Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
INFLUENCE OF ADHOCRACY CULTURE ON PERFORMANCE OF THE LISTED BANKS IN KENYA

The banking industry plays an important role in the development of a country. For sustainable economicgrowth, a country must have a strong banking sector. However, there have been challenges inrobustness of banksâ€™ performance as a result of the current operating environment. This has resultedto loss of jobs, locking in of customerâ€™s deposits, erosion of shareholderâ€™s wealth as well as a slowdownin economic growth of their countries. To enable optimal operation of banksâ€™ within the current changingenvironment, it is prudent for management of the banksâ€™ to study their strengths which may bea competitive advantage. Adhocracy culture has been selected for this study as one of the strengthsthat an organization can utilize to exploit the opportunities in the environment and therefore boostits performance in line with stakeholdersâ€™ expectations. This study therefore sought to determine theinfluence of adhocracy culture on performance of the listed banks in Kenya. The study is of greatsignificance to the management of the Banks in that they will know whether adhocracy culture cangive them an edge to enhance their performance. The relationship between culture and performancehas been studied by previous scholars. From the existing literature, organizational culture has beenoperationalized in different ways. This study adopted a different paradigm of the Competing ValuesFramework (CVF). Therefore, the independent variables for the research was one of the CVF culturenamely adhocracy culture. On the other side, the dependent variable for the research was the organizationperformance which was measured in both qualitative and quantitative ways using return on assets,customer experience ratings and staff satisfaction index. Strategic leadership was taken as the moderatingvariable between the relationship of adhocracy culture and performance. This study adopted adescriptive research design. The population of the study was composed of all the licensed and listedcommercial banks in the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). For the study, multi-stage sampling wasdeployed and convenience and purposive sampling designs were used to come up with a sample of 100respondents who were interviewed using questionnaires. Secondary data on the financial results wascollected using data collection sheets. The data was analyzed for descriptive statistics and inferentialstatistics. Adhocracy culture emerged as a strong predictor of the banksâ€™ performance. Strategic leadershipwas found not to have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between adhocracyculture and performance. In overall, the study findings concluded that the adhocracy culture variablewas statistically significant in explaining the performance in banks. The study recommends that banksshould invest more on technology and innovative solutions that provides convenience, accessibility andreliability of banking services as that will give them a competitive edge as banking services shift frombrick and mortar to technology based services.
Perpetrator programmes for partner violence: Are they based on ideology or evidence?

Purpose. The ideologically based view of intimate partner violence has traditionally influenced policy and practice in modern western nations and dominated cross-national research and practice. This review considers the validity of the position statement of a British organization responsible for accrediting many male perpetrator programmes in the statutory, voluntary, and private sector as an example of this ideological influence. Method. The position statement, informed by the patriarchal view of partner violence, is evaluated using empirical evidence from various branches of the social sciences, including psychology, that have not been guided by the patriarchal view. Results. Overwhelming empirical evidence is presented, which refutes ideologically driven assumptions that have been put forward to guide current practice and evaluation of it. Conclusions. This review highlights the need to investigate intimate partner violence from a scientific and gender-inclusive perspective. The implications for psychological practice are discussed.
The Association Between Ethical Leadership and Employee Outcomes - the Malaysian Case

The topic of ethical leadership has received significant attention in recent years due to the plethora of corporate scandals both in the US and other countries. The shocking financial irregularities that have been uncovered in the executive suites of former Wall Street darlings like Tyco International, WorldCom, Adelphia, HealthSouth, and Enron and more recently Transmile in the case of Malaysia, bring to fore the need for ethical leadership more than ever before. The common thread underlying these corporate scandals is the failure of corporate leadership to demonstrate ethical leadership and its consequent negative impact on employee outcomes. However, despite its theoretical and practical significance, empirical research on the ethical dimensions of leadership and leaders’ ethical behaviour on employees’ level of commitment to their organization is lacking, more so in the case of Malaysia. Hence, this paper investigates the association between ethical leadership behaviour and employee outcomes. This study attempts to explore the impact of ethical leadership behaviour on employee attitudinal outcomes such as employees’ organizational commitment and trust in leaders. The study uses primary data collected from 172 intermediate managerial level employees from the corporate sector in Malaysia. Results indicate that ethical leadership behaviour has a positive impact on employee organizational commitment and employee trust in leaders. The study provides empirical support for the theorized notion that ethical leadership behaviour is positively associated with employees’ organizational commitment. This study also provides empirical support for the theorized notion that ethical leadership behaviour is positively associated with employees’ trust in leaders.
Adaptive Arrival Price

