Search

Selecting appropriate thresholds for modeling extreme financial values is vital in financial institutions. An effective threshold of the financial claims ensures that the model captures significant extreme financial claims without being overly influenced by less extreme, more frequent events. By introducing and analyzing some future insights into the potential severity of rare but impactful financial insurance claims, peaks over a random threshold value-at-risk method enables insurers to better manage their risk exposure. This is crucial for setting appropriate premiums, designing reinsurance contracts, and making informed strategic decisions. In this work, we presented a comprehensive financial risk analysis of the values of financial claims for real data in light of a set of indicators for measuring insurance risks. Some experimental financial results and analyses are presented, in addition to the appropriate engineering financial analysis within the framework of financial risk analysis using real data. This includes decisions on reinsurance purchases, reserve allocation, and diversification of risk portfolios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bovine fascioliasis is a parasitic disease that affects cattle. It leads to direct and indirect great economic loss due to animal mortalities, growth retardation and expenditure on anthelmintics, reduction livestock productivity and essentially condemnation of infected liver by inspection service. The study was carried out to determine the seasonal prevalence and estimated financial losses of fascioliasis in cattle in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. Methodology: A total of 2167 cattle were selected. Later, the cattle, have being the carcasses, were dissected, and the livers were dissected and carefully examined for adult liver flukes. Faeces were collected immediately after the cattle were killed and examined using the formol‐ether concentration technique. Condemned livers were weighted to estimate the financial losses using the average price of a kilogram of liver. Results: A total 428 of cattle were found with infected livers or egg in the faeces giving a total prevalence of 19.75%. Among the infected carcass, 18.64% had both the Fasciola eggs in the faeces and flukes in the liver while 1.10% had only flukes in the liver. Results revealed that prevalence of Fasciola spp. was significantly higher during the rainy season (23.48%) than 16% in the dry season (p = 0.00). A significantly (p = 0.000) higher prevalence was also observed in females (33.9%) than in males (13.1%). Age range showed significant (p = 0.000) influence with the animals of 8–10 years old recorded the highest prevalence of 39.3%. Furthermore, 433.1 kg of liver was condemned giving a direct financial loss of 1221,550 FCFA (2049.64 USD) and an annual financial loss due to liver condemnation estimated to 1814,775 (3045.01 USD). Conclusion: Findings of this study indicated that bovine fascioliasis is prevalent in cattle in the Western Highlands of Cameroon, and it leads to an important financial loss particularly in the rainy season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selecting appropriate thresholds for modeling extreme financial values is vital in financial institutions. An effective threshold of the financial claims ensures that the model captures significant extreme financial claims without being overly influenced by less extreme, more frequent events. By introducing and analyzing some future insights into the potential severity of rare but impactful financial insurance claims, peaks over a random threshold value-at-risk method enables insurers to better manage their risk exposure. This is crucial for setting appropriate premiums, designing reinsurance contracts, and making informed strategic decisions. In this work, we presented a comprehensive financial risk analysis of the values of financial claims for real data in light of a set of indicators for measuring insurance risks. Some experimental financial results and analyses are presented, in addition to the appropriate engineering financial analysis within the framework of financial risk analysis using real data. This includes decisions on reinsurance purchases, reserve allocation, and diversification of risk portfolios.

