How Efficient are the Romanian Sports Federations? A Theoretical and Experimental Approach

Examining the links between performance and financial issues has been, and still is, subject of a great number of researches both in the business and in the non-profit environment. In this respect, the world of sports has not been bypassed either, using concepts and / or instruments from accounting, economics or statistic areas in order to analyse a firm or an NGO in the sport industry and his success. The present study represents one of the first attempt to value the Romanian sports federations’ activity which is not based solely on the scores attained following places and medals won by athletes participating in the national and international competition system. And it is intended to identify an appropriate methodology to highlight how efficient the sports federations have been in 2019 year, reporting the results obtained to the resources used, from a domestic perspective (meaning the participation in national sports events and the scores obtained). This paper addresses 12 Romanian sports federations (out of 75 federations on sport branches) and their efficiency, through the lens of several input, output and outcome indicators, using public data gathered from various sources - the Romanian Ministry of Finance, the National Institute of Statistics, the Romanian Ministry of Youth and Sports. Using statistical tools, such as Spearman rank correlation, as well as statistical methods, such as standardization, we developed an efficiency calculation methodology, which could be used to support managerial team to improve and / or reshape federations' activities, if necessary.

Integrating financial literacy into economics courses through digital tools: the Finlite app

Purpose This study aims to analyze the effect of the Finlite mobile app on the financial literacy of undergraduate business students in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a quasi-experimental pre-intervention design. The data are collected using a quiz and a questionnaire. Cluster sampling is adopted for three different zones in Malaysia. A total of 400 business students enrolled in economics courses participated in the intervention. Findings The results indicate that Finlite significantly promotes students’ savings intentions, practices, decision-making, accountability, values and financial literacy. All results are analyzed based on gender and race. However, Finlite does not significantly help overcome students’ financial issues such as credit card debt and poor spending behavior. Practical implications Financial literacy may be efficiently promoted through digital tools integrated into economics courses. Young adults can make optimal financial decisions after graduation. Future research should explore different courses, addressing undergraduate and high-school students. Originality/value Previous studies predominantly examine attitudes and behaviors related to financial literacy. In contrast, this study measures the ex post impact of the Finlite mobile app on savings intentions, practices, decision-making, accountability, ability to overcome financial issues and value for money.

AN ANALYSIS OF EXPERIENCES AND PROBLEMS FACED BY THE DENTISTS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A QUESTIONNAIRE-BASED SURVEY

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 pandemic started in December and spread around the globe in a few months. Nosocomial transmission of this virus shut down the dental clinics and creates many problems for patients. This study was designed to assess the experiences and problems faced by the dentist during the pandemic. The was a cross sectional questionnaire-based survey conducted in different dental sectors of Lahore. The questionnaire was distributed through online Microsoft form and total of seventy-eight complete responses were received out of 156 dentists contacted.69.2 % of participants reported that they stop taking appointments during the peaks of pandemic or have planned to stay at home till the end of the pandemic where 27% claimed to perform only emergency procedures. 86% of dentists reported having difficulty finding PPE and 97% had to buy it at a much higher cost. Dentists (96%) also reported that they are facing a significant decrease in income and needed some other source of income. Regarding financial issues they did not get any government support.The COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on dentistry. Most dental clinics remained closed, placing a financial burden on the dental profession. This burden was further increased as a result of the scarcity and high cost of PPE. There is a need for standardized protocols to prevent the spread of infection, and government agencies should also consider private clinics for funding and provision of low-cost PPE.

Does financial literacy inevitably lead to access to finance services? Evidence from rural Ghana

ABSTRACT: This study examined the determinants of financial literacy (FL) and its impact on access to financial services (AFS), using data collected from rural Ghana. A two-stage residual inclusion model is utilized to address the selection bias issue. The results showed that FL is affected by household heads’ age, gender, education, asset ownership, homeownership, and economics education. The results revealed that FL is significant and positively related to AFS, but its square shows an inverse relation with saving mobilization. This indicated a non-linear relationship between FL and AFS. Moreover, we find that FL has a larger AFS impact for households with high-income and male household heads relative to their counterparts. The study recommended that the government can initiate the creation of a rural committee to educate rural residents on financial issues through radio broadcasting and meetings. Our findings highlighted the importance of FL on AFS in enhancing the welfare of rural households.

Causality Relationship between Import, Export and Exim Bank Loans: Turkish Economy

Export promotion tools aim to increase exports and support the entrepreneur in reaching new foreign markets. The positive impact of incentives, especially on financial issues, on exports both before and after shipment is undeniable. Founded in 1987, Turkish Exim bank is Turkey’s official export credit institution. By observing macro-economic balances, Exim bank ensures that exporters, export-oriented production manufacturers and entrepreneurs operating abroad are supported by credit, guarantee and insurance programs to increase their competitiveness. The study aims to examine the causal relationship between imports, exports and Exim bank loans in the Turkish economy. In the study, stationarity with the extended Dickey-Fuller unit root test, long-term relationship with the Johansen co-integration test, and then causality with the Granger test were investigated. The causality relationship was analyzed using import, export and Eximbank loans data for the periods 2003–2020.

