Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation of microfinance institutions in Asia: A comparative analysis

This paper compares the regulatory framework of the microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Asia. We find formal MFIs are generally regulated under the banking legislation and supervised by central banks. In contrast, semiformal institutions like NGO‐MFIs are regulated by either an apex organisation or other government body. Informal MFIs are not regulated but some are of sufficient size to become NGO‐MFIs or even banks. The formal MFI regulation seems effective but the internal controls, governance and ownership structure are disappointing for NGO‐MFIs, and of course for the informal MFIs. We propose a prudential regulatory environment for MFIs similar to the banking sector with the realisation that some existing banking rules may not be applicable to MFIs. The regulator should also remember the cost of overregulation. This regulation is a joint and separate responsibility of the governments, central banks, donors and private sectors. Their regulators require sufficient competence and supervision and enforcement skills to achieve a suitable regulatory environment to protect depositors but still encourage MFI to improve their outreach and attain sustainability.
Determinants of Adverse Selection on the NYSE and NASDAQ: A Paired Comparison

Using a matched sample of NYSE and Nasdaq stocks we examine the determinants of differences in the adverse selection component of the spread. Consistent with previous work, we find that adverse selection is less for Nasdaq stocks than for NYSE stocks. Further, we find that many of the factors that we hypothesize to be correlated with adverse selection are significant determinants for only NYSE stocks. Our findings are consistent with the interpretation that the more fragmented nature of the Nasdaq market means that adverse selection is less important to Nasdaq market makers than it is to the NYSE specialist. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find adverse selection is negatively correlated with the number of market makers for Nasdaq stocks. Our results suggest researchers should use caution when using adverse selection components as a proxy for information opacity without also controlling for the listing exchange.
Internet technology adoption in the banking industry

The banking industry in Oman is of major importance to Oman's economy, yet the banks continue to conduct their banking transactions using traditional methods. A strong banking industry supports economic developments significantly through its efficient financial services. The role of the banking industry in trying to achieve the objectives outlined by the Sultan of Oman will depend heavily on the industry's capabilities. This requires banks to introduce changes (both at the procedural level and at the informational level) such as the banking industry moving from traditional distribution channel banking to electronic distribution channel banking. Given the prevalence of Internet technology adoption by the banking industry in developed countries, the reason for the lack of such an innovation in developing countries such as Oman is a fruitful research question. The aim of this thesis is to explore managers' perceptions of Internet technology and their tendency to adopt it in the banking industry.
Host Plant Selection, Larval Survival, and Reproductive Phenology in Megathymus yuccae (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae)

ABSTRACT Our primary objective in this study was to determine the plant level and environmental factors that affect oviposition choice and subsequent offspring survival in Megathymus yuccae (Boisduval and Leconte) on its host plant, Yucca filamentosa L. A preliminary survey suggested that the frequency of pupal eclosion tent presence increased only with host plant height. In an expanded survey conducted during the adult flight period the following spring, we found that plant height increased the probability of oviposition, whereas the density of herbaceous stems and fire damage decreased the probability of egg presence. Similarly, the number of eggs on occupied plants increased with plant height and decreased with fire damage. When we surveyed the plants from the spring 2008 sampling the following winter to determine presence of late-instar larvae or pupae, we found that the probability that at least one larva survived on previously occupied plants decreased with the density of herbaceous stems. These results collectively suggest that larger, unburned Y. filamentosa individuals and those in relatively open areas are more attractive as host plants for oviposition and that larval performance is generally, but not exclusively, consistent with female preference in this system.
Loss Systems with Mixed Renewal and Poisson Inputs

When two independent streams of customers compete for the same servers, as happens for example when first-routed and overflow traffic streams share a single trunk-group, the state of the system seen by the two different types of arriving customers will in general be different. In a loss system with mixed renewal and Poisson inputs, the blocking experienced by the renewal-type customers can be markedly different from that seen by the Poissonian customers. This paper derives the distribution of the number of busy servers seen by the two streams, and outlines a numerical procedure for computing the distributions. Examples of blocking probabilities for two cases of the renewal stream are given.
Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 outbreak detected in inter-seasonal months during the surveillance of influenza-like illness in Pune, India, 2012–2015