In three laboratory experiments, we examine the impact of personally relevant failures (PeRFs) on users' perceptions of a collaborative robot. PeR is determined by how much a specific issue applies to a particular person, i.e., it affects one's own goals and values. We hypothesized that PeRFs would reduce trust in the robot and the robot's Likeability and Willingness to Use (LWtU) more than failures that are not personal to participants. To achieve PeR in human–robot interaction, we utilized three different manipulation mechanisms: (A) damage to property, (B) financial loss, and (C) first-person versus third-person failure scenarios. In total, 132 participants engaged with a robot in person during a collaborative task of laundry sorting. All three experiments took place in the same experimental environment, carefully designed to simulate a realistic laundry sorting scenario. Results indicate that the impact of PeRFs on perceptions of the robot varied across the studies. In experiments A and B, the encounters with PeRFs reduced trust significantly relative to a no failure session. But not entirely for LWtU. In experiment C, the PeR manipulation had no impact. The work highlights challenges and adjustments needed for studying robotic failures in laboratory settings. We show that PeR manipulations affect how users perceive a failing robot. The results bring about new questions regarding failure types and their perceived severity on users' perception of the robot. Putting PeR aside, we observed differences in the way users perceive interaction failures compared (experiment C) to how they perceive technical ones (A and B). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate factors associated with healthcare utilization by adults in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Services utilization, we conducted logistic regressions to determine the relationship between predisposing factors (age, gender, education, employment status), need factors (critical medical needs), and enabling factors (insurance coverage, financial loss) on healthcare utilization (challenges accessing medical health care needs, resorting to alternative care, unable to attend medical appointments) as the main outcome. Data of 958 adults residing in KSA were extracted. Financial loss increased the odds of challenges in accessing healthcare (OR: 1.73) and lowered the odds of resorting to alternative medical care (OR: 0.63) and inability to attend healthcare appointments (OR: 0.55). Public insurance increased the odds of skipping healthcare appointments (OR: 1.62). Need factors were associated with lower odds of facing challenges accessing healthcare (OR: 0.37), higher odds of resorting to alternative medical care (OR: 5.65), and failure to attend healthcare appointments (OR: 1.92) respectively. Factors known to enable healthcare utilization should be continuously evaluated during emergency situations. Alternative routes of health provision, along with proper health education, should be accessible to all socioeconomic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a byproduct of the rapid development of China's economy, the tradeoff between environmental protection and economic growth has become increasingly prominent. Environmental violations, especially repeated environmental violations (REVs), are becoming an increasing concern. Nevertheless, previous studies mainly empirically analyze single and static environmental violations, and there is still a lack of attention paid to clearly defining REVs as well as clarifying their influence on enterprises. In this study, we introduce the concept of REVs and provide a mathematical measurement framework for quantifying them. Moreover, using a sample of Chinese listed companies, we further investigate the role of enterprises' ownership type, geographical location and industry type in the relationship between REVs and enterprises' financial losses. The results show that the average financial loss caused by REVs is significantly higher in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) than in nonstate-owned enterprises (NSOEs) and more intensive in high-pollution than in low-pollution enterprises. Moreover, enterprises operating in eastern China suffer greater losses than those in midwest China. The results also indicate that monetary penalties play a critical role in environmental regulations, while such regulations need to be further improved to address enterprise REVs. This study fills the gaps in the existing research on REVs and sheds light on the importance of environmental protection in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An investigation to balance the sustainability of insurance companies and successful claims on insurance policies is important towards the economy, as well as for assisting the insured during financial difficulty when their items are damaged or lost. This paper examines some rejected shortterm insurances where a misunderstanding of the contract might have caused the insurer to lose out on the claim. Data were collected from cases of courts and insurers on rejected claims due to misunderstandings by the insured. The first text data set was a court case. The second was a graph on the root causes of claims rejections from the insurer. The third was a matrix data set presenting the languages of the insured. The insurers who had refused to pay insurer claims supplied the latter two. Despite the three contexts being widely different, their results show that rejections of claims by the insurers were due to the insured failing to understand the conditions of the contracts, and thus not being able to figure out what could have caused the rejection. Hence, the use of complicated and legal language in insurance contracts results in the insured not fully understanding the contract, which leads to claims being rejected. The paper recommends the use of simple language and pinpointing in layman's form, those aspects that could lead to rejections of claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fumonisins are one of the main problems affecting maize production in the Texas High Plains (THP), where its agroclimatic conditions make it a perennial hotspot for mycotoxin contamination. In 2017, a fumonisin outbreak in the THP maize motivated stakeholders' request to repeal a subsection of the Texas Administrative Code, §61.61(a)(7) (Fumonisin Rule), and its related Texas Feed Industry Memorandum (Memo 5–20), which previously permitted the blending of maize containing high fumonisin levels with maize containing ≥ 5 mg/kg under state authority, and pivot to FDA fumonisin guidance. Shortly after, the USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA's) reintroduced Discount Factors (DFs) in annual Special Provisions (SP) that outline price reductions related to fumonisin contamination in maize. In this research, we estimate the potential economic burden posed by these changes through a two-part approach. In part one, we construct a decision model that explores the final disposition of fumonisin-contaminated maize based on blending permissions, fumonisin levels, and crop insurance status. In part two, we estimate the economic impact by inserting output values of the decision model into financial equations that consider testing costs, transportation fees, and discounts from crop insurance and grain elevators when applicable. Our economic analysis projects that the financial losses during a THP crop year with high fumonisin levels could range from $15.1 to $135.5 million without the option to blend under conditions of the revised RMA discount schedule. Findings further highlight crop insurance as the most promising risk management strategy for farmers in areas susceptible to fumonisin contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small tourism businesses are extremely affected by COVID-19 pandemic all over the world. The pandemic scenario in case of small tourism businesses in third-world country like Bangladesh was much critical. The study aims at evaluating factors responsible for financial loss of small tourism businesses due to COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. To address the objective, Chi-square test, and logistic regression modeling have been applied to the quantitative primary data. This study finds that education of the owner/manager, type of organization, office location, year of establishment, main targ et customer and revenue earned before pandemic have significant relationship with financial loss during COVID-19. The results of the research would assist entrepreneurs and policy-makers in weighing different factors directly connected with the profit or loss in business and to formulate strategies for unpredicted crises.

Qualitative research on the experiences of victims of online dating romance scams is limited. Following a phenomenological framework, this study explores victims’ accounts of interactions with offenders from first contact, development of romance, patterns of exploitation, eventual revelation, and financial and emotional costs of dating fraud. Ten participants from six countries who were victims of Nigerian romance fraudsters took part in one-to-one, semi-structured video interviews and an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was carried out. Four superordinate themes were identified from participants’ experiences: i) online romance, ii) exploitations, iii) revelations, and iv) reactions. These themes highlighted the uniqueness of the experiences of victims of online dating scams and the depth of emotional loss suffered after their victimization. Findings suggested that offenders target middle-aged women with troubled marriages or widows with inherited wealth, engage in lengthy pre-dating friendships with their targets, and deploy different forms of emotional blackmail to exploit their victims. These were found to have severe financial and long-term emotional consequences on victims. Participants reported they sought legal redress as a recovery strategy from their emotional sufferings. These findings have important practical and policy implications if online romance dating scams, and their financial and non-financial consequences are to be addressed.

