Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implications of firm ownership identity and managerial discretion on financial performance: empiricale evidence from Nairobi Stock Exchange

Research on the implications of ownership identity and managerial discretion on firm performance has been yielded mixed results. Further, there is scanty literature, if any, on studies combining these variables in a single research. Yet there is near-convergence in literature that ownership identity impacts managerial discretion in decision making processes. This paper presents results of a study that shows the interrelationships between ownership identity and managerial discretion, and their impact on financial performance as measured by ROA, ROE and DY. State ownership of firms is particularly indicted for poor stewardship, whereas foreign , insider, diverse and institutional ownership gave the best results. The results also show significant positive relationship between managerial discretion and performance. Collectively, these results are consistent with pertinent literature with regard to the implications of government, foreign, manager (insider) and institutional ownership forms, but significantly differ concerning the effects of diverse ownership on firm performance.
The Active Marker Compound Identification of Artocarpus champeden Spreng, Stembark Extract, MoraCahlcone A As Antimalarial

Artocarpus champeden Spreng. (Moraceae), commonly known as ”cempedak”, has been traditionally used for malarial remedies. Several studies reported that A. champeden Spreng. stembark has in vitro and in vivo antimalarial activity. The main aim of this research was to isolate and identify an active marker compound of A. champeden stembark for quality control purpose of A. champeden stembark extract in the development of this extract as phytomedicine antimalarial product. The isolation method was bioactivity guided column chromatography and preparative TLC techniques. The marker compound that has been isolated showed potent antimalarial activity with an IC50 value of 0.18 μg/ml against Plasmodium falciparum 3D7strain. Based on UV, IR, 1H NMR, 2D NMR (COSY, HMBC and HMQC) spectral and identification of other references, the active marker compound was identical with known prenylated chalcone compound, Morachalcone A.
The Role of Dissatisfaction and per Capita Income in Explaining Self–Employment across 15 European Countries

This article deals with explaining the sizable differences in the rate of self–employment (business ownership) across 15 European countries in the period 1978–2000, within a framework of occupational choice, focusing on the influence of dissatisfaction and of per capita income. Using two different measures of dissatisfaction, in addition to the level of economic development and controlling for several other variables, we find that, in addition to a negative and significant impact of per capita income, dissatisfaction at the level of societies has a positive and significant influence on self–employment levels. Both dissatisfaction with life and dissatisfaction with the way democracy works are found to influence self–employment. It is concluded that these are proxies for job dissatisfaction and at the same time represent other negative “displacements” known to promote self–employment. The findings indirectly point at the potential importance of push factors within the incentive structures of modern economies.
Ash and ice clouds during the Mt Kelud February 2014 eruption as interpreted from IASI and AVHRR/3 observations

Abstract. During the Mt Kelud February 2014 eruption the ash cloud was detectable on 13–14 February in the infrared with the reverse absorption technique by, for example, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR/3). The Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) observed the ash cloud also on 15 February when AVHRR did not detect any ash signal. The differences between ash detection with AVHRR/3 and IASI are discussed along with the reasons for the differences, supported by radiative transfer modelling. The effect of concurrent ice clouds on the ash detection and the ash signal in the IASI measurements is demonstrated. Specifically, a radiative transfer model is used to simulate IASI spectra with ash-only, with ice cloud only and with both ash and ice clouds. It is shown that modelled IASI spectra with ash and ice clouds reproduce the measured IASI spectra better than ash-only- or ice-only-modelled spectra. The ash and ice modelled spectra that best reproduce the IASI spectra contain about a factor of 12 less ash than the ash-only spectra that come closest to reproducing the measured spectra.
Crustal shortening, exhumation, and strain localization in a collisional orogen: The Bajo Pequeño Shear Zone, Sierra de Pie de Palo, Argentina

The Bajo Pequeño Shear Zone (BPSZ) is a lower‐crustal shear zone that records shortening and exhumation associated with the establishment of a new plate boundary, and its placement in a regional structural context suggests that local‐ to regional‐scale strain localization occurred with progressive deformation. A kilometer‐scale field and analytical cross section through the ~80 m thick BPSZ and its adjacent rocks indicates an early Devonian (405–400 Ma) phase of deformation on the western margin of Gondwanan continental crust. The earliest stages of the BPSZ, recorded by metamorphic and microstructural data, involved thrusting of a hotter orthogneiss over a relatively cool pelitic unit, which resulted in footwall garnet growth and reset footwall white mica 40Ar/39Ar ages in proximity to the shear zone. Later stages of BPSZ activity, as recorded by additional microstructures and quartz c‐axis opening angles, were characterized by strain localization to the center of the shear zone coincident with cooling and exhumation. These and other data suggest that significant regional tectonism persisted in the Famatinian orogenic system for 60–70 million years after one microplate collision (the Precordillera) but ceased 5–10 million years prior to another (Chilenia). A survey of other synchronous structures shows that strain was accommodated on progressively narrower structures with time, indicating a regional pattern of strain localization and broad thermal relaxation as the Precordillera collision evolved.
Automated detection and location of Cascadia tremor

