On the Role of Security in the System of Personal Values:Are Conservatives Prioritizing Security?

Security is a value contained in most theories of personal values.Yet,while the relations among the most basic values are clear and reliable,the role of security in the system of values remains ambiguous.People striving for security are often also striving for tradition and conformity but sometimes they are focusing more on other values(such as health values,for example).Based on eight representative surveys(N=24,000)in several German cities between 1998 and 2022,the author shows that when measuring security without suggesting a particular meaning of this notion,security takes a relatively central position within the system of values and their components(shown by multidimensional scaling,MDS).People striving for security also emphasize the importance of law and order,working hard,and having a good family life as guiding principles in their lives.Conformity is not that important for them,and having an exciting life is even negatively correlated.Age has little impact on the MDS structure of values and their components,even though people exhibit substantial changes in the relative weights they assign to many values as they get older.

Traditional Values on Males in Victorian Age——A Case study of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest

In Victorian Age, many literary works recorded the social realities and traditional social value system, and Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is a good case in point. In this play, males are valued in terms of both birth condition and economic basis, which are two general standards from the traditional value system of the mainstream society. Oscar Wilde in this play satirizes the restrained and distorted traditional values and the hypocritical Victorian society. This paper will probe into how the social status and economic conditions determine males' fate in Victorian Age and on Oscar Wilde's creation.

On the Expected Present Value of Total Dividends in a Risk Model with Potentially Delayed Claims

In this paper, we consider a risk model in which two types of individual claims, main claims and by-claims, are defined. Every by-claim is induced by the main claim randomly and may be delayed for one time period with a certain probability. The dividend policy that certain amount of dividends will be paid as long as the surplus is greater than a constant dividend barrier is also introduced into this delayed claims risk model. By means of the probability generating functions, formulae for the expected present value of total dividend payments prior to ruin are obtained for discrete-type individual claims. Explicit expressions for the corresponding results are derived for K n claim amount distributions. Numerical illustrations are also given.

The Optimal Inventory Policy for Reusable Items with Random Planning Horizon Considering Present Value

We discuss five areas of inventory model, including reusable raw material, EPQ model, optimization, random planning horizon and present value. In the traditional EPQ model, the stock-holding cost of raw material was not counted as a part of relevant cost. We explored the possibility of reducing a company’s impact on the environment and increasing their competitiveness by recycling their repair and waste disposal. The products are manufactured with reusable raw material. Our analysis takes into account the time value, and the present value method is applied to determine the optimal inventory policies for reusable items with random planning horizon. Results show how the heuristic approach can achieve global optimum. Numerical examples are given to validate the proposed system.

Age Identity and Elderly Job Participation in China

In the context of rising life expectancy,there is a significant discrepancy between Chinese seniors’self-perceptions of the start of old age and the expectations of society around this age.The traditional paradigm,which forecasts individual economic behavior and formulates economic policies based on societal standards of age,is put to the test by this disparity.This study,which draws from the China Longitudinal Aging Society Survey(CLASS),examines the factors,processes,and improvement strategies that affect how older people choose to work.The following are our conclusions:(i)Chinese elderly believe their old age starts from 70 years on average;delaying perceived old age is a denial of aging and raises the likelihood of finding work.Elders who are youthful at heart have a 2.4%higher chance of remaining employed than elders who are old at heart.(ii)In contrast to old-at-heart elders,young-at-heart elders are more likely to maintain their middle-age lifestyles,continue working,become motivated to engage in social activities,and gain the confidence to face challenges and continue in their career.(iii)If the perceived old age is above 70 years,the milestone event of aging is retirement from work,and there are external pressures,particularly pressures from family intergenerational support,the perception of old age will have a more proactive impact on older workers.(iv)Despite rising pension benefits,older people’s decision to remain in the workforce is still heavily influenced by their perception of their age.However,this effect is notably gender-specific,as older women’s decision to remain in the workforce is not greatly influenced by their own perception of their age.

