title: Impact Investing: Can impact be achieved in public markets?

authors: Pearson, Stuart

subjects: Additionality

abstract: Risk-adjusted returns are no longer the sole metric investors consider. A growing number of investors are now wanting to know that their capital is having a positive impact for society and the planet, as well as risk-adjusted returns. The existing options tend to focus on being ‘less bad’ and have mixed efficacy in delivering comparable risk-adjusted returns. In addition, they are unlikely to create any additional positive impact than otherwise would have been achieved without the investor’s capital, so why invest in them at all? This research examines an emerging investment strategy that has the potential to deliver additional positive impact as well as excess financial returns by repurposing a mechanism stigmatized by corporate raiders and private equity firms historically, that mechanism being shareholder activism. Our dataset of companies, who have been targets of such a strategy, exhibit materially positive excess stock returns over the shorter-term event window. Results suggest that this strategy is more effective when the target companies are smaller or when the investor acquires a larger shareholding. Importantly, the target companies across all subsamples experience a material uplift in environmental, social, and governance scores in the year after the activism event, suggesting success in creating additionality of impact.

text: Impact Investing: Can impact be achieved in public markets? Risk-adjusted returns are no longer the sole metric investors consider. A growing number of investors are now wanting to know that their capital is having a positive impact for society and the planet, as well as risk-adjusted returns. The existing options tend to focus on being ‘less bad’ and have mixed efficacy in delivering comparable risk-adjusted returns. In addition, they are unlikely to create any additional positive impact than otherwise would have been achieved without the investor’s capital, so why invest in them at all? This research examines an emerging investment strategy that has the potential to deliver additional positive impact as well as excess financial returns by repurposing a mechanism stigmatized by corporate raiders and private equity firms historically, that mechanism being shareholder activism. Our dataset of companies, who have been targets of such a strategy, exhibit materially positive excess stock returns over the shorter-term event window. Results suggest that this strategy is more effective when the target companies are smaller or when the investor acquires a larger shareholding. Importantly, the target companies across all subsamples experience a material uplift in environmental, social, and governance scores in the year after the activism event, suggesting success in creating additionality of impact.

year: 2023

title: Drug delivery by electroporation: Review

authors: Talele, Sadhana

subjects: Cancerous tissues

abstract: Drug delivery is the method or process of administering a pharmaceutical compound to achieve a therapeutic effect in humans or animals. Most common routes of administration include the preferred non-invasive peroral (through the mouth), topical (skin), transmucosal (nasal, buccal/sublingual, vaginal, ocular and rectal) and inhalation routes. Current effort in the area of drug delivery include the development of targeted delivery in which the drug is only active in the target area of the body (for example, in cancerous tissues) and sustained release formulations in which the drug is released over a period of time in a controlled manner from a formulation. This is achieved by combining electroporation with the input of drugs at a location. This paper reviews the process of electroporation and then further discusses the electrochemotherapy, one of the most upcoming application of electroporation in biotechnology.

text: Drug delivery by electroporation: Review Drug delivery is the method or process of administering a pharmaceutical compound to achieve a therapeutic effect in humans or animals. Most common routes of administration include the preferred non-invasive peroral (through the mouth), topical (skin), transmucosal (nasal, buccal/sublingual, vaginal, ocular and rectal) and inhalation routes. Current effort in the area of drug delivery include the development of targeted delivery in which the drug is only active in the target area of the body (for example, in cancerous tissues) and sustained release formulations in which the drug is released over a period of time in a controlled manner from a formulation. This is achieved by combining electroporation with the input of drugs at a location. This paper reviews the process of electroporation and then further discusses the electrochemotherapy, one of the most upcoming application of electroporation in biotechnology.

