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This study aims to examine the symmetric and asymmetric impact of external debt on inflation in Sudan from 1970 to 2020 within a multivariate framework by including money supply and the nominal effective exchange rate as additional inflation determinants.

The authors utilize an Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to examine the symmetric impact of external debt on inflation, while the asymmetric impact is examined using a Nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) model. The existence of a long-run relationship between inflation and external debt is tested using the bounds-testing approach to cointegration, and a vector error-correction model is estimated to determine the short parameters of equilibrium dynamics.

The linear ARDL model results show that external debt has no statistically significant impact on inflation in the long run. On the contrary, the results of the NARDL model show that positive and negative external debt shocks statistically affect inflation in the long run. The estimated long-run elasticity coefficients of the linear and nonlinear ARDL models reveal that the domestic money supply has a statistically significant positive impact on inflation. In contrast, the nominal effective exchange rate has a statistically significant negative impact on inflation.

The reliance on symmetric analysis may not be sufficient to uncover the existence of a linkage between external debt and inflation. Proper external debt management is crucial to control inflation rates in Sudan.

To date, no empirical study has assessed the external debt-inflation nexus and its potential asymmetry in Sudan, and the current study aims to fill this gap in the literature.

The purpose of the article is to assess the effectiveness, compliance, adoption and lessons learnt from the pilot implementation of a data integration solution between an acute care hospital information system (HIS) and a long-term care (LTC) home electronic medical record through a case report.

Utilization statistics of the data integration solution were captured at one-month post implementation and again one year later for both the emergency department (ED) and LTC home. Clinician feedback from surveys and structured interviews was obtained from ED physicians and a multidisciplinary LTC group.

The authors successfully exchanged health information between a HIS and the electronic medical record (EMR) of an LTC facility in Canada. Perceived time savings were acknowledged by ED physicians, and actual time savings as high as 45 min were reported by LTC staff when completing medication reconciliation. Barriers to adoption included awareness, training efficacy and delivery models, workflow integration within existing practice and the limited number of facilities participating in the pilot. Future direction includes broader staff involvement, expanding the number of sites and re-evaluating impacts.

A data integration solution to exchange clinical information can make patient transfers more efficient, reduce data transcription errors, and improve the visibility of essential patient information across the continuum of care.

Although there has been a large effort to integrate health data across care levels in the United States and internationally, the groundwork for such integrations between interoperable systems has only just begun in Canada. The implementation of the integration between an enterprise LTC electronic medical record system and an HIS described herein is the first of its kind in Canada. Benefits and lessons learnt from this pilot will be useful for further hospital-to-LTC home interoperability work.

This research provides some evidence by the vine copula approach, suggesting the significant and symmetric causal relation between subsections of Baltic Exchange and hence concluding that investing in different indexes, which is currently a risk diversification system, is not a correct risk reduction strategy.

The daily observations of Baltic Capesize Index (BCI), Baltic Handysize Index (BHSI), Baltic Dirty Tanker Index (BDTI) and Baltic LNG Tanker Index (BLNG) over an eight-year period have been used. After collecting data, calculating the return and estimating the marginal distribution of return rates for each of the indexes applying asymmetric power generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity and autoregressive moving average (APGARCH-ARMA), and with the assumption of skew student's t-distribution, the dependence of Baltic indexes was modeled based on Vine-R structures.

A positive and symmetrical correlation was observed between the study groups. High and low tail dependence is observed between all four indexes. In other words, the sector business groups associated with each of these indexes react similarly to the extreme events of other groups. The BHSI has a pivotal role in examining the dependency structure of Baltic Exchange indexes. That is, in addition to the direct dependence of Baltic groups, the dependence of each group on the BHSI can transmit accidents and shocks to other groups.

Since the Baltic Exchange indexes are tradable, these findings have implications for portfolio design and hedging strategies for investors in shipping markets.

Vine copula structures proves the causal relationship between different Baltic Exchange indexes, which are derived from different types of markets.

Purpose – This study aims to obtain the best lipid content in locally isolated microalga that grows in palm oil mill effluent (POME).

Design/Methodology/Approach – Microalgae were cultured in POME with 25% dilution (LP₂₅), 50% (LP₅₀), and no dilution (LP) in 1,500 ml glass vessel at room temperature using a lighting intensity of 13,000 lux and continuous aeration for 24 hours and 12 hours, respectively. The biomass (in dry weight) of microalgae was analyzed daily by means of spectrophotometry using 624 nm wavelength to determine their growth.

Findings – The results showed that the acclimatized growth of microalgae in POME media adapted faster to the POME concentration. Acclimatized biomass content tends to increase to 1.014 g/L, while the content of non-acclimatized biomass reached only 0.752 g/L. Lipid content resulting from the direct extraction process using the modified Bligh and Dyer method provided the best yield of 47% in the microalgae grown in the LP₅₀ POME medium.

Research Limitations/Implications – Lipid was produced from locally isolated microalgae cultured in POME medium with 25% dilution (LP₂₅), 50% (LP₅₀), and no dilution (LP).