Investigations into value chains, aiming to identify priority constraints experienced by value chain actors, play a vital role in comprehending socio-economic dynamics and formulating sustainable development strategies. The banana value chain in the Palakkad district of Kerala exhibits widespread distribution and significant fragmentation. Many stakeholders voiced their concerns, drawing attention to the challenges they faced in their daily operations. In this context a value chain-based study was conducted during October, 2022. Employing diverse research techniques such as interviews, focus group discussions, and the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), the study categorized constraints into economic, technical, social, and environmental groups. Results indicated that economic factors had the most substantial impact, followed by technical, social, and environmental constraints. The study highlights the profound influence of these constraints on the financial aspects of all involved stakeholders. It further emphasizes the necessity for targeted policy interventions and strategic planning to effectively address these issues and enhance the agricultural sector's efficiency and economic viability in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the issue of personal data breaches among elderly internet users in the United States. The study reveals that there has been a rise in these breaches among the elderly population, resulting in financial losses. The article provides recommendations to government and concerned agencies on how to protect elderly individuals from falling victim to personal data breaches. Factors contributing to these breaches include weak passwords, isolated lifestyles, and exposure to caregivers or family members. To address this issue, the article suggests using strong passwords, being cautious of internet scams, and maintaining strict document security. [Extracted from the article]

Simple Summary: The inspection of edible parts from slaughtered animals, performed by veterinarians, is essential to ensure meat safety and to limit the exposure of consumers to risks. Likewise, this action constitutes a useful tool in providing baseline data for veterinary practitioners regarding the occurrence of disease in livestock at farm level, diseases which are not detectable in live animals. The detection of pathological lesions results in total or partial rejection of the meat, with subsequent economic losses for producers. The present study aimed to enhance the knowledge regarding these concerns by studying a total of 151,741 slaughtered cattle. The results showed that all types of edible parts of animals (carcasses, livers, lungs, hearts, and kidneys) presented one or more abnormalities, with various degrees of intensity, from 13.26% (for carcasses) to 0.27% (for kidneys). The overall financial losses due to carcass and organ condemnations was estimated at EUR 3,661,400.4 and EUR 360,316.9, respectively, representing 1.17% of the total achievable net revenue without rejections. The survey demonstrated that data recorded during meat inspections can be regarded as important sources of information for veterinary and public health authorities in terms of monitoring, control, and eradication programs for some diseases with public health and/or economic importance. The study was undertaken to investigate the main causes of carcass and organ condemnations, as well as to estimate the financial losses suffered by a cattle slaughterhouse. In this regard, an active abattoir survey, based on standard post-mortem inspection procedures for meat, was conducted on 151,741 cattle, from January 2021 to December 2022. Overall, 13.27% (n = 20,125) of the carcasses expressed lesions or pathological conditions and, out of them, 1.15% (n = 1738) were totally confiscated, while another 12.12% (n = 18,387) were partially admitted for human consumption. In the case of organs, the general inspection data reveal that 12.28% (n = 18,630), 7.56% (n = 11,477), 1.89% (n = 2862), and 0.27% (n = 412) of the examined liver, lung, heart, and kidney specimens presented one or more types of abnormalities. In addition, regarding the types of specific pathological findings, dystrophies/anomalies (69.8%), circulatory disorders (40.6%), fecal contamination (60.9%), and suspected bacterial/viral infections showed a dominant occurrence in the liver, lung, heart, and kidneys, respectively. Consequently, the total direct financial losses resulting from edible part condemnation over the two years was estimated at EUR 4,021,717.3, which represents 1.17% of the total achievable net revenue without carcass and organ condemnation. Of this, EUR 3,661,400.4 (1.07%) and EUR 360,316.9 (8.73%) was related to carcass and organ condemnation, respectively. The study results demonstrate that the post-mortem inspection of meat at the slaughterhouse level plays a crucial role in identifying pathological lesions, in addition to some other issues, such as fecal contamination or non-compliant laboratory results, relevant to both public health and economic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tigray war broke out on November 4, 2020, and lasted until November 3, 2022. The war has caused a significant loss of human life and a catastrophic economic and humanitarian crisis. The war affected the food and water supplies to farmers to care their livestock and this led to animal death, malnutrition, and suffering. In addition, a significant number of animals have been subjected to flee the region and killed during the warfare. The veterinary sector is significantly damaged and animals became a victim. Veterinarians and animal health workers have fled the region because of the war, and this adds an extra burden to the sector. Although the impact of this war on animal life, welfare and overall, on the livestock infrastructure is significant, no study has been conducted so far. We analyzed the level of damage to the veterinary sector and number of animal loss following the war. Our analytical study showed the war has claimed a total loss of 2,487,047 cattle, 1,690,096 sheep, 3,803,860 goats, 610,976 donkey, 4,280,815 poultry, and 231,985 beehives. This caused an estimated total financial loss of 53.56 billion Ethiopian birr (∼1.01 billion USD). We also analyzed the destruction level of the veterinary infrastructures in percentage, and the associated financial loss due to facility damage and animal disappearances from the region. A complete destruction (100 %) of veterinary facilities was reported in 10 districts and this accounts to an estimated financial loss of 68.59 million Ethiopian birrs (1.3 million USD). In conclusion, Tigray war has caused an immense impact to animal welfare and veterinary sector and a collaborative effort between governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and professional bodies is required to restore the sector. This study also highlighted how the war jeopardize animal right and wellbeing. Thus, we believe this study will be an input for national and international policy makers working on international convention for animal protection and rights.

