Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
‘A Road Less Spoken’The experiences of Youthreach participants

This study explores the experiences and perspectives of early school-leavers in the West of Ireland as they try and progress their education through the further education provision of Youthreach. This research addresses the gap that exists in the current literature on early school-leaving by presenting the voices of participants, which offer unique and rich insights into this complex phenomenon. This study broadens the scope of thinking about early school-leaving by looking through the lenses of care, respect, recognition and mental health. The participating early school-leavers have not abandoned education and they are not viewed as dropouts; they have ambitions for the future and are interested in achieving their educational goals. The acknowledgment of the voices of the participants is at the heart of this study and is reflected in the choice of methods. It is a qualitative investigative study focusing on the educational experiences of participants within four Youthreach centres in the Western Area Network. The study employs a combination of arts-based collage creation and individual semi-structured interview methods used to elicit the rich data. As a means of triangulation, questionnaires from coordinators within the network were gathered to establish their perceptions on the prevalence of mental health issues within the centres. The participants’ stories reveal that their mainstream schooling experiences had a damaging effect on their mental health. The findings show that Youthreach centres have become a necessary recovery space for many of the early school-leavers and serve an important role in the education system. The findings highlight the necessity for the creation of educational provisions that have care and respect as central concepts. The findings also reveal that participants’ opportunities in rural areas are impeded by structural and resource factors. There also exists a degree of socially constructed embarrassment or shame about being a Youthreach attendee. The thesis concludes that there is valid knowledge for educators and policy makers in the voices of these participants. Their voices should be listened to and their needs recognised. The thesis further concludes that students should not have to feel ashamed for attending Youthreach programmes and that, one way to achieve this is for Youthreach centres to be recognised as a viable and valid alternative to mainstream schooling.
Information technology, competition, and their impact on firm performance: Theoretical development and empirical analyses

The business value of information technology (IT), research on testing and showing the positive association between IT and firm performance, has been a critical issue in the information systems (IS) area. The topic provides the reason why companies need to invest in IT systems and motivate employees to use the systems. Additionally, prior studies have suggested several mixed and inconsistent results of whether IT improves firm performance. It is, therefore, important to examine the role of IT in improving firms’ competitiveness. This dissertation explains the role of IT in increasing the competitiveness of firms based on two theoretical lenses: competitive dynamics theory and the resource-based view. This dissertation includes three essays, which have separate research questions and empirical results. The three research questions were suggested based on two theories and were tested using econometrics and text analyses. Through the three essays, this dissertation has answered the following research questions: (1) How IT capability contributes to the supply chain leanness and the profitability of firms? (2) How IT capability and investment support the competitive actions of firms and subsequently improve firm performance? and (3) How IT capability supports the financial performance of firms? The first essay has examined how IT capability enhances the supply chain leanness (i.e. a type of competitive actions) and firm performance. Especially, IT capability gap, which captures the difference between a focal firm’s IT capability and a rival firm’s IT capability, has been formulated. How IT capability gap improves firm performance has been tested drawing upon the competitive dynamics literature as well as the resource-based view. InformationWeek 500 lists were utilized to identify a firm’s IT capability. Empirical leanness and firm performance were pooled from Compustat. A total of 282 firm-year observations
Implementing Holistic Staff Support: A Quality Improvement Project

Health care organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the impact of patient care on those who provide it. Regular exposure to trauma and stress has both a mental and physical impact on the human body. This exposure is an inherent risk associated with working in the health care field, and an even more common experience when looking at the mental health field. This project uses mindfulness and relaxation tools implemented during the work day to address this stress and trauma that staff experience. The perceived stress on the unit was assessed with the use of the Mental Health Professionals Stress Scale. The mindfulness of staff was assessed using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale both before intervention and post intervention. Eight staff participated in the project and expressed gratitude for the tools being available at work. Scores on the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale were not impacted. Future steps to improve mindfulness on the unit would include increasing awareness of the mindfulness tools and creating educational material on the impact of mindfulness.
High‐commitment human resource practices and employee outcomes: The contingent role of organisational identification