A new autonomous seismic location and detection methodology enables real‐time opportunities for high‐resolution spatio‐temporal monitoring of non‐volcanic tremor. Combining a unique cross‐correlation technique with epicenter clustering analysis in northern Cascadia automatically yields thousands of tremor epicenters from the May 2008 Episodic Tremor and Slip (ETS) event while routinely detecting and locating inconspicuous inter‐ETS tremor bursts. Although ETS events in this area produce about two weeks of continuous tremor, we find a nearly equal amount of tremor during the last 15‐month inter‐ETS period. The resulting ETS and inter‐ETS epicenters occur in the slow slip region where the plate interface is 30–45 km deep and have a sharp, well‐resolved updip boundary about 75 km east of the downdip edge of the seismogenic megathrust zone. This ability to track tremor with high spatio‐temporal resolution facilitates automatic tremor monitoring and the mapping of the transition zone and regions of locked zone stress accumulation.
PROMOTING CIVIC ENGAGEMENT THROUGH ETHNIC MEDIA

Ethnic media, defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (for the ethnic program specifically) as “one, in any language, that is specifically directed to any culturally or racially distinct group other than one that is Aboriginal Canadian or from France or the British Isles” (CRTC, 1999), are emerging to offer new communicative civic spaces to ethno-cultural citizens. Studies, however, suggest that while they may not be completely disconnected from broader society, they remain largely “distinct from the dominant public sphere” (Karim, 2002). The majority are focused on a single ethnic group and develop in isolation of each other to cater to their specific group’s interests. Such an isolationist tendency is a concern in multicultural societies in that it can potentially intensify political, socio-economic, and cultural divides among older and new populations and develop “parallel societies” (Hafez, 2007) and a fragmented citizenship. Whether or not ethnic media will lead to hindering immigrants’ civic integration by raising citizens of communities rather than citizens of the broader society needs to be empirically validated. This paper, therefore, explores the distinction between mainstream and ethnic media through a comparative content analysis on coverage of the October 14 2008 Canadian federal election in English and Korean press in British Colombia, Canada. The findings suggest that in-group orientation is in fact more distinct in English media with significantly low attention given to ethnic minorities either as candidates or voters. Ethnic media, on the other hand, undertake significant citizenship education by delivering step-by-step “how-to” information about the election to immigrants who are less familiar with the Canadian political system to assist them in exercising voting rights.
The Effect of Drag-Reducing Additives on the Rheological Properties of Fly Ash-Water Suspensions at Varying Temperature Environment

Fly ash transportation and disposal is a major problem in India. Presently fly ash is being transported as lean slurry in pipe lines requiring about 80 to 85% of water which, in turn, consumes more energy input. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the rheological characteristics of fly ash slurry at varying temperatures with and without an additive to facilitate smooth flow in the pipelines. Six fly ash slurry samples were prepared from the fly ash obtained from a thermal power plant situated in the southern part of India. The main constituents of the slurry were fly ash, water, a cationic surfactant and a counter-ion. Detailed rheological properties were determined for the six slurries at shear rates varying from 25 to 500s. Temperature was varied from 20uC to 40uC for all the shear rates investigated. The slurry exhibited Newtonian flow behaviour with zero yield stress. The slurry prepared in the above manner has a potential to be transported through pipelines with minimal energy consumption. The distinctive reduction of surface tension on colloidal disperse characteristics of the resulting slurry was observed in the presence of the surfactants. Zeta potential measurements also confirmed that the additive has the capability to keep the fly ash particles water borne during its transportation in pipelines. f 2009 The University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research and the American Coal Ash Association All rights reserved. A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 3 July 2009; Received in revised form 8 September 2009; Accepted 17 December 2009
Hierarchical structure and dynamics of plant cell wall studied using x-rays

