Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of prudential regulatory standards on the financial performance of deposit taking SACCOS in Kenya

Savings and Credit Co members and operated for the purposes of promoting thrift, providing credit at low interest rates and providing other financial services to its members. and even started banking like services which were called FOSA in attempt to increase efficiency in services delivery but instead led to illiquidity, capital inadequacy, poor credit management and low confidence among members the need specificall effects of Kenya. More in detail the study ought to establish the effect of liquidity management regulatory standards; loan provisioning requirements and core capital regulatory stan Performance of DTS. The relevant literature was reviewed to ascertain the knowledge gap left by earlier scholars. The target population of the study will be all 175 DTS registered and operate in Kenya which will be obtained through rando Secondary source of data will be used and data analysis will be done using both descriptive and inferential statistics with the aid of SPSS. The study findings indicated that Liquidity ratio as recommended by S PRS era. Liquidity ratio and Loan allowance both had a high effect on financial performance of DTS in Kenya in Post PRS era. Further research should be conducted in the areas relat management framework because DTS like any other financial institution are affected by risk factors and expound on other measures of performance.
The Decline of Cash Assistance: The State Politics of TANF-as-Funding-Stream

I use multi-level growth models to examine determinants of state cash assistance financial e↵ort under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (“welfare”) from 1998 to 2013, finding that the prevalence of negative stereotyping of blacks by whites in a state is predictive of spending. Additionally, there is suggestive evidence more liberal government is associated with greater cash assistance e↵ort, but only when extremely negative racial stereotyping by whites is less common. This finding is inconsistent across models, however. Finally, states in fiscal distress direct more resources to priorities other than basic assistance, calling TANF’s ability to act as a countercyclical safety net into question. Introduction The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF; “welfare”) program created by the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA; “welfare reform”) provides state policymakers broad discretion over program design. This flexibility led to variation in cash assistance program rules across states, such as the length of time limits imposed, benefit caps based on family size, and severity of sanctions for rules violations. The program also a↵ords states flexibility over the use of program resources. TANF funds can be directed to any purpose consistent with the broad goals of welfare reform—ending dependence on public support through work and marriage, promoting twoparent families, reducing out-of-wedlock births, and facilitating care of children in their own homes (Falk, 2013). Given these broad mandates, only about one-quarter of state and federal TANF funds were, as of 2013, devoted to basic cash assistance, a near inversion of spending early in the program’s history. TANF includes formal and informal incentives for states to direct resources to alternative priorities, but emphasis on cash assistance and the rate of decline in cash assistance vary widely. Few studies of state TANF implementation have extended beyond the rules and requirements for cash assistance beneficiaries, creating a mismatch between scholarly under-
Gender Differences in Beliefs about English Language Policies (ELPs): The Case of Saudi Higher Education English Departments

Review of literature suggests that issues in English language policies (ELPs) in higher education foreign language department levels have not been addressed, and the relationship between beliefs about general notions of ELPs and gender has been disregarded. The current study investigates gender-related differences in beliefs on five main notions of ELPs among staff members in Saudi Arabian English departments. An online survey was administered to staff members in different Saudi English departments from different regions in Saudi Arabia. Five general statements on ELPs were included in the survey and were responded to by male (n = 67) and female (n = 143) staff members (total = 210). Pearson’s chi-square test of independence and the calculated percentages of responses were used to analyze gender differences. No statistically significant differences were found between male and female participants, with the exception of one statement. Both genders had generally similar beliefs on ELPs. Moreover, the female staff had slightly stronger beliefs than the male staff, and males showed more hesitation than females did when deciding on ELP matters. The study also discusses the implications of the findings and provided recommendations for future research.
Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Youth Experiences Survey for Sport (YES-S)

Research on Positive Youth Development (PYD) has been hampered by lack of a valid measure for the construct, particularly for research in sport. The Youth Experiences Scale for Sport (YES-S) [1], is a five-factor measure of positive youth outcomes specifically designed for the sport context. The YES-S is a promising instrument that fills an important niche in PYD research, and MacDonald et al. provided support for many of its psychometric properties. However, the factor structure of the scale is currently based on an exploratory factor analysis and has not yet been subjected to a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The present study was designed to confirm the five-factor structure of the YES-S. A sample of 350 youth sport athletes (196 male, 153 female) completed the YES-S. A CFA showed that a modified version of the five-factor YES-S had excellent fit of the model to the data. An analysis of invariance showed no differences in responses in terms of gender. It is concluded that this short-form YES-S offers excellent psychometric properties while retaining the original factor structure of the YES-S. The results offer further support for the validity of the factor structure of the YES-S while providing a shorter version of the scale, which may be appealing for research with younger sport participants.
Factors Determining Health Expenditure in the Asian and the OECD Countries

