A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Debt and Growth

Can debt be used to finance growth? This question has stimulated a number of research papers, seminars and conferences. To date, however, no clear answer to the question is available. This paper attempts to answer the question using meta-analysis. Meta-analysis allows researchers to combine the results from both published and un-published research to gain insights regarding the directional and statistical significance of the relationship between the two variables. The results from the study should be of interest to policymakers and academics.Debt; Economic Growth; Meta-Analysis

EVALUATING OPTIMAL PRODUCT MIX USING DYNAMIC SIMULATION: A TOMATO PROCESSING CASE

Technology-driven change is everywhere and value-capture from new technology is challenging for business managers. Also rival firms may use technology as part of major success strategies. This situation leads managers to be keenly interested in evaluation of alternative technologies prior to making a sunk investment in physical facilities. In contemplating new or added-capacity processing facilities, managers and investors must evaluate return on investment (ROI). Evaluation of ROI is complex because it varies by alternative technology and the resultant potential product mix alternatives associated with that technology at the time the investment capital is committed to build the processing plant. This research examines optimal alternative product mix from a processing plant technology that is fixed at the time of commitment to building or adding capacity. Evaluating the optimal product mix is of vital concern in any start-up processing environment. In this research the optimal product mix is evaluated by using a sophisticated evaluative tool known as PowerSim. This economic simulation software is used to model a start-up tomato processing plant in Ohio. The model evaluates the effects of various output, or tomato product mix, on plant profitability measured by ROI. Results indicate that an increase in plant profitability is expected when the tomato product mix consists of products that have a lower soluble solids concentration. The lower the soluble solids concentration of a tomato product, the less the processor will benefit from tomato varieties with high soluble solids. The processing operation achieves a RIO of 26.5 percent when the plant'Â’s product mix is 50 percent tomato paste (31 degrees brix) and 50 percent diced tomatoes. This product mix optimizes processor net income and realizes a plant return on equity of 50.6 percent.Agribusiness,

Adverse Effects of Cholinesterase Inhibitors in Dementia, According to the Pharmacovigilance Databases of the United-States and Canada.

This survey analyzes two national pharmacovigilance databases in order to determine the major adverse reactions observed with the use of cholinesterase inhibitors in dementia. We conducted a statistical analysis of the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and the Canada Vigilance Adverse Reaction Database (CVARD) concerning the side effects of cholinesterase inhibitors. The statistics calculated for each adverse event were the frequency and the reporting odds ratios (ROR). A total of 9877 and 2247 reports were extracted from the FAERS and CVARD databases, respectively. A disproportionately higher frequency of reports of death as an adverse event for rivastigmine, compared to the other acetylcholinesterase inhibiting drugs, was observed in both the FAERS (ROR = 3.42; CI95% = 2.94-3.98; P<0.0001) and CVARD (ROR = 3.67; CI95% = 1.92-7.00; P = 0.001) databases. While cholinesterase inhibitors remain to be an important therapeutic tool against Alzheimer's disease, the disproportionate prevalence of fatal outcomes with rivastigmine compared with alternatives should be taken into consideration

An Empirical Investigation of Privacy and Security Concerns on Doctors’ and Nurses’ Behavioral Intentions to Use RFID in Hospitals

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is a useful technology that has myriad applications in technology, retail, manufacturing, and healthcare settings. Not dependent upon line-of-sight, RFID can scan devices in their proximity and report the information to connected (wired or other wireless) information systems. Once touted as the panacea for home healthcare, RFID devices can add benefit to patients in remote settings. RFID devices have been used to optimize systems in areas such as manufacturing and healthcare to expose inefficiencies in a system or process. Unlike manufacturing, however, RFID in healthcare settings presents security and privacy concerns to the people being tracked by the devices – particularly healthcare workers including nurses and doctors. This research presented a theoretical model that assessed the effect of five independent variables, namely, cognitive factors, of privacy concerns regarding surveillance and RFID devices and trust in the electronic medium, subjective norm, existence of security policy, and persistence of data on a dependent variable - intention to use RFID. The theoretical model presented in this research is based on the technology acceptance model and the extended theory of planned behavior. The research showed significant relationships between the cognitive factors of privacy concerns regarding surveillance and RFID devices, and trust and the electronic medium and perception of external control on intention to use. The theoretical model used in this research can be refined to better understand intention to use RFID in hospital environments

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Debt and Growth

Can debt be used to finance growth? This question has stimulated a number of research papers, seminars and conferences. To date, however, no clear answer to the question is available. This paper attempts to answer the question using meta-analysis. Meta-analysis allows researchers to combine the results from both published and un-published research to gain insights regarding the directional and statistical significance of the relationship between the two variables. The results from the study should be of interest to policymakers and academics

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between Debt and Growth

Can debt be used to finance growth? This question has stimulated a number of research papers, seminars and conferences. To date, however, no clear answer to the question is available. This paper attempts to answer the question using meta-analysis. Meta-analysis allows researchers to combine the results from both published and un-published research to gain insights regarding the directional and statistical significance of the relationship between the two variables. The results from the study should be of interest to policymakers and academics

An Exploratory Analysis of Stress, Burnout, and Depression in the IECMH Workforce

A growing trend in the psychological literature has consistently found a strong association between stress, burnout, and depression, especially in populations who are exposed to a high amount of occupational stress. And, while the relationship between stress and burnout has been distinct and strong, the same cannot be said for burnout and depression. Historically, burnout and depression have shared such a strong conceptual relationship that the literature disagreed as to whether they were truly separate mechanisms. However, while the two constructs do present behavioral similarities the underlying mechanisms which direct their presentation are subtly different. Depression is defined as a diagnosable mood disorder, which is implicated from a number of biopsychosocial factors regardless of occupation characteristics, while burnout is defined as an occupational syndrome which presents in response to prolonged exposure stress within one’s vocation specifically. Understanding the relationship between stress, burnout, and depression is relevant for all professionals, but may be especially important to study in sectors interacting with vulnerable populations known to be at risk for burnout. The Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) workforce includes professionals who engage and serve children and families, many of whom have experienced trauma and/or have high psychosocial risk. This workforce may be particularly vulnerable to burnout in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, mental health symptoms (including depression) and stress rates have increased for many since the start of the pandemic. The current study aimed to explore perceived stress, burnout, and depression in a population of IECMH professionals, and to test whether depression symptoms act as a risk factor in the context of stress and burnout. The sample consists of 141 clinicians who work in the IECMH field (e.g., child welfare, home visiting, childcare), and who completed self-report measures of current stress, current burnout, and current depression in the summer of 2020. Bivariate correlation indicated significant and large relationships between both perceived stress and burnout (r = .70, p \u3c .001), and depression and burnout (r = .59, p \u3c .001). Given the high collinearity between our predictor (stress) and proposed moderator (depression, r = .80, p \u3c .001), testing for the moderating effect of depression on the link between stress and burnout was unjustified. These results led us to wonder if other factors might better serve as protective factors in the context of stress and burnout and thus we examined the moderating effect of self-compassion on buffering against the relationship between stress and burnout. To explore the possibility of self-compassion weakening this relationship between perceived stress and burnout, simple moderation analyses were conducted in SPSS using Hayes’ PROCESS 4.0 Macro. The overall model results were significant (F(3, 99) = 65.08, R2 = .66, p \u3c .001) and the interaction term was also significant (R2 change = .04, p = .001). Specifically, the relationship between stress (x) and burnout (y) remained significant across all levels of self-compassion, but the strength of the relationship between x and y was strongest when self-compassion was low and weakest when self-compassion was high