Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Dynamics Of Stock Market Development In Kenya

This paper highlights the origin of the stock market in Kenya, and traces the reforms that have been undertaken to develop the stock market. It also highlights the growth of the Kenyan stock market, as well as the challenges currently facing the market. The country has one stock market, known as the Nairobi Securities Exchange (formerly the Nairobi Stock Exchange). It is one of Africa’s largest stock markets. Since the early 1980s, a number of stock market reforms have been implemented in Kenya. These include the formation of a regulatory body (Capital Markets Authority – CMA) in 1989, the replacement of the "Call-Over" trading system by the floor-based "Open-Outcry System" in 1991, the reduction of listing costs, the relaxation of the exchange control for locally controlled companies, and the repeal of the Exchange Control Act. Following these reforms, Kenya’s stock market has developed significantly in terms of market capitalisation, the total value of stocks traded, and the turnover ratio. Although the stock market in Kenya has developed over the years, like many other developing countries' markets, it still faces a number of wide-ranging challenges.
Elementary schoolteachers' use of instructional materials on the web

Purpose – Studies have shown that schoolteachers are familiar with instructional materials on the web and integrate them into classroom teaching. In Taiwan, there are a number of online instructional materials, with the Learning Fueling Station being a leading web site. Using this popular site as an example, this study seeks to investigate how schoolteachers navigate online instructional materials and for what types of instructional materials they are looking.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 30 elementary schoolteachers were interviewed in their offices using computers to connect to the Learning Fueling Station web site, and web pages were visited as needed during the interview. Participants were asked to search for any topic in which they were interested, and the interviewer observed and recorded their search behavior.Findings – All schoolteachers reported that they use the internet prior to designing their instructional activities. The two main reasons they gave for using the internet were to re.
Essays on the role of short selling in financial markets

The first essay (Chapter 2) examines how investors behave in parallel markets that trade the same asset but have different degrees of transparency level. Using data from the Taiwan Security Borrowing and Lending market, we find that short sellers with private information prefer to trade in the opaque market, with momentum and risk-bearing trading strategies prefer to trade in the semi-transparent market, and with urgent liquidity needs (such as short-squeezed short sellers) prefer to trade in the transparent market. We show that transactions in both transparent and opaque markets contain information and provide liquidity. Our results indicate that parallel markets complement each other by serving different types of investors. The second essay (Chapter 3) shows that the presence of security lending supply before an initial public offering (IPO) reduces the initial stock return following IPO and improves the subsequent long-run performance. We use a sample of British firms that went public via a two-stage IPO procedure where a firm becomes publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange in the first stage, and offers new shares to the public in the second stage. Stocks are lendable before the new equity issuance which relaxes the short sale constraints that investors typically face in a conventional IPO. We find that twostage offerings with higher security lending supply before offering are associated with lower IPO underpricing and better long-run performance. Our results are consistent with the conjecture that short selling improves the pricing efficiency of the IPO market. The third essay (Chapter 4) examines the effect of short sellers as arbitrageurs on market liquidity in cases of toxic and non-toxic arbitrage opportunities. Arbitrage opportunities can be toxic when the prices of an asset-pair adjust to information at different speeds. In this case, market makers increase spread to avoid being picked off by informed arbitrageurs. Using price-parity deviations of Canadian stocks cross-listed in the U.S. market as arbitrage opportunities identifiers, we document that short arbitrageurs provide liquidity to the market in general, but impair liquidity in cases of toxic relative to non-toxic arbitrage opportunities. We also show that the liquidity impairment effect of short arbitrageurs is stronger when limits to arbitrage are high.
Managerial Monitoring and the Information Content of Earnings Announcements: A Cross-Country Analysis

This study analyzes the impacts of the firm-level corporate governance and country-level corporate governance on the information content of earnings announcements using data from 23 developed markets. Our evidence supports the monitoring hypothesis which predicts a positive relationship between the firm-level corporate governance and information content of earnings announcements. Furthermore, the positive impact of firm-level corporate governance is not subsumed by the presence of country-level corporate governance variables. Finally, the analysis of interaction effect indicates that the firm-level corporate governance have positive impact on the information content of earnings announcements only for firms from countries with high level of country-level corporate governance indicating a complementary relationship between the firm-level corporate governance and countrylevel corporate governance.
Humor Use and Family Satisfaction : A Cross Cultural Approach

