Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Customary land ownership and gender disparity: evidence from the Wa municipality of Ghana

Studies draw attention to gender inequalities in land tenure. While some insist that gender inequalities in land tenure exists others do not. This paper discusses a study that examined gender issues in customary land ownership in the Wa Municipality. It sought to understand and find ways of bridging the gender gaps, if any. A survey covering 151 respondents comprising Chiefs, Tendamba, women and family heads was undertaken. The research revealed significant disparities between men and women regarding access to and ownership of land. Only 38% of female respondents owned land as compared to 68% of the male respondents. This was mainly attributed to the patrilineal system of inheritance. It also revealed that the inequality in access to land was due to financial constraint and, rapid urbanization as well as the high illiteracy rate among women. A number of recommendations have been made for enhancing women’s access and ownership of customary land in the Wa Municipality and for promoting gender inclusiveness. KEYWORDS : Gender Equality, Access and Control, Systems of Inheritance, Customary Ownership, Land Tenure
The Pricing of Illiquidity as a Characteristic and as Risk

This paper reviews research on the effects of different measures of liquidity on asset prices. The foundation is the pricing of liquidity as an asset characteristic that began with the theoretical model and empirical evidence of Amihud and Mendelson (1986). The positive relation between expected returns on financial assets and the illiquidity of these assets has since been reconfirmed both in the U.S. and worldwide. The positive relation between illiquidity and expected return gives rise to research on the effect of liquidity-related systematic risk. Two types of such risk are shown to be priced: exposure to shocks in market liquidity and exposure to the market illiquidity return premium. The pricing of these risks is stronger in times of greater funding illiquidity and economic stress.
Nonparametric testing for a monotone hazard function via normalized spacings

We study the problem of testing whether a hazard function is monotonic or not. The proposed test statistics, a global test and four localized tests, are all based on normalized spacings. The global test is in fact just the test statistic [Proschan, F. and Pyke, R. (1967). Tests for monotone failure rate. Fifth Berkeley Symposium, 3, 293–313], introduced for testing a constant hazard function versus a nondecreasing nonconstant hazard function. This global test is powerful for detecting global departures of the null hypothesis, but lacks power when there are local departures from the null hypothesis. By localizing the global test, we obtain tests that respond to this drawback. We also show how the testing procedures can be used when dealing with Type II censored data. We evaluate the performance of the test statistics via simulation studies and illustrate them on some data sets. E-mail: gijbels@stat.ucl. ac.be
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Networks of Heterogeneous Expectations in an Asset Pricing Market

Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva. nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.
Modeling and simulation of high-pressure industrial autoclave polyethylene reactor

High-pressure technology for polyethylene production has been widely used by industries around the world. A good model for the reactor fluid dynamics is essential to properly set the operating conditions of the autoclave reactor. The high-pressure autoclave reactor model developed in this work is based on a non-isothermal dynamic model, where PID control equations are used to maintain the operation at the unstable steady state. Kinetic mechanisms to describe the polymerization rate and molecular weight averages are presented. The model is capable of computing temperature, concentration gradients and polymer characteristics. The model was validated using industrial data, presenting good representation of the behavior of the autoclave reactor used in ethylene homopolymerization.
A Safety Evaluation of Genetically Modified Feedstuffs for Livestock Production; the Fate of Transgenic DNA and Proteins

Two genetic constructs used to confer improved agronomic characteristics, namely herbicide tolerance (HT) in maize and soyabean and insect resistance (Bt) in maize, are considered in respect of feeding to farm livestock, animal performance and the nutritional value and safety of animal products. A review of nucleic acid (DNA) and protein digestion in farm livestock concludes that the frequency of intact transgenic DNA and proteins of GM and non-GM crops being absorbed is minimal/non existent, although there is some evidence of the presence of short fragments of rubisco DNA of non-GM soya in animal tissues. It has been established that feed processing (especially heat) prior to feeding causes significant disruption of plant DNA. Studies with ruminant and non-ruminant farm livestock offered GM feeds demonstrated that animal performance and product composition are unaffected and that there is no evidence of transgenic DNA or proteins of current GM in the products of animals consuming such feeds. On this evidence, current HT and Bt constructs represent no threat to the health of animals, or humans consuming the products of such animals. However as new GM constructs become available it will be necessary to subject these to rigorous evaluation.
Price Hikes, Economic Reforms and Causality in Money, Income and Prices: Evidence from Pakistan

