How to Build a Modern Tontine

This open access book introduces the modern tontine and its applications in retirement and decumulation. Personal financial management in the later stages of life presents unique challenges, and renowned retirement planning expert Dr. Milevsky proposes the modern tontine as a solution. With the goal of guiding professionals and retirees in more efficient decumulation, the book demonstrates how to build a modern tontine. It is technically oriented, employing a cookbook format, featuring R code, and examining retirement planning through a statistical lens. This how-to guide, which is a sequel to his 2020 book “Retirement Income Recipes in R”, will be invaluable for retirement planning professionals and advisors, as well as for PhD scholars in retirement planning, quantitative finance, and related fields. This book is open access

An Investigation on the determinants of effective internal audits in the Kogi State in Nigeria

The objective of this study is to investigate the factors affecting internal audit effectiveness (IAE) in the Kogi State public service. Hence, this study employed a quantitative method through Random sampling method. To achieve the objectives of the study, the target sample size for this research were (132) internal auditors and (110) executives with total of (242). However, 363 questionnaires were distributed by adding up 50% to the (242) total for both respondents, which were distributed across the 15 ministries for the current study. Consequently, a total of (118; 86) for both internal auditors and executives respectively, summing up to (204) questionnaires were retained for analysis for both. The data was analyzed with the use of Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The result of the study showed the relationship effects of management support, audit objectivity, audit independence, audit staff competency, quality of audit and career and advancement, with the IAE within the Kogi State public service. According to the findings of the result, management support has significant and positive contribution for the internal audit effectiveness, audit objectivity has significant and positive relationship with IAE, audit staff competency has positive and significant relationship with IAE, quality of audit work has positive and significant relationship with IAE. While the other two variables: audit independence and career and advancement did not support the hypotheses. Although four out of the six independent variables used for this study provided 46.1% of the contributions for IAE in the Kogi State public service, the variables have collective significance in identifying any non-compliance activities and add values for the IAE in the Kogi State public service

Augmenting the Unreturned for Field Data With Information on Returned Failures Only

<p>Field data are an important source of reliability information for many commercial products. Because field data are often collected by the maintenance department, information on failed and returned units is well maintained. Nevertheless, information on unreturned units is generally unavailable. The unavailability leads to truncation in the lifetime data. This study proposes a data-augmentation algorithm for this type of truncated field return data with returned failures available only. The algorithm is based on an idea to reveal the hidden unobserved lifetimes. Theoretical justifications of the procedure for augmenting the hidden unobserved are given. On the other hand, the algorithm is iterative in nature. Asymptotic properties of the estimators from the iterations are investigated. Both point estimation and the information matrix of the parameters can be directly obtained from the algorithm. In addition, a by-product of the algorithm is a nonparametric estimator of the installation time distribution. An example from an asset-rich company is given to demonstrate the proposed methods. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.</p

Augmenting the Unreturned for Field Data With Information on Returned Failures Only

<p>Field data are an important source of reliability information for many commercial products. Because field data are often collected by the maintenance department, information on failed and returned units is well maintained. Nevertheless, information on unreturned units is generally unavailable. The unavailability leads to truncation in the lifetime data. This study proposes a data-augmentation algorithm for this type of truncated field return data with returned failures available only. The algorithm is based on an idea to reveal the hidden unobserved lifetimes. Theoretical justifications of the procedure for augmenting the hidden unobserved are given. On the other hand, the algorithm is iterative in nature. Asymptotic properties of the estimators from the iterations are investigated. Both point estimation and the information matrix of the parameters can be directly obtained from the algorithm. In addition, a by-product of the algorithm is a nonparametric estimator of the installation time distribution. An example from an asset-rich company is given to demonstrate the proposed methods. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.</p

The Local Governance of the 2014 Ebola Epidemic: A Comparative Case Study of Liberia and Sierra Leone

This research investigates community-led interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The objective is to examine the parallels and differences in the response and outcomes of the 2014 Ebola epidemic. Many challenges made aid less effective such as misinformation, rumors, stigma, and logistical difficulties that lowered the demand for aid resources. These market inefficiencies were the demand-side barriers that were prolonging the disease spread. A qualitative methodology was employed to answer the research question. Sixty-seven semi-structured interviews were conducted from January to July 2017; 33 of these interviews were in Sierra Leone and 34 interviews in Liberia. Informants included health workers, chiefs, chiefs’ advisors, a secret society leader, NGO representatives, a government worker, and volunteers during the outbreak. Thematic analysis and the data were supported by NVIVO. The key themes are: ‘Government’s Response and Community Reaction,’ ‘Local Institutional Intervention,’ and ‘Governing the Outbreak.’ Informants were chosen through purposeful sampling methods in three provinces in each country. The findings demonstrate that traditional leaders in Sierra Leone immediately responded through rulemaking and enforcement after the first Ebola case was officially announced. Specifically, rulemaking helped to create behavior changes to increase demand for aid resources, such as mandatory referrals to the health centers. These laws and door-to-door contact tracing were scaled up to a national emergency strategy, relying on traditional leaders to monitor and enforce them. In Liberia, community and traditional leaders organized in many areas to correct some of these demand-side barriers too. In both cases, the response from community-level leaders happened before the international community scaled up aid resources in August 2014, with some donors and humanitarians arriving as late as December 2014. However, Liberia’s local strategies were not scaled up and coordinated nationally, as it was in Sierra Leone. Thus, the interventions implemented were not universal. According to figures by the World Health Organization, Sierra Leone had 25% more Ebola cases than Liberia but had 18% fewer Ebola deaths. This is interpreted as contact tracing and institutional changes having more impact in Sierra Leone to refer Ebola patients into early treatment and reduce deaths

