The waste paper Management in Educational Institute and Improvement in Quality of Hand Made Papers

This manuscript investigates the waste paper management (WPM) of an educational Institute and aware the people about the importance of waste paper management and recycling of waste papers by multidimensional approach. The research assessed two multi long term plans, considering all recycling settings feasible for educational scenario. To complete that purpose, support for the collection of waste papers, final disposal and environmental and financial impact assessment concerning transportation is required. Results suggest that the quality of handmade papers is improved by doping some external materials in cellulose of waste papers. In this manuscript, flour of wheat is mixed in waste paper cellulose. The analysis of handmade paper is done by a photometric test. It is found that at some percentages of doping of flour in waste paper pulp, the reflection properties of the paper is increased and surface of paper become smooth and hard. At some other percentages of doping, the papers are shown absorption properties.

Covid-19 Pandemic: Financial Impact and Intention to Stay in Current Business of Sabah Tamu Operators

In Sabah, Malaysia, a traditional market known as Tamu (means meeting) acts as a hub for local business activity, especially indigenous people. This paper presents an exploratory study whose goal is to investigate the Covid-19 pandemic financial impact and intention to stay in the current business of Tamu operators. Using purposive and snowballing sampling, survey data were collected from 125 Tamu business operators in Sabah. Among the respondents, 61.6 percent indicated Tamu business as their primary income and main entrepreneurial platform. The Covid-19 pandemic Movement Control Order (MCO) enforcement resulted in the Tamu entrepreneurs experiencing 34.2 percent decrease in weekly sales revenue and a 25.7 percent reduction in weekly gross profit. Furthermore, the overall mean score for the Tamu operators' intention to remain in the Tamu business is high at 4.37 based on 5-point likert scale. Thus, the Sabah Tamu operators are more likely to sustain their Tamu business despite the adverse financial impact of the Covid-19 MCO enforcement. This study outcome may guide the relevant government agencies to mitigate the financial impact by formulating and implementing appropriate policies and support programs specifically targeted for the Tamu business operators, who are mostly informal entrepreneurs.

THE LEGITIMACY OF PREPARING A FINANCIAL IMPACT FORECAST OF ADOPTING LOCAL SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN IN POLAND

Since 2003 in Poland, it has been obligatory to prepare forecasts of the financial impact of adopting local spatial development plans. Whether or not the forecasts are put to actual use and what their content and presentation form should feature, in addition to what role should the forecast play and who should be able to make use of it? This study presents the results of a series of interviews and a survey performed among a group of municipal officials. Legal documents and the literature were analysed as well. Studies have shown that financial impact forecasts are used by municipal governments only to a limited degree. Many have expressed doubts as to the feasibility of preparing and using these forecasts. Specifically, most municipal governments do not make use of these forecasts and they are prepared only because it is their legal obligation to include them as a document added to the local spatial development plan. Due to the significance of the impact of the financial implications of adopting a local spatial development plan on a municipality's budget, it is necessary to change the approach to preparing and presenting financial forecasts.

The Fiscal Burden of Wildfires: State Expenditures and Funding Mechanisms for Wildfire Suppression in the Western U.S. and Implications for Federal Policy

The number and size of wildfires in the western United States have increased dramatically in the last 30 years. The rising cost of wildfire suppression has become a significant concern for all levels of government, although most attention has been focused on the federal level. Much less is known about the financial impact of expenditures on states, which retain responsibility for suppression on over 480 million acres of state and private forests. This study collected data on state expenditures for wildfire suppression in the western United States from 2005 to 2015 to examine fiscal burdens and compare funding mechanisms used to cover those costs. Our analysis finds that western states expended $11.9 billion on wildfire suppression over the 11-year period and used own-source funds to cover 88 percent of these costs. States displayed a variety of mechanisms for covering their cost obligations with tradeoffs that may affect non-wildfire policy priorities.

