Investigation of Potential Environmental Impacts and Sustainable Management of Municipal Solid Waste using the Driving force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response-Outcome (DPSIRO) framework: Case of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

The generation of MSW in urban areas in Ethiopia and elsewhere continues to increase and poses a challenge to city governments and citizens if the wastes are not properly managed. Applying an integrated system for managing MSW and recovering the material for use in new products can reduce the negative impacts on the environment. The purpose of this study is to apply the DPSIRO framework to develop a system that reduces the negative impacts of MSW in Bahir Dar city in a sustainable way. The research started by identifying the main driving forces that lead to the generation of MSW. Then, states because of pressures and the consequent impacts were investigated. Finally, the appropriate responses and outcomes obtained from the responses were dealt with. Methods used to quantify GHG emissions, leachate, and eutrophication potential were applied. According to the findings, the waste disposal site emits an estimated 46Gg of greenhouse gases per year in 2020.The eutrophication capacity of organic waste generated in the city was 0.0594 Kg N-equivalent or 59.4g N-equivalent. The waste also contains an average of 1,112mm of leachate per day on an annual basis. The state of the environment has an impact on human health and the ecosystem. Applying the circular economic system, knowledge transfer, and waste management fees are the main responses suggested to decision and policy makers. The responses correspond with balanced economic, social and environmental situations. Outcomes were quantified in terms of organic fertilizer, income and renewable energy (briquette) when the actions were taken.

Limitation and Improvement Plan of Maternity Healthcare Delivery System in Korea

The Korean healthcare delivery system has been operating for over 30 years since 1989. Despite a positive performance—providing quality medical services to the people by distributing medical resources—there are limitations to the maternity healthcare delivery system. If the maternity healthcare delivery system was operating successfully, there should have been sufficient delivery hospitals so that pregnant women can access the appropriate maternity medical services whenever needed. Unfortunately, according to the National Health Insurance Service, the number of maternity health facilities in Korea reduced from 1,371 in 2003 to 541 in 2019. Regrettably, a larger number of obstetric hospitals and clinics have closed in medically vulnerable areas, such as farming and fishing areas, than urban areas with sufficient medical infrastructure, creating obstetrically underserved areas. In 2020, 65 out of a total of 250 cities, counties, and districts had no obstetric hospitals or clinics. To improve the collapsing maternity healthcare delivery system, a different approach is required; one in which policy support to stop the closure of delivery hospitals is emphasized. New maternity-related medical insurance payments, such as delivery labor management fees, fetal heart monitoring reading fees, and newborn care in delivery rooms fees, and active support policies are needed to prevent the closure of delivery hospitals. In this era of low fertility, because the maternity healthcare system is essential to maintain the nation, a healthcare delivery system different from the existing one must be established.

Sanksi Pidana Terhadap Pelaku Pemalsuan Surat Rapid Test di Masa Pandemi Covid- 19

The outbreak of the Covid-19 virus has caused the Indonesian government to take a serious policy in tackling the spread of this virus by imposing regional restrictions. This policy has led to the falsification of the COVID-19 rapid test certificate and the collection of rapid management fees at inflated prices. The purpose of this study is to uncover the criminal act of counterfeiting a rapid test letter and the legal sanctions for counterfeiting a rapid test letter. This research is a type of normative legal research with statutory law and factual law. Sources of legal materials used in the form of primary and secondary legal materials. The technique of collecting legal materials in this research is recording and recording which is then analyzed deductively and inductively logic. The results of the study reveal that letter falsification is regulated in Articles 263 to 267 of the Criminal Code, besides that it is also regulated in Article 7 of the medical code of ethics. If the doctor is proven to have committed the falsification himself, then the liability is punishable by a maximum of 4 years and administrative sanctions.

Comparative analysis of anthropogenic impact levels and payments for natural resource use in the Russian model areas

An assessment of the effectiveness of the existing system of paid nature natural resource usage in terms of the effect of reducing the negative impact on the environment by nature users is considered. The theory and practice of the effectiveness of environmental investment, as well as environmental management fees, were used as the basis of the methodology. The basis of the methodological tools consists of calculation and analytical, comparative methods, methods of system and structural analysis. The model territories of the ecological rating of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation are determined, the degree of anthropogenic impact is estimated on the basis of specific pollution indicators, the analysis of environmental investment features in the selected territories is carried out, the need for improving environmental policy is proved on the basis of the assessment of the ratio of payment for regulatory and excess pollution by environment.

Research on Rural Highway Project Construction Management and Maintenance

In this paper, combined with an actual case project, activity-based costing is used to analyze the labor costs, material costs, and the corresponding indirect costs (such as site management fees and taxes) where each cost is analyzed in detailed. Through quantitative comparison, it further determines which business activities are the key cost control objects and proposes targeted implementation plans for actual cost management in the future in order to provide new ideas for improving the implementation efficiency in addition to a reasonable cost control of highway engineering projects. At the same time, through analyzing the situation of highways, different maintenance modes are compared to put forward a more perfect rural road maintenance and management mode.

Performance Evaluation of China Internet Monetary Fund Based on Super-efficient DEA

Since 2013, China’s Internet money fund market has entered a new era. On June 17, 2013, Yu’e Bao, jointly launched by Alipay and Tianhong Fund Company, was the first to go public. In just a few short years, the Internet money fund market has developed in full swing, and Tencent, Baidu, and JD have also participated in the development of related change wealth management businesses. This article uses super-efficiency DEA to evaluate fund performance. Through the validity test of 16 sample fund products in 2019, 7 sample funds are valid according to the DEA; and 16 sample fund products in 2020 are tested for validity, 9 sample funds are valid according to the DEA. The research found that most of the Internet financial products have not yet reached their effectiveness, which is mainly reflected in the fund’s custody and management fees. There is still a lot of room for development in China’s Internet fund market.

