Subsidy policy selection of elderly care service projects under uncertain actual demand: a real options analysis based on China’s experience

Background Elderly care service projects (ECSPs) aim to provide care services with the help of market forces on the supply side to satisfy the huge demand of the elderly. Subsidies play an important role in motivating the investors to invest in the ECSPs immediately. The optimal subsidy scheme should balance the policy costs and the investors’ interests. Methods Based on the policy background of China, this study applied the real options theory to compare the effects of construction subsidy and operating subsidy on achieving policy goals from the perspective of uncertain actual demand. It introduced numerical examples to identify the optimal subsidy scheme and embedded the data from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) to verify the uncertainty of actual demand. Results The results showed that in the context of uncertain actual demand, operating subsidy has greater advantages in reducing investment thresholds, saving subsidy costs and increasing spillover values. Moreover, a sound quality supervision system, a differentiated operating subsidy scheme and a sustainable growth market demand environment are conducive to increasing the long-term interests of the government and the investors. Conclusions The study emphasized the importance of subsidy selection in the context of uncertain actual demand, and provided a practical reference for policy designers in China and other developing countries to choose the optimal subsidy scheme for the ECSPs.

Linking Customization Capability with CRM Technology Adoption and Strategic Alignment

Building on contingency theory and the input–process–output model, this paper investigates the relationships between customer relationship management (CRM) technology adoption, customization capability, CRM effectiveness, and strategic alignment. By surveying senior managers of customized service projects from 288 information technology service firms in Taiwan, we find that CRM technology adoption has a positive relationship with customization capacity, which is, in turn, positively correlated with CRM effectiveness with the correlation being moderated by strategic alignment. This study suggests that CRM marketing and operational technologies can enhance CRM effectiveness via customization capability. This study also uncovers approaches to achieving enhancement.

Cultural capital and student engagement in extracurricular activities at a Malaysian University

<p>How students perceive education influences their extracurricular engagement at university. In this study, I investigate how Malaysian students perceive the importance of a university education and how this influences their choices about extracurricular voluntary activities. Participants included 21 university students (aged 17-25 years old) studying at a university in East Malaysia. Data collection methods included questionnaires, visual data, semi-structured individual and focus group interviews. The findings reveal that while cultural capital plays a significant role in influencing student perceptions of educational success, other forms of capital are also highly valued in the education system. Academic excellence is emphasized, with families often investing in private tuition and other skills to achieve distinction thus giving students a perceived edge over their competitors. The results also show that social capital has a significant influence on students’ involvement in extracurricular activities while at university. The social capital embedded in friendships functioned as an investment strategy and participants relied on this capital to sustain their interest in community service projects or club activities. They also relied heavily on social capital resources embedded in kinship and religious institutions to obtain information and make decisions regarding future career plans and goals.</p>

Cultural capital and student engagement in extracurricular activities at a Malaysian University

<p>How students perceive education influences their extracurricular engagement at university. In this study, I investigate how Malaysian students perceive the importance of a university education and how this influences their choices about extracurricular voluntary activities. Participants included 21 university students (aged 17-25 years old) studying at a university in East Malaysia. Data collection methods included questionnaires, visual data, semi-structured individual and focus group interviews. The findings reveal that while cultural capital plays a significant role in influencing student perceptions of educational success, other forms of capital are also highly valued in the education system. Academic excellence is emphasized, with families often investing in private tuition and other skills to achieve distinction thus giving students a perceived edge over their competitors. The results also show that social capital has a significant influence on students’ involvement in extracurricular activities while at university. The social capital embedded in friendships functioned as an investment strategy and participants relied on this capital to sustain their interest in community service projects or club activities. They also relied heavily on social capital resources embedded in kinship and religious institutions to obtain information and make decisions regarding future career plans and goals.</p>

Cash Waqf Linked Sukuk (CWLS) di tengah Pandemi Covid-19 dan Implementasinya Terhadap Ketahanan Ekonomi