The role of international courts’ decisions in the system of sources of international financial law

The paper deals with the analysis of the legal nature of international courts’ decisions and their impact on the international financial legal order. The author claims that decisions of international courts, creating no new international legal financial norms, act as an additional source of international financial law, having no autonomy, and in combination with other sources of international law, performs the following functions: 1) regulatory-prescriptive (via opinio juris of existing traditions in interstate practice in the financial sphere transforming them into international customary law); 2) regulatory-affirming (confirming the legal nature of the international agreement between the subjects of international financial legal relations which caused a disputable situation). The judicial practice on financial issues and specificity of functioning of such judicial institutions as the Permanent Court of International Justice, the International Court of Justice, the CIS Economic Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Court of Justice of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, etc. are examined. The features of the provisions of international agreements on financial issues regarding the procedure for resolving disputes between the parties of the agreement about its implementation are analyzed. The paper explores particularities of the origin and development of the idea of the creation of an international financial court. Amid modern processes of the rapid growth of the amount of cross-border financial flows in the context of globalization, which is the consequence of the implementation of numerous international financial agreements, the idea of creation of an international financial court, which was first suggested in 1935, due to the complexity of legal nature of interstate financial disputes, is an objective necessity. The following features intrinsic to decisions of international courts (including decisions on financial issues) have been identified: 1) locality (binding only on the parties involved in the case, and only in the current case); 2) situatedness and unprompted appearance; 3) impartiality (due to the judges’ lack of political interest); 4) authority (international courts include generally recognized experts in international law).

The Association of Frailty with Poverty in Older Adults: A Systematic Review

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Suffering from both frailty and poverty may have significant negative consequences on older adults’ lives. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review to investigate the relationship between frailty and low income among older adults. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> This systematic review was guided by the PRISMA guidelines and was aimed at exploring the frailty in older adults with low income and evaluating the robustness of the synthesis. Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies published in English between 2008 and 2020 were identified using search terms entered into the following databases: CINAHL, Medline, Google Scholar, and PubMed. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Nine articles met the inclusion criteria. This review revealed a positive relationship between frailty and poverty. Such a relationship could be explained through 3 dimensions of the relationship between frailty and poverty among older adults identified based on the findings of the reviewed studies. <b><i>Discussion/Conclusion:</i></b> The social life, environmental conditions, and financial issues were positively correlated and coexisted with both frailty and poverty. Frailty should be treated on a holistic basis, considering financial issues. Among these financial issues is poverty, which disrupts older adults’ social activities, hinders them from building successful social relationships, and reduces their quality of life.

Metaphors in Newspaper Reports on Nigeria 2005 Banks Recapitalisation

This article investigates metaphors in newspaper reports that border on mergers and acquisitions within the 2005 recapitalisation exercise in Nigeria. It considers conceptual metaphors used in depicting mergers and acquisitions among Nigerian banks and how they are deployed by journalists in shaping readers’ perception of the mergers and acquisitions activities. Data for the study comprise thirty purposively sampled articles on recapitalisation published between year 2004 and 2006, in three selected Nigerian newspapers: Business Day, The Punch and ThisDay, which had relevance, wide circulation and adequate reports on economic issues in Nigeria. Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) conceptual metaphor theory provides the theoretical perspective for the data analysis. The study reveals two conceptual metaphors: MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS AS WAR and MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS AS CONNUBIAL RELATIONS. The metaphors of war influence readers’ perception of the mergers and acquisitions exercise as a corporate management task that is highly indispensable, confrontational and susceptible to aggression considering the appalling state of the Nigeria banking sector and the huge recapitalisation funds required of individual banks. While the connubial metaphors offered readers a perception of an important exercise that entails due process, cooperation, and togetherness in achieving the stipulated recapitalisation funds. Metaphors perform multifarious functions in the construction and comprehension of financial issues. They are not the consequence of genus, but the sequence of motivated cognitive devices used by Nigerian journalists in rendering contemporary Nigerian issues.

UPNM Way Forward: A Proposal of Cost Saving Strategy to Strengthen UPNM Financial Through Saving Plan Package

This study aims to determine and propose appropriate recommendation to the top management of university on how to generate income through saving plan that can be implement by Human Resource Department at UPNM to strengthen the financial issue. This proposal is proposed to assist management team on how to rationalize limited financial issues that can affect financial crisis faced by the university nowadays. At present, all public universities in Malaysia faced a critical challenge due to insufficient financial budget allocation, where the Government's financial allocation is increasingly bubbling. All Universities have been urged to generate their own internal income aside from budget allocation to ensure that the dependency on the Government can be reduce. Hence, some of these significant arrangement need to be carefully strategize and plan by the management of university to generate extra revenue as an effort to encounter financial issues faced by the university. From this case study, the finding can be used to identify and assist Top management of university to overcome issues on revenue generating to support financial operation cost at UPNM.

Retapamulin: Current Status and Future Perspectives

: Retapamulin is one of the antibiotics recently developed semi-synthetically to inhibit protein synthesis in a specific manner different from other antibiotics. This pleuromutilin derivative shows magnificent anti-bacterial activity in Gram-positive pathogens, especially Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes, and now it is available in ointment formulations (1%) for clinical use with negligible side effects. Despite the low potential for resistance development, antimicrobial susceptibility rates are significantly high. This is especially important when the prevalence of mupirocin-resistant strains is increasing, and the need for new alternatives is urgent. Unfortunately, due to its oxidation by cytochrome p450, this drug cannot be used systemically. However, another pleuromutilin derivative with systemic use, lefamulin, was approved in August 2019 by the US Food and Drug Administration. In addition to pharmacokinetic features, financial issues are also barriers to consider in the progress of new antimicrobials. In this review, we attempt to take a brief look at the derivatives usable in humans and explore their structures, action mode, metabolism, possible ways of resistance, resistance rates, and their clinical use to explain and highlight the valuable points of these antibiotics.