Small tourism businesses are extremely affected by COVID-19 pandemic all over the world. The pandemic scenario in case of small tourism businesses in third-world country like Bangladesh was much critical. The study aims at evaluating factors responsible for financial loss of small tourism businesses due to COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. To address the objective, Chi-square test, and logistic regression modeling have been applied to the quantitative primary data. This study finds that education of the owner/manager, type of organization, office location, year of establishment, main targ et customer and revenue earned before pandemic have significant relationship with financial loss during COVID-19. The results of the research would assist entrepreneurs and policy-makers in weighing different factors directly connected with the profit or loss in business and to formulate strategies for unpredicted crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous organization including financial industry are highly supported the online service payments due to the massive growth of Internet commerce and banking. But, those financial industry faces global losses due to increases of fraud and also the customer losses the trust in online banking, because credit card frauds (CCF) are mostly occurred due to high usage of Internet. Therefore, financial institutions and merchants faces the heavy losses, because illegal transactions are carried out by unauthorized user without the knowledge of actual card users. In addition, availability of public data, high false alarms, imbalance problems in data, changing nature of frauds increases the challenges in the detection of CCF. Researchers uses the Machine Learning (ML) techniques for designing the Detection system for CCF (CCFD), however, these ML didn't offers much efficiency. Therefore, to solve these issues of ML, nowadays, Deep Learning (DL) is applied in the area of CCFD. In this research work, one-dimensional Dilated Convolutional Neural Network (DCNN) is designed to solve the issues of CCFD by learning both spatial and temporal features. Here, the base model of CNN is improved by implementing the dilated convolutional layer (DCL). The imbalance problem is solved by under-sampling and over-sampling techniques. The experiments are carried out on three datasets in terms of various parameters and compared with existing CNN model. The simulation results proved that proposed DCNN model with sampling technique achieved 97.39% of accuracy on small card database, where CNN achieved 94.44% of accuracy on the same database. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

News sentiment can influence stock prices indirectly, in addition to the technical indicators already used to analyze stock prices. The information quantification of news sentiment by considering time sequence data in the stock analysis has been the primary issue; this article proposes methods for quantifying news sentiments by considering time sequence data. The news sentiment quantification uses a daily confidence score from the classification model. The active learning model uses to build a classification model considering time sequence data, which results in sentiment indicators. Then the sentiment indicators are utilized by stock price forecasting using the proposed Transformer Encoder Gated Recurrent Unit (TEGRU) architecture. The TEGRU consists of a transformer encoder to learn pattern time series data with multi-head attention and pass it into the GRU layer to determine stock price. The accuracy mean absolute percentage error (AcMAPE) uses to evaluate forecasting models sensitive to the misclassification of stock price trends. Our experiment showed that the sentiment indicator could influence stock issuers based on the increased performance of the stock price forecasting model. The TEGRU architecture outperformed other transformer architecture on five feature scenarios. In addition, TEGRU presented the best-fit parameters to produce low financial risk for each stock issuer.

ABSTRACTThe Mexican government has decided to ban imports of genetically modified (GM) maize, to rely on agroecology for maize production to satisfy domestic yellow maize requirements. No economic impact assessment of this policy decision was made public, and the implications of this decision for users of yellow maize and consumers are significant. This article measures the economic surplus generated from Mexican GM yellow maize imports and domestic conventional yellow maize production over the last 20 years, and projects the economic surplus generated over five years from adopting agroecology for yellow maize production. We explore three likely scenarios and find that in all of them, yellow maize processors lose almost twice as much economic surplus as producers. In the most conservative loss estimate (Scenario 1), the surplus loss in five years is equivalent to 35% of the economic surplus generated over the last 21 years from GM maize imports and domestic Mexican conventional production. In all simulated Scenarios, between 2024 and 2025 the price of a metric ton of yellow maize will increase 81percent because of the change in production systems (from conventional to agroecology). These financial losses will ultimately factor into the prices consumers pay for poultry and red meat products, resulting in higher domestic retail food prices.

