Thesis (Msc (Med)(Pharmacy)-- University of Limpopo, 2010. / The Limpopo Province Pharmaceutical Services has been experiencing many challenges with regard to expiry of medicines. In the 2007/8 financial year, the budget for medicine and related items was exhausted by October 2007. The Pharmaceutical Services Directorate had to then motivate for more funds and at the same time had to seek approval for the disposing of lists of expired stock. This prompted the Directorate to investigate the management of expired stock within the province: Discussions held at the various Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committees indicated that the following challenges are currently experienced within institutions in the province . Overspending on allocated budgets by facilities, . Increased amount of expired stock at facility levels, . Information systems not being reliable, . Lack of facility formularies, . Lack of implementation of standard treatment guidelines by facilities and . Lack of accountability by managers with regard to procurement of medicines. The aim of this study was to identify reasons for medicines expiry in order to prevent loss of expenditure through efficient and effective management of medicines within healthcare facilities. The objectives of the study were to: . Record the value of medicines expired over the study period in the health care facilities, . Determine the reasons for medicines to expire, . Determine the financial loss due to the medicine expired, . Determine if there is a need to train health care workers on the efficient and effective management of medicines, . Identify other ways of preventing medicine expiry. A retrospective, quantitative descriptive study was conducted during the period July 2007 till June 2008. Previous records of evaluations and statistics on expired medicines of the Limpopo Province were analysed. The stock management principles were analysed to investigate the main reasons for stock expiry within the supply chain. The budget over the study period was calculated and compared to the total value of issues to various facilities. The loss of expenditure through expired stock was therefore recorded to determine the percentage loss of expenditure. The average percentage of expired stock per month was used and compared with the allowed average percentage of expired stock in the province which is 0.05% (Annexure C) . The total value of expired stock within the study period was R1 009 998.79, i.e. an average of 0.07 % per month. . The reasons for expired medicine within the province were: o Poor drug selection within facilities, o Poor procurement practices, o Lack of internal control measures, o Frequent stock shortages from manufactures hence bulk stocking by managers, o Lack of training in drug supply management, o Lack or inadequate supervision and monitoring of drug management systems, o Centralised budget and lack of accountability for overspending by managers. . The total value of overspending by facilities is at R149 962 821.53 on an annual basis. . The possible ways of preventing medicine expiry include: o Improving inventory management, o Entrenching good procurement practices within facilities, o Instilling accountability for funds on officials responsible for procurement of medicines, o Supervision and monitoring of drug supply management. o Strengthening the enforcement and monitoring roles of the Pharmaceutical Depot Manager - Regulatory Affairs and Quality. To conclude, expiry of medicines is a challenge within the Limpopo Province and the overall stock management principles need to be improved. The following aspect should be taken into consideration. . Effective management will make a vital difference in all aspects of drug supply. It is especially true with respect to procurement and distribution of essential drugs. . Wise drug selection underlines all other improvements in the supply chain management. The establishment institutional formulary is perhaps the most cost effective action that any health care system or health care provider can take to promote regular supply and rational use of medicines . The strengthening of the therapeutic drug committees. Such committees must monitor progress within the province with regard to drug supply management. . The responsibility of procuring should be given to those who are trained. The responsible person should adhere to the policies and procedures from the Department of Health for procurement. . There should be a system in place that is aimed at ensuring that there is accountability of pharmacy managers at various facilities. This will bring about responsibility and better medicine supply management skills within the pharmaceutical directorate. . The province should be able to cope up with a system which can be able to capture reliable information and maintains quality information. The system should be linked to a provincial office which will be able to monitor on a continuous basis the information from different facilities. The systems would be able to provide early warning signs such as possible expiry of medicines, overstocking, and unnecessary overspending of the budget, irrational drug usage, at any facility and be able to correct discrepancies on time.

