A supervisor app registering and recording behaviour to prevent from fraud during exams is efficient and not affecting the exam outcome. In future research, a controlled design should compare the cost-benefit balance between the complex intervention of the supervisor app and the combination of the candidates’ awareness of being monitored with a safe exam browsing plug in. CLINICALTRIAL Not applicable

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Comparative Impact of Individual Quarantine vs. Active Monitoring of Contacts for the Mitigation of COVID-19: a modelling study

10.1101/2020.03.05.20031088 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Corey M. Peak ◽

Rebecca Kahn ◽

Yonatan H. Grad ◽

Lauren M. Childs ◽

Ruoran Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Control Strategies ◽

Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Individual Liberty ◽

Average Delay ◽

Active Monitoring ◽

Serial Interval ◽

The Cost ◽

The Impact

SummaryBackgroundVoluntary individual quarantine and voluntary active monitoring of contacts are core disease control strategies for emerging infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. Given the impact of quarantine on resources and individual liberty, it is vital to assess under what conditions individual quarantine can more effectively control COVID-19 than active monitoring. As an epidemic grows, it is also important to consider when these interventions are no longer feasible, and broader mitigation measures must be implemented.MethodsTo estimate the comparative efficacy of these case-based interventions to control COVID-19, we fit a stochastic branching model to reported parameters for the dynamics of the disease. Specifically, we fit to the incubation period distribution and each of two sets of the serial interval distribution: a shorter one with a mean serial interval of 4.8 days and a longer one with a mean of 7.5 days. To assess variable resource settings, we consider two feasibility settings: a high feasibility setting with 90% of contacts traced, a half-day average delay in tracing and symptom recognition, and 90% effective isolation; and low feasibility setting with 50% of contacts traced, a two-day average delay, and 50% effective isolation.FindingsOur results suggest that individual quarantine in high feasibility settings where at least three-quarters of infected contacts are individually quarantined contains an outbreak of COVID-19 with a short serial interval (4.8 days) 84% of the time. However, in settings where this performance is unrealistically high and the outbreak continues to grow, so too will the burden of the number of contacts traced for active monitoring or quarantine. When resources are prioritized for scalable interventions such as social distancing, we show active monitoring or individual quarantine of high-risk contacts can contribute synergistically to mitigation efforts.InterpretationOur model highlights the urgent need for more data on the serial interval and the extent of presymptomatic transmission in order to make data-driven policy decisions regarding the cost-benefit comparisons of individual quarantine vs. active monitoring of contacts. To the extent these interventions can be implemented they can help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.FundingThis work was supported in part by Award Number U54GM088558 from the US National Institute Of General Medical Sciences.

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61 The impact of selective phenotyping and genotyping over generations in beef cattle

Journal of Animal Science ◽

10.1093/jas/skz122.068 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 97 (Supplement_2) ◽

pp. 37-39

Author(s):

Andrea Plotzki Reis ◽

Rodrigo Fagundes da Costa ◽

Fabyano Fonseca e Silva ◽

Fernando Flores Cardoso ◽

Matthew L Spangler

Keyword(s):

Beef Cattle ◽

Prediction Accuracy ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Single Step ◽

Breeding Values ◽

Additional Information ◽

Economic Framework ◽

Estimated Breeding Values ◽

The Cost ◽

The Impact

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate selective phenotyping to maintain adequate prediction accuracy. A simulation was conducted, with 10 replicates, using QMSim to mimic the structure and size of a Braford population. A population with 50 generations, 500 animals per generation, was created with phenotyping and genotyping beginning in generation 11. The scenarios investigated were: 1) Randomly phenotype and genotype 10, 25, 50, 75, and 100% of individuals each generation and; 2) Randomly phenotype and genotype 10, 25, 50, 75, and 100% of individuals in every-other generation. Estimated breeding values (EBV) were obtained using single-step GBLUP and accuracy was determined as the correlation between true BV from simulation and those estimated from the blupf90 family of programs. For scenarios where phenotyping and genotyping occurred every generation, EBV accuracies in generation 11 and 50 ranged from 0.32 to 0.32, 0.42 to 0.43, 0.49 to 0.51, 0.53 to 0.56 and 0.57 to 0.59 when 10, 25, 50, 75, and 100% of animals were chosen, respectively. The highest accuracies were 0.40 and 0.50 in generation 38 for scenarios 10 and 25%; 0.56, 0.61 and 0.64 in generation 40 for scenarios 50, 75 and 100%, respectively. When animals were selected every-other generation, EBV accuracy in generation 11 and 50 ranged from 0.24 to 0.26, 0.36 to 0.36, 0.43 to 0.42, 0.48 to 0.44 and 0.53 to 0.48 for 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of selected animals, respectively. The highest accuracies were in generation 23 for scenario 10% (0.31), in generation 37 for scenarios 25 (0.43), 50 (0.50) and 75% (0.55) and in generation 39 for 100% (0.59). Although increasing the density of phenotyped and genotyped animals increased prediction accuracy, some gains were marginal. These differences in accuracy must be contemplated in an economic framework to determine the cost-benefit of additional information.