This review summarized the significant results from Brazilian studies published in peer-reviewed scientific papers about the effect of bovine subclinical mastitis (SM) on economic performance and milk production. Different approaches were considered for (i) disease detection (indirect measurement of somatic cell count (SCC) and directly using microbiological culture) and (ii) milk sampling strategy (mammary quarters, composite cow samples, and bulk milk tank). Globally, bovine mastitis is the most common disease of dairy herds, and the subclinical presentation is the most frequent. Dairy farmers usually underestimate the economic losses associated with SM because no visual changes in milk and quarters, udder, and systemic symptoms are observed. SM reduces milk yield and quality, reducing dairy herds’ profitability. The estimation of losses depends on the causative pathogen, the lactation stage, and the parity of affected cows. Thus, estimating the economic caused by SM in milk production and economic performance in dairy herds can be used to decide which mastitis control strategies to adopt. Mastitis control involves adopting specific measures associated with the characteristics of each herd, the period of the highest frequency of cases, the transmission form, and the profile of the pathogens involved in cases of intramammary infection. Thus, using individual SCC, the microbiological identification of pathogens causing SM, adopting efficient drying-off protocols, and other management practices are essential for mastitis control, improved milk quality, and greater profitability of dairy herds.

Background: Resuscitation trolleys with equipment and medicines for emergencies are required in all clinical areas in hospitals. Emergency medicines kept separately are more likely to expire than non-emergency medicines, as these are generally used less frequently. An updated list of essential emergency medicines was implemented in 2016 at an academic hospital in central South Africa. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of both the use and the expiry, with associated financial losses, of the emergency medicines on this list. Methods: A prospective, descriptive study was conducted over a six-month period in 2019. Forms accompanying the emergency packs were returned to the pharmacy whenever packs expired or were opened. These forms were collected and the type and quantity of medicines either used or expired were recorded. Results: In total, 168 of the returned forms were included. The most frequently used emergency medicines were adrenaline, sodium bicarbonate and Ringer's lactate. Adrenaline use was recorded on 52.8% and 25% of the forms from the adult/paediatric and neonatal emergency packs, respectively. Medicines that were never used included: betamethasone, Darrow's half-strength solution and most of the neonatal pack medications. Neonatal emergency medicine packs were rarely used and the neonatal fluid packs were never used. The total cost of the expired medicines was R7 960.29 (US$569.41 at the time of the study). Adrenaline was the medication that expired most frequently but the greatest financial losses occurred from expired sodium bicarbonate. Conclusion: The total financial losses were low but can be reduced further. The contents of the emergency packs should be reviewed to possibly reduce the amount of items used infrequently. Also, the removal of those items not recommended in emergency care guidelines could be considered. Ensuring the policy was followed of returning unused medicines close to expiry and redistributing these to high-use areas would further reduce wastage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE: The purpose is to report financial loss, demographic metrics, and mechanisms of injury associated with eye injuries in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from the 2010--2011 to 2017--2018 seasons. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of eye injuries in the NBA from the 2010--2011 to 2017--2018 seasons using publicly available information from Basketball Reference and the Pro Sports Transactions websites. Only injuries of the eye and adnexa that caused players to miss games in the regular season and playoffs were included in the study. Financial loss was calculated based on the regular season salary of the players and normalized for inflation with 2018 as the base year. RESULTS: There were 30 eye injuries causing a total of 106 missed games and $7,486,770 in financial losses across eight seasons. Linear regressions showed a moderately positive increase in eye injuries (Pearson's r = 0.68, P = 0.07, and 0.79 injuries per year/1000 game-days increase) and financial losses (Pearson's r = 0.67, P = 0.07, and $185.75 increase per year/1000 game-days) over time. There were significantly more games missed due to orbital fractures than games missed due to contusions/lacerations (11.5 vs. 2.8 missed games, P = 0.01). CONCLUSION: We demonstrate an increasing trend of eye injuries in the NBA, resulting in increased financial loss. Injuries may be varied in type and affect the number of games missed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research was conducted against the background of road improvements on the road section in Ambeng-Ambeng Watangrejo village, Duduksampeyan, Gresik Regency along ± 1.5 km which caused traffic jams due to narrowing of road capacity. Vehicle travel time is very influential on the level of fuel consumption, because the longer the travel time experienced by a vehicle, the more fuel consumption will be. The length of congestion will affect the temperature of the vehicle engine which will get hotter which will eventually affect fuel consumption which will be more wasteful and this will result in a considerable material loss value. This study used quantitative research methods and direct surveys. The primary data used in this study included vehicle travel time and vehicle volume. The types of vehicles analyzed are several types of cars fueled by pertalite. Then the data is processed using references from the Indonesian Road Capacity Guidelines (PKJI 2014) and LAPI-ITB. The results showed that the loss of private cars (KR) fueled by the pertalite type was quite large, namely on Monday, the total loss during the 6 hours of research amounted to Rp.13.575.702 with an average hourly loss of Rp.2.262.617. As for Tuesday, the total loss during the 6 hours of research amounted to Rp.15.942.725 with an average hourly loss of Rp.2.657.121. And for Wednesday, the total loss during the 6 hours of research amounted to Rp.12.182.256 with an average hourly loss of Rp.2.030.376

Purpose: The goal of blood bank audit is to continuously improve services to the patients by reducing rework, wastage, and inappropriate care. This can be done by establishing certain quality indicators. The rate of discarded blood and its components due to wastage, expiry, and transfusion-transmitted infection are one of such indicator. Design: Retrospective data on the number of whole blood, components prepared, and discarded were collected from the blood bank information system and analyzed. Results: During the study period, the total number of blood and components prepared were 3922. Out of which, a total of 226 units (5.76%) were discarded. In order to alleviate the shortage of blood, we should do intermittent auditing, quality monitoring, thorough evaluation and training of staff, proper management of the resources, and workforce.