It is widely recognized that developed countries have been spending more than developing countries on health care. Objective of the study is to examine determinants of health expenditure and what factors influence it. Fifteen Asian countries and 30 OECD countries were chosen to explore the difference of their health expenditure structures. Model of health expenditure per person was estimated to be dependent on market demand, market supply, and other exogenous factors. A model with country specific and time effects of health expenditure was used and estimated. The study found a negative but insignificant relationship between price and health expenditure and a positive and significant relationship between GDP and health expenditure. Urban population density as proxy of urbanization was found to induce the health expenditure in the OECD. Out-of-pocket payment was also found to induce health expenditure for both the Asian and the OECD countries. A net effect of improvement in the health status or a lower mortality rate and a higher life expectancy caused an increase in the health expenditure among the Asian countries studied but decreased health expenditure in the OECD countries. In terms of income elasticity, it was found to be smaller than one in both groups of the countries. Since the income has changed faster than the other factors, the net effect of changes of all factors over period of time will cause rising in health care expenditure. Finally, the model indicated that both the Asian and OECD countries will continue to have a rising health expenditure per person over a period of time.
Prevalence and associated comorbidities of body mass index ranges

Obesity is a global preventable epidemic inundating health care resources by increasing mortality and morbidity. The present study aimed to determine prevalence, risk factors, and co-morbidities associated with body mass index (BMI) ranges. A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess physical activity, dietary habits, alcohol, family history, sleep, stress, gender, age, education, employment and socioeconomic status as determinants of BMI. Total prevalence of overweight and obesity was reported among 33.34% and 18.24% of subjects, respectively; which increases with age (76.55%) and declines thereafter (21.87%). Female gender, primary and secondary education, middle social class, unemployment, positive family history, physical inactivity (p<0.001), non-vegetarian diet (p<0.05), adequate sleep, and significant stress was found associated with overweight and obesity. The prevalence of hypertension (p<0.05), hyperglycaemia (p<0.05), and hyperlipidemia was found directly proportional to increase in BMI. A rapidly rising obesity and its associated co-morbidities show that almost all the factors were potentially modifiable and preventable through lifestyle modification, which includes Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension, daily 30minutes moderate-intensity physical activity and stress management.
Production and Profitability of Banana in Bangladesh-An Economic Analysis

Banana production provides suitable options for subsistence and income generation in Bangladesh. It is a commercial fruit, but in context of Bangladesh, it is grown in limited area commercially. Inadequate marketing system in this sector affect the income of the producers and its trading which also limit the expansion of banana production in our country. We are trying to determine relative profitability of banana in Narsingdhi during the period January to March, 2013. In this study we investigate total cost, profit and benefit cost ratio for different marketing channel like banana producers, wholesalers and retailers. Profit for producer, wholesaler and retailer in banana production were Tk. 55002.8 per Hectare, Tk. 59.08 per Chari, and Tk. 122.67 per Chari respectively and benefit cost ratio for producers, wholesalers and retailers were 1.40, 1.30 and 1.41 respectively. We have also followed Cobb-Douglas production model was used to determine the contribution of some important inputs like land preparation, fertilizer, irrigation, insecticides, sucker and labor cost to production of banana. We also investigate to explore the problems of producing banana and offer suggestion for possible improvement in the existing marketing system.
Water Flow Stabilization Using Submerged Weir for Draft Tube Reaction Hydraulic Turbine

In turbine practice engineering, draft tube downstream running under extreme water flow pressure and velocity. This is causing a vibrations and pressure variation during different operation frequencies. The practical challenge of obtaining a stabilized water flow is ongoing domain of research. In this paper, a proposition of initiating submerged weir in the downstream of draft tube reaction turbine is inspected. The main goal of this research is to reduce the water flow pressure variation, velocity and shear distribution in accordance to the upstream water level influence. Two types of turbines including vertical Kaplan and Francis turbine units are examined. ANSYS CFX software tool is used to build three-dimension (3D) numerical models for the Kaplan and Francis turbines with building a submerged weir at the outlet of the draft tubes at three deferent height suggestions. The influence of the proposed submerged weir is studied the flow through these turbines by considering the dimensions of their components including the penstock with inlets, spiral casing, shafts and blades, and the draft tube with outlets. The findings of this research were tremendous proposition to solve the problem of negative pressure pulsation in draft tube of Kaplan and Francis turbines types.
Machine Learning Optimisation for Realistic 2D and 3D PET-CT Phantom Study