Practical Implications – The lipid produced had the potential for biodiesel energy.

Originality/Value – In this study, microalga was used not only to treat POME liquid wastes but also to produce lipids as biodiesel energy potentials.

This paper aims to investigate the determinants of international bilateral tourism demand in countries of Southern Common Market (specifically, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay) and Chile.

In this study, an augmented gravity model is used to investigate the determinants of international bilateral tourism demand in countries of Southern Common Market. The novel aspect of the analysis is that three models of tourism are defined, depending on the spatial distribution of tourist arrivals and departures. An intra-regional model, an extra-regional model and a general model are estimated using a dynamic panel data model.

The results indicate that traditional gravity variables are significant in explaining bilateral inbound arrivals, but the characteristics and the behavior of the demand of tourism vary on whether the country belongs to the sub-regional bloc.

The differences found in this paper might have some impacts on the desired design and direction of the touristic policies of each country.

This study analyzes the determinants of international tourism demand through different bilateral relationships, differentiating between intra- and extra-block tourisms.

Petroleum hydrocarbons are naturally occurring flammable fossil fuels used as conventional energy sources. It has carcinogenic, mutagenic properties and is considered a hazardous pollutant. Soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons adversely affects the properties of soil. This paper aim to remove pollutants from the environment is an urgent need of the hour to maintain the proper functioning of soil ecosystems.

The ability of micro-organisms to degrade petroleum hydrocarbons makes it possible to use these microorganisms to clean the environment from petroleum pollution. For preparing this review, research papers and review articles related to petroleum hydrocarbons degradation by micro-organisms were collected from journals and various search engines.

Various physical and chemical methods are used for remediation of petroleum hydrocarbons contaminants. However, these methods have several disadvantages. This paper will discuss a novel understanding of petroleum hydrocarbons degradation and how micro-organisms help in petroleum-contaminated soil restoration. Bioremediation is recognized as the most environment-friendly technique for remediation. The research studies demonstrated that bacterial consortium have high biodegradation rate of petroleum hydrocarbons ranging from 83% to 89%.

Proper management of petroleum hydrocarbons pollutants from the environment is necessary because of their toxicity effects on human and environmental health.

This paper discussed novel mechanisms adopted by bacteria for biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons, aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation pathways, genes and enzymes involved in petroleum hydrocarbons biodegradation.

In the domain of healthcare, both process efficiency and the quality of care can be improved through the use of dedicated pervasive technologies. Among these applications are so-called real-time location systems (RTLS). Such systems are designed to determine and monitor the location of assets and people in real time through the use of wireless sensor networks. Numerous commercially available RTLS are used in hospital settings. The nursing home is a relatively unexplored context for the application of RTLS and offers opportunities and challenges for future applications. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper sets out to provide an overview of general applications and technologies of RTLS. Thereafter, it describes the specific healthcare applications of RTLS, including asset tracking, patient tracking and personnel tracking. These overviews are followed by a forecast of the implementation of RTLS in nursing homes in terms of opportunities and challenges.

By comparing the nursing home to the hospital, the RTLS applications for the nursing home context that are most promising are asset tracking of expensive goods owned by the nursing home in order to facilitate workflow and maximise financial resources, and asset tracking of personal belongings that may get lost due to dementia.

This paper is the first to provide an overview of potential application of RTLS technologies for nursing homes. The paper described a number of potential problem areas that can be addressed by RTLS.

Older patients are at high risk of hospital readmission, which has led to an increasing number of screening and intervention programs. Knowledge on implementing screening tools for preventing readmissions in emergency department (ED), where the primary focus is often the present-day flow of patients, is scant. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether a new screening tool for predicting readmissions and functional decline in medical patients>65 years of age could be implemented and its influence on cross-continuum collaborations between the primary and secondary sectors.

The study took place in an ED in Denmark, in collaboration with the surrounding municipalities. An evaluation workshop with nurses and leaders from the ED and the surrounding municipalities took place with the aim of investigating the organizational changes that occurred in daily practice after the implementation of the screening tool. The workshop was designed and analyzed using cultural historical activity theory (CHAT).

The results showed that it was possible to develop collaboration between the two sectors during the test period. However, the screening tool created different transformations for the municipality employees and in the ED. The contradictions indicated that the screening tool did not mediate a general and sustained transformation in the cross-continuum collaboration.

Screening tools are not objective, neutral or “acontexual” artifacts and must always be adapted to the local context and sectors. CHAT offers a perspective to understand the collective object when working with organizational transformations and implementation.

The study have shown that screening tools are not objective, neutral or “acontexual” artifacts and must always be adapted to the local context. This is called adaption process. This adaption requires time and resources that should be taken into consideration from the beginning of introduction of new screens.

This paper contributes with knowledge about CHAT which offers a way to understand the leading collective object when working with organizational transformations and implementation. CHAT focuses not only on the structural changes but also on the cultural aspects of organizational changes, which is important if we want to reach a sustained change and implement the new screening tool in different sectors.