The effect of two dust events on solar energy has been studied in Europe and North Africa. For analysis, total aerosol and dust optical depth (AOD) in conjunction with solar irradiation and energy data were utilized from Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). The AOD reached ~2.8 and ~1.7 during the dust events (16–19 April 2021 and 15–18 March 2022), respectively. Both events originated in North Africa, reaching the northern parts of Europe and the Black Sea. The energy production of solar photovoltaics in the affected regions was reduced by almost 18–36 GWh, followed by an estimated financial loss of close to 4 million euros.

Copyright of Arts Magazine is the property of Thamar University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objectives: To assess the association between students’ financial loss and depressive symptoms during the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and whether this association varied by countries having different levels of lockdown measures.Methods: This cross-sectional survey, conducted in spring 2020, included 91,871 students from 23 countries. Depressive symptoms were measured using the shortened Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale and information on lockdowns retrieved from the COVID-19 government response tracker. The association between financial loss and depressive symptoms was investigated estimating prevalence ratios (PR) with multilevel Poisson models.Results: Some 13% of students suffered financial loss during the lockdown and 52% had a relatively high depression score, with large between-countries differences. Minimally and maximally adjusted models showed a 35% (PR = 1.35, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 1.29–1.42) and 31% (PR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.26–1.37) higher prevalence of depressive symptoms in students who lost economic resources compared to students with stable economic resources. No substantial differences in the association were found across countries.Conclusion: Depressive symptoms were more frequent among students who suffered financial loss during the pandemic. Policy makers should consider this issue in the implementation of COVID-19 mitigating measures.

New York City (NYC) was the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. A "shelter in place" mandate was issued in March 2020. The effect on vulnerable populations of adolescent and young adult females has not been well documented. We administered a monthly online survey between May and November 2020 to adolescent and young adult females participating in a longitudinal study at Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center. Surveys asked about death of loved ones, financial impacts, social interactions, exposure to dangerous situations, and mental health impacts. Differences in responses by age, race/ethnicity, and living situation were assessed, and compared to data obtained on the same cohort prior to the pandemic. Four hundred seventeen females aged 15–28 years completed at least one survey, 94% of whom were youth of color. A third of responders (33%) had lost relatives or other people they were close to (loved ones). Most (68%) reported one or more financial losses, and 21% reported food insecurity, with those not living with parents or a guardian experiencing significantly higher rates. One in 10 reported experiencing sexual abuse or interpersonal partner violence during the "shelter in place" period. Over a third (37%) reported symptoms of clinical depression, which represented a significant increase compared to before the pandemic (p =.01). The negative financial impacts and higher proportion of patients with depressive symptomatology remained elevated for adolescents without support at home. The COVID-19 pandemic had unprecedented negative short-term financial and psychosocial health impacts on inner-city female youth with potential long-term negative impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, German health care centres were restructured for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. This was accompanied by the suspension of the surgical programme. The aim of the survey was to determine the effects of COVID-19 on surgical care in non-university hospitals in Germany. Methods This cross-sectional study was based on an anonymous online survey, which was accessible from April 24th to May 10th, 2020 for surgeons of the Konvent der leitenden Krankenhauschirurgen (Convention of leading Hospital Surgeons) in Germany. The analysis comprised of 22.8% (n = 148/649) completed surveys. Results Communication and cooperation with authorities, hospital administration and other departments were largely considered sufficient. In the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, 28.4% (n = 42/148) of the respondents complained about a short supply of protective equipment available for the hospital staff. 7.4% (n = 11/148) of the participants stated that emergency operations had to be postponed or rescheduled. A decreased quantity of emergency surgical procedures and a decreased number of surgical emergency patients treated in the emergency room was reported in 43.9% (n = 65/148) and 63.5% (n = 94/148), respectively. Consultation and treatment of oncological patients in the outpatient clinic was decreased in 54.1% (n = 80/148) of the surveyed hospitals. To increase the capacity for COVID-19 patients, a reduction of bed and operating room occupancy of 50.8 ± 19.3% and 54.2 ± 19.1% were reported, respectively. Therefore, 90.5% (n = 134/148) of all participants expected a loss of revenue of 28.2 ± 12.9% in 2020. Conclusion The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on surgical care in Germany. The reduction in the bed and the operating room capacity may have lead to considerable delays in urgent and semi-elective surgical interventions. In addition to the risk of worsening patient care, we anticipate severe financial damage to the clinics in 2020 and beyond. National and supranational planning is urgently needed to ensure the surgical care of patients during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract This study examines the impact of risk governance on cybercrime of selected listed firms in the Nigerian financial institutions. To achieve this, a sample size of 50 listed companies from the Nigerian financial sector was selected for the years 2013–2017, resulting in 250 observations. The study employed the use of hierarchical regression analysis to test the impact of risk governance variables (Chief Risk Officer_centrality, Enterprise Risk Management_index, Chief Risk Officer_presence, Board Risk Committee_size, Board Risk Committee_activism, and Board Risk Committee_independence) and other control variables such as corporate governance variables (Board Size and Board of Directors_independence) and firm characteristics variables (Firm size and firm age) on cybercrime. The study observed from the findings that almost all the explanatory variables present a positive and significant relationship with cybercrime, except the Chief Risk Officer_presence, firm age and Board Risk Committee_size which revealed an insignificant relationship with cybercrime. The study concludes that risk governance variables and other variables are likely to reduce and minimize the impact of cybercrime on the sampled firms used in this study.