This study extends the analysis of causality by Husain and Rashid (2008) by examining the shift in the variables due to the price hikes in Pakistan in the early 1970s. We investigate the causal relations between real money and real income, between nominal money and nominal income, and between nominal money and prices using the annual data set from 1959-60 to 2003-04. Moreover, we examine the stochastic properties of the variables used in the analysis, and take care of the shifts in the series due to price hikes and liberalisation measures through dummy variables. The results indicate significant shifts in the variables during the sample period. In this context, the shift that occurred due to price hikes in the early 1970s seems to be more important to be incorporated in the analysis. The study finds the active role of money as the leading variable in changing prices without any feedback. In the earlier studies on income the feedback mechanism of money is found missing perhaps because of overlooking the shift in the macro economic variables in the early 1970s.
Interference Mitigation Framework for Cellular Mobile Radio Networks

For today's cellular mobile communication networks, the needed capacity is hard to realize without much more of (expensive) bandwidth. Thus new standards like LTE were developed. LTE advanced is in discussion as the successor of LTE and cooperative multipoint transmission (CoMP) is one of the hot topics to increase the system's capacity. System simulations often show only weak gains of the signal-to-interference ratio due to high interference from noncooperating cells in the downlink. This paper presents an interference mitigation framework to overcome the hardest issue, that is, the low penetration rate of mobile stations that can be served from a cluster composed of their strongest cells in the network. The results obtained from simulation tools are discussed with values resulting from testbed on the TU Dresden. They show that the theoretical ideas can be transferred into gains on real systems.
SOCIAL REPORTING IN THE ANNUAL REPORTS OF IRANIAN LISTED COMPANIES

This paper examines corporate social reporting (CSR) in the annual reports of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) in Iran. Descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression techniques are used to analyse the extent of CSR disclosure and to test hypotheses regarding the relationships between CSR disclosure and four company characteristics namely size, profitability, financial leverage and industry type. Among five important themes of social disclosure (human resources, environmental performance and policies, community activities, energy consumption, and customer satisfaction and product quality) the human resources theme was found to be the most common type of disclosure made. Only the size of the disclosing company was found to be significantly related to the level of overall CSR disclosure.
The effect of orifice diameter in constant volume chamber to spray characteristics in diesel engine using computational fluid dynamic

Mixture formation of the ignition process is a crucial part in diesel combustion as it affects the combustion process and exhaust emission. The main focus of this study is to investigate the effects of spray characteristic to the fuel spray in a chamber using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation. However, simulations are done with the discrete phase of injection taken from the outlet of the nozzle hole to spray chamber. The details behavior of spray penetration and spray breakup length were visualized using Computational Fluid Dynamics. This simulation was done in different nozzle diameters 0.12 mm and 0.2 mm performed at a single ambient pressure of 4 MPa, the ambient temperature of 500 K and 700 K with different injection pressure 40 MPa, 70 MPa and 140 MPa. Results showed that the droplet diameter is influenced by high pressure to become smaller, and the penetration length also longer with high injection pressure applied. Besides, smaller orifice diameter gives a shorter length of the breakup. It is necessary to put afford on orifice diameter and ambient temperature conditions in order to improve the formation of spray.
Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Teacher's Performance: A Mediating Role of Monitoring Practices

The purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of HRM on teachers' performance in the context of Pakistan. Impact of HRM practices on teachers' perfor- mance has been an under-researched area in Pakistan. For the human development of any society the major share of responsibility lies with the teachers of that society, so in this study, we have investigated how HR practices aect the teachers' performance. We proposed a mediation model in which monitoring acts as a mediating mechanism to transmit the positive eects of HR practices on teachers' performance. Therefore teachers' performance is an issue that if addressed adequately, can speed up the pro- cess of eliminating illiteracy from the country. This study examines the impact of HR practices i.e. training & development and performance management on performance of teachers of private schools, Karachi. Cross sectional data was collected from 135 private schools teachers of Karachi through structured questionnaires containing a ve point Likert scale. Exploratory and conrmatory factor Analysis was performed to ver- ify the reliability and validity of the measurement model. The ndings of the research conrm that all HR practices included in the model except the evaluation in our study which is a signicant predictor of teachers' performance. Thus, the contribution of this study for academics and practitioners is that HRM practices in educational sector will aect teachers' performance through HRM outcomes to increase the excellence of teachers as well as the overall quality of education.
Authority in Work Organizations