Age-specific reference ranges of prostatespecific antigen in the elderly of Amirkola: A population-based study

Objective:To determine the age-specific reference ranges of prostate-specific antigen(PSA)in the older men in the city of Amirkola.Methods:This cross-sectional study is a part of Amirkola Health and Ageing Project(AHAP)which has been conducted as a cohort study since 2011 in Amirkola,a city in northern Iran.The demographic information of all men aged 60 and older were collected through questionnaires and interviews and the PSA measurements were performed using ELISA and Diametra kit.The acquired data were analyzed afterwards.Results:A number of 837 elderly men with a mean age of 69.99±7.72 years participated in this study.The serum PSA level(95th percentile)was determined to be 0.9(0-4.89)ng/mL in the age group of 60-64 years,1.1(0-4.88)ng/mL in the age group of 65-69 years,0.93(0-9.01)ng/mL in the age group of 70-74 years,1.3(0-7.95)ng/mL in the age group of 75-79 years,1.9(0-11.98 ng/mL)in the age group of 80-84 years,and 1.45(0-33.17)ng/mL in the 85 and older group.The serum PSA level was significantly correlated with age(p=0.000).Conclusion:This study indicated that there is a direct correlation between the age and serum PSA levels.The use of age-specific reference range could guide clinicians on the incidence of prostate cancer in this population and perhaps reduce the number of unnecessary tests in this population group.

Emergency department use among patients from residential aged care facilities under a Hospital in the Nursing Home scheme in public hospitals in Queensland Australia

BACKGROUND: Hospital emergency department(ED) use by patients from residential aged care facilities(RACFs) is not always appropriate, and this calls for interventions to avoid some unnecessary uses. This study aims to compare patterns of ED use by RACF patients with and without a Hospital in the Nursing Home(Hi NH) program.METHODS: RACF patients presenting to EDs of a hospital with and a hospital without this program during pre- and post-intervention periods were included. Data on patient demographics and ED presentation characteristics were obtained from the Emergency Department Information System database, and were analysed by descriptive and comparative statistics.RESULTS: In both hospitals, most RACF residents presenting to EDs were aged between 75–94 years, female, triaged at scale 3 to 5, and transferred on weekdays and during working hours. Almost half of them were subsequently admitted to hospitals. In accordance with the ICD-10-AM diagnostic coding system, diagnoses that consistently ranked among the top three reasons for visiting the two hospitals before and after intervention included Chapter XIX: injury and poisoning and Chapter X: respiratory diseases. Associated with the intervention, significant decreases in the numbers of presentations per 1 000 RACF beds were identified among patients diagnosed with Chapter XI: digestive diseases [rate ratio(95%CI): 0.09(0.04, 0.22); P<0.0001] and Chapter XXI: factors influencing health status and contact with health services [rate ratio(95%CI): 0.22(0.07, 0.66); P=0.007].CONCLUSION: The Hi NH program may reduce the incidence of RACF residents visiting EDs for diagnoses of Chapter XI and Chapter XXI.

Optimal Inventory Policy of Production Management: A Present Value Framework

The classical economic production quantity (EPQ) assumes that the replenishments are instantaneous. As a manager of a factory, there is a problem must be taken into consideration. If the establishment buys all of the raw materials at the beginning, the stock-holding cost for the raw materials should be counted into the relevant costs. So the main purpose of this paper will add the raw materials stock-holding cost to the EPQ model and take the time value of money into consideration. Therefore, we will calculate the present value and compare the difference between take and does not take the time value of money into consideration. From these procedures of calculating, we found some interesting results: 1) the present value of total stock-holding cost of raw materials plus products from the beginning to time t is the same as the stock-holding cost of classical economic order quantity (EOQ) model;2) the present value of total relevant cost is independent of the production rate (if the production rate is greater than the demand rate);3) the optimal cycle time of total relevant cost not taking the time value into consideration is the same the optimal cycle time of classical EOQ model;4) the purchasing cost per unit time is irrelevant to time.

The Equality Thought in Marx’s Critique of Gotha Program and Its Value in the New Era

The idea of equality is an important part of Marxist theory system and an ideal creed pursued by mankind.Marx’s thought of equality is reflected in the Criticism of Gotha Program.Marx’s criticism of“absolute labor income”elaborates the distribution theory of the two stages of communism.The criticism of“labor determinism”defends the fundamental principle of“production decides distribution”.It criticizes the essence of“free education for all”and puts forward the idea of education equality in an ideal society.In the new era,it is helpful to improve the equality system and protect the basic rights of citizens to review their equality thoughts.What’s more,it is also helpful to develop productive forces Vigorously and consolidate the equal foundation of socialist countries.We will deepen the reform of education and improve the sense of happiness of education equality.