The Mexican government has decided to ban imports of genetically modified (GM) maize, to rely on agroecology for maize production to satisfy domestic yellow maize requirements. No economic impact assessment of this policy decision was made public, and the implications of this decision for users of yellow maize and consumers are significant. This article measures the economic surplus generated from Mexican GM yellow maize imports and domestic conventional yellow maize production over the last 20 years, and projects the economic surplus generated over five years from adopting agroecology for yellow maize production. We explore three likely scenarios and find that in all of them, yellow maize processors lose almost twice as much economic surplus as producers. In the most conservative loss estimate (Scenario 1), the surplus loss in five years is equivalent to 35% of the economic surplus generated over the last 21 years from GM maize imports and domestic Mexican conventional production. In all simulated Scenarios, between 2024 and 2025 the price of a metric ton of yellow maize will increase 81percent because of the change in production systems (from conventional to agroecology). These financial losses will ultimately factor into the prices consumers pay for poultry and red meat products, resulting in higher domestic retail food prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to evaluate foetal wastage, associated economic loss and incidence of gross foetal and uterine abnormalities in goats (does) slaughtered at Gujungu slaughter house, Jigawa state, Nigeria. The studies were carried out within six months (January-June, 2021). A total of 1,899 does were slaughtered over the study period, out of which 642 (33.8 %) were pregnant and 62 % of the pregnancies were in the second trimester. Nine hundred and eighty-one (981) foetuses were recovered from the gravid does of which 32 % (n=315) were singletons while 64.6 % (n=634) were twins. Triplets and quadruplets foetuses constituted 2.5 % (n=24) and 0.8 % (n=8) of the foetuses wasted respectively. Incidence rates of gross foetal and uterine abnormalities were hydrometra (2.0 %); mucometra (1.2 %); pyometra (2.3%), foetal emphysema (0.05 %), foetal mummification (0.1 %) and foetal maceration (0.2%).The overall incidence rate of the foetal gross abnormalities recorded was 5.85 %. The mean monthly rate of foetal wastage (38%) and the foetal sex ratio (F 56.4: M 43.6) were used in the economic analysis for estimation of the foetal loss in monetary terms. The estimated loss was N6, 979,000 ($18,145.4USD) for six months period or N13, 958,000 ($36,290.8 USD) per annum, which is worrisome because such practice may impact negatively on the livelihood of the various stakeholders along goat value chain by drastically reducing the future productive herd at the study area. Adequate ante mortem inspection of does for detection of pregnancies and reinforcement of the legislation against the indiscriminate slaughter of gravid animals at the slaughterhouse should be enforced. Public education on proper management and breeding practices to reduce the incidence of diseases of infertility in does should be advocated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The goal of blood bank audit is to continuously improve services to the patients by reducing rework, wastage, and inappropriate care. This can be done by establishing certain quality indicators. The rate of discarded blood and its components due to wastage, expiry, and transfusion-transmitted infection are one of such indicator. Design: Retrospective data on the number of whole blood, components prepared, and discarded were collected from the blood bank information system and analyzed. Results: During the study period, the total number of blood and components prepared were 3922. Out of which, a total of 226 units (5.76%) were discarded. In order to alleviate the shortage of blood, we should do intermittent auditing, quality monitoring, thorough evaluation and training of staff, proper management of the resources, and workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to calculate the prevalence and changes in milk due to subclinical mastitis in Anatolian buffaloes, and the financial losses caused by the disease. The material of the study consisted of milk samples obtained from 96 udder lobes belonging to a total of 24 female Anatolian buffaloes raised in Kayseri. Milk samples were collected from four farms in March 2021 and the infection status of the milk was evaluated by examining the California Mastitis Test (CMT) and somatic cell count (SHS). According to the results, 5 buffalo (20.8%) and 8 lobes (8.3%) were found to be infected and mean SHS value was found as 182500 cell/ml. The fat of infected animals milk decreased by 27.4% (P<0.05) and the milk yield decreased by 12.6%, if the disease was not treated, it was calculated that a loss of 1140 TL (138 $) will occur in a lactation, and if treated, this loss can be reduced by 951.5 TL (115 $). In conclusion, it was revealed that the prevalence of subclinical mastitis in Anatolian buffaloes raised in Kayseri is high (20.08%), infection significantly reduces milk fat, especially in terms of quality, producers should educate in terms of diseases and pay more attention to hygiene, otherwise subclinical mastitis will cause significant losses and reduce their profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acknowledging the devastating consequences of past earthquakes, current research efforts focus on the development of tools for assessing and controlling the risk and losses associated with future earthquakes, in addition to trying to minimize construction costs. Apart from providing a control of these levels, earthquake engineering can also provide solutions to manage the financial implications of the expected hazardous events. The first part of this article focuses on the management of the expected losses through the mechanism of transfer of the financial risk via earthquake insurance. Various insurance models are explained and applied in different case studies, and numerous analyses are performed across Europe, for a benchmark four-storey reinforced-concrete frame building. The results highlight significant variation in the premiums with seismicity, design practices and properties of the insurance model. It is crucial that any mitigation or transfer framework should use probabilistic methods to consider the uncertainties inherent in the hazard and structural response estimates. For example, different studies for the same region often indicate considerable differences in seismic hazard estimates. The uncertainty inherent in the hazard input model is transferred to and affects the results of the structural design and the performance assessment. Thus, the second part of the article investigates the impact of the epistemic uncertainty in the hazard model on the structural design and consequently the estimated future losses and risk levels, again for the benchmark building. First, a comparison is performed between the hazard data from two studies for different locations in Italy, in order to assess the possible range of variation in estimated hazard levels amongst different studies. The effects of these hazard variations on the seismic design and risk and loss metrics for the benchmark building are also investigated for these locations. Finally, a simplified approach for modelling hazard uncertainty is introduced and various sensitivity analyses are performed to investigate the effects of the hazard uncertainty across Europe. It is shown that hazard uncertainty can be of differing importance for the various involved stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any business may be affected by a catastrophic event – fire, earthquake, terrorist attack, crashes and breakdowns of the electricity networks, etc. In this regard, the implementation of measures to ensure the continuity of the credit institution will withstand the impact of large-scale disasters on its ability to perform banking services.