The interest in wood and its main constituent, cellulose, is growing continuously. This can be explained by the demands of sustainable development and the extending scope of applications enabled by novel materials like nanocrystalline cellulose. Outstanding mechanical properties are one of the main reasons for the usability of wood. However, details on the ultrastructure of wood cell wall are still lacking, and thus also the origin for the mechanical properties is partly unknown. The various properties of plant materials arise from their hierarchical structure. Thus information at several size scales is needed for revealing the structure-function relationships. In this study, the structure of plant cell wall and cellulose based materials was characterized from the microto nanometer scale: using x-ray microtomography, the three-dimensional cellular structure was revealed and using x-ray scattering methods, the nanostructure was investigated. In the cell wall, parallel cellulose chains form microfibrils, which are partially crystalline and embedded in an amorphous hemicellulose-lignin matrix. The orientation, width and length of the crystalline parts of microfibrils vary between the plant species and materials. In this thesis, the cellulose structure was characterized in various plant species, and the effects due to drying, chemical pulping and acid hydrolysis were determined. It was found that the properties of the amorphous matrix played a role in all the effects studied. The wide spectrum of the samples, including native cotton, flax, bamboo, various wood species, pulp, microcrystalline and nanofibrillated cellulose (MCC, NFC), enabled interesting comparisons. It was observed, that in tension wood, pulp, MCC, and NFC, the cellulose crystallite width was significantly larger than in native normal wood. The high cellulose content and lack of lignin were typical for all the samples with a larger crystallite width. It was also found that the lateral and longitudinal order of the cellulose chains in crystallites was higher in never-dried wood compared to the corresponding air-dried samples. This indicated that the moisture had impact on the structures formed by crystalline cellulose although the water molecules can not enter the crystallites. One of the objects of the thesis was the study of the cellulose structure of oak from the Swedish warship Vasa. The results gave information on the preservation of the historically important wood throughout the centuries at the bottom of the sea. Classification (INSPEC): A6110F, A6140K, A8170J
Collaborative Textbook Selection: A Case Study Leading to Practical and Theoretical Considerations

This case study developed a collaborative approach to the selection of a Spanish language textbook. The collaborative process consisted of six steps, detailed in this article: team building, generating evaluation criteria, formulating a meaningful rubric, selecting prospective textbooks, calculating rubric results, and reflectively reviewing results. Following the selection of the textbook and its introduction into the curriculum, both the collaborative approach and the textbook itself were evaluated using teacher (n = 10) and student (n = 120) satisfaction surveys. The survey results, which were positive for both groups, offered empirical data from which to theoretically consider the textbook.
Simple Adaptive Asymptotic Tracking Scheme for Parametric Strict-Feedback Nonlinear Systems with Additive Disturbance

We consider the same class of systems in a previous paper, that is, a class of parametric strict-feedback nonlinear systems with additive disturbance. By using the backstepping technique, adaptive control algorithm is developed. Unlike the existing control schemes for systems with additive disturbance, no knowledge is assumed on two times continuous differentiability of the disturbance. Also, the developed backstepping controller does not require the uncertain parameters to be restricted within a known interval. Furthermore, overestimation of the system parameters is removed by employing the tuning functions method. It is shown that the proposed controller guarantees not only the stability in the sense of Lyapunov definition, but also the asymptotic tracking.
Knowing with Certainty: The Appropriateness of Extreme Confidence.

How often are people wrong when they are certain that they know the answer to a question ? The studies reported here suggest that the answer is "too often. " For a variety of general-knowledge questions (e.g., absinthe is [a] a liqueur or [b] a precious stone), subjects first chose the most likely answer and then indicated their degree of certainty that the answer they had selected was, in fact, correct. Across several different question and response formats, subjects were consistently overconfident. They had sufficient faith in their confidence judgments to be willing to stake money on their validity. The psychological bases for unwarranted certainty are discussed in terms of the inferential processes whereby knowledge is constructed from perceptions and memories.
An Analysis of Transaction Costs of Obtaining Credits in Rural Iran

Household data are used in this study to assess the transaction costs of obtaining credit from formal and semiformal institutions in rural Iran. A survey was employed to gather the data needed to determine the transaction costs that must be borne by the borrower in each step of the credit procurement process. Data were collected from a random sample of 459 households, including 272 borrower households. OLS regression and F-test (in view of the authors, OLS is not regression but a method of estimating a regression. F-test is not an econometric method but perhaps a statistical one and still it is a key statistics toll of either ANOVA or a regression. So these cannot be employed to investigate something. On the other hand, regressions have been estimated below, and surely one should be able to assign names of them) were employed to analyse the transaction cost factors affecting the procurement of credit facilities. Similar to many financial institutions operating in other developing countries, access to a loan in Iran imposes high transaction costs upon mostly poor rural households. The results reveal that the transaction costs of receiving a loan are on the average equivalent to nine percent of the total loan size. Formal and semiformal institutions impose significantly different costs upon the rural loan applicants. Results reveal that contractual form, loan size, how far the borrower being away from the financial centre along with other borrower peculiarities are important determinants of transactions’ costs.
Compression specific toughness of normal strength steel fiber reinforced concrete (NSSFRC) and high strength steel fiber reinforced concrete (HSSFRC)

