Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DIVIDEND POLICY AS STRATEGIC TOOL OF FINANCING IN PUBLIC FIRMS: EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA

This is a study on effects of dividend policy on the value of the firms. There are three important decisions a firm must make investment, financing and dividend decisions. All these decisions are normally made with the aim of achieving the over-riding objectives of firms, which is the maximization of shareholder’s wealth. This study investigated the effect of dividend policy on the value of the firm. It examined relationship between dividend payment and payout ratio, found out the percentage of earnings to be retained or ploughed back into the company and identified the various factors that determine the pricing of shares. Secondary data obtained from Nigeria Stock Exchange Fact book were used for the study. Data obtained were analyzed regression analysis with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The study finds out among other thing that the changes in the payout ratio of a company significantly determine the changes in the value of the company. It was therefore recommended in the study that the policy of regular dividend payout should not be changed arbitrarily since it has a serious effect on the investor's attitude and the financial standing of the organization. The result European Scientific Journal May edition vol. 8, No.9 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 18577431 2 has a clear implication for investing public, government policy makers and the firm’s management.
Study of the Vibratory Behavior of Composite Plates under the Effect of Different Reinforcement Parameters

This contribution consists of the free vibratory behavior analysis of composite plates laminated; the study of the vibration in displacement of such structures rests primarily on the research of the frequencies and the clean modes, the main axis of this study is the enhancement and the discussion of the effects various geometry of plate, the reinforcement fibers orientation and the ratio orthotropic of the material on the oscillation frequencies. The choice of the model that says we have taken into consideration in the simulation, meets the objective of our study and the results are then validated by available literature results.
E C ] 1 0 Ju l 2 01 8 Stochastic Switching Games

We study nonzero-sum stochastic switching games. Two players compete for market dominance through controlling (via timing options) the discrete-state market regime M . Switching decisions are driven by a continuous stochastic factor X that modulates instantaneous revenue rates and switching costs. This generates a competitive feedback between the short-term fluctuations due to X and the medium-term advantages based on M . We construct threshold-type Feedback Nash Equilibria which characterize stationary strategies describing long-run dynamic equilibrium market organization. Two sequential approximation schemes link the switching equilibrium to (i) constrained optimal switching; (ii) multi-stage timing games. We provide illustrations using an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck X that leads to a recurrent equilibrium M∗ and a Geometric Brownian Motion X that makes M∗ eventually “absorbed” as one player eventually gains permanent advantage. Explicit computations and comparative statics regarding the emergent macroscopic market equilibrium are also provided.
Improved Management of Type 2 Diabetes With a Plant-Based Diet Compared to a Conventional Diabetes Diet

Background: Diabetes is a rapidly growing epidemic that, to a degree, is both caused by and managed with diet. Vegetarian and vegan diets are associated with a reduced risk of diabetes, and have been shown to increase insulin sensitivity and decrease body weight. This study sought to review trials that directly compare a vegetarian or vegan diet to a conventional diabetes diet with the outcome of improved management, as measured by weight loss, reduction in medication use and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). Method: An extensive literature search was performed using MEDLINE-OVID, CINAHL, Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews Multifile and Web of Science to include randomized controlled trials (RCTs) directly comparing a vegetarian or vegan diet to a conventional diabetes diet. The following search terms were used: “Diabetes or Diabetes Mellitus or Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2” and “Vegan diet or Diet, vegetarian. ” The quality of evidence presented in each article was assessed using the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) criteria. Results: Three RCTs were included in the review. Diabetics assigned to the experimental group reduced or stopped hypoglycemic medications significantly more than those in the control group. The effect of diet on HbA1c was not significant in any study based on intention-to-treat analyses, but in sub-group analyses accounting for medication change, the vegan/vegetarian group indicated a greater reduction in two studies. Weight loss was significant within each diet group, and two studies found it to be significantly greater in the vegetarian group. Conclusion: Individuals with type 2 diabetes who participate in vegan and vegetarian diets effectively lose weight and have better glycemic control as measured by medication reduction than those following a conventional diabetes diet.
Relationship between Yield, Fiber Length and other Fiber-Related Traits in Advanced Cotton Strains

The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between yield, fiber length and other fiber related traits in advanced cotton strains, derived from a cotton breeding program. The experiments were conducted in the Southeastern Anatolia Agricultural Research Instituteâ€™s experimental area according to randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications during 2007 and 2008 cotton growing season. In the study, 9 advanced cotton strains and 2 check varieties (â€˜GW-Teksâ€™ and â€˜Stoneville 468â€™) were used as plant materials. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that the advanced cotton strains had significant differences in terms of the investigated characteristics when compared to the check varieties. The highest seed cotton yield (4087.0 kg ha-1) and fiber yield (1632.2 kg ha-1) were obtained from â€˜SET-34â€™ cotton strain which had acceptable fiber quality properties. However, the highest fiber length (32.33 mm) was obtained from â€˜ERA-85â€™. The correlation analysis indicated that there were significant negative correlations between fiber length and seed cotton yield, lint yield and ginning percentage, while there were positive and significant correlations between fiber length and fiber strength.
Novel iterative approach to joint sequence alignment and tree inference under maximum likelihood: A critical assessment