Hybrid posttensioned rocking (HPR) frame buildings: Low-damage vs low-loss paradox

The 2010-11 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence inflicted seismic losses worth more than $40B, which is about 25% of the GDP of New Zealand (as per 2011 data). More than 80% of these losses were insured, which comprised of more than $10B covered by the Earthquake Commission (a New Zealand crown entity providing insurance to residential property owners) and more than $22B (comprising of roughly equal split between domestic and commercial claims) by private insurers [1]. The scale of financial impact has been perceived to be disproportionately large given the building regulatory regime in New Zealand is relatively stringent and the earthquakes and aftershocks were of moderate magnitude. As it is well known that some of the major faults spread in the Wellington region and the subduction boundary passing through the centre of New Zealand can generate much bigger earthquakes (upwards of magnitude 8), people are left pondering whether New Zealand is able to cope with the financial impact of larger earthquakes. This fearful realisation gradually led to people being dissatisfied with merely life-safe buildings and demanding more resilient buildings that meet the objectives of performance based design; i.e. suffer less damage, incur less loss, and can remain functional after earthquakes. In light of the extensive building damage resulting in high financial loss in recent earthquakes, practicing engineers and researchers in New Zealand have been advocating for revising the current design approach to improve performance of new structures and infrastructure in future earthquakes [2-5]. As a result, large proportion of buildings constructed in the last decade (including those built to replace earthquake-damaged buildings) have shied away from the traditional damage-friendly ductile structural systems and instead adopted one of the new and emerging structural systems claimed to be “low-damage”. In many cases, the adopted structural systems are not covered by existing design standards and are approved as alternate solutions through expert peer review. The “low-damage” attribute of most structural systems has been validated by component (or sub-assembly) level experimental tests, but their interactions with other building components and implications of their use in buildings have not been rigorously scrutinised. Hence, the rushed adoption of some of these systems in buildings can surprise the engineering community in future earthquakes with mismatch between the expected and real performances of the buildings; akin to what New Zealand engineering fraternity is currently going through due to realisation of poor seismic performance of precast hollow-core flooring system that has been widely used in New Zealand buildings without rigorous scrutiny. One such “low-damage” structural system is precast post-tensioned rocking frames with supplemental energy dissipaters. This paper summarises the development of this structural system, critically reviews the literature reporting the seismic performance of this system, and qualitatively evaluates system-level implications of its use in buildings. This paper is intended to better inform engineers of the likely seismic performance of buildings with this structural system so that they can optimise its benefits by giving due consideration to its effect on other building components.

Pivoting Services: Resilience in the Face of Disruptions in Nonprofit Organizations Caused by COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global event that has sent shockwaves through every aspect of the economy. The nonprofit sector has been dealt a double hit—relying on donations in a time of economic hardship while being on the frontlines of the response to increased need. Previous studies have shown that COVID-19 has impacted nonprofits in numerous ways; however, the majority of studies have focused on the financial impact. Using a resilience framework, this study adds to the literature by analyzing how nonprofits have dealt with the loss of services, what it has looked like to pivot and adapt to this new environment, and what impact the loss of volunteers has had on organizations. In this qualitative study of 12 nonprofits in the Southeast United States, we find that while the organizations do talk about financial strain, equally as stressful has been the loss of face-to-face services. Nonprofits are used to being on the frontlines of most emergencies, and in this pandemic, many have struggled to keep their workers safe by following health guidelines while also serving their clients. The inability to meet with clients and the stress of pivoting to an online environment is as great or greater of a burden as the financial impact.

Chief Financial Officers and Corporate Sustainability: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

Societal and environmental risks dominated the top 10 risks in both likelihood and impact, according to the surveys conducted by the World Economic Forum. Against this background, there have been many cases demonstrating the disastrous financial impact of organisational failure to address societal and environmental risks. As a person whose responsibility is to assess financial risks of the organisation, there is increasing expectation for the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to lead sustainability strategy and initiatives. This research serves to review the literature which highlights the roles and characteristics of CFOs essential for corporate sustainability. Drawing upon this and related literature examining the influence of CFOs on other accounting practices, it proposes a framework illustrating the potential relationships between CFO characteristics and corporate sustainability.

Cash Holdings, Commercial Paper and Liquidity

Managing Liquidity has seldom been being as vital as it has during the Covid-19 era. The financial impact of Covid-19 has left many firms on the brink of liquidation. This paper explores the effect cash holdings has had on Profitability of the firm and how it compares with commercial paper between the pre-Covid-19 era and the Covid-19 era. This paper employs and compares the ordinary least square regression between these eras. I find that firms are less liquid during the Covid-19 period compared to the pre-covid period. More importantly, I find that Liquidity has been more critical to a firm's Profitability during Covid-19 era compared to pre-covid 19 periods. Furthermore, Cash holdings represent a significant chunk of Liquidity. However, these Cash holdings dropped by a little in the covid-19 era. Finally, I find that both commercial paper and cash holdings are used as complements. However, this result is weakly supported during the pre-covid period.