Authority can 63 defined as a relationship between two individuals—superior and subordinate. The superiority and subordinacy lies not in individual characters but in the organizational hierarchy. Ideologies of authority can be divided into three categories: (1) parental ideologies; (2) professional ideologies; and (3) fraternal ideologies. The author finds that in Indian work organizations parental ideologies in general and the assertive superior in particular dominate authority relations. He concludes that no simple statement about the work behaviour of subordinates in different types of authority relationships can be made since it is a function of several variables.
MARKET ABUSE DETECTION: A METHODOLOGY BASED ON FINANCIAL TIME SERIES

We propose a statistical methodology to detect insider trading and market manipulation phenomena. The methodology is based on financial time series analysis, and in particular we consider asset return (serial correlation and the market model as a benchmark) and trading volume (large values, serial correlation) anomalies. The methodology works quite well: there is little noise (false signals are limited) and we have been able to “replicate’’ the authority behavior at a satisfactory level (more than 70% of cases). The theoretical and regulatory debate on insider trading and market manipulation is rather intense. The two phenomena have been recently regulated in the European Union through the Market Abuse Directive that aims to ensure integrity of financial markets and to enhance investor confidence. The two phenomena have common and distinct features. The main difference is that insider trading is related to the exploitation of private information, instead market manipulation is not necessarily related to a piece of private information. An insider usually hides his behavior (limiting price movements and trading volume effects) to preserve the value of his information and always trades in the same direction (e.g. buy in case of a positive news), instead a market manipulator wants
A Microeconometric Model of Firm Turnover

To date, most studies of firm concentration have considered local markets and as a consequence they have exploited market size as a key determinant of the number of firms. We consider instead the case of intermediate goods producers, specifically agro-food processors, whose markets may be regional, national, or even international. For such firms the extent of their markets is indeterminate. However, changes in the size of their markets are likely slowly evolving—thus suggesting that changes in firm counts can condition out demand effects. This study proposes a new estimator for the analysis of firm level turnover that employs changes in firm counts over a period of observation. The empirical model has several attractive features: it can be applied to secondary data on firm numbers, it can accommodate differenced integers, it can produce expected levels of entry and exit in a particular market, and it can be extended to a multivariate system. An application to modeling changes in numbers of dairy processors in four regions of western France suggests the merit of the econometric approach.
The Accrual Anomaly: Australian Evidence

This paper investigates whether there is evidence of the accrual anomaly (Sloan, 1996) in Australia, whereby investors overestimate the impact of accruals on the persistence of earnings. While our results provide general support for the existence of the anomaly in Australia there are a number of idiosyncrasies. First, there is evidence of Australian investors underestimating the persistence of earnings. Second, there is evidence of investors incorrectly assessing the implications of accruals and cash flows for the persistence of earnings (i.e., an accrual anomaly and a cash flow anomaly). Third, returns to a hedged portfolio trading strategy based on reported accruals are decreasing over the three year period subsequent to portfolio formation. Furthermore, they are statistically significant only in the first year. Additional analysis of the hedge portfolio results indicates that these results are primarily attributable to a limited number of firm year observations in the extreme positive tail of returns.
The Influence of Oregano Essential Oil and Rhus Coriaria L. on Qualitative Parameters and Microbiological Indicators of Hens Eggs Content

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 In this experiment the effects of supplementation of the diet for laying hens with oregano essential oil and Rhus coriaria L.seeds addition on physical and microbiological egg parameters were studied. Hens of laying hybrid Hy-Line Brown (n=30) were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=10) and fed for 20 weeks with diets with oregano essential oil and Rhus coriaria L.seeds supplemented. In the control group hens received feed mixture with no additions. The diets in the first experimental groups were supplemented with 1 ml/kg oregano essential oil. The feed for second experimental group of birds consisted of basal diet supplemented with Rhus coriaria L. seeds (1% in total feed mixture). The results suggest that the most of qualitative parameters of egg internal content and egg shell were not significantly influenced with oregano oil or Rhus coriaria L. seeds addition (P>0.05). A statistically significant difference in favour of the experimental groups compared with the control group was observed in two indicators of albumen quality, in t he index of albumen and in the Haugh Units (P<0.05). The highest total number of bacteria and count of coli forms bacteria was found in the control group. The number of lactobacilli was zero in all groups. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Normalna tabuľka"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:. 0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
The Impact of Training on Productivity: Evidence from a Large Panel of Firms ⁄