Arrival price algorithms determine optimal trade schedules by balancing the market impact cost of rapid execution against the volatility risk of slow execution. In the standard formulation, mean variance optimal strategies are static: they do not modify the execution speed in response to price motions observed during trading. We show that with a more realistic formulation of the mean variance tradeoff, and even with no momentum or mean reversion in the price process, substantial improvements are possible for adaptive strategies that spend trading gains to reduce risk, by accelerating execution when the price moves in the trader9s favor. The improvement is larger for large initial positions.
Development of a Cylindrical Hydroponics System for Vertical Farming

The study aimed to develop a vertical crop cultivation system for leafy plants based on cylindrical hydroponics and light emitting diode (LED) technology. Investigations were conducted on growing lettuce (Lactuca sativa cv. "Rex", "Nanda" and "Canasta") indoors in a rotary system and Chinese cabbage (Brassica chinensis) in a multi-tier cylindrical hydroponics system under red and blue (RB) LED lightings. Light intensity from different light sources have an influence on the yield and growth behaviour of indoor lettuce. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) levels at 63 µmol/m 2 ·s produced low fresh weights (FW) and leaf areas of lettuce "Rex" and "Nanda" were grown under rotating conditions. The effect was, however, different on the better developed "Canasta". Stem etiolation was a common occurrence under such influence. Chlorosis was not observed on all plant types grown under the LEDs. Cultivating Chinese cabbage plants (FW: 28 g/plant) in cylindrical units stacked vertically above another, increased planting density by 47% when compared to the rotary system.
Assessment of Heavy Metal Species in Some Decomposed Municipal Solid Wastes in Bida, Niger State, Nigeria

Soil samples collected from three decomposed municipal solid waste dump sites located in Esso, Gbangbara and Eyagi areas of Bida town were analyzed for some heavy metals (Cu , Fe, Pb, Mn and Cr), using Atomic Absorption Spec- trometer. The analysis of the aqua regia digestion showed an average mean concentration (mg/kg) of Cu (342.22±7.6), Mn (570.00± 1.0) and Fe (371.11±1.2) in the three dump sites were exceptionally high. The variation of these heavy metals across these three dump sites were in the order Pb (EY) > Pb (ES) > Pb (GB), Mn(GB) > Mn (ES) > Mn (EY), Fe (GB) > Fe (GB) > Fe (ES) > Fe (EY), Cr (GB) > Cr (EY) > (ES), Cu (GB) > Cu (ES) > Cu (EY). The analysis of the weak sodium acetate solution digestion showed that Cu (5.47± 0.2), Mn (1.88 ± 0.0) and Fe (1.47 ±0.1) (mg/l) on the average exhibited high concentrations in the dump sites. Most of the Cu, Mn and Fe were found to be associated with the exchangeable fraction, which is very soluble and mobile. Base on Federal Environmental Protection Agency and Land Disposal Restrictions stan- dard regulations, these metals exhibit hazardous concentrations.
RELEVANCE OF FUNDAMENTAL ANALYSIS ON THE BALTIC EQUITY MARKET

Before making decision how to allocate assets of the equity portfolio the majority of professional and private investors are making their homework, i.e. analysis of the company, which in the most cases takes into consideration financial situation of the company, competitive edge and its market positions. However, due to certain constraints of the emerging markets (e.g. low liquidity, small number of investors) fundamental analysis is not always able to provide value. The relevance of fundamental analysis has been tested within Baltic equity market context by emphasizing the value of such classical ratios as PE, ROE, equity ratio, PB etc. Besides, the interdependence of liquidity and share price performance was checked. The findings of the research prove that fundamental analysis does not add a lot of value to the portfolio performance (exception – PE), while market liquidity influences performance of the share prices in a certain way.
Growth empirics with institutional measures and its application to transition countries: a survey