Humor has long been acknowledged as a useful tool in communicative contexts within romantic, friend, and professional relationships. However, research has yielded minimal empirical evidence regarding how humor is employed within a family. This study investigates the use of humor in familial interactions to determine whether it contributes to a higher degree of familial satisfaction. Additionally, the trends and differences among the various cultures’ use of humor are examined. A total of 395 students at a large Southwestern university responded to a Likert-type questionnaire regarding the role of humor in their family as it relates to their familial satisfaction. A correlation analysis of these constructs indicated that a higher degree of humor use within familial interactions correlated positively with higher levels of satisfaction. More importantly, MANOVA and post hoc analyses revealed significant differences in humor due to ethnicity.
The information gap in corporate annual reports: evidence from Egypt

This study explores whether an information gap exists for six types of corporate disclosure in Egypt, where International Accounting Standards (IAS) apply but penalties for non-compliance are limited. It also investigates whether low compliance with mandatory disclosure can be explained by low levels of demand for this type of information among local financial analysts. The results identify a significant gap between actual disclosure practices of companies for various types of disclosure and market perceptions of this practice. Our findings also suggest that low compliance with disclosure requirements in Egypt is not driven by low levels of demand from local financial analysts, because these items of information are perceived as useful for investment decision making.
[Vocal pathology in teachers: a videolaryngostroboscopic study in 1046 teachers].

It is well known the vocal pathology occurs more frequently in professionals using their voice than in the general population. Teachers form a particular group. We performed a study on 1.046 teachers in 1993 to quantify the percentage presenting a visible organic lesion of the vocal cords. We sent out a questionnaire on dysphonia and the professional vocal activity practised, and we performed a laryngeal examination with video-laryngo-stroboscopy. The results obtained evidence 218 cases of pathological exploration, i.e. 20.84% with a predominance of vocal nodules (43%) and Reinke oedema (18%). The analytical method and the results obtained are presented.
Manufacturing Employment and Exchange Rates in the Portuguese Economy: The Role of Openness, Technology and Labour Market Rigidity

In this paper, we explore empirically the role of openness, technology and labour market rigidity in the determination of the effect of the exchange rate on employment in Portugal. We develop an index that allows us to measure labour market flexibility at the sector level. This index shows that labour market flexibility has been increasing in all manufacturing sectors and that the labour market in high technology sectors is more flexible than in low technology sectors. We use this index in the estimation of an employment regression, focusing on the effect of exchange rate movements. Our estimates indicate that employment in low-technology sectors, with a high degree of trade openness and facing less rigidity in the labour market are more sensitive to movements in exchange rates.
Psychological Adjustment to IDDM: 10-Year Follow-Up of an Onset Cohort of Child and Adolescent Patients

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the psychological adjustment of young adults with IDDM in comparison with similarly aged individuals without chronic illness. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS An onset cohort of young adults (n = 57), ages 19–26 years, who have been followed over a 10-year period since diagnosis, was compared with a similarly aged group of young adults identified at the time of a moderately severe, acute illness (n = 54) and followed over the same 10-year period. The groups were assessed at 10-year follow-up in terms of 1) sociodemographic indices (e.g., schooling, employment, delinquent activities, drug use), 2) psychiatric symptoms, and 3) perceived competence. In addition, IDDM patients were examined for longitudinal change in adjustment to diabetes. RESULTS The groups differed only minimally in terms of sociodemographic indices, with similar rates of high school graduation, post-high school education, employment, and drug use. The IDDM group reported fewer criminal convictions and fewer non-diabetes-related illness episodes than the comparison group. There were no differences in psychiatric symptoms. However, IDDM patients reported lower perceived competence, with specific differences found on the global self-worth, sociability, physical appearance, being an adequate provider, and humor subscales. The IDDM patients reported improving adjustment to their diabetes over the course of the 10-year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the young adults with IDDM appeared to be as psychologically well adjusted as the young adults without a chronic illness. There were, however, indications of lower self-esteem in the IDDM patients that could either portend or predispose them to risk for future depression or other difficulties in adaptation.
Knowledge‐based resources, entrepreneurial orientation, and the performance of small and medium‐sized businesses

While theory suggests that management has discretion in manipulating resources in order to build competitive advantage, resource-based research has focused on the characteristics of resources, paying less attention to the relationship between those resources and the way firms are organized. In explaining performance, entrepreneurship scholars have focused on a firm’s entrepreneurial strategic orientation (EO), leaving its interrelationship with internal characteristics aside. We argue that EO captures an important aspect of the way a firm is organized. Our findings suggest that knowledge-based resources (applicable to discovery and exploitation of opportunities) are positively related to firm performance and that EO enhances this relationship. Copyright  2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mechanism of protein stabilization by glycerol: preferential hydration in glycerol-water mixtures.