SUMMARY An outbreak of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 was detected during the ongoing community-based surveillance of influenza-like illness (ILI). Among reported 119 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 cases (59 cases in the year 2012 and 60 cases in 2015) in summer months, common clinical features were fever (100%), cough (90·7%), sore throat (85·7%), nasal discharge (48·7%), headache (55·5%), fatigue (18·5%), breathlessness (3·4%), and ear discharge (1·7%). Rise in ILI cases were negatively correlated with the seasonal factors such as relative humidity (Karl Pearson's correlation coefficient, i.e. r = −0·71 in the year 2012 and r = −0·44 in the year 2015), while rise in ILI cases were positively correlated with the temperature difference (r = 0·44 in the year 2012 and r = 0·77 in the year 2015). The effective reproduction number R, was estimated to be 1·30 in 2012 and 1·64 in 2015. The study highlights the rise in unusual influenza activity in summer month with high attack rate of ILI among children aged ⩽9 years. Children in this age group may need special attention for influenza vaccination. Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 outbreak was confirmed in inter-seasonal months during the surveillance of ILI in Pune, India, 2012–2015.
A TM0 surface wave launcher by microstrip and substrate integrated waveguide technology

In this summary article, a simple surface wave launcher (SWL) in substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology is proposed. The launcher utilizes a conventional microstrip to SIW transition with the motivation of transferring power into the dominant TM0 surface wave (SW) mode of a grounded dielectric slab (GDS). Moreover, by appropriate design of the SIW section and by applying field matching techniques using sub-wavelength microstrip patches while also conveniently separating some of the via conducting posts for one of the SIW side-walls, power can leak into the GDS with minimal losses for the generation of a bound and guided TM SW with a uniform phase front. The design approach is confirmed by numerical calculations and full-wave simulations for two feed systems which operate at 15 GHz, with and without the matching section. Our new approach for simple, microstrip-fed SW launching at microwave frequencies can also be useful for other SW-based guides, novel low-cost transitions, and new compact dividing/combing circuits for antenna feed systems as well as other SW structures which employ a common substrate.
Homebuyer Information Search: An Extension Of The Technology Acceptance Model For Real Estate Websites

Abstract Buying a property can be an exciting, but also daunting, prospect for home buyers. A recent innovation for potential buyers and sellers which can aid this process has been the introduction of real estate websites, containing searchable databases of property listings and several interior photos of the property on offer. These websites are often touted as offering convenience and efficiency for the house buyer by enabling them to narrow the number of homes to seriously consider, and make a more informed market choice (Littlefield, Bao and Cook, 2000). This thesis explores the adoption of real estate websites by recent house purchasers in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand, with particular focus on the determinants explaining attitudes to use and moderating factors affecting their decision to use the real estate website. Exploratory interviews were undertaken with realtors, and a mailout survey used to gather both behavioural and attitudinal data from recent home purchasers. The research illuminates how using a real estate website influences subsequent purchase behaviour, in particular, how purchasers search for properties and the impact of using these websites on aspects such as search duration, other media types used, and the number of open homes visited. Mediating factors such as age, property type, professionalism and distance to market are also examined. The technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis, 1989) has been proven effective in explaining behavioural intention to use a wide range of IT devices (Konana and Balasubramanian, 2005; Luarn and Lin, 2005; Shang, Chen and Shen, 2005; Chen, Gillenson and Shernell, 2002), including the internet (Moon and Kim, 2001; Lin and Lu, 2000), also the use of interactive IT devices has been found to be intrinsically motivating for the user (Teo, Lim and Lai,1999; Bruner and Kumar, 2005). This thesis extends the ability of the TAM to explain behavioural intention to use interactive technologies through the context of the real estate website. The study examines the TAM in this context by determining the extent of both the established constructs of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, as well as the recently introduced construct of perceived enjoyment.
Clinical and Radiographic Features of Operatively Treated Stiff Clubfeet after Skeletal Maturity: Etiology of the Deformities and How to Prevent Them

Backgrounds: Residual deformities of operatively treated severe clubfeet evaluated radiographically have been rarely studied in detail in adults. Methods: Twenty-five operatively treated stiff clubfeet were analyzed at a mean age of 21 years and 6 months. The clinical evaluation used the Laaveg and Ponseti scale for clubfeet. Radiographic assessment was done with weight-bearing and dynamic views. Results: Clinical evaluation was globally good except for motion (poor). Radiographic assessment showed residual abnormalities in all feet. The distal tibial epiphysis showed slanting of its posterior part in seven feet (28%) and notching of its anterior lip in 13 (52%). Talar length, calcaneal length, and talar trochlear height were significantly smaller in clubfeet compared to normal feet. Undercorrection of hindfoot varus, was found in 19 feet (76%) but was well tolerated. Navicular wedging was present in seven (28%), and cavus deformity was found in seven (28%). Dorsal bunion, hallux varus, and skewfoot were found in four (16%), two (8%), and three (12%), respectively. The dynamic views demonstrated a significant decrease in the foot and ankle mobility with compensation mechanisms such as anterior talar incongruence or midfoot hypermobility. Conclusion: Severe clubfeet never become normal at adult age either clinically or radiographically. Multiple radiographic deformities exist. Their etiology and possible prevention are discussed. Despite the numerous abnormalities, clinical results were good at skeletal maturity.
Spontaneous resolution rates of vesicoureteral reflux in Brazilian children: a 30-year experience.