Compression toughness tests were carried out on concrete cylinders reinforced with three different aspect ratios of hooked-end steel fibers 60, 75, and 83 and six different percentages of steel fibers 0.5, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, and 2.0% by volume of concrete. The w/c ratio used for the normal strength steel fiber reinforced concrete mixes (NSSFRC) was 0.55, and the water-cementitious ratio (w/c+s) for the high strength fiber reinforced concrete mixes (HSSFRC) was 0.31. For each mix, three test cylinders were tested for compression specific toughness. The effect of fiber reinforcement index: volume of fibers × length/diameter ratio on compression specific toughness and also on the relationship between these two properties is presented in this paper. As a result, (a) equations are proposed to quantify the effect of fibers on compression toughness ratio of concrete in terms of FRI, (b) equations obtained in terms of FRI and compression specific toughness of plain concrete to estimate both compression specific toughness of NSSFRC and HSSFRC (N.m), (c) equations obtained which represent the relationship between compression toughness index and FRI for NSSFRC and HSSFRC, respectively, and (d) equations obtained to quantify the relationship between compression specific toughness index and fiber reinforcement index for NSSFRC and HSSFRC, respectively. The proposed equations give good correlation with the experimental values.
Evidence of the control of summer atmospheric transport of African dust over the Atlantic by Sahel sources from TOMS satellites (1979–2000)

We used 18 years (1979–1992 and 1997–2000) of aerosol observations from TOMS satellites to monitor the inter‐annual variability of summertime atmospheric dust optical thickness over both Atlantic and Africa. A comparison of TOMS dust optical thicknesses with ground‐based Sun‐photometer measurements shows that our long‐term data set is consistent in time and space and is thus suitable for studying the interannual and decadal variability of African dust transport. Our results show that dust emissions in North western Sahel are so variable from one year to the other that they control most of the variability of summer dust transport to the tropical Atlantic. Our satellite data also demonstrate that there is a large scale correlation between Atlantic dust export and Sahel drought during the previous year, which suggests that dust emissions in this semi‐arid region are likely controlled by the position of the vegetated southern boundary of the Sahara.
Signaling to Partially Informed Investors in the Newsvendor Model

We analyze a signaling game between the manager of a firm and an investor in the firm. The manager has private information about the firm's demand and cares about the short‐term stock price assigned by the investor. Previous research has shown that under continuous decision choices and the Intuitive Criterion refinement, the least‐cost separating equilibrium will result, in which a low‐quality firm chooses its optimal capacity and a high‐quality firm over‐invests in order to signal its quality to investors. We build on this research by showing the existence of pooling outcomes in which low‐quality firms over‐invest and high‐quality firms under‐invest so as to provide identical signals to investors. The pooling equilibrium is practically appealing because it yields a Pareto improvement compared to the least‐cost separating equilibrium. Distinguishing features of our analysis are that: (i) we allow the capacity decision to have either discrete or continuous support, and (ii) we allow beliefs to be refined based on either the Undefeated refinement or the Intuitive Criterion refinement. We find that the newsvendor model parameters impact the likelihood of a pooling outcome, and this impact changes in both sign and magnitude depending on which refinement is used.
The Importance of Structure Coefficients in Multiple Regression: A Review with Examples from Published Literature.

This paper discusses the importance of interpreting both regression coefficients and structure coefficients when analyzing the results of multiple regression analysis, particularly with correlated predictor variables. The concepts of multicolinearity and suppressor effects are introduced, along with examples from the previously published articles that demonstrate how erroneous conclusions are drawn when researchers fail to consult both beta weights and structure coefficients (or both beta weights and zero-order correlations). (Contains 4 tables, 1 figure, and 39 references.) (Author/SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. burdensk.wp1 11/14/99 Running head: STRUCTURE COEFFICIENTS The Importance of Structure Coefficients in Multiple Regression: A Review with Examples from Published Literature Thomas K. Burdenski, Jr. Texas A&M University 77843-4225 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY 1110Ma-S 13u.r-J erSX% TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office EDU TIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southwest Educational Research Association, Dallas, January 27-29, 2000. BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 Structure Coefficients -2Abstract The present paper discusses the importance of interpreting both regression coefficients and structure coefficients when analyzing the results of multiple regression analysis, particularly with correlated predictor variables. The concepts of multicollinearityThe present paper discusses the importance of interpreting both regression coefficients and structure coefficients when analyzing the results of multiple regression analysis, particularly with correlated predictor variables. The concepts of multicollinearity and suppressor effects are introduced, along with examples from the previously published articles that demonstrate how erroneous conclusions are drawn when researchers fail to consult both beta weights and structure coefficients (or both beta weights and zeroorder correlations).