In this paper, we examine whether the relationship between high‐commitment human resource (HR) practices and two employee outcomes, quit intentions and organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs), is contingent on organisational identification. Incorporating insights from both social exchange and social identity theories, we propose that the relationship between high‐commitment HR systems, intention to quit, and OCBs is attenuated when employees strongly identify with their organisation. This proposition was tested and supported with employees of a Swedish relocation company and a Greek shipping organisation. For high identifiers, as perceptions of HR practices deteriorated from high to low, they were associated with smaller increases in quit intentions and smaller decreases in citizenship behaviours. But overall, high identifiers always had lower quit intentions and higher citizenship behaviours than low identifiers, which is managerially reassuring.
Explaining incompleteness and conditionality in alliance agreements

ABSTRACT What explains the form of international alliances? Conventional wisdom forecasts that audience cost-averse states like democracies demand that their alliances include conditions, such as limitations to specific regions, to reduce the likelihood of paying the audience costs of treaty violation. This paper builds on the conventional wisdom by proposing that democracies are especially likely to demand that an alliance include conditions that make the treaty more incomplete, that is, make the compliance requirements more ambiguous, in comparison to including conditions that do not make the treaty more incomplete. Treaty incompleteness gives leaders another tool to reduce domestic political audience cost risks. Incompleteness makes it easier for a leader to argue to a domestic political audience that a wider array of actions, including actions such as nonintervention on behalf of an embattled ally that other signatories might view as noncompliant, is actually compliant, reducing domestic audience costs for these actions. Examining all international alliances since 1816 using seemingly unrelated regression, the paper finds empirical support for the theory: alliances with democracies are more likely to have conditions making the treaty more incomplete, but not more likely to have conditions that do not make the treaty more incomplete.
Essays on investment

This research provides three self-contained empirical studies in investment management. The first essay performs a comparative analysis of the asymmetries in size, value, and momentum premiums and their macroeconomic determinants over the UK economic cycles, using Markov switching approach. We find clear evidence of cyclical variations in the three premiums, most notable in the size premium. Macroeconomic variables prompting such cyclicality the most are variables that proxy credit market conditions, namely the interest rates, term structure and credit spread. We find that forecasts based on our model have considerable economic significance for investors, particularly for trading strategies involving small-cap stocks. The second essay contributes to the style timing literature by quantifying survival time of style portfolio momentum and implement style timing strategies based on the mean survival time. We find that empirical survival times differ from those implied by theoretical models (Random Walk and ARMA (1, 1)) - suggesting the profitability of momentum trading. We illustrate this by forming long-only, short-only and long-short trading strategies that exploit positive and negative momentum and their average survival time. Our trading strategies show that utilising momentum mean survival time yields considerably higher Sharpe ratios than the naive buy-and-hold at a feasible level of transaction costs. This finding is most pronounced among the long/short strategies. The third essay contributes to the scarce literature of sector rotation by studying the risk-adjusted performance of sector portfolios with Fama-French three-factor (3FM) and five-factor models (5FM). We argue that if either of the models generates true alpha then we can incorporate investment strategies to generate higher returns. Although our empirical findings assert the theoretical argument that 5FM explains cross section of expected sector returns in greater accuracy, it is not found to be significantly different from 3FM while trading with Fama-French sector portfolios. However, while trading with readily investable sector ETFs, 5FM found to outperform 3FM which justifies our argument that Fama-French 5FM provides truer alpha than 3FM that can be exploited by sector rotation strategies.
Responses To Sodium Bicarbonate Supplementation In Repeat Sprint Activity Are Individual

The aim of this study was to determine the individual effects of acute sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) supplementation on elite short track speed skating relay race simulation. Material and Method. Double-blindedbalanced, cross-over investigation required two teams of 4 athletes from the Australian National Short Track Speed Skating Program to participate in 2 simulated relay races 72 h apart. Each athlete performed 7 maximal speed skating sprints at a work:rest ratio of ~1:4. Each athlete ingested either 0.3g. kg-1 per body mass of NaHCO3 or lactose placebo (P) 75 min prior to each race. Plasma blood lactate concentration (Bla) was recorded 10min pre- and 2 min post- race simulation. Race lap times and changes in Bla were log transformed and analyzed using paired sample t-tests between NaHCO3 and P. Data were also, analysed to evaluate individual response. Magnitudes of differences between conditions were interpreted using effect sizes (ES) and 90% confidence limits (CL). Results. Post-race simulation, Bla concentration demonstrated a very large increase from baseline for both groups. P demonstrated substantially faster performance for overall (ES: 0.98, CL: -0.13 to 1.82), mean lap (ES: 1.59, CL: 0.22 to 2.95), and fastest lap time (ES: 1.26, CL: 0.02 to 2.50) compared to NaHCO3. Interpretation of the individual analysis indicates that NaHCO3 results in a greater magnitude of individual variation for total (ES: 1.05, CL: -0.40 to 1.54), mean (ES: 2.04, CL: 0.71 to 2.79), and fastest lap time (ES: 1.85, CL: 0.64 to 2.54) than P. Conclusion. These findings indicate responses to acute NaHCO3 supplementation may be individual.
Short-Horizon CEO Incentives and Abnormal Stock Returns, Insider Trading, and Earnings Management