year: 2013

title: Indigenous knowledges in health policy in Aotearoa New Zealand and Saskatchewan Canada: A comparative study

authors: Green, Jane Alison

subjects: Indigenous

abstract: For more than two decades, components of Māori knowledges in the form of Māori words and concepts have been part of health policy in Aotearoa New Zealand. Health policy that engages Māori words and concepts resonates with Māori community values and aspirations and is thought to contribute to the revitalisation of Māori knowledges. Absent from the literature is an examination of this phenomenon; specifically, the socio-political factors that facilitate and limit the engagement of Māori knowledges with health policy. Of the four settler states, only in Aotearoa New Zealand are the knowledges of the Indigenous peoples engaged with health policy. In Saskatchewan, Canada, the First Nations and Métis peoples have engaged their knowledges with federal and provincially funded health programmes and services but not health policy. This study adopts a two-country comparative policy framework to investigate and theorise the historical and contemporary socio-political factors associated with the engagement of Indigenous knowledges in health policy in Aotearoa New Zealand and Saskatchewan, Canada. An adaption is made to the Kaupapa Māori approach so that the complexities of a two-country case study approach are addressed and engagement in health policy as a strategy for knowledge revitalisation is theorised. The study also takes a path less travelled which is to investigate the impact that engagement with health policy has upon the intangible or the ontological aspects of Māori knowledges. Māori describe their knowledges as comprised of tangible and intangible elements, both of which are important. Another adaption is made to the Kaupapa Māori theoretical approach which is to add speculative inquiry. The study argues that speculative inquiry in the form of contemplative, analytical, relational and viscerally aware practices are commonplace in Māori communities. Adding speculative inquiry to an already rich theoretical body that is Kaupapa Māori research provides an opening for other Kaupapa Māori researchers to expand non-empirical inquiry. The study concludes that government policies have had a decimating effect upon Māori, First Nations and Métis knowledges. Moreover, recent reports from commissions and inquiries indicate these knowledges and associated languages continue to decline for a number of reasons, including the impact of contemporary government policies. Health policy, this study asserts, is an uncertain site from which to revitalise Māori, First Nations and Métis knowledges.

text: Indigenous knowledges in health policy in Aotearoa New Zealand and Saskatchewan Canada: A comparative study For more than two decades, components of Māori knowledges in the form of Māori words and concepts have been part of health policy in Aotearoa New Zealand. Health policy that engages Māori words and concepts resonates with Māori community values and aspirations and is thought to contribute to the revitalisation of Māori knowledges. Absent from the literature is an examination of this phenomenon; specifically, the socio-political factors that facilitate and limit the engagement of Māori knowledges with health policy. Of the four settler states, only in Aotearoa New Zealand are the knowledges of the Indigenous peoples engaged with health policy. In Saskatchewan, Canada, the First Nations and Métis peoples have engaged their knowledges with federal and provincially funded health programmes and services but not health policy. This study adopts a two-country comparative policy framework to investigate and theorise the historical and contemporary socio-political factors associated with the engagement of Indigenous knowledges in health policy in Aotearoa New Zealand and Saskatchewan, Canada. An adaption is made to the Kaupapa Māori approach so that the complexities of a two-country case study approach are addressed and engagement in health policy as a strategy for knowledge revitalisation is theorised. The study also takes a path less travelled which is to investigate the impact that engagement with health policy has upon the intangible or the ontological aspects of Māori knowledges. Māori describe their knowledges as comprised of tangible and intangible elements, both of which are important. Another adaption is made to the Kaupapa Māori theoretical approach which is to add speculative inquiry. The study argues that speculative inquiry in the form of contemplative, analytical, relational and viscerally aware practices are commonplace in Māori communities. Adding speculative inquiry to an already rich theoretical body that is Kaupapa Māori research provides an opening for other Kaupapa Māori researchers to expand non-empirical inquiry. The study concludes that government policies have had a decimating effect upon Māori, First Nations and Métis knowledges. Moreover, recent reports from commissions and inquiries indicate these knowledges and associated languages continue to decline for a number of reasons, including the impact of contemporary government policies. Health policy, this study asserts, is an uncertain site from which to revitalise Māori, First Nations and Métis knowledges.

year: 2018