Multiple sequence alignment (MSA) and phylogeny tree reconstruction are two imporant problems in bioinformatics. In some respect, they represent "two sides of the same coin", since solving either of the two problems would be easier if the solution to the other problem was given. However, most of the currently available algorithms present a solution to only one of these two problems, either completely ignoring the other problem or assuming that its solution is known in advance. Attempts have been made to solve these two problems simultaneously, but they are either too computationally intensive or inappropriate to analyze divergent sequences. Here we derive a new method that addresses these shortcomings by iteratively improving the starting alignment and its corresponding evolutionary tree based on maximum likelihood scores. We show that the method produces trees with significantly better likelihood scores for fairly to highly divergent sequences. Yet, this improvement does not translate directly into an improvement of the tree and alignment quality.
Regional Policy In The Eu Less Favoured Regions For The Period 2000-2006: An Assessment Of The Expenditure Allocation And Governance

The European Union regional policy is targeting to strength internal cohesion, seeking to improve the performance of the whole territory but with special emphasis on the less favored regions. In this paper we analyze the effectiveness of the Structural Funds in Objective 1 regions during the programming period, 2000-2006. Firstly, the EU expenditure is divided into seven categories, with the aim to identify which of them show a positive and real contribution to growth. Secondly, we test the existence of a national influence on the regional capability to take advantage from Structural Funds. Finally, we show how this country effect is related to the quality of governance of each country.
International business cycle spillovers since the 1870s

This article considers the evolution of international business cycle interdependencies among 27 developed and developing countries since the beginning of 1870s, utilizing the generalized vector autoregressive (VAR)-based spillover index of Diebold and Yilmaz (2012), which allows the construction of a time-varying measure of business cycle spillovers. We find that, on average, 65% of the forecast error variance of the 27 countries’ business cycle shocks is due to international spillovers. However, the magnitude of international business cycle spillovers varies considerably over time. There is a clear increasing trend since the end of World War II and until the mid-1980s. After that, international business cycle interdependencies declined during the period that was dubbed the Great Moderation and stabilized around the beginning of the twenty-first century. During the Great Recession of 2008–2009, international business cycle spillovers increased to unprecedented levels. Finally, developed countries are consistently ranked as net transmitters of cyclical shocks to developing counties throughout the sample.
Underreaction, Trading Volume, and Momentum Profits in Taiwan Stock Market

This paper uses a very short period to reexamine the momentum effect in Taiwan stock market, focusing on trading volume, size, and book-to-market factors. It is shown that price momentum exists in Taiwan stock market. In addition, trading volume predicts both the magnitude and the persistence of future price momentum. Specifically, the momentum strategy from buying past low-volume winners and selling past high-volume losers have better performance than the momentum strategy from buying past winners and selling past losers. Though Fama and French [27] three factors can partially explain the momentum profits, the momentum effect cannot be subsumed by the difference in risk factors. The profitability of the momentum strategy also cannot be completely explained as a reward for bearing the exposure to industry factors. The more prolonged accumulation of returns and lack of any observable return reversal support delayed reaction as a better explanation for the momentum returns. Besides, momentums in size and industry portfolios are as strong as individual stocks.
Sleep quality and related factors in pregnant women

The objective is to evaluate sleep quality and rela ted factors in pregnant women. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were administered to 102 healthy pregnant women in a fac e-to-face interview. The mean age was 25.5±3.8 (17-34) and the mean gestational week was 32.1±8.3 (12-41). Mean total PSQI score was 7.5±4.4, mean score in Beck Anxiety Inventory was 11.5±5.2 (2-22) , the mean score in Beck Depression Inventory was 8.5±2.7 (3-15). Sixty one percent of the pregna nt women had a global PSQI above 5. There was a strong positive correlation between mean PSQI total score and anxiety and weak positive correlation between mean PSQI total score and depression [(r=0. 71, p<0.001), (r=0.31, p<0.001)]. No statistically significant correlation was found between age and m ean PSQI total score (r=0.188, p=0.059). There was a significant relation between BMI and the mean PSQI (p<0.001). A positive weak correlation was found between gestational week and mean PSQI total score (r=0.389, p<0.001). A statistically significant difference was found between caffeine c onsumption and mean PSQI total score (p<0.001). There were no statistically significant differences between exercise and mean PSQI total score nor between gravida number and mean PSQI total score (U =1044.50, Z=-0.10, p=0.91). Sixty one percent of the pregnant women reported low sleep quality which was adversely affected by depression, anxiety, advanced gestational week, BMI and caffeine.
Ginseng Total Saponin Attenuate Cardiac Hypertrophy Induced by Homocysteine in Rats