A densimetric investigation of the interactions between solvent components in glycerol-water mixtures (between 10 and 40 vol % glycerol) and seven proteins have been carried out in the acid pH region. All the proteins were found to be preferentially hydrated at all conditions used, i.e., addition of the proteins to the mixed solvent results in an increase in the chemical potential of glycerol. It is considered that this thermodynamically unfavorable interaction should tend to minimize the surface of contact between proteins and glycerol and in this way stabilize the native structure of globular proteins.
Control of asthma in Canada: failure to achieve guideline targets.

OBJECTIVE To assess the degree of asthma control achieved by patients with asthma in Canada and to describe the impact of poor asthma control. DESIGN Population-based, cross-sectional telephone interview survey of Canadians with doctor-diagnosed asthma. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Random digit dialing was used to identify a representative sample of Canadians with asthma. A total of 801 adults and 200 parents of children aged four to 15 years were interviewed over the telephone. Telephone interviews were also conducted with 266 physicians. RESULTS Only 24% of patients achieved disease control by meeting the six symptom-based criteria listed by the 1996 Canadian Asthma Consensus Guidelines as appropriate treatment targets. Fifty-seven per cent of patients failed to meet two or more of the six control criteria and were considered poorly controlled. Fifty-one per cent had required urgent care for out of control asthma at least once in the year before the survey. Nonetheless, 91% of patients thought that their asthma was adequately controlled. Physicians shared this optimism: 77% of family physicians and 90% of respirologists believed that they were usually able to achieve optimal asthma control in their patients. Few physicians gauged asthma control by tracking more than one or two symptoms, and just over one-half (54%) of patients surveyed recalled ever having had a lung function test. One-half (48%) of patients with poorly controlled asthma who used inhaled steroids did not understand the role of inhaled steroids; one-third (32%) of patients with poorly controlled asthma who used short acting bronchodilators misunderstood the action of quick relief bronchodilators. CONCLUSIONS The majority of Canadians with asthma suffer from inadequate control of their disease. Suboptimal control of asthma is associated with excess health care use. Inadequate monitoring by physicians and poor patient education may be factors contributing to this problem.
Terminally differentiated human intestinal B cells. J chain expression of IgA and IgG subclass‐producing immunocytes in the distal ileum compared with mesenteric and peripheral lymph nodes

Two‐colour immunofluorescencc staining for intracellular J chain and IgA (or J chain and IgG) was performed on tissue sections of normal human ileal mucosa (eight adult kidney donors), mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN), peripheral lymph nodes, and palatine tonsils. The most prominent J chain positivily was seen for IgA (97.3%) and IgG (81.7%) immunocytes in the ileal lamina propria (LP). Moreover, the proportion of J chain‐expressing exlrafollicular immunocytes was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in MLN than in peripheral lymph nodes for the IgA class (58.5%versus 25.6%); the same proportion for the IgG class was 45.9%versus 30.4%. In clinically normal palatine tonsils of adults, extrafollicular J chain expression was much lower than in peripheral lymph nodes; 14.2% for IgA cells and 5.5% for IgG cells. When related to subclass production, J chain expression was found to be higher for IgA2 than for IgA 1 cells in all tissues examined (palatine tonsils excluded because of a small number of lgA2 cells), the difference being significant in M LN and ileal LP (P < 005). The J chain positivity tended to be higher for all IgG subclasses in MLN than in peripheral lymph nodes; this difference was significant (P <005) for lgG2‐producing immunocytes. Taking J chain expression as a marker of clonal immaturity, our results may reflect to some extent distribution of newly generated memory B cell clones from gut‐associated lymphoid tissue to MLN. peripheral lymph nodes, and palatine tonsils in a strikingly decreasing order.
Impediments to improvements in service quality in luxury hotels

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to identify the key factors that impede service quality delivery in the context of luxury hotels (four‐ and five‐star properties) in Sydney, Australia.Design/methodology/approach – The empirical dataset for this qualitative study was collected through 22 individual semi‐structured interviews with senior hotel managers of ten luxury hotels in Sydney, Australia. The technique used for analysing the data was progressive comparative analysis, after which constant comparative methodology was applied. The key themes emerging from these techniques have been categorised to form conclusions.Findings – Analysis of the data revealed a number of impediments to developing and maintaining distinguishable, superior service. These impediments fell into four broad areas: Budget constraints, Staff attitude, Lack of mentoring and High customer expectations.Research limitations/implications – The limitations with the current study are primarily related to the scope of the research in .
Role of Natural Essential Oils in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Preservation