This paper investigates the e®ects of training on labor productiv- ity using a unique nationally representative panel of Italian ¯rms for the period 2002 to 2005. We ¯nd that training has a positive and signi¯cant e®ect on productivity. Using a variety of panel estimation techniques, we show that failing to account for unobserved heterogene- ity leads to overestimate the impact of training on productivity, while failing to account for endogeneity leads to substantially underestimate it. Training also has a positive and signi¯cant impact on wages, but this e®ect is about half the size of the e®ect on productivity. Within occupational groups, the e®ect of training on productivity is large and signi¯cant for blue-collars, but small and not signi¯cant for white collars.
Effect of fasting on lipid metabolism and oxidative stability in fattening chicken fed a diet supplemented with organic selenium

The aim of the study was to assess the effect of organic selenium dietary supplementation on serum and tissue lipid composition after fattening period and after 48 h fasting in fattening chicken. The study was performed in the Ross hybrid line chicken divided into two groups: control group fed standard diet and Sel Plex group fed standard diet supplemented with 0.3 ppm organic selenium. Blood, liver, intestine and adipose tissue samples were taken upon fattening completion and after 48 h fasting. Total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triacylglycerol and lipoprotein concentrations were determined in serum, whereas total and free cholesterol, triacylglycerol, lipid peroxide and selenium concentrations and glutathione peroxidase activity (GSH-Px) were determined in tissue samples. During fattening period, the correlation of organic selenium with lipid metabolism manifested as decreased concentrations of serum triacylglycerols and very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) (P<0.05), liver triacylglycerols (P<0.05), adipose tissue cholesterol (P<0.05) and small intestine cholesterol (P<0.05), and reduced lipid peroxidation (P<0.05). Upon chicken exposure to 48 h fasting, organic selenium supplementation resulted in increased free cholesterol concentration in adipose tissue (P<0.05), GSH-Px activity in the liver (P<0.05), and selenium (P<0.05) accumulation in the liver.
Relationship between motivation, attribution and performance expectancy in children’s reading

The importance of reading engagement and reading attainment in the development of children has been well established in research; however, there is significantly less research into the factors that motivate children to read. This study looks to build upon previous reading motivation literature and, specifically, it aims to examine the relationship between reading motivation, attribution of success and failures, and performance expectancy. Data was collected from year six pupils (n=27) at a primary school through a series of tests and self-report questionnaires. Results indicated that neither reading motivation, attribution style or performance expectancy correlated significantly with reading test score. Analysis did reveal that intrinsic reading motivation and extrinsic reading motivation were strongly associated. The study revealed that there were strong relationships between reading motivation, attribution of success and failures, and performance expectancy. The academic implications of these relationships and scope for future research are discussed.
Disease Tolerance and Changes in Antioxidative Abilities in Mycorrhizal Strawberry Plants

Tolerance to fusarium wilt and anthracnose and the changes in antioxidative abilities in mycorrhizal strawberry plants were investigated. Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch., ‘Nohime’) runner plants were inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (Glomus mosseae, AMF) and treated with a split root system. Ten weeks after AMF inoculation, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. fragariae and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides were inoculated. Mycorrhizal plants accumulated a higher dry weight of shoots and roots than non-mycorrhizal plants 10 weeks after AMF inoculation. Four weeks after pathogen inoculation, disease incidence and severity of symptoms were eased in shoots and roots of mycorrhizal plants, especially with fusarium wilt; induced tolerance also appeared in split root-treated mycorrhizal plants. No major difference in antioxidative abilities took place before pathogen inoculation among plots; however, 4 weeks after pathogen inoculation, mycorrhizal plants showed higher values in the following items; SOD activity, DPPH radical scavenging activity, total polyphenol content, ascorbic acid content, effects differed with plant parts. From these findings, plant growth enhancement and tolerance to fusarium wilt, including induced tolerance, and anthracnose occurred in mycorrhizal strawberry plants. In this case, antioxidative abilities increased under pathogen-stressed conditions, so that disease tolerance might be associated with the increase in such antioxidative factors.