Recent studies have shown that Panax ginseng has a variety of beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system. Homocysteine (Hcy), which is derived from methionine, has been closely associated with the increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. In the present study, whether the in-vivo long-term co-administration of ginseng total saponins (GTS), active ingredients of Panax ginseng, with L-methionine (Met) inhibits methionine-induced hyperhomocysteine (HHcy) and H-Hcy-induced cardiovascular dysfunctions was investigated, and it was found that the plasma Hcy level, which was measured after 30 and 60 days, in the GTS+Met co-administration group was more significantly reduced than in the Metalone- treatment group. The left-ventricle (LV) wall thickness of the heart was likewise examined in each treatment group, and it was found that the co-administration of GTS with Met significantly reduced the Met-induced LV wall thickness. The results of the study indicate that the in-vivo long-term co-administration of GTS with Met not only inhibited H-Hcy induced by long-term Met-alone administration but also attenuated the H-Hcy-induced cardiovascular dysfunctions in rats.
Estimation of absolute magnitude-dependent Galactic model parameters in intermediate latitude with SDSS and SCUSS

Based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and South Galactic Cap of u-band Sky Survey (SCUSS) early data, we use a star count method to estimate the Galactic structure parameters in an intermediate latitude with 10 180 main-sequence (MS) stars in an absolute magnitude interval of 4 <= M-r <= 13. We divide the absolute magnitude into five intervals, 4 <= M-r < 5, 5 <= M-r < 6, 6 <= M-r < 8, 8 <= M-r < 10 and 10 <= M-r <= 13, and estimate the Galactic structure parameters in each absolute magnitude interval to explore their possible variation with the absolute magnitude. Our study shows that the parameters depend on absolute magnitude. For the thin disc, the intrinsic faint MS stars have large local space density and they tend to stay close to the Galactic plane. A plausible explanation is that faint MS stars with long lifetime experience and long gravitational interaction time result in a short scaleheight. However, for the thick disc, the parameters show a complex trend with absolute magnitude, which may imply the complicated original of the thick disc. For the halo, the intrinsic faint MS stars have large local density and small axial ratio, which indicate a flattened inner halo and a more spherical outer halo.
The Income situation of the private households and its impact on the food consumption in the Slovak Republic

Accession of the Slovak Republic to the EU in 2004 opened up the new opportunities not only in the formation of incomes but also in changes of consumer habits of the population in Slovakia. The basis for these changes were given before 1989, since when it has been possible to monitor realization of reforms. After 1989 have been observed the changes in the evolution of the household income and expenditure structure. The analysis confirms the significant differences and unbalanced right-inclined distribution of income. Households in the fourth income quartile had 2.8 times higher incomes than families in the first income quartile ( Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic). Analyzed were the food groups that in terms of expenditure on food and food consumption took more than 6% share. The results confirm that income differentiation of households is also reflected in their different behavior on the food market. Most sensitive to changes in demand reacts income households with the lowest incomes. In terms of living standard, when satisfying the living needs of population, the disposable monthly income is highly crucial. In meeting the basic needs of households play an important role expenditures on food, housing and energy. The Slovak households have high expenditures on food in comparison with other EU countries. In the structure of consumption expenditures the expenditure on food has decreased in recent years but still represents the highest share (in 2009 it was 21.95%) in comparison with expenditure on housing and energy (19.54% share in 2009). Assessment of the standard of living of the population and its development is effected by several indicators. The key indicators that allow assessment of the standard of living and its development are the money income, consumption and expenditure for food, housing, culture, education and healthcare.Data on the household incomes and the household expenditures for the stated needs point at the standard of living of the population as well as various social groups. Important is also the reciprocal comparison of the differences in expenditures for basic living needs of the household. During the transformation process expanded the variability types and groups of households. Downtrend is spotted in the average size of the households and growing pluralism of the various forms of coexistence.
How strong are the Southern Hemisphere storm tracks?