Institutions are strikingly absent from most economic theory, certainly from growth theory.In standard theory it is simply assumed that the needed institutional environment is there,within which economic agents can make their optimizing decisions. At the same time, indescriptive growth studies, particularly in economic history and most influentially inNorth (1990), the importance of good institutional contract enforcement has been emphasizedfor long. Good institutions guarantee property rights and minimize transaction costs,creating an environment conducive to economic growth. The considerable sunk costs of mostinvestments create large disincentives against binding resources to projects in an uncertain institutional environment.Until recently, empirical studies measuring just how important institutions are for growthand investment have been scarce. This has mainly been due to a lack of data concerning thequality of institutions. It is obviously impossible to find data which totally conforms toa most broad definition of institutions such as Schmieding's (1993, p. 233), stating thatthey '. encompass not only bureaucracies and administrations but also, and moreimportantly, the entire body of formal laws, rules and regulations as well as theinformal conventions and patterns of behavior that constitute the non-budget constraintsunder which economic agents can pursue their own individual ends'. Nevertheless, there hasincreasingly been data around which at least describes specific aspects of this definition,which covers both 'rule of law', or 'formal' institutions (enforced by the state), and'civil society', or 'informal' institutions (enforced by convention). This data has beenused to construct measures of the quality of institutions which have been applied in(cross-country) growth empirics. The initial studies have proxied the quality ofinstitutions indirectly, using universally observable and thus 'objective' measures.Recently some studies have used more direct ways to try and capture the quality ofinstitutions, using survey and thus 'subjective' measures.In this paper the most important empirical studies on the relationship betweeninstitutions and growth and investment, and the applications to transition countries,will be surveyed. A special focus on transition countries is considered justifiable,mainly because the transition process seems to a large extent about institutionaltransformation, so it may be expected that institutions 'matter' here in particular.In section 1 the main problems in (cross-country) growth empirics will be treated,showing as an important aside which (economic) variables have been found to be robustlyrelated to growth and investment. Section 2 and 3 will judge the empirical relevancefor growth and investment of respectively the objective and subjective institutionalmeasures which have been used in the literature. The to my knowledge only two studiesto date which have, in this context, specifically looked at transition countries willbe treated in section 4. Section 5 will conclude.
FABRICATION OF 2-D AND 3-D PHOTONIC BAND-GAP CRYSTALS IN THE GHz AND THz REGIONS

Two- and three-dimensiona1 dielectric and metallic structures exhibiting photonic band-gaps in a broad frequency range were fabricated by deep X-ray lithography and laser micro-machining. These techniques seem promising for mass production of photonic structures with full band-gaps in a spectrum ranging from the millimeter wave up to the far infrared regime. Deep X-ray lithography was applied to produce periodic 3-D photonic band-gap structures based on the "three-cylinder" model with mid-gap frequencies up to 2.4 THz. Metallic 3-D structures with incorporated point and linear defects are currently under development. Layered metallic and metallo-dielectric structures exhibiting a cutoff frequency in the microwave regime were fabricated by laser precision machining. The observed cutoff frequency can be easily tuned by varying the interlayer distance or the filling fraction of the metal. Combinations of layers with different metal filling fractions create defect modes with relatively sharp peaks, which are also tunable. The metallo-dielectric structures are significantly smaller than the simple metallic ones. The experimental measurements seem to be in good agreement with theoretical calculations.
Building a Climate of Change with a link through Transformational Leadership and Corporate Culture: A Management key to a Global Environment

Leaders in the Caribbean Diaspora have argued that there is no documented evidence of the association between the three fundamental pillars of public sector organization: leadership, performance and culture. This cross-culture leadership concern has evoked a series of research which basic aim is to conceptualize the leadership culture phenomenon. The problem is that there is a high degree of dysfunctional leadership within the public sectors organizations in the Caribbean diaspora and there is limited empirical evidence that can be had to validate the reason for this inadequacy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the link between transformational leadership styles, corporate organizational culture types and performance in sixteen public sectors organizations. The methodology implemented in this research is the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X), and the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to collect data. Seventy-five executive directors completed measures of the MLQ 5x leadership traits and culture types. A total of 200 employees from across sixteen public sector organizations completed the measures on leadership and culture. The responses were scaled and coded to enable the segmentation of the data into dependent and independent variables based on the leadership, performance and culture variables. The study utilized the multiple regression models and correlation statistical analyses to determine the degree of commonality among the components. The results indicate support for the hypotheses link between the traits of transformational leadership and organizational culture with performance being the mediating variable. Exploratory analysis showed that several executive leaders have leadership traits that support culture values. The study concluded that transformational leadership and corporate organizational culture have positive effects on facilitating performance and is best suited in managing change and innovation in mature public and private sector organizations.
Pre-Service Teachers' Conceptual Structures and Reasoning Patterns on Animal Classification.