An experimental study using artificial neural network (ANN) is carried out to achieve the optimal network architecture for proposed positron emission tomography (PET) application. 55 experimental phantom datasets acquired under clinically realistic conditions with different 2-D and 3-D acquisitions and image reconstruction parameters along with 2min, 3min and 4min scan times per bed are used in this study. The best scanner parameters are determined based on the ANN experimental evaluation of the proposed datasets. The analysis methodology of phantom PET data has shown promising results and can successfully classify and quantify malignant lesions in clinically realistic datasets.
Finance and Income Inequality: What Do the Data Tell Us?

Although there are distinct conjectures about the relationship between finance and income inequality, little empirical research compares their explanatory power. We examine the relationship between finance and income inequality for 83 countries between 1960 and 1995. Because financial development might be endogenous, we use instruments from the literature on law, finance, and growth to control for this. Our results suggest that, in the long run, inequality is less when financial development is greater, consistent with Galor and Zeira (1993) and Banerjee and Newman (1993). Although the results also suggest that inequality might increase as financial sector development increases at very low levels of financial sector development, as suggested by Greenwood and Jovanovic (1990), this result is not robust. We reject the hypothesis that financial development benefits only the rich. Our results thus suggest that in addition to improving growth, financial development also reduces inequality.
External Shocks, Banks and Optimal Monetary Policy in an Open Economy

We document empirically that the 2007-09 Global Financial Crisis exposed emerging market economies (EMEs) to an adverse feedback loop of capital outflows, depreciating exchange rates, deteriorating balance sheets, rising credit spreads and falling real economic activity. In order to account for these empirical findings, we build a New-Keynesian DSGE model of a small open economy with a banking sector that has access to both domestic and foreign funding. Using the calibrated model, we investigate optimal, simple and operational monetary policy rules that respond to domestic/external financial variables alongside inflation and output. The Ramsey-optimal policy rule is used as a benchmark. The results suggest that such an optimal policy rule features direct and non-negligible responses to lending spreads over the cost of foreign debt, the real exchange rate and the US policy rate, together with a mild anti-inflationary policy stance in response to domestic and external shocks. Optimal policy faces trade-offs in smoothing inefficient fluctuations in the intratemporal and intertemporal wedges driven by inflation, credit spreads and the real exchange rate. In response to productivity and external shocks, a countercyclical reserve requirement (RR) rule used in coordination with a conventional interest rate rule attains welfare levels comparable to those implied by spread- and real exchange rate-augmented rules.
Users and Non-users of Wetland Area; Willingness to Pay and Demand Elasticity

The present paper uses error component model to elicit respondents preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for wetland conservation. The main objective of this research was to estimate the difference between preferences and WTP of respondents who are users of wetland and those who consider as non-users. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) and error component logit model (ECM) showed significant difference between WTP and attitudinal factors of two groups. The results of SEM indicated that respondents’ management concerns, income, and their employment status had positive and direct effect on their WTP. Results of ECM showed that user model is slightly better predictor of respondents’ choice. The non-market values of the wetland for users are estimated approximately US$ 3.67 per household per month meanwhile this value for nonusers was about US$ 2.80. The overall results indicated that familiarity and previous knowledge on wetland has significant effect on respondnets’ perception, attitudes and WTP. Results also showed that demand for better conservation and management of wetland is relatively price inelastic. This study conclude that improvement in Shadegan International Wetland management will bring higher utility for both users and nonusers society and hence will be supported by them.
Unintended pregnancy among currently pregnant maried women in Nepal

University of Tampere Tampere School of Health Sciences/Public Health BASTOLA KALPANA: UNINTENDED PREGNANCY AMONG CURRENTLY PREGNANT MARRIED WOMEN IN NEPAL Master's Thesis, pages: 55 Supervisor: Tarja I. Kinnunen, PhD Health Sciences (Public Health)
The Real Problem with Perturbative Quantum Field Theory

