The impact of demonetization on Indian firms’ performance: does company’s age make a difference?

The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of demonetization on Indian firm’s quarterly financial performance before and after demonetization period (March-December, 2017), and to find out if companies’ age helps to face financial disruption. Four variables, which are net sales, total income, net profit after tax, and earnings per share, were taken as proxies for analyzing the quarterly financial performance of 2,892 companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), National Stock Exchange (NSE), and Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE). Nonparametric test, particularly Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed Rank Test and Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance, were applied in analyzing the data. Results reveal that there is a statistically significant difference between the financial performance before and after demonetization at 5% level of significance. It was also found that the decrease/increase in the financial performance of all the firms was affected by the demonetization process, irrespective of their ages. The findings could be useful for financial managers and financial consultants, as they would be able to focus on the issues that matter most at the time of financial disruption

Repurposing NGO data for better research outcomes: A scoping review of the use and secondary analysis of NGO data in health policy and systems research

Background Non-government organisations (NGOs) collect and generate vast amounts of potentially rich data, most of which are not used for research purposes. Secondary analysis of NGO data (their use and analysis in a study for which they were not originally collected) presents an important but largely unrealised opportunity to provide new research insights in critical areas including the evaluation of health policy and programmes. Methods A scoping review of the published literature was performed to identify the extent to which secondary analysis of NGO data has been used in health policy and systems research (HPSR). A tiered analytic approach provided a comprehensive overview and descriptive analyses of the studies which: 1) used data produced or collected by or about NGOs; 2) performed secondary analysis of the NGO data (beyond use of an NGO report as a supporting reference); 3) used NGO-collected clinical data. Results Of the 156 studies which performed secondary analysis of NGO-produced or collected data, 64% (n=100) used NGO-produced reports (e.g. to critique NGO activities and as a contextual reference) and 8% (n=13) analysed NGO-collected clinical data.. Of the studies, 55% investigated service delivery research topics, with 48% undertaken in developing countries and 17% in both developing and developed. NGO-collected clinical data enabled HPSR within marginalised groups (e.g. migrants, people in conflict-affected areas), with some limitations such as inconsistencies and missing data. Conclusion We found evidence that NGO-collected and produced data are most commonly perceived as a source of supporting evidence for HPSR and not as primary source data. However, these data can facilitate research in under-researched marginalised groups and in contexts that are hard to reach by academics, such as conflict-affected areas. NGO–academic collaboration could help address issues of NGO data quality to facilitate their more widespread use in research. Their use could enable relevant and timely research in the areas of health policy, programme evaluation and advocacy to improve health and reduce health inequalities, especially in marginalised groups and developing countries

Influence of Oral Dipping Tombak Smokeless Tobacco on Coagulation Profile and Platelet Counts

The goal of this paper is to investigate the influence of oral dipping of Tombak Smokeless Tobacco (SLT) on prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), international normalized ratio(INR) values, and platelet counts (PLTs), in Sudanese Tombak users. An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted at Kosti health insurance hospital, Sudan, in 2019. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 100 adult users of oral Tombak for three or more years were chosen randomly as a study group. Another 100 matched healthy individuals who never used Tombak were randomly selected as a comparative group. Venous blood specimens were collected in ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) containers for the PLT counts using the automated haematology analyser (Sysmex, Tokyo, Japan XK-21SYSMEX) and in trisodium citrate anti-coagulant containers for coagulation tests using a co-agulometer machine analyser. Our findings show a significant decrease in PLT count mean values in the Tombak users group (212.1 × 103/mm3 ± 74.3 × 103/mm3) compared with the non-taking Tombak group mean values (243.2 × 103/mm3 ± 83.0 × 103/mm3), (p p p p p < 0.001). In conclusion, using Tombak a Smokeless Tobacco (SLT) for a long period significantly affect Platelet counts and coagulation profile

The Gulf of Nicoya (Costa Rica) Fisheries System: Two Decades of Change

In the early 1990s, ecological and fishery data from the Gulf of Nicoya (Pacific Ocean) were holistically analyzed, and a trophic model was constructed using the Ecopath modeling approach. The results indicated that this tropical estuary, which is a Costa Rican fishery hot spot, was already overexploited by shrimp trawlers and the longline fleet, and recent observations suggest further deteriorations in this system. To evaluate the ecosystem and socioeconomic changes in the Gulf of Nicoya over the last 20 years, the 1993 model was reconstructed with data from 2013 to compare both system states. Although the summary statistics of both states (i.e., 1993 and 2013) suggested that the system maintained its general functionality and even enabled the total harvest to increase by approximately 20%, a more detailed analysis of the levels of the functional groups suggested that the system was further degraded as follows: (1) most shrimp, eel, and catfish species decreased their share in the catches, with severe economic losses for the fishery; (2) of the species that substantially increased their share in the catches, most were short‐lived, low‐value species, such as small pelagic and small demersal fishes; and (3) catches of long‐lived, high‐trophic‐level fish, such as rays, sharks, mackerels, and barracudas, decreased. A picture emerged in which the advancing fishery of low‐trophic‐level species with low economic value enabled the total harvest to increase, while valuable shrimp resources and higher‐trophic‐level species were depleted. These developments caused a tremendous economic loss of approximately 50%