This study aims to determine how the Cash Waqf Linked Sukuk or CWLS program is in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and its implications for economic resilience. The system pioneered and implemented by the Indonesian Waqf Board or BWI is an interesting matter to study. In addition, based on the analysis of the CWLS research VOSViewer software, not many have researched it. Researchers use policy making theory which is used as a research point of view. This research is a descriptive qualitative research. The results of this study indicate that the CWLS waqf system is a form of social investment in Indonesia. The Indonesian Waqf Board acts as an accelerator. The subject of this system is the cash waqf itself collected by BWI as the manager of Indonesian waqf or Nazhir through BNI Syariah and Bank Muamalat Indonesia as Islamic Financial Institutions Receiving Cash Waqf or LKSPWU. Then the cash waqf will later be managed and placed in the State Sukuk Instrument or State Sharia Securities (SBSN) issued by the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu). CWLS itself also implements economic resilience. It can be seen on the BWI website on Cash Waqf Linked Sukuk (CWLS) that the government will use the results of the issuance of this State Sukuk to finance the state budget, including to finance the development of public service projects such as the development of educational infrastructure and religious services

Investigation on the Operation Status of Community-Based Rehabilitation Station in a District of Chongqing

Objective. Investigate and analyze the current operation status of the community-based rehabilitation station in a district of Chongqing to provide some reference schemes for improving the construction of the community-based rehabilitation system for Chongqing. Methods. Self-designed questionnaires were issued to 36 community-based rehabilitation stations in a district of Chongqing to investigate the human resources status, service projects, service methods, and other aspects of the community-based rehabilitation stations. Results. The community-based rehabilitation station lacks the participation of medical rehabilitation personnel, and only 33.3% of the community-based rehabilitation stations are composed of multidisciplinary human resources of medical and community staff. Community-based rehabilitation services focus on supply education and publicity (86.11%), and rehabilitation treatment services are not fully involved in the community-based rehabilitation service (44.44%). The methods of community-based rehabilitation services are mainly posters and other publicity activities (94.44%), and the community-based rehabilitation service methods are not highly goal-oriented. Conclusion. The survey found some problems to be improved in the construction and operation of grass-roots community-based rehabilitation stations in Chongqing. Community-based rehabilitation stations should enrich the human resources and technology of medical rehabilitation, become an extension of the restoration of community health institutions, and promote the high-quality development of community-based rehabilitation.

Management of Metadata Types in Basic Cardiological Research

Introduction: Ensuring scientific reproducibility and compliance with documentation guidelines of funding bodies and journals is a topic of greatly increasing importance in biomedical research. Failure to comply, or unawareness of documentation standards can have adverse effects on the translation of research into patient treatments, as well as economic implications. In the context of the German Research Foundation-funded collaborative research center (CRC) 1002, an IT-infrastructure sub-project was designed. Its goal has been to establish standardized metadata documentation and information exchange benefitting the participating research groups with minimal additional documentation efforts. Methods: Implementation of the self-developed menoci-based research data platform (RDP) was driven by close communication and collaboration with researchers as early adopters and experts. Requirements analysis and concept development involved in person observation of experimental procedures, interviews and collaboration with researchers and experts, as well as the investigation of available and applicable metadata standards and tools. The Drupal-based RDP features distinct modules for the different documented data and workflow types, and both the development and the types of collected metadata were continuously reviewed and evaluated with the early adopters. Results: The menoci-based RDP allows for standardized documentation, sharing and cross-referencing of different data types, workflows, and scientific publications. Different modules have been implemented for specific data types and workflows, allowing for the enrichment of entries with specific metadata and linking to further relevant entries in different modules. Discussion: Taking the workflows and datasets of the frequently involved experimental service projects as a starting point for (meta-)data types to overcome irreproducibility of research data, results in increased benefits for researchers with minimized efforts. While the menoci-based RDP with its data models and metadata schema was originally developed in a cardiological context, it has been implemented and extended to other consortia at GÃűttingen Campus and beyond in different life science research areas.