Lithofacies modeling by multipoint statistics and economic evaluation by NPV volume for the early Cretaceous Wabiskaw Member in Athabasca oilsands area, Canada

The static modeling and dynamic simulation are essential and critical processes in petroleum exploration and development. In this study, lithofacies models for Wabiskaw Member in Athabasca, Canada are generated by multipoint statistics(MPS) and then compared with the models built by sequential indicator simulation(SIS). Three training images(Tls) are selected from modern depositional environments;the Orinoco River Delta estuary, Cobequid bay-Salmon River estuary, and Danube River delta environment. In order to validate lithofacies models, average and variance of similarity in lithofacies are calculated through random and zonal blind-well tests.In random six-blind-well test, similarity average of MPS models is higher than that of SIS model. The Salmon MPS model closely resembles facies pattern of Wabiskaw Member in subsurface. Zonal blind-well tests show that successful lithofacies modeling for transitional depositional setting requires additional or proper zonation information on horizontal variation, vertical proportion, and secondary data.As Wabiskaw Member is frontier oilsands lease, it is impossible to evaluate the economics from production data or dynamic simulation. In this study, a dynamic steam assisted gravity drainage(SAGD)performance indicator(SPIDER) on the basis of reservoir characteristics is calculated to build 3 D reservoir model for the evaluation of the SAGD feasibility in Wabiskaw Member. SPIDER depends on reservoir properties, economic limit of steam-oil ratio, and bitumen price. Reservoir properties like porosity,permeability, and water saturation are measured from 13 cores and calculated from 201 well-logs. Three dimensional volumes of reservoir properties are constructed mostly based on relationships among properties. Finally, net present value(NPV) volume can be built by equation relating NPV and SPIDER. The economic area exceeding criterion of US$ 10,000 is identified, and the ranges of reservoir properties are estimated. NPV-volume-generation workflow from reservoir parameter to static model provides costand time-effective method to evaluate the oilsands SAGD project.

Economic Critical Resources for the Industrial Exploitation of Natural Gas Hydrate

Since the implementation of several pilot production tests were in natural gas hydrate(NGH) reservoirs in terrestrial and marine settings, the study of NGH has entered a new stage of technological development for industrial exploitation. Prior to the industrial exploitation of any given NGH reservoir, the economic feasibility should be examined. The first step of economic evaluation of a NGH reservoir is to know whether its resource amount meets the requirement for industrial exploitation. Unfortunately, few relevant studies have been conducted in this regard. In this study, the net present value(NPV) method is employed to estimate the economic critical resources required for the industrial exploitation of NGHs under different production scenarios. Sensitivity analysis is also performed in order to specify the effects of key factors, such as the number of production wells, gas price, technological improvement and tax incentive, on the economic critical resources. The results indicate that China requires the lowest economic critical resource for a NGH reservoir to be industrially exploited, ranging from 3.62 to 24.02 billion m3 methane. Changes in gas price and tax incentives also play significant roles in affecting the threshold and timeline for the industrial exploitation of NGH.

Risk Analysis of the Economic Benefits of Ochroma pyramidale:A Case Study of Forest Planting in Brazil

The forest investment projects,analyzed through the application of simulation techniques,allow measuring more accurately the benefits or losses,considering the systemic uncertainties related to forest plantation.In this perspective,the objective of this study was to identify the relative importance of sources of uncertainties in determining the net present value(NPV)of planting of Ochroma pyramidale on a forested property located in the state of S?o Paulo,Brazil.Thus,it assigns probability distributions to the parameters with uncertainties and applies the Monte Carlo technique to obtain the stochastic behavior of the NPV,of the modified internal rate of return(MIRR)and the profitability index(PI).The probabilistic results of the quantitative methods analyzed allowed us to conclude that for the planting O.pyramidale,with 5-year cutting age,indicated economic profitability.In addition,there is a probability that 84.6%of the project will add economic value to the invested capital.

Continuous-Time Models for Firm Valuation and Their Collateral Effect on Risk-Neutral Probabilities and No-Arbitraging Principle

Extensions of Merton’s model(EMM)considering the firm’s payments and generating new types of firm value distribution are suggested.In the open log-value/time space,these distributions evolve from initially normal to negatively skewed ones,and their means are concave-down functions of time.When payments are set to zero or proportional to the firm value,EMM turns into the Geometric Brownian model(GBM).We show that risk-neutral probabilities(RNPs)and the no-arbitraging principle(NAP)follow from GBM.When firm’s payments are considered,RNPs and NAP hold for the entire market for short times only,but for long-term investments,RNPs and NAP just temporarily hold for individual stocks as far as mean year returns of the firms issuing those stocks remain constant,and fail when the mean year returns decline.The developed method is applied to firm valuation to derive continuous-time equations for the firm present value and project NPV.