Firms with short-horizon CEO incentives experience stock price inflation followed by reversal. Short-horizon CEOs exploit the price inflation by selling relatively more stock and making greater abnormal profits than long-horizon CEOs do. The stock price inflation is partly explained by greater earnings surprises and more positive investor reaction to the surprises. To sustain the inflated price, short-horizon firms are more likely to employ income-increasing discretionary accruals. The findings are consistent with recent theories linking short-horizon incentives to stock price inflation, suggest CEOs have some success in doing so, and shed light on the role earnings management plays in the process.
The ‘ASEAN Way’ and ASEAN’s development gap with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam: a critical view

ABSTRACT The ‘ASEAN Way’, as an approach to interstate relations within ASEAN, is analysed in relation to the ‘reduction of the development gap’ (RDG) with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV). It is found that convergence of income per capita and development levels of CLMV is only to a limited extend the result of RDG and its pace is too slow. With the help of the Asian Development Bank and other regional and multilateral financial institutions, the development cooperation funds thus assembled, could leverage a multitude of loans and funds from donor organizations and countries, including the EU and its member countries.
Cardiovascular disease and mobility disability in rural older indians: the mobility and independent living in elders study (MILES)

Increase in older population is most rapid in developing countries and will have major impact on public health. Indian older population is not well described and there is an urgent need to estimate the burden of prevalent disease, disability and risk factors. To accomplish this, we established a longitudinal cohort study – MILES, in a rural population of older Indians. We enrolled a random sample of 562 men and women aged 60+ from rural India. Baseline visit consisted of a comprehensive clinical examination and interview. We examined the prevalence of CVD and its relationship with traditional CVD risk factors in MILES. CVD was defined as a composite of self-reported history of CVD, major ECG abnormality or peripheral artery disease (PAD). Prevalence of CVD was 24.6% in men and 25.6% in women. In multivariate analyses among men, BMI, hypertension and physical inactivity were associated with higher prevalence of CVD. Among women, chewing tobacco, hypertension and physical inactivity were associated with higher prevalence of CVD. Additionally, we estimated the prevalence and risk factors for mobility disability in MILES population by using inability to attempt or complete a 400-meter usual paced walk as a measure of mobility disability. Mobility disability prevalence was much higher in women (43.8%) compared to men (27.9%). In men, knee pain, fair vision, chronic lung disease and greater number of depressive symptoms were associated with mobility disability. Among women, waist circumference, depressive symptoms, knee pain, poor vision, CVD history and PAD were associated with mobility disability. Mean walking times were high in those men (435 seconds) and women (503 seconds) who completed the walk. Higher walking times were associated with higher waist circumference, knee pain and use of walking aid in both men and women. This dissertation has major public health significance. In this dissertation, we identified the rural older Indian population to be very frail, and with high prevalence of disease and mobility disability. There is a high prevalence of risk factors, low heath awareness and poor health care access. These data indicate urgent need for primary prevention measures and increasing availability of treatment to prevent further complications.
MULTIGENERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN THE ASIAN FAMILY: QUALITATIVE EVIDENCE FROM SINGAPORE*

Singapore represents a blend of Asian traditions and rapid modernization. It is also a rapidly ageing society, with 8% of its population above the age of 65 years in 2005. Family care in Asia is the most important safety net for older persons, especially for the frail and very old. The paper focuses on qualitative data on 15 Singaporean three-generational families collected as part of the research project "Grandparenting in Selected Asian Societies", funded by the National University of Singapore. Perceptions of each of the three generations within the same family form the data for this paper. The results of 45 face-to face interviews are reported, and consistency of perceptions, variation in generational differences, as well as explanations for "closeness" and "distance", "independence" and "interdependence", and other family dynamics are offered. Implications for research and intergeneration family ties conclude the paper.
The mainstream effect - A critical study on leadership development