OBJECTIVE We evaluated clinical characteristics of primary vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) in infants in a 30-year period in Brazil with special reference to the relation of renal parenchymal damage to urinary tract infection and gender. MATERIALS AND METHODS From 1975 through 2005, 417 girls (81.6%) and 94 boys (18.4%) with all grades of reflux were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were categorized by the worst grade of reflux, maintained on antibiotic prophylaxis and underwent yearly voiding cystourethrography until the reflux was resolved. VUR was considered resolved when a follow-up cystogram demonstrated no reflux. Surgical correction was recommended for those who fail medical therapy, severe renal scarring or persistent VUR. RESULTS Grades I to V VUR resolved in 87.5%, 77.6%, 52.8%, 12.2% and 4.3%, respectively. Renal scars were present at presentation in 98 patients (19.2%). Neither gender nor bilaterality versus unilaterality was a helpful predictor of resolution. The significant difference was found among the curves using the log rank (p<0.001) or Wilcoxon (p<0.001) test. CONCLUSION Despite the current use of screening prenatal ultrasound, many infants are still diagnosed as having vesicoureteral reflux only after the occurrence of urinary tract infection in our country. Scarring may be associated to any reflux grade and it may be initially diagnosed at any age but half of the scars are noted with higher grades of reflux (IV and V). The incidence of reflux related morbidity in children has significantly diminished over the last three decades.
Measuring risk perceptions of skin cancer: reliability and validity of different operationalizations.

OBJECTIVE Risk perceptions play a pivotal role in health behaviour theories. Accurate measurement is essential in order to investigate the explanatory value and effectiveness of interventions influencing these beliefs. This study investigated the reliability and predictive validity of different risk perception operationalizations related to skin cancer and sunscreen use in order to explain the inconsistent findings in literature regarding the relationship between risk perceptions and (cancer related) behaviours. DESIGN AND METHODS Two on-line surveys were conducted. Study 1 (N= 175) was conducted among university students to investigate the test-retest reliability of different operationalizations of perceived likelihood and perceived severity and to assess their correlations with sunscreen use. Study 2 (N= 418) was a prospective study among Dutch adults and assessed longitudinal correlations between the different operationalizations and sunscreen use. RESULTS Internal consistency (alpha) ranged between . 13 and . 90 for likelihood measures and between . 37 and . 88 for severity measures. Test-retest correlations (r/ICC) ranged between . 51 and . 82 for the likelihood measures and between . 58 and . 75 for the severity measures. Conditional likelihood estimates, particularly when phrased affectively (feeling at risk), and comparative severity questions were the strongest correlates of behaviour. CONCLUSION Conditional likelihood and comparative severity might be better predictors of health behaviour than commonly used operationalizations of risk perception. These measures may be relevant for use in the development and evaluation of intervention programmes, and should be acknowledged by health behaviour theories. Suggestions for future research are discussed.
Aggregate Stock Market Illiquidity and Bond Risk Premia

Winner 2014 Crowell Second Prize. We assess the effect of aggregate stock market illiquidity on U.S. Treasury bond risk premia. We find that the stock market illiquidity variable adds to the well established Cochrane-Piazzesi and Ludvigson-Ng factors. It explains 10%, 9%, 7%, and 7% of the one-year-ahead variation in the excess return for two-, three-, four-, and five-year bonds respectively and increases the adjusted R 2 by 3-6% across all maturities over Cochrane and Piazzesi (2005) and Ludvigson and Ng (2009) factors. The effects are highly statistically and economically significant both in and out of sample. We find that our result is robust to and is not driven by information from open interest in the futures market, long-run inflation expectations, dispersion in beliefs, and funding liquidity. We argue that stock market illiquidity is a timely variable that is related to "right-to-quality" episodes and might contain information about expected future business conditions through funding liquidity and investment channels.
Financial Market Globalization and Endogenous Inequality of Nations

This paper analyzes the effects of financial market globalization on the cross-country pattern of development in the world economy. To this end, it develops a dynamic macroeconomic model of imperfect credit markets, in which the investment becomes borrowing-constrained at the lower stage of development. In the absence of the international financial market, the world economy converges to the symmetric steady state, and the cross-country difference disappears in the long run. In the presence of the international financial market, the symmetric steady state could lose its stability, in which case the cross-country distribution of th e capital stocks is concentrated into two mass points in every stable steady state. The symmetry-breaking caused by unrestricted flows of financial capital leads to a polarization of the world economy into the rich and the poor. The model thus demonstrates the possibility that financial market globalization may cause, or at least magnify, inequality of nations, and the international financial market is a mechanism through which some countries become rich at the expense of others. The model suggests that the poor countries cannot jointly escape from the poverty trap by merely cutting their links to rich countries. Nor would foreign aids to the poor eliminate the inequalities; as in a game of musical chairs, some countries must be excluded from being rich.
The role of common cost allocation for in-house bid pricing for a competitive niche market: a case study of a city council in the Australian state of New South Wales