This thesis investigates implied volatility in general classes of stock price models. To begin with, we take a very general view. We find that implied volatility is always, everywhere, and for every expiry well-defined only if the stock price is a non-negative martingale. We also derive sufficient and close to necessary conditions for an implied volatility surface to be free from static arbitrage. In this context, free from static arbitrage means that the call price surface generated by the implied volatility surface is free from static arbitrage. We also investigate the small time to expiry behaviour of implied volatility. We do this in almost complete generality, assuming only that the call price surface is non-decreasing and right continuous in time to expiry and that the call surface satisfies the no-arbitrage bounds (S-K)+≤ C(K, τ)≤ S. We used S to denote the current stock price, K to be a option strike price, τ denotes time to expiry, and C(K, τ) the price of the K strike option expiring in τ time units. Under these weak assumptions, we obtain exact asymptotic formulae relating the call price surface and the implied volatility surface close to expiry. We apply our general asymptotic formulae to determining the small time to expiry behaviour of implied volatility in a variety of models. We consider exponential L??vy models, obtaining new and somewhat surprising results. We then investigate the behaviour close to expiry of stochastic volatility models in the at-the-money case. Our results generalise what is already known and by a novel method of proof. In the not at-the-money case, we consider local volatility models using classical results of Varadhan. In obtaining the asymptotics for local volatility models, we use a representation of the European call as an integral over time to expiry. We devote an entire chapter to representations of the European call option; a key role is played by local time and the argument of Klebaner. A novel alternative that is especially useful in the local volatility case is also presented.

This thesis investigates implied volatility in general classes of stock price models. To begin with, we take a very general view. We find that implied volatility is always, everywhere, and for every expiry well-defined only if the stock price is a non-negative martingale. We also derive sufficient and close to necessary conditions for an implied volatility surface to be free from static arbitrage. In this context, free from static arbitrage means that the call price surface generated by the implied volatility surface is free from static arbitrage. We also investigate the small time to expiry behaviour of implied volatility. We do this in almost complete generality, assuming only that the call price surface is non-decreasing and right continuous in time to expiry and that the call surface satisfies the no-arbitrage bounds (S-K)+≤ C(K, τ)≤ S. We used S to denote the current stock price, K to be a option strike price, τ denotes time to expiry, and C(K, τ) the price of the K strike option expiring in τ time units. Under these weak assumptions, we obtain exact asymptotic formulae relating the call price surface and the implied volatility surface close to expiry. We apply our general asymptotic formulae to determining the small time to expiry behaviour of implied volatility in a variety of models. We consider exponential L??vy models, obtaining new and somewhat surprising results. We then investigate the behaviour close to expiry of stochastic volatility models in the at-the-money case. Our results generalise what is already known and by a novel method of proof. In the not at-the-money case, we consider local volatility models using classical results of Varadhan. In obtaining the asymptotics for local volatility models, we use a representation of the European call as an integral over time to expiry. We devote an entire chapter to representations of the European call option; a key role is played by local time and the argument of Klebaner. A novel alternative that is especially useful in the local volatility case is also presented.