PLAC Network Best Practices Series: Target-Income Design of Incentives, Benchmark Portfolios and Performance Metrics for Pension Funds

In defined contribution systems, at the end of the accumulation phase the assets in the retirement account are exchanged for a pension. The conversion rate from assets to retirement income (which depends on the level of interest rates) is very volatile, and its variations constitute the main investment risk facing pension fund affiliates. In this sense, performance metrics, management fees and benchmark portfolios that focus on assets (and asset returns) and ignore the variations in the conversion rate, embed several problems: i. they send wrong signals to regulators, fund managers and workers, ii. they provide wrong incentives to pension fund management companies, and iii. they leave pension fund affiliates exposed to their largest risk factor, even during the last few years preceding their retirement date. We find that regulatory incentives with these fundamental problems are ubiquitous in the region. The document presents a series of best practices, and delivers a practical set of tools to assist regulators and supervisors in designing a framework that improves security and sufficiency of retirement income, and provides relevant and timely information to pension fund affiliates. The framework achieves that by fostering an integration of the accumulation and the payout phases, and an alignment of the regulatory incentives for pension fund management companies with the retirement income objectives of pension fund affiliates. Using historical data from Colombia as a case study, the document illustrates and quantifies the improvements in terms of pension benefits and retirement income security that the proposed framework could bring.

Long-Term Sustainable Investment for Retirement

We consider whether sustainable investment can deliver performance comparable to conventional investment in investors’ long-term retirement plans. On the capital markets, sustainable investment can be achieved through various instruments and strategies, one of them being investment in mutual funds that subscribe to ESG (environmental, social, and governance) principles. First, we compare the investment performance of ESG funds with matched conventional funds over the period 1994–2020, in Europe and the U.S. We find no significant evidence of differing performance (at 5% level) despite using a number of investment performance metrics. Second, we perform a historical backtest to model a UK personal retirement plan from 2000 till 2020, taking full account of investment management fees and transaction costs. We find that investing in an index-tracker fund overlaid with ESG screening delivers a pension which is 10.4% larger than is achieved if the index-tracker fund is used without screening. This is also 20.2% larger than is achieved by investing in a collection of actively managed funds with a sustainable purpose. We conclude that an ESG-screened long-term passive investment approach for retirement plans is likely to be successful in satisfying the twin objectives of a secure retirement income and of sustainability.

Influence of Community Factors on Water Saving in a Mega City after Implementing the Progressive Price Schemes

A progressive price scheme (PPS) has been implemented in Shanghai since 2013 in consideration of residents’ ability to pay, and charges are based on the actual water consumption of the residents, in an effort to balance the rational allocation of water resources and the goal of saving water between rich and poor families. In the current work, the effect of the PPS for water use was evaluated based on the water use of 6661 households from 14 communities in Shanghai. It was found that the PPS did not reduce household water consumption when comparing the water consumption per household both before and after the implementation of the PPS policy. To investigate the weakness of the PPS, a principal component analysis (PCA) and a hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) were conducted to access the relationships between mean household water use and community factors such as housing price, management fees, and the number of parking sites. Moreover, a significant inverted U-shaped curve between housing price and water use was found, which demonstrates that rental households shared by several tenants were the main consumers of residential water, and they were not sensitive to the water price improvement in the PPS due to sharing water prices. Therefore, a proposal was made in this work to increase the proportion of water fee expenditure in the total household income and to use 3% as the benchmark for water affordability. Our results provided a new picture of residential water use in big cities and a method for saving and balancing urban water resources.

Household Waste Management towards a New Normal Era (Study at Suzuki Residents, Watutumou III Village, Kalawat District)

This research was conducted to (1) analyze the household waste management system, and (2) develop a strategy for household waste management in Suzuki Resident, Watutumou III Village, Kalawat District, getting in the era of "New Normal". This research uses quantitative methods with SWOT and AHP ((Analytical Hierarchy Process) techniques. The results show that the Waste Management system has Strength, such as the efforts to apply the 3R concept (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle), waste management fees, and improvement, facilities and infrastructure, strengthening public understanding, support from local government and APBD (Local Government Budget) of North Minahasa Regency. The waste management system has several weaknesses, such as (1) lack of facilities and infrastructure for trash bins, the absence of 3R Landfill in residential areas, and limited human resource capacity toward waste management Opportunities which is faced by the waste management system including support for provincial government policies, facilitating the marketing of waste management products that are economically valuable. Threats which are faced are the increasing volume of waste, not optimal waste management and sorting, people behavior of littering. Based on these conditions, the priority of the Household Waste Management Strategy is to improve facilities and infrastructure to support waste management. The current strategy for developing a household waste management system is in quadrant IV that is diversifying the use of force and creating more opportunities. Strategic steps in managing household waste in Suzuki Resident, Watutumou III Village, Kalawat District, getting in the era of "New Normal, are improving existing facilities and infrastructure and adding to those that do not exist, optimizing waste retribution to support waste management costs, gathering support from stakeholders who related, strengthening public understanding of household waste management, and promoting efforts to apply the 3R concept in household waste management.