This paper critically examines the effect that mainstream leadership ideas have on the leadership development initiatives in a highly technical, engineering dominated, Swedish public sector organisation. Through 28 interviews divided between senior managers, managers and co-workers, the story of an organisation that wish to solve their organisational challenges deriving from a fastpaced expansion phase is told. The study reveals a number of existing problems and how these are sought to be solved through leadership development initiatives (LDI’s). By understanding how the organisation’s actors perceive leadership, the paper sheds light upon how the LDI’s are affected by any prevalent mainstream leadership ideas. Inspired by the perspective of Critical Leadership Studies (CLS), the study questions and reflects upon taken for granted assumptions in regard to the organisation’s LDI’s in order to reveal the interconnection between the perception of leadership and organisational processes and practices. As a result, the paper presents the mainstream effect; that the perception of leadership and actions of individuals have caused chain reactions elsewhere in the organisation.
Dominant institutional control and earnings informativeness

In this paper we analyze the relation between dominant institutional control and earnings informativeness in a sample of non-fi nancial Spanish fi rms listed on the electronic market over the 1996 to 2009 period. Our results suggest that, when a bank is the fi rm’s dominant owner, increasing his ownership stake beyond the minimum level needed for effective control provides an alignment of interest between the bank and the minority shareholders, what positively affects earnings informativeness. Nevertheless, when the dominant owner is an investment fund, increasing his ownership stake beyond the minimum level needed for effective control reveals the investment fund's desire to obtain greater control premiums when he leaves the fi rm, what negatively affects earnings informativeness. Our results are consistent with differences in objectives, stability, scrutiny and visibility of both banks and investment funds when they own the effective control of the fi rm.
Improved beta estimation on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange: A simulation study

In this article we focus on beta estimation in the thinly-traded environment of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). We build on existing literature by evaluating a beta estimation procedure known as the trade-to-trade which has not until now been considered in the context of the JSE. We contrast our results with two known estimation procedures, i.e. the Cohen et al. and the traditional ordinary least squares (OLS). The trade-to-trade methodology, the estimator proposed by Cohen et al. and OLS are objectively assessed for shares typical of the JSE on the basis of unbiasedness and efficiency in the controlled environment of a simulation study. The trade-to-trade technique is found to be superior on both counts and is recommended as the appropriate technique for beta estimation on the JSE.
A Model of Two Days: Discrete News and Asset Prices

Empirical studies demonstrate striking patterns in stock returns related to scheduled macroeconomic announcements. A large proportion of the total equity premium is realized on days with macroeconomic announcements. The relation between market betas and expected returns is far stronger on announcement days as compared with nonannouncement days. Finally, these results hold for fixed-income investments as well as for stocks. We present a model in which agents learn the probability of an adverse economic state on announcement days. We show that the model quantitatively accounts for the empirical findings. Evidence from options data provides support for the model’s mechanism.
The knowledge and perceptions of paediatricians in South Africa with respect to chiropractic

Objectives: To investigate the knowledge and perceptions of Paediatricians in South Africa with respect to Chiropractic, and to determine if any correlation exists between the two. Methods: A posted quantitative questionnaire was used to collect data from Paediatricians in South Africa. Follow up telephonic calls were made to encourage response from participants. After a 12-week period, returned questionnaires were collected and data analysed. Results: The results obtained (25% response rate), indicated that there are relatively low levels of knowledge and poor perceptions amongst Paediatricians, which was supported by the low referral rate from Paediatricians for Chiropractic treatment. With regard to perception, Paediatricians seem to have a better perception of Chiropractic for the general compared to the paediatric population. Paediatricians felt that they do not have enough knowledge to discuss Chiropractic with their patients and would like to be further informed. This was reflected in the statistically significant correlation between knowledge and perception, and it would seem that better knowledge allowed for more positive perceptions. The study also found that Paediatricians agreed that they would like to receive treatment feedback after referring a patient for Chiropractic treatment and they were more likely to refer to a Chiropractor if they had a post-registration paediatric specialisation. Conclusions: A correlation exists between knowledge and perceptions of Paediatricians in South Africa with respect to Chiropractic, with both being relatively, although better perceptions of Chiropractic for the general than for the paediatric population exist.