The real strength of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) storm tracks is poorly known, as the NCEP‐NCAR and ECMWF reanalyses differ significantly in this measure. In this work, the COSMIC GPS radio occultation dataset is used to investigate this issue. The ratio of the strength of the SH storm tracks to that in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) based on the COSMIC dataset can be regarded as close to the true inter‐hemisphere ratio since the dataset has similar biases and errors in both hemispheres. Comparing this ratio with that based on the reanalysis, it is found that the strength of the SH storm tracks in the NCEP‐NCAR reanalysis is significantly biased low by at least 25% at 300 hPa, while those in the ECMWF reanalyses are much closer to that inferred from COSMIC observations but ERA40 may be biased low by 5–10%.
The effect of dietary fat, vitamin E and selenium concentrations on the fatty acid profile and oxidative stability of frozen stored broiler meat.

A total of 160 Ross 308 female broilers from day 22 to 35 of age were used to investigate the effects of vitamin E and selenium (Se) supple- mentation on performance, fatty acid profile and oxidative stability of meat en - riched with n-3 fatty acids. There were 4 treatment groups, 3 diets contained rape seeds and fish oil (60 and 15 g · kg -1 , respectively - RF), the control diet contained animal fat - lard. To the RF diet different doses of vitamin E and Se were added (80 and 0.3, 150 and 0.3, 150 and 0.7 mg per kilogram of diet, re- spectively). Performance was measured and samples of breast and thigh meat were vacuum packed and stored at -30°C. The concentration of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) was determined after 3 weeks and after 3 months of frozen storage, when also fatty acid profiles, vitamin E and choles - terol contents in meat were measured. Body weight gain and feed conversion ratio were negatively influenced ( P ≤ 0.05) by the increased dietary level of Se. Feeding diets with rape seeds and fish oil resulted in higher concentrations and lower n-6/n-3 PUFA ratios in breast and thigh meat (P ≤ 0.05) compared with the control. The increase of dietary vitamin E, but not Se, increased the tocopherol content in meat and reduced TBARS values in 3-month-stored thigh meat (P ≤ 0.05). It may be concluded that fortification of diets with vitamin E increases its concentration in, and oxidative stability of frozen stored breast and thigh meat, but no additional benefit was observed in feeding excess Se in combination with vitamin E.
The equivariant index of twisted dirac operators and semi-classical limits

Consider a spin manifold M, equipped with a line bundle L and an action of a compact Lie group G. We can attach to this data a family Theta(k) of distributions on the dual of the Lie algebra of G. The aim of this paper is to study the asymptotic behaviour of Theta(k) when k is large, and M possibly non compact, and to explore a functorial consequence of this formula for reduced spaces.
PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS OF COSMOLOGICAL LENSING: CONVERGENCE, SHEAR, AND MAGNIFICATION

We perform high-resolution ray-tracing simulations to investigate probability distribution functions (PDFs) of lensing convergence, shear, and magnification on distant sources up to the redshift of zs = 20. We pay particular attention to the shot noise effect in N-body simulations by explicitly showing how it affects the variance of the convergence. We show that the convergence and magnification PDFs are closely related to each other via the approximate relation μ = (1 − κ)−2, which can reproduce the behavior of PDFs surprisingly well up to the high magnification tail. The mean convergence measured in the source plane is found to be systematically negative, rather than zero as often assumed, and is correlated with the convergence variance. We provide simple analytical formulae for the PDFs, which reproduce simulated PDFs reasonably well for a wide range of redshifts and smoothing sizes. As explicit applications of our ray-tracing simulations, we examine the strong-lensing probability and the magnification effects on the luminosity functions of distant galaxies and quasars.
Seroprevalence of Melioidosis in Sheep and Goats from Selected Small Ruminant Farms in Selangor, Malaysia

This study was designed to investigate the seroprevalence of Melioidosis in sheep and goats from selected small ruminant farms in Selangor, Malaysia. Blood samples (n=100) were collected each from sheep and goats using a random sampling technique from these farms. The serum samples were subjected to Melioidosis antibody screening using the Complement Fixation Test (CFT). The overall prevalence of Melioidosis among goats and sheep from these farms were 1% and 0%, respectively. It is concluded that although the prevalence of positive detection is low, there is need for further diagnostic surveillance as this singular case can be a potential reservoir for zoonotic infection.
Technological Change, Industry Specific Human Capital and the Intergenerational Allocation of Labor

The empirical study of the intergenerational allocation of workers between economic sectors using French data over the period 1968-2005 provides evidence of large cohort effects. Age differences between industries are large and evolve cyclically over time in some industries which display periods of ageing followed by periods of rejuvenation. The model aims at explaining these findings studying an economy in which workers have different time horizon and must incur industry specific human capital investments. Interactions between generations influence the allocation of workers between industries. The average age of workers in each sector cycles toward a steady state in which there is no age difference between sectors. I detail how a technological change provokes this dynamics because of the varying time horizon of the labor force and the different types of skills needed to implement the new technology. Empirical evidences show that growing industries are younger whereas older industries display less interindustry labor turnover. JEL classification: J24