IMPORT AND TELECOM SECTOR REVENUE IN EXPLAINING THE MOTIVES TO INVEST IN INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY BY ARMENIAN OPERATORS

By estimating the impact of real imports of innovative technologies and non-innovative equipment on the real revenue of the telecommunications operators; and the impact of real imports of non-innovative equipment and the real revenue of the telecommunications operators on the real revenue of the telecommunications operators in Armenia from the second half of 2014 till the end of 2020, we have identified which factors will mainly lead to the growth of the sector and force them to invest in innovative technology. According to the analysis of the econometric model #1, it can be said that companies increase the cost of importing innovative technologies and equipment by 6.11%, on average, as soon as revenue decreases by 1%. Secondly, import of non-innovative equipment, like phones, once every 24 months, could lead to an increase in import of innovative equipment. According to the model #2 the costs of importing non-innovative equipment have a statistically significant impact on the revenue of telecom companies, however, the import of new generation phones does not lead to a huge increase in the use of services offered by operators. 11 months after the introduction of innovative technologies, their impact on the revenue of the telecom companies becomes statistically significant and negative. We conclude that the decrease of telecoms revenue leads to the growth of real imports of innovative technologies. The model results will enable telecoms to overcome the situations that would decrease companies’ revenue, to revise the periods set for importing equipment and innovative technology.

A Systematized Approach to Advancing the Quality of Community-Based Palliative Care

Despite growing recognition of the importance of community-based palliative care, optimizing the use of services continues to be a challenge. Until recently, key barriers were reimbursement and limited access. As services have become increasingly available, engagement of patients and their caregivers has emerged as a major obstacle. The Palliative Activation SystemTM (PAS) is a comprehensive, quality improvement methodology designed to promote enhanced engagement of seriously ill adults and their caregivers in optimizing the use of community-based palliative care services and accelerate clinicians’ progress in meeting patients’ and caregivers’ care goals. This paper describes the design of the PAS. Experts in patient engagement and the development and evaluation of palliative care programs advised organizational leaders in the development of this methodology. The “Patient and Family Engagement” framework proposed by Carman and colleagues (2013) guided this work. The framework informed the selection of three core concepts—care alignment, illness trajectory, and social determinants of health—as foundational to the goals of the PAS. Additionally, this framework guided the selection of measures that will be used to assess progress in achieving enhanced engagement. This background work, coupled with findings from interviews with patients and caregivers who are current recipients of palliative care services, resulted in the implementation and ongoing testing of strategies targeting clinicians and organizational leaders and designed to enhance engagement. Lessons learned from the design phase of the PAS will advance the efforts of other organizations committed to increasing patient and caregiver engagement and enhancing attainment of their goals.

Advanced Access in Primary Health Care: experiences from Brazil and Canada

Access is the timely use of services in order to meet the needs of the user. As an alternative to the traditional model, the Advanced Access (AA) model appears in Canada , with schedules restricted to specific cases. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to analyze the existing scientific production about the Advanced Access model in Primary Health Care. Methods: Integrative literature review using the descriptors (1) “Health Care Accessibility” OR “Primary Health Care” AND and (2) "Advanced Access" in the PubMed, Scopus and BIREME databases. Selection criteria were studies published in the last five years, available in Portuguese, English or Spanish and dealing with the theme. Results: Eight studies were selected, six were grouped into two categories of analysis: “The Canadian experience with AA : a model in consolidation”; and “The Brazilian experience with AA: local experiments” and the other two contributed to enrich the discussion. The AA stands out to balance capacity and demand with physical infrastructure and adequate staff, both in the international arena, as the experiences of municipalities, improving the quality of APS. Conclusion: Studies that detail the AA in its practice, as well as the challenges and needs, can inspire other health units to study it and consider its implementation if it is appropriate for its context, aiming to improve the health and care of its population.