A Study on the Correlation Between Functional Motivation and Professional Identity in Nursing Volunteers

Objective To understand the status quo of functional motivation and professional identity of nursing volunteers and explore the correlation.Methods 3375 nursing volunteers were investigated by using occupational identity scale and volunteer functional motivation scale.Results a total of 3,375 questionnaires were issued and 3,330 were recovered, with an effective recovery rate of 99.82%.The overall scores of occupational cognitive evaluation, occupational social support, occupational social skills, occupational frustration coping and occupational identity of nurses were (32.17±6.62), (22.77±3.74), (21.31±4.09), (22.78±3.79), (11.32±2.03) and (110.31±18.71), respectively.The total score of functional motivation was (157.12±29.92).Occupational cognitive evaluation, occupational social support, occupational social skills, occupational frustration coping, and occupational self-reflection were positively correlated with the total score of functional motivation (R values were 0.044,0.035, 0.034,0.035,0.042, respectively).P < 0.05).Conclusion The functional motivation and professional identity of nursing volunteers in Shanxi Province are in the middle level in China.Therefore, it is necessary to enhance nursing staff's professional identity, carry out multi-channel and multi-form volunteer service projects, stimulate the enthusiasm of nursing staff to participate in, and give back nursing professional skills to the society better.

RESEARCH ON IMPROVING THE CAPACITY OF NGOS TO UNDERTAKE GOVERNMENT PURCHASE OF PUBLIC SERVICES BASED ON 7S MODEL

Under the background of government purchasing public services (GPPS), the development of NGOs faces new opportunities and challenges. To promote the development of NGOs and optimize the quality of public services. This paper analyzes the internal problems of NGOs undertaking GPPS, such as structural mismatch, low employee autonomy, high mobility and lack of professionalism, and government departments in the GPPS management loopholes, unclear regulatory responsibilities, inadequate supervision and other external factors. With the help of 7S model, this paper puts forward that the government provides a good cooperation environment for NGOs to undertake public service projects by changing management mode, strengthening system construction and training employees. NGOs define their own positioning by formulating strategic planning, matching the demand structure of public services, improving working methods, and updating service concepts. The government and NGOs work together to achieve the win-win goal of optimizing public service quality and promoting the development of NGOs.

Towards more effective visualisations in climate services: best practices and recommendations

&lt;p&gt;The visual communication of climate information is one of the cornerstones of climate services. Characteristics that make a climate service self-explanatory rely on the type of representation used, e.g. interactive or static maps, charts or infographics, and the visual channels applied for the translation of multi-dimensional data, e.g. combination of colour, size, opacity, shapes and other characteristics.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Climate scientists have traditionally used predetermined types of visualisations to represent climate data, including maps (e.g. flood maps, heat maps, choropleth maps), line graphs, and probability distribution functions (PDFs). However, such a tradition neglects a plethora of stakeholders (e.g. businesses, policy makers, citizens) that are increasingly involved in climate adaptation and that are less familiar with the traditional ways of presenting these data.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Effective visualisations should achieve a balance between the amount of represented data, its robustness (i.e. the representation of scientific confidence and consensus) and saliency (i.e. the relevance of the information to user needs). Choices regarding the representation of uncertainty as well as the terminology and language used in visualisations, can significantly impact the way users interpret climate data. This calls for a standardised approach for the visualisation of climate services, which can benefit from best practices applied in other disciplines, such as user experience, visualisation design, graphic design and cognitive psychology.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We describe the main challenges for the visualisation of climate services identified during a visualisation workshop with representatives from 22 climate service projects involved in the Climateurope network, an EU-funded coordination and support action. In break-out group discussions, participants shared their experiences in the development of climate services visualisations and the lessons learned. Findings show that the chosen representation of uncertainty tends to be case specific and that, in general, there is a preference for interactive visualisations where information is gradually disclosed. Inter- and transdisciplinary approaches and aspects related to terminology and language, which are part of the service co-development, require further attention. The analysis of the obtained results provides a picture of the current practice of the climate services visualisation field in Europe and allows to identify recommendations for the development of the next generation of climate services.&lt;/p&gt;