The perturbative approach to quantum field theory (QFT) has long been viewed with suspicion by philosophers of science. This article offers a diagnosis of its conceptual problems. Drawing on Norton’s ([2012]) discussion of the notion of approximation I argue that perturbative QFT ought to be understood as producing approximations without specifying an underlying QFT model. This analysis leads to a reassessment of common worries about perturbative QFT. What ends up being the key issue with the approach on this picture is not mathematical rigour, or the threat of inconsistency, but the need for a physical explanation of its empirical success. 1. Three Worries about Perturbative Quantum Field Theory2. The Perturbative Formalism 2.1. Expanding the S-matrix2.2. Perturbative renormalization3. Approximations and Models4. Perturbative Quantum Field Theory Produces Approximations5. The Real Problem Three Worries about Perturbative Quantum Field Theory The Perturbative Formalism 2.1. Expanding the S-matrix2.2. Perturbative renormalization Expanding the S-matrix Perturbative renormalization Approximations and Models Perturbative Quantum Field Theory Produces Approximations The Real Problem
TAP, SWIPE & PINCH: DESIGNING SUITABLE MULTI-TOUCH GESTURES FOR OLDER USERS

Multi-touch technology and finger-gesture interaction are becoming increasingly popular. While manufacturers advertise this new interaction paradigm as "easy" and "intuitive" to use, it remains unclear whether it indeed facilitates interaction, especially for older users with their special knowledge, needs and capabilities. The present work investigates which gestures are intuitive to older and younger users for a range of common interaction tasks on a mobile device. We found that older users are less coherent in their proposed gestures, use fewer fingers and generate more symbolic gestures.
Negative density dependence of sympatric Hinge-back Tortoises (Kinixys erosa and K. homeana) in West Africa

A series of 59 transect surveys was conducted in selected wet forest habitats, along the coast of West Africa, to estimate the density distribution of African Hinge-back tortoises (Kinixys homeana and K. erosa). Line transect data were fed into a simple model to derive a detection function. The parameters estimated by the model produced an elaborate characterisation of tortoise distribution, which proved to be useful in the formulation of hypotheses about tortoise densities. Line transect data were analysed by DISTANCE, with a series of key and the series adjustment: the uniform function, the 1-parameter half-normal function, and the 2-parameter hazard-rate function were considered as key functions; the cosine series, simple polynomials, and Hermite polynomials were considered as series expansions. The detection function was estimated separately for Kinixys homeana and K. erosa, and for transects grouped for each study area by considering all the combinations of the above key functions and series expansions. The Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) was computed for each candidate model and used for model selection. The best model of the detection function, for both the tortoise species was the uniform function with no series expansion. Model results indicated that the density of the two species was inversely related at the local scale, and complementary across the region; such that the density of one species increases from West to East while the other one declines. Overall, the comparison of density estimates between the two tortoises is consistent with a former hypothesis suggesting inter-specific competition and consequent resource partitioning. Other causes may contribute to explain the observed patterns, including the low productivity of rainforest habitats and long-term human perturbation.
The moderating role of transformational leadership on HR practices in M&A integration

Scant research exists examining the effect of HRM practices on employee behavior in Merger and acquisition (M&A) integration and the role that leaders play within this. This paper develops a conceptual framework that focuses on the moderating role of transformational leadership on the achievement of human integration and organizational identification in M&A integration. We argue that communication, employee involvement, teamwork, and training and development have a positive effect on employee behavior and their identification with the newly formed organization. Moreover, we argue that transformational leadership behaviors will moderate the implementation of HRM practices in M&As, leading to positive employee behavior and employee identification in the new organization. We suggest that further research is necessary to test propositions of the present study in order to achieve finer-grained understanding of the role of transformational leadership on the achievement of human integration and organizational identification in M&A integration.
Optimal Copyright Length and Ex Post Investment: A Mickey Mouse Approach

This paper formally explores the optimal length of copyright protection when the value of an intellectual work changes over time due to depreciation and value-enhancing ex-post investments. The first main finding is that, in the case of a single project, granting infinitely-lived copyright protection maximizes social welfare when the return on ex-post investments is high relative to the return on the initial investment. We also provide simulation results of our model for the case of multiple heterogeneous projects that show how social welfare varies with the length of copyright protection and the returns on initial and ex-post investments. We then consider what our framework says concerning the social-welfare effects of the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act. Here we show that, depending on the importance of ex-post investments, the act may have either increased or decreased social welfare. Our final analysis considers the social-welfare implications of replacing fixed-length copyright protection with Landes and Posner's (2003) idea of indefinitely-renewable copyright protection. We find that implementing indefinitely-renewable copyright protection frequently increases social welfare provided the returns on ex-post investments are sufficiently large. We also provide a brief history of Disney's Mickey Mouse and argue that the history of that character matches quite well with the predictions of our theoretical approach.