Features of cargoes customs clearance under the “customs warehouse” regime

The essence and features of the customs regime «customs warehouse» in modern conditions of foreign economic activity are investigated. The sequence of stages of customs clearance of goods in the customs regime «customs warehouse» is clarified. The problems of «customs warehouses» and the peculiarities of placing goods in the customs warehouse, as well as the peculiarities of storage of goods, the permissible terms of their storage and the list of necessary documentation are analyzed. Today, the «customs warehouse» regime in the process of implementing various foreign economic transactions is extremely relevant and profitable. «Customs warehouse» is a customs regime according to which foreign or Ukrainian goods are stored under customs control with conditional full exemption from taxation by customs duties and without the application of measures of non-tariff regulation of foreign economic activity. This customs regime is applied when placing goods at the customs warehouse. Operations carried out with goods stored in the customs regime of the customs warehouse at the customs warehouse should not change the characteristics according to which these goods were classified according to the Ukrainian classification of goods of foreign economic activity. The term of storage of goods in the customs regime of the customs warehouse may not exceed 1095 days from the date of placement of these goods in the specified customs regime. Taking in to account the above, the «customs warehouse» mode is extremely convenient to use, and it can also be used when the final buyer is still unknown when importing goods, but when using this customs regime, the following problems arise: 1. Imperfection of the existing legislative regulation of activities when placing goods in the customs regime «customs warehouse». 2. Lack of clearly established tariffs for the use of services for the placement of goods in a customs warehouse. It is necessary to establish a unified pricing policy for the provision of customs warehousing services, taking into account the regional aspect. 3. Insufficient system of control and accounting of balances of goods in the customs warehouse. Such leftovers of goods can be in the customs warehouse for an unlimited time, and foreign economic entities will spend money on their storage. In addition, there is no legal regulation that could regulate the control of residues. 4. Inconsistency of the equipment of customs warehouses with existing requirements, since the customs warehouse must be provided in a favorable state, namely: technical and protective means to ensure the necessary regime, for the allocation of separate areas for customs warehouses near checkpoints or customs posts. 5. Failure to comply with the storage conditions of products, as well as the occurrence of financial losses of both counterparties under a foreign trade contract. The storage of goods in customs warehouses should be organized in such a way as to exclude the risks of damage to property, its theft, and destruction. According to the individual specialization of the product, there are requirements for the formation of special storage conditions, namely the appropriate temperature regime, which must always be maintained. In some cases, the only well-thought-out solution to solve this problem is to place the product in a temporary storage warehouse. To simplify customs procedures, the customs authorities of Ukraine are actively implementing the mechanism of electronic declaration, which significantly reduces the cost and reduces the time of customs clearance and enhances the effectiveness of customs control. Issues of efficiency of customs clearance are extremely important in foreign economic activity, as they directly affect the volume of exports and imports.

How Has COVID-19 Impacted Older Adults and Their Needs for Services?

COVID-19 has had profound effects on older adults and will have lasting impacts on their preferences and needs for services, including those offered by Meals on Wheels and other community organizations. Organizations serving older adults would benefit from insights about how to prioritize resources and services to address older adults’ needs during the pandemic and beyond. On behalf of Meals on Wheels America, NORC at the University of Chicago conducted a study to explore COVID-19’s impacts on older adults and older adults’ needs during the pandemic. We conducted two data collection activities with adults age 60 and older: a nationally representative survey with 1,535 respondents and 24 interviews. Results indicated that COVID-19 has affected older adults’ physical and mental health, social connectedness, employment, and use of services and technology. Informal networks of family members and friends are a source of assistance for 50% of older adults during the pandemic. Impacts of COVID-19 differed by income, rurality, disability status, and living situation. Findings documented the extent to which older adults had unmet needs during the pandemic, such as activities to help keep busy at home and affordable food to meet dietary needs. Survey respondents who have a lower income, are 75 and older, live alone, and who are Black were more likely to have unmet needs. Findings suggested a need to strengthen partnerships among organizations that serve older adults to address diverse needs, conduct ongoing assessments of older adults’ needs and preferences, and enhance assistance for informal support networks.