Motivated by the Guaranteed Minimum Death Benefits (GMDB) in variable annuities, we are interested in valuing equity-linked options whose expiry date is the time of the death of the policyholder. Because the time-until-death distribution can be approximated by linear combinations of exponential distributions or mixtures of Erlang distributions, the analysis can be reduced to the case where the time-until-death distribution is exponential or Erlang. We present two probability methods to price American options with an exponential expiry date. Both methods give the same results. An American option with Erlang expiry date can be seen as an extension of the exponential expiry date case. We calculate its price as the sum of the price of the corresponding European option and the early exercise premium. Because the optimal exercise boundary takes the form of a staircase, the pricing formula is a triple sum. We determine the optimal exercise boundary recursively by imposing the “smooth pasting” condition. The examples of the put option, the exchange option, and the maximum option are provided to illustrate how the methods work. Another issue related to variable annuities is the surrender behavior of the policyholders. To model this behavior, we suggest using barrier options. We generalize the reflection principle and use it to derive explicit formulas for outside barrier options, double barrier options with constant barriers, and double barrier options with time varying exponential barriers. Finally, we provide a method to approximate the distribution of the time-until-death random variable by combinations of exponential distributions or mixtures of Erlang distributions. Compared to directly fitting the distributions, my method has two advantages: 1) It is more robust to the initial guess. 2) It is more likely to obtain the global minimizer.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out the reasons and perhaps some answers to the problem as we see it, the sickness benefit expiration of those who experience this. By this said we have also taken into account the different laws and adjustments in the long-term sickness benefit, but also major reformation of the security net in the Swedish society. The efficiency of the law on passive long-term sickness absence was added in July 2008, but was later in January 2010 supplemented. The purpose of this law wasn’t only to reduce the long-term sickness absence but also to reduce exclusion. These changes had also been highlighted by the media that people were actually being excluded from the society. It creates marginalization. The aim of this study is to highlight individuals' feelings about the whole performing hedge process. The survey was conducted through semi-structured interviews where we wanted a deeper knowledge of the interviewee’s experiences. In order to give the interviewee the opportunity and possibility to form their own mind and own reflections and express their own thoughts, the questions were open for answers. This allowed us to ask supplementary questions. After collecting the empirical data we did a breakdown in the following three themes: the experiences of the sickness absence, the experiences by the response of the concerned authorities. The theories chosen in this study are stigma, social exclusion, sense of coherence (SOC) and sick role. The economic exclusion creates social exclusion where as the sense of shame among the interviewee’s increase. By this said, the interviewee’s are not able to participate actively in the social activities to the same extent, but also they cannot provide for themselves. This can obviously lead to increased risk for mental illness. In our analysis we aim to discuss our issues based on the experiences for the interviewees’.

In the present article, the autor seeks to explain us the juridical nature of mining concession, thus by explaining the concessional technique and the juridical effects that come along with it. For this purpose, a doctrinaire and legal analysis of mining concession and the legal institution is done. / En el presente artículo el autor busca explicar la naturaleza jurídica de la concesión minera, a través de la explicación de la técnica concesional y los efectos jurídicos que derivan de esta. Para ello, se hace un repaso doctrinario y normativo de la concesión minera y las instituciones jurídicas relacionadas.

This Master's thesis main theme is the liability for administrative delicts and mainly the expiry of the liability for administrative delicts. With the commencement of an act number 250/2016, about the liability for administrative delicts and the proceedings about them, there raised a question about how far this act is complex and unitary. The goal of this thesis is evaluation of the new act and comparison with the old act mainly in the field of the expiry of the liability for administrative delicts. In the second chapter the thesis deals with the development and history of the liability for administrative delicts and with the acceptance of new act. The chapter ends with the sources of the law of administrative delicts. The third chapter is devoted to foundations of the liability for administrative delicts. Reader can find there the basis of the liability of natural persons, legal persons and natural persons who are entrepreneurs and basis about circumstances that exclude the liability. This chapter is the foundation for chapter four which is devoted to the main theme of the thesis - expiry of the liability for administrative delicts. The fourth chapter deals with the reasons for expiry of the liability for administrative delicts. The author introduce and analyze particular problems chained with...

Title: Perishable Inventory Management Solutions and Challenges of Kosovo FFRs. Avoiding Product Expiration at Retails ShelvesPurpose: In this thesis perishable inventory management solutions and challenges at Kosovo FFRs have been studied and identified. Hence, after identifying PIM solutions and challenges the research suggests ideas that will contribute to avoid the expiration of perishable products if selling them takes more time than their actual shelf life. This contributes to minimizing food waste in food supply chains and fresh food retailers. Methodology: Thesis consist of qualitative methods where multiple case studies in cooperation with Kosovo FFRs have been performed. Data collection methods included semi structured interviews, site visits and some financial data accessed from annual and government reports. Theory: Theoretical chapter has been developed from preexisting theory on perishable inventory management. Five phases of fresh food retailing inventory management have been developed and used as the basis for practical research. Moreover, part two of the theoretical chapter talks about the perishable inventory management challenges and is the basis for the second research question. Findings: The findings have shown that Kosovo FFRs use a mixture of PIM solutions with a focus on shelf life and replenishment solutions. The study also revealed that Kosovo FFRs are outdated regarding to product identification and software solutions, however, manage to perform somehow satisfactorily. Consequently, because of the lack of contemporary identification technologies Kosovo FFRs PIM challenges where found to be related to data accuracy and real time data access.