Background: The SARS-COV-2 virus has more than just an infectious role to play in the society. The rapid spread has also led to significant personal, professional, financial and economic recession globally. Health care professionals are getting seriously compromised due to these issues. No published data are available on the indirect effects of COVID-19 on high-risk medical specialties. Otorhinolaryngology is considered as one such specialty. Hence, we designed a national survey to address these issues. Materials and methods: A google questionnaire was sent to all the otorhinolaryngologists in Czech Republic with the help of the Czech Society of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery to evaluate the problems they encountered during the first wave of COVID-19. Personal, professional and financial losses were also addressed. Online access to the survey was from 15th April 2020 to 26th April 2020. Results: The psychosomatic indirect impact of the disease affected female doctors than males. Burnout syndrome was the most commonly reported problem. Around 44.75% of all doctors had a combination of health, financial and economic as well as professional development and educational issues. Doctors from private practices faced higher financial losses. Conclusions: Our study showed that personal, professional and financial disturbances amongst doctors can lead to more serious consequences. With the lack of drastic measures in improving the support system for healthcare workers, the healthcare systems will fail quickly. Adequate support should be made mandatory by health authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epidemiological features and financial losses due to Haemorrhagic Septicemia (HS) in dairy animals of Punjab were studied using the primary data collected from 720 livestock owners/ dairy farms. The overall incidence and case fatality rate (CFR) risk of HS among dairy animals was 5.45 and 45.15%, respectively. Incidence risk of HS on the species basis varied significantly and was observed highest in buffaloes (6.27%), followed by cross bred (4.67%) and indigenous cattle (3.91%). The overall financial loss due to HS per affected animal per year was ` ₹ 5111.64±482.32. However, the mean economic losses per animal per year affected varied significantly among different categories of animals, and was highest in buffalo (`₹ 7265.08±735.27), followed by cross bred (` 5799.55±447.48) and lowest in indigenous cattle (`₹ 2270.30±405.22). At species level, the largest component of the economic losses were due to mortality loss of animals (69.42% in cross bred, 63.15% in indigenous cattle and 70.40% in buffaloes), followed by treatment cost and reduction of milk yield. On benefit cost analysis of control measures, higher BCA ratio was observed in buffalo, followed by crossbred and indigenous cattle. It may be concluded that poor understanding of the disease and lack of effective control measures such as timing and potency of vaccination are some of the factors impacting upon the economics of dairy farming in Punjab state. Training and extension activities should backup the efforts to control this dreadful disease.

Background: Drug wastage is a major concern in healthcare and more so in an orthopedic setup where musculoskeletal ailments form a major proportion. The principal objective of this study was to ascertain the extent of drug wastage and its financial costs in orthopedics. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective pilot study and was conducted to ascertain the quantity of drug wastage in the orthopedic unit of a tertiary care hospital. The study was conducted in the outpatient facilities where the list of drugs prescribed and the wastage was recorded by telephoning the patients after a week of consultancy. The cost evaluation for the actual use and wastage was undertaken and audit was done to understand which drug generated the maximum wastage. Results: The highest drug wastage was observed in paracetamol (80%), diclofenac (38.36%) glucosamine + diacerein (53.33%), methylcobalamin + folic acid + alpha-lipoic acid (53.33%), methylcobalamin + folic acid (28.57%), and rabeprazole + domperidone (12.5%). Highest cost for wastage of drug was observed for diclofenac (INR434.1) and accounted for 44.72% of the drug cost. Conclusion: As far as the authors are aware, this is the first study addressing the financial impact of drug wastage in orthopedics. Attempts should be directed at minimizing wastage and at cost saving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]