Predictors of Custodial Grandparents’ Perceived Barriers to the Use of Services

Getting timely access to help, information, and a variety of services is paramount among the challenges of raising a grandchild, and grandparents face a variety of internal and external barriers in getting such help. The present pilot exploratory study focused on caregiving-related and personal resource variables best predicting grandparent caregivers’ perceptions of barriers to receiving services. Fifty-two grandparents (M age = 59.1) raising their grandchildren completed measures assessing caregiver strain, social support, resilience, self-care, psychosocial adequacy, health, depression, and grandchild relationship quality. They also completed measures of the extent to which they faced personal and caregiving-related difficulties giving rise to the need for services (e.g. health, grandchild well-being, support from others) as well as the extent to which they had experienced barriers to service (health/financial limitations, isolation, transportation, respite care, lack of knowledge of services) in the past 3 months. Correlations (p < .05) suggested that psychosocial adequacy (r = -.32), depression (r = .27), caregiver strain (r = .42) and difficulties (r = .48) were all related to greater perceived barriers. Regression analyses (F7, 40 = 2.81, p < .02) indicated that caregiver strain (Beta = .33, p < .05) and difficulties giving rise to the need for services (Beta = .32, p < .04) emerged as most salient in predicting barriers. These findings underscore the fact that personal, caregiving-related, and interpersonal factors exacerbate the barriers associated with grandparents’ accessing needed services and reinforce such factors’ impact on grandparents as targets for overcoming impediments to accessing services among them.

Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE): Early Impacts from a Multi-Site Random Assignment Evaluation

Background PROMISE was a federal initiative to support youth receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) during the transition to adulthood. Objectives This article presents estimates of the impacts of the six PROMISE projects on youth and family outcomes as of 18 months after enrolling in PROMISE. Research Design The study uses a randomized controlled trial design. Subjects The six PROMISE projects each enrolled a minimum of 2000 treatment and control youth (and their parents) residing in their service areas who were aged 14 to 16 and receiving SSI. Measures We estimated impacts on outcomes related to youth and family service use, school enrollment, training, employment, earnings, and federal disability program participation using survey and administrative data. Results The projects succeeded in connecting more youth to transition services and more families to support services during the 18 months after enrollment, and most increased the likelihood that youth applied for state vocational rehabilitation services. On average, there was no impact on youth’s school enrollment, but there were favorable impacts on youth’s receipt of job-related training, employment, earnings, and total income. The projects did not affect parents’ employment, earnings, or income, on average. For most outcomes PROMISE affected, the impacts varied substantially across the projects. Conclusions The positive short-term impacts of PROMISE on youth’s use of transition services, youth employment, and families’ use of services are consistent with the program logic model and suggest there might be potential for longer-term favorable impacts on youth and family outcomes.

Measuring Use of a Distance Library Service

<p>As libraries strive and stride with new electronic resources and online services, providing at point of need and demonstrating value, it is necessary to build more comprehensive understanding of how changes might be impacting use of services and explore what this can tell us about library users. This research investigates use of a distance library service using the University of Otago Library in Dunedin, New Zealand as a case study. It examines the hard evidence of use of the service represented by requests received and processed by the Distance Library staff between 2007 and 2012. The analysis is made in light of growth in distance learning, advancing information and communications technology and escalation of resources being made available online. The study employs a retrospective quantitative approach and incorporates an analysis of qualification type, field of study and institution of requesters to provide a richer picture for the investigation. Results of the study provide information about the use of the Distance Library Service and its users revealing trends over time. Research implications of this investigation include better understanding of our information services and our users. Lessons learned from this study can help inform decision-making for future services, training of staff and comparison with other libraries.</p>

Measuring Use of a Distance Library Service

<p>As libraries strive and stride with new electronic resources and online services, providing at point of need and demonstrating value, it is necessary to build more comprehensive understanding of how changes might be impacting use of services and explore what this can tell us about library users. This research investigates use of a distance library service using the University of Otago Library in Dunedin, New Zealand as a case study. It examines the hard evidence of use of the service represented by requests received and processed by the Distance Library staff between 2007 and 2012. The analysis is made in light of growth in distance learning, advancing information and communications technology and escalation of resources being made available online. The study employs a retrospective quantitative approach and incorporates an analysis of qualification type, field of study and institution of requesters to provide a richer picture for the investigation. Results of the study provide information about the use of the Distance Library Service and its users revealing trends over time. Research implications of this investigation include better understanding of our information services and our users. Lessons learned from this study can help inform decision-making for future services, training of staff and comparison with other libraries.</p>