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Estimation of Damage Cost to Building Façades per kilo Emission of Air Pollution in Norway

Atmosphere ◽

10.3390/atmos11070686 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 686 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Terje Grøntoft

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Marginal Cost ◽

18Th Century ◽

Cost Benefit Analysis ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Damage Cost ◽

Damage Costs ◽

Marginal Damage ◽

The Cost ◽

The Impact

This work reports marginal damage costs to façades due to air pollution exposure estimated “bottom up,” for Norway and Oslo (Norway) by the use of exposure response functions (ERFs) and impact pathway analysis from the emission to the deteriorating impact. The aim of the work was to supply cost estimates that could be compared with reported damage costs to health, agriculture, and ecosystems, and that could be used in cost-benefit analysis by environmental authorities. The marginal damage costs for cleaning, repair, and in total (cleaning + repair) were found to be, in Norway: eight, two, and 10, respectively, and for a traffic situation in Oslo: 50 (77), 50 (28), and 100 (105), (×/÷ 2.5) Euro/kg emission of PM10, SO2, and NO2 in total. For Oslo, the values represent a recorded façade materials inventory for 17–18th century buildings, and in the brackets the same façade inventory as for Norway. In total, 5–10% of the marginal damage cost was found to be due to NO2. The total marginal cost was found to be shared about equally between the impact of PM10 and SO2 in Norway (50 and 42% of the impact) and for the 17–18th century buildings in Oslo (45% and 49% of the impact), but for a similar façade materials inventory in Oslo as Norway, the total marginal cost due to PM10 was about two-thirds and that due to SO2 about one-third of the total, with about 5% of the cost still being due to NO2. The division of the costs between the separate pollutant influences on the cleaning and repair was, however, found to be significantly different in Norway and Oslo. In Norway, about 60% of the marginal cleaning cost was found to be due to PM10, 30% due to SO2, and 10% due to NO2. In Oslo, about 85% of the marginal cleaning costs were found to be due to PM10, 10% due to SO2, and 5% due to NO2. For the marginal repair cost, the opposite situation was found, in both Norway and Oslo, with 80–90% of the cost being due to SO2, 5–10% being due to PM10, and 5–10% due to NO2. As other factors than air pollution deteriorates façades and influences maintenance decisions, the expenses that can be attributed to the air pollution could be significantly lower.

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Carp polyculture in ponds in greater Mymensingh, Bangladesh.

10.1079/ac.90558.20203483794 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Luke Colavito

Keyword(s):

Cost Benefit ◽

Training Programme ◽

Total Production ◽

Internal Rate Of Return ◽

Extensive Training ◽

Cost Benefit Ratio ◽

The Government ◽

The Cost ◽

The Impact ◽

Aquaculture Production

Abstract The greater Mymensingh area comprises seven districts and a population of over 17 million people (2002). This area was the location of DANIDA's Mymensingh Aquaculture Extension Project (MAEP) implemented jointly with the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) to assess the potential of aquaculture to alleviate poverty. The MAEP (1989-2003) promoted carp polyculture through the development of hatcheries, nurseries, micro-credit, and an extensive training programme targeted at the poorest households. The MAEP played a key role in initiating improved aquaculture practice in Bangladesh. Winrock International was engaged by DANIDA to document the impact of the MAEP. In the Mymensingh area, over 1.4 million households have adopted carp polyculture. Annual income per household from carp polyculture is US$ 145 (2002). Unit yields increased from 1 to 3.3 t ha-1 from 1989 to 2002. Total production has increased from 85,000 to 351,000 t resulting in an annual increase in revenue of US$ 204 million. Over 40% of Bangladesh's aquaculture production now comes from greater Mymensingh, which has less than 10% of the nation's population. The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for the MAEP investment is 224% and the cost benefit ratio is 1:27. The MAEP has had a profound impact in improving the lives of the rural poor.

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The Role of the Clinical Pharmacist in an Irish University Teaching Hospital: A Mixed-Methods Study

Pharmacy ◽

10.3390/pharmacy8010014 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 14

Author(s):

Sarah Ronan ◽

Nicola Shannon ◽

Katie Cooke ◽

Trish McKeon ◽

Elaine K. Walsh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mixed Methods ◽

Cost Benefit ◽

Mixed Methods Study ◽

Drug Event ◽

Benefit Ratio ◽

Cost Avoidance ◽

Cost Benefit Ratio ◽

The Cost ◽

The Impact

Medication review (MR) is a vital part of the pharmacist’s role in hospital. However, in the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (SIVUH), Cork, Ireland, this has not been fully implemented due to resource issues. In addition, the cost of providing this service has not been evaluated. Moreover, it is not clear how other members of the multidisciplinary team e.g., Nurses, value any interventions made as a result of the MR. This mixed methods study assessed the impact of MR in terms of (i) potential clinical harm, (ii) cost avoidance and (iii) the views of nursing staff on the role of the pharmacist. The setting is a 192-bed, voluntary, acute hospital, in the Munster region of Ireland. Study I: The pharmacist provided MR to patients conventionally once a week. Any interventions were then assessed for potential clinical harm and to calculate cost avoidance. Study II: Semi-structured interviews, guided by a topic guide were completed with 12 nurses (11 female). Thematic analysis was used to code the main themes. Main outcome measure: To estimate the cost, cost avoidance, and the net cost benefit ratio of MR provided by pharmacists. Study I: Of 128 patients who received the MR, 113 interventions were made. The estimated cost of providing the MR was €2559 (senior pharmacist). Using €1084 as the cost of an adverse drug event (ADE), the cost avoidance was calculated at €42,330. This led to a net cost benefit of €39,771 (senior pharmacist) which equated to a net cost benefit ratio of 16.5:1. Study II: The main themes were (i) perceptions of pharmacy services, (ii) the role of the pharmacist—past, present and future, and (iii) teamwork and communication. Nurses expressed a desire to have more pharmacists present on the wards.

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