Research on humans, animals or plants about anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antiviral, repellent, antibacterial, antifungal or antioxidant activities of the essential oils corroborated the biological characteristics of aromatic plants and their use since ancient times for their preservative and medicinal properties. These mixtures of natural compounds are valuable ingredients in perfumery, food, agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. Currently, consumer demand natural products, effective, safe and environmentally friendly. Among them, essential oils may be natural alternatives of synthetic herbicides for organic farming systems, solving serious environmental problems due to their low persistence in the field as well as the incidence of resistance in both weeds and some pathogens. Correlations between the principal compounds of essential oils with herbicidal effect than explain their use in a sustainable agriculture or their antibacterial activity against food borne pathogens, food spoiling bacteria and bacterial virulence factors as biofilm formation for the use as natural food preservative are the main focus of this review.
Homocysteine and other cardiovascular risk factors in patients with lichen planus

Chronic inflammation was found to play an important role in the development of cardiovascular risk factors. Homocysteine (Hcy) and fibrinogen have been identified as a major independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Lichen planus is assumed to be closely related to dyslipidaemia. Several cytokines involved in lichen planus pathogenesis, could explain its association with dyslipidaemia. Also chronic inflammation with lichen planus has been suggested as a component of the metabolic syndrome.
Knowledge of conversion disorder in children by pediatricians in a developing country.

INTRODUCTION Conversion disorder (CD) in children presents the clinician with a diagnostic and treatment dilemma. Mistaking a physical condition for CD carries serious consequences for the child while continued investigation in line with physical disease in a child with CD also may expose the child to serious harm. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred and seventy-four consenting doctors who attended a national conference of pediatricians were administered a 10 item questionnaire developed by the researchers. RESULTS Only 5 (2.9%) of participants had good knowledge (scored above the mean plus one standard deviation of the score obtained by the psychiatry residents. Gender, rank, years of experience, availability of psychiatric service in center and duration of the psychiatry posting as the medical student could not differentiate those with good/fair knowledge from those without. However, those who have referred children for psychiatric assessment (P=0.015), those who believe that children can have CD (P=0.000) and those who are fairly confident that they could diagnose CD in children (P=0.000) had better knowledge of CD. CONCLUSION Pediatricians have poor knowledge of CDs in children. Those that know that children could have the condition have confidence that they can identify children with the condition and have referred with mental health problems to psychiatrists have better knowledge than those who did not.
Internationalization and Innovation: The Effects of a Strategy Mix on the Economic Performance of French SMEs

A growing body of literature has studied innovation and internationalization as essential competitiveness strategies. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can achieve growth by launching new products or reaching new customers. A mix of both of these strategies represents a challenging opportunity for businesses. Most studies explore export and research activities as joint explanatory variables. This article contributes to the literature by considering the joint dynamics of internationalization and innovation strategies and measuring the impact of this strategy mix on the financial performance of French SMEs. Both strategies consumehuman, technical, financial, commercial, and organizational resources. The antagonism and the complementarity of international development and innovation activities are explored in this paper. Based on a sample of 335 French SMEs, the results confirm a strong interdependence between technological appropriation in internationalized SMEs and their business growth. Indeed, structuring and engaging in research and development activities for exporting SMEs will contribute to an increase in activity volume. The results also indicate technological resources as a common driver of both innovation and internationalization activities. The combination of product development and geographical market expansion is the most valuable combined strategy that is positively related to research and development intensity.
Diffusion in Solids and Liquids “ DSL-2005 ”

It has been shown very recently that the diffusion non-linearity, due to the strong composition dependence of the diffusion coefficients, can lead to surprising effects on nanoscale: i) non parabolic shift of interfaces (both in ideal and phase separating systems), ii) sharpening of an initially diffuse interface in ideal systems. Some of these can not be interpreted even qualitatively from Ficks classical equations. For instance the non-parabolic shift of an interface at the very beginning is a consequence of the violation of the classical Ficks I. equation on the nanoscale and the transition from this to the classical parabolic behaviour depends on the strength of the non-linearity and the value of the solid solution parameter V (proportional to the heat of mixing). Experimental and theoretical efforts to explore the above phenomena are summarized in this paper.