Outsourcing in the public sector has been an issue of much debate in the Australian public sector over the last one and a half decades. Following a decade long experimentation elsewhere in the wake of public sector reforms, primarily in Western and other OECD countries, it has impacted upon various tiers of the Australian Public Sector since the late eighties. The reasons for such debates centred on the role of government in serving its citizens from a shrinking revenue base and rising unemployment levels. After the early 1990s management theorists have challenged the efficiencies of governments. Government production has been labelled as inefficient and ineffective. To redress these allegations, various countries adopted measures to lift the performance of the public sector. Some of the measures were administrative in nature, while others directly impacted the operational aspects of government service provision. As a result, intellectual currents flowed back and forth among countries about their practices to address the inefficiencies. Overall, the tiers of governments were scrutinised for their performance. Local governments in different countries were seen to have addressed these concerns more than any other level of government. This is evidenced by the prevalence of a rich body of literature on contracting out in local government contexts.
E-Commerce Adoption Among Chinese Consumers

Abstract The widespread adoption of the Internet in China has made more researchers and business practitioners wonder about the factors involved in e-commerce development at the final consumer level in China. We explore and analyze the factors that are related to the Internet adoption as a medium for purchasing goods and services among Chinese consumers. Noting that these factors are likely to be different from countries like the United States, we proceed by surveying existing literature on consumer behavior from both the Chinese and United States market studies. We then examined the potential causal factors of shopping behavior in an exploratory framework. A set of data drawn from a broad spectrum of users was analyzed and the results were examined for implications in the Chinese context.
Histologic assessment of dose‐related diffusion and muscle fiber response after therapeutic botulinum a toxin injections

Fiber diameter variability, acetylcholinesterase staining properties, and average fiber diameter were determined 5 weeks after varying doses of botulinum A toxin were administered into albino rabbit longissimus dorsi muscle. The average fiber diameter within the muscle appeared to be a function of the dose of botulinum toxin injected. Fiber diameter variability correlated with the dose of botulinum toxin administered. Both fiber diameter variability and acetylcholinesterase spread characteristics showed a distinct diffusion gradient over a defined field within a muscle. At lower doses (1 IU), collapse of the diffusion gradient occurred over a 15–30‐mm segment of muscle. At higher doses (5–10 IU), diffusion of botulinum A toxin effect occurred throughout the entire muscle with no apparent end point. This study demonstrated that botulinum A toxin produces a gradient of denervation in a given muscle and that both the magnitude of denervation and the extent of the gradient are dose dependent. Furthermore, both muscle fiber diameter variability and acetylcholinesterase staining were useful as measures of chemodenervation.
The impact of the implementation of the Single Market Programme on productive efficiency and on mark-ups in the European Union manufacturing industry

This paper analyses the evolution of mark-up levels in the European Union (EU) manufacturing industry over the period 1987-2000 and links this evolution with price and cost developments. It provides an assessment of the impact of the completion of the Single Market Programme (SMP) on the productive efficiency and the market power of manufacturing firms and on prices of manufactured products. Results suggest that in the period prior to the completion of the SMP at the end of 1992, mark-ups of EU manufacturing firms deteriorated in line with a fall in prices, but that mark-ups recovered thereafter thanks to the realisation of productive efficiency gains. For society as a whole, there are welfare gains associated with the SMP, insofar as profit margins recovered after the initial shock delivered by the implementation of the SMP, while prices in real terms declined.
Build It, Buy It or Both? Rethinking the Sourcing of Advertising Services

This paper provides an update on the current state of in-house agencies. Whereas traditional consideration of internalizing advertising services was framed as a binary choice of build or buy, today’s advertisers frequently pursue hybrid policies of build and buy to procure the customized bundle required to develop, produce, and implement relevant, resonant promotional campaigns. Increasing numbers of advertisers are discovering that the demand for advertising and marketing services is best served through the coordination and integration of resources from both inside and outside the company, rather than assuming that these options are mutually exclusive. A review of advertising industry history reveals why internal agencies have long operated in the shadows of their external counterparts and how the former organization form has evolved over time. The core competencies underlying the contemporary in-house agency model are analyzed and the competitive position that in-house agencies presently occupy in relation to external providers is assessed. Two case examples of successful internal/external agency collaboration are presented. Finally, recommendations are offered for advertisers seeking to bring their internal and external agency resources together and arrive at a more-collaborative operating model for advertising services.