Combined stochastic and discrete simulation to optimise the economics of mixed single-horizontal and multilateral well offshore oil developments

Multilateral wells promise cost savings to oil and fields as they have the potential to reduce overall drilling distances and minimize the number of slots required for the surface facility managing the well.However,drilling a multilateral well does not always increase the flow rate when compared to two single-horizontal wells due to competition in production inside the mother-bore.Here,a holistic approach is proposed to find the optimum balance between single and multilateral wells in an offshore oil development.In so doing,the integrated approach finds the highest Net Present Value(NPV)configuration of the field considering drilling,subsurface,production and financial analysis.The model employs stochastic perturbation and Markov Chain Monte-Carlo methods to solve the global maximising-NPV problem.In addition,a combination of Mixed-Integer Linear Programming(MILP),an improved Dijkstra algorithm and a Levenberg-Marquardt optimiser is proposed to solve the rate allocation problem.With the outcome from this analysis,the model suggests the optimum development including number of multilateral and single horizontal wells that would result in the highest NPV.The results demonstrate the potential for modelling to find the optimal use of petroleum facilities and to assist with planning and decision making.

On the Economic Benefits of Cut Roses Planting in Sanya

The study aims to promote the off-season cut roses industry in Hainan Province to the whole island and even whole China. Based on the production data in latest three years,the theory of time value was introduced to analyze the economic benefits of cut roses planting in South Hainan. According to the research findings,the cut roses create a NPV of $22 000 /667m2 with a net NPV rate of 34. 24%,an internal rate of return of 76. 36%,and a dynamic payback of 1. 05,bringing the farmers a revenue of $7 200 /667m2 per capita per year. Since the largescale planting of cut roses needs a high investment,it is suggested that the government should increase its support for the cut rose industry.

Profitability of RE-Technology Regarding the Economic Environment:A Case Study of Swiss SMEs

Considering the important changes in the Swiss energy sector, especially in renewable energy(RE)technologies, new revenue possibilities for small and medium sized enterprises(SMEs) emerge. However, the adaption of RE-technologies for Swiss enterprises relies on tangible financial returns, based on complex calculations. This article analyses business opportunities(BOs) of eight Swiss SMEs considering the net present value of RE-investments in an uncertain economic environment. We identify two profitable BOs for Swiss SMEs and three which are not profitable. Further, the article demonstrates that the profitability of such investments remains mostly positive even under economic uncertainties. Surprisingly the profitability does not change significantly if the SME receives a subsidy or not. The support instrument of the Swiss Government has not a ponderous impact on the decision to invest in RE-technologies or not. Therefore, the article emphasizes the importance of including SME in the Swiss attempt to decentralize the energy market.

Estimating the opportunity costs of avoiding oil palm-based deforestation in Indonesia:Implications for REDD

Reducing emissions due to deforestation is considered a low-cost option for mitigating climate change.However,the recent literature suggests higher opportunity costs because of specific deforestation drivers,which render reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation(REDD+)for mitigating climate change an uncertain,less attractive,and controversial option.Indonesia is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters.Since 1989,53.80%of its oil palm expansion has come from forestlands,which has generated a significant amount of carbon emissions.This study uses official data and results from the relevant literature to estimate the costs of oil palm-based deforestation under various scenario assumptions,including different output prices,yields,time horizons,and discount rates.We also calculate the additional cost to preserve a 1-ha forest.We demonstrate that the average opportunity cost from avoiding oil palm-based deforestation is 24.42 USD/tCO_(2)eq in Indonesia,approximately 1.3 times the 2011 EUA carbon price.Additional sums of around 5,466.90–11,042.96 USD/ha should be provided to landowners for the deforestation avoidance caused by oil palm expansion.Special attention should be given to the extensive oil palm expansion in Indonesia and the resulting high opportunity costs for achieving the REDD+​target.

Performance Analysis of an Energy System in the Tropical Rainforest: A Thermo-Economic Approach

This paper presents the thermos-economic evaluation of a simple gas turbine (SGT) within the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Steady-state monitoring and direct collection of data from the 25 MW plant were performed including logged data for a 12 months period. MATLAB software was used to model the various thermodynamic performance equations of the plants while net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and Payback period (PBP) were used to model the economic concept of the plant performance. The thermodynamic analysis shows that for every 1℃ rise in the ambient temperature, the percentage power drop increases by 2.07%, thermal efficiency drops by 0.66%, and the specific fuel consumption increases by 0.93%. For every 1% drop in the power output, the percentage thermal efficiency drops by 0.79% for the given consideration. The economic analysis based on the performance reveals that the power shortages represent about 47.9% of the net power generated and the revenue worth of $4198741.60 is lost due to the inability of the plant to perform at its design point. The NPV value of $6434899.97 shows that the plant investment is viable for the period of twenty years of operation and the IRR on investment is determined to be 12.40% by a numerical approximation for the period, with a PBP of 8.5 years. This provides technical and economic details to plant operators and energy systems investors for decision making.