The main purpose of the study was to investigate pre-service teachers' perceptions of the criteria used to classify animals. In this regard, it was also aimed at exploring conceptual structures and reasoning patterns shaping the pre-service teachers' perceptions. The participants of the present study were 324 pre-service teachers attending science education and biology education departments in Turkey. With the aim of gaining insight into pre-service teachers' perceptions of animal classification, qualitative research method was followed in which the participants were interviewed. In addition to qualitative data, quantitative data were also collected by classification forms and in this way it was aimed to bring variety to analysis results and reinforce them. As a result of the study, the conceptual structures shaping the pre-service teachers' perceptions leading to their evaluations are subsumed under the categories of 'morphological, anatomic and physiologic characteristics', 'behaviour', 'habitat' and 'systematic'. In light of the findings of the current study, it can be argued that some characteristics of animals were given greater priority while classifying them and this leads to development of some erroneous information and alternative conceptions. More holistic evaluation of the characteristics of animals may allow the development of a better perception of animal classification.
Democracy, Consolidation and Growth

Papers relating the level of democracy to growth do not typically control for defferences within types of polity. This paper examines one important difference, that of regime stability, measured as the longevity of a regime. It is shown that there are initial costs associated with young democracies while over time democracies tend to outperform other types of polity.
An overlooked feature of tropical climate: Inter‐Pacific‐Atlantic variability

Both the tropical Pacific and Atlantic host an equatorial mode of interannual variability called the Pacific El Niño and the Atlantic Niño, respectively. Although the Pacific El Niño does not correlate with the Atlantic Niño, anomalous warming or cooling of the two equatorial oceans can form an inter‐Pacific‐Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) gradient variability that induces surface zonal wind anomalies over equatorial South America and over some regions of both ocean basins. The zonal wind anomalies act to bridge the interaction of the two ocean basins, reinforcing the inter‐Pacific‐Atlantic SST gradient through atmospheric Walker circulations and oceanic dynamics. Thus, a positive feedback seems to exist for climate variability of the tropical Pacific‐Atlantic Oceans and atmosphere system, in which the inter‐basin SST gradient is coupled to the overlying atmospheric wind. Rainfall responds to the inter‐Pacific‐Atlantic SST gradient by showing an anti‐symmetric configuration between the two equatorial oceans, suggesting that rainfall is sensitive to the equatorial inter‐basin SST gradient, regardless of which ocean is anomalously warm or cold.
The dynamic characteristics and influencing factors of debt structure of the public companies in China

Design/methodology/approach: Learned from Leary (2009), Konstantinos Voutsinas and Richard A.Werner (2011), this study designs a model of debt maturity structure with an unbalanced panel data set. It consists of 1352 Chinese listed companies with8124 observations during the period of 2003-2011. Hausman test hasbeen used, and the findings support the fixed effects model.Findings: Besidesthe factors that have been confirmed by previous researches, debt maturitystructure is also sensitive to other factors, such as economicexpectations, monetary policy, financial restrictions and changes in tax rates.Research limitations/implications: There are still many cases, which affect the debt maturitystructure, are worth of further exploring, for instance, the impactof lagged monetary policy, the determinants of short-term debt ratio and thecost of operating.Practical implications: From the macro point of view, research in this area enable thegovernment to introduce more suitable policies that direct and promote thedevelopment of the bond market, thus it spurs corporations to choose theproper finance structure. From the micro point of view, firms can learn fromthe research to choose the efficient method and term of financing as well asdebt structure.Originality/value: In some way, conclusions of this papercontribute to the study of dynamic characteristics and factors of debt maturitystructure in Chinese listed companies.
Vacuum-assisted microwave drying characteristics of green bell pepper

Chopped green bell pepper pieces were blanched (95 °C, 5 min) and chemically pretreated (1% potassium metabisulphite solution, 25 min at room temperature) before drying in hot air dryer (HAD) at various temperature ranges (60 – 80 °C). Three vacuum levels (200, 400, 600 mm Hg) and microwave power levels (100, 200, 300 W) were also used to dry green bell pepper samples in a vacuum assisted microwave (VAM) (2.45 GHz, 0.8 kW) dryer. VAM drying methods offered a maximum reduction by four to five times in drying time as compared to that in HAD. The logarithmic model was found to have the best fit based on high R 2 and small values of reduced χ 2 and RMSE. VAM method has higher values for effective moisture diffusivity (D eff ) and lower values for activation energy (E a ), in comparison to the HAD method.