A FRAMEWORK FOR THE EVALUATION OF CYBERSECURITY EFFECTIVENESS OF ABU DHABI GOVERNMENT ENTITIES

Cyberspace has become one of the new frontiers for countries to demonstrate their power to survive in the digitized world. The UAE has become a major target for cyber conflicts due to the rapid increase in economic activity and technology. Further, the widespread use of the internet in the region to the tune of 88% by the end of 2014 has exposed the critical infrastructure to all forms of cyber threats. In this dissertation, the researcher presents a detailed study of the existing cybersecurity defences globally and an investigation into the factors that influence the effectiveness of cybersecurity defences in Abu Dhabi government entities. Further, the role of cybersecurity education, training, and awareness in enhancing the effectiveness of cybersecurity and the role of senior management in providing strategic direction to government entities on cybersecurity are evaluated in addition to determining the contribution of strategic planning and technology level in ensuring an effective cybersecurity system. The study has evaluated the level of Cybersecurity Effectiveness (CSE) in Abu Dhabi Government Entities and the results show that Science and Technology entity performed better than all other Entities with CSE Mean = 4.37 while Public Order showed the least performance with CSE Mean = 3.83 and the combined model of six factors with R-square value 0.317 after multiple regression implying that 32% change in CSE in the government entities is occurring due to the six (6) independent variables used in the study. Further, results show that management has the responsibility of putting in place strategies, frameworks and policies that respond appropriately to the prevention, detection and mitigation of cyberattacks. Results further indicate that culture-sensitive training and awareness programmes add to the quality and effectiveness of cybersecurity systems in government entities. Further, study findings reveal that qualified and experienced personnel in government entities show a greater understanding of cyber and information security issues. Finally, the researcher proposes a cybersecurity framework and a checklist, with checkpoints, for evaluating the effectiveness of cybersecurity systems within government entities and future research interventions

A critical review of the low-cost housing policy in South Africa: a multi case study

Housing is a complex subject and has stimulated thought processes of scholars globally for a long time. Throughout the world, governments are flooded by a myriad of housing challenges associated with the provision of housing. Policy has been used as a communicator of governments’ visions and strategies on housing provision. The apartheid legacies have left the country’s housing terrain totally disfigured. To correct this travesty of justice, the government has resorted to policy and legislative framework. In 1994, the Housing White Paper on housing was introduced as a guiding vehicle of the state’s aspirations in its quest to address spatial inequalities and provide housing to millions who had never had a place they could call home. However, the inability of the programme, to mitigate a successful provision of sustainable housing, motivated the government to rethink its strategy. Thus, a new approach to housing called, “Breaking New Ground” (BNG, 2004) was launched. Contrary to the old housing approach that focussed on mass delivery, BNG would regard quality and spatial reconfiguration and social-cohesion as vital to the realization of sustainable human settlements. Few years after its introduction, the new housing approach had its own share of challenges. The main aim of this investigation was to critically review the state of low-cost housing programme by establishing whether the 2004 policy revision of the national housing programme has had any significant effect on the low-cost housing programme in the country by assessing some of the recent projects initiated under the ambit of the BNG. Through a multi-case study, the researcher has qualitatively investigated the research question. A multi-data gathering approach, consisting of both qualitative and quantitative data-collection instruments such as open-ended interviews, questionnaires and observations, helped the researcher to answer the questions posed by the study. From the investigation, a blend of successes and failures has been noted. It is undeniable that the low-cost housing programme is still inundated with challenges right under the domain of BNG. It is also irrefutable that many positives on the current and recent low-cost housing projects initiated under BNG can be seen

Electronic voting : 6th International Joint Conference, E-Vote-ID 2021, virtual event, October 5-8, 2021

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Electronic Voting, E-Vote-ID 2021, held online -due to COVID -19- in Bregenz, Austria, in October 2021. The 14 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 55 submissions. The conference collected the most relevant debates on the development of Electronic Voting, from aspects relating to security and usability through to practical experiences and applications of voting systems, as well as legal, social or political aspects

Mir hardware heritage

The heritage of the major Mir complex hardware elements is described. These elements include Soyuz-TM and Progress-M; the Kvant, Kvant 2, and Kristall modules; and the Mir base block. Configuration changes and major mission events of the Salyut 6, Salyut 7, and Mir multiport space stations are described in detail for the period 1977-1994. A comparative chronology of U.S. and Soviet/Russian manned spaceflight is also given for that period. The 68 illustrations include comparative scale drawings of U.S. and Russian spacecraft as well as sequential drawings depicting missions and mission events