Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Predictive value of contextual factors on corporate performance in Kenya

Corporate performance is of utmost importance because business organizations exist to optimize this functional objective. In spite of this importance, the findings of the studies on performance remain inconclusive (Ramanujan and Varadarajan, 1989). Various reasons have been advanced for the inconclusive findings including methodological flaws, ignoring organizational characteristics in performance relationships (Hill, 1994), and contextual application of models (Aosa, 1998). This has led to emergence of two complementing and at times conflicting schools of thought. One school led by Industrial Organizational Economists, contends that corporate performance is related to broader economic performance and differences in performances are a reflection of the context in which firms operate (Nelson, 1994). On the other hand, Evolutionary Theorists argue that performance arises from choices made by the firms and differences in performance arise from the interplay of firm capabilities in pursuit of earning rents. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of the contextual factors on corporate performance in Kenya. Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Score Card (BSC) model was used to measure corporate performance. Empirical literature review on studies across Africa was used to build a framework of contextual factors. These factors included Infrastructural, Distribution Systems, Political and Legal, Economic factors, SocialCultural, Corruption and Security factors. A census survey of the 56 companies quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) was conducted. To achieve the objective both primary and secondary data were collected from the population of interest. Primary data was collected vide a structured close ended 5 point Likert type questionnaire administered to the CEO. Secondary data on financial measures were collected from NSE and Capital Markets Authority (CMA) for an average of five years from 2002 to 2006. Validity was computed using factor analysis while composite reliability of constructed indices was tested using cronbach alpha. Exploratory principal component factor analysis extracted four components from the twenty seven items used to assess contextual factors. The extracted factors were Security, Political Risk, Corruption and Economic factors in this order of importance indicated by factor loadings. Linear regression however, revealed weak and insignificant negative effect of extracted factors on corporate performance, only accounting up to 7 % variation in corporate performance ( R2 = 0.07, adj. R2 = -0.027, F = 0.720, P = 0.584) with predictive power completely lost when adjustment for sample size and degrees of freedom is effected. The study therefore, appears to lend credence to the evolutionary theory that postulates firm performance is largely influenced by strategic capabilities, by demonstrating the limited influence of contextual factors on corporate performance. Further studies should therefore seek to determine the effects of strategic capabilities and contextual factors in integrated models.
Price and Enforcement Effects on Cocaine and Marijuana Demand

This article estimates equations for past year cocaine and marijuana use among adult and juvenile respondents of the 1990--97 National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse. Unlike most previous studies, we control for the monetary price of marijuana, probabilities of arrest for marijuana and cocaine possession, and state fixed effects. Results indicate that cocaine prices are inversely related to adult cocaine and marijuana demand but are unrelated to juvenile drug demand, marijuana price effects are always statistically insignificant, estimated price effects are inflated when state effects are omitted, and increases in each arrest probability diminish both types of drug use. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.
Three Policies to Improve Productivity Growth in Canada

This paper makes the case that productivity is Canada’s economic destiny and that Canada’s dismal productivity performance, both from a historical and international perspective, therefore represents our biggest economic challenge. It then puts forward three specific policies to improve Canada’s productivity performance: foster the diffusion of best-practice technologies; remove the provincial sales tax on purchases of machinery and equipment; and promote interprovincial movement of workers by improving labour market information, removing professional barriers to labour mobility, and establishing a tax credit for interprovincial job search. It finds that the short-term costs of these policies would be greatly outweighed by the long-term benefits associated with their implementation.
Emotional Theory of Mind and Emotional Awareness in Recovered Anorexia Nervosa Patients

Objectives: To examine whether an impaired ability to infer emotion in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and difficulty with emotional theory of mind (eToM) are limited to the ill state or if this condition is a stable deficit that persists with recovery in adults with anorexia nervosa (AN). This is in keeping with observations of similarities between the disorders. Methods: Twenty-four participants fully recovered from AN were compared against a sample of currently ill AN patients (n = 40) and healthy controls (HCs) (n = 47) on forced-choice tasks assessing emotion recognition, basic or advanced eToM in other people, using sensory stimuli and on a written task measuring eToM ability for the self as well as for others. Results: Recovered participants performed well on eToM tasks and were significantly better than currently ill patients at inferring emotions in the self and in others. However, participants recovered from AN had some slight impairment in emotion recognition relative to HCs, particularly when recognizing positive emotions. Conclusions: These findings indicate almost complete normalization of emotion recognition ability as well as the restoration of eToM in recovered patients, despite the observation of difficulties in both domains in currently ill patients. Findings suggest that similarities between AN and ASD in poor eToM are restricted to the currently ill AN state and such difficulties in AN may be a factor of starvation. AN = anorexia nervosa; ASD = autism spectrum disorder; recAN = recovered anorexia nervosa; HC = healthy control; ToM = theory of mind; eToM = emotional theory of mind; BMI = body mass index; IQ = intelligence quotient; ANCOVA = analysis of covariance.
Empowering Investors: A Market Approach to Securities Regulation

This Article contends that the current legislative approach to securities regulation is mistaken. It advocates a market-oriented approach of competitive federalism that would expand the role of the states in securities regulation and would fundamentally reconceptualize the regulatory scheme. Under a system of competitive federalism for securities regulation, only one sovereign will have jurisdiction over all transactions in the securities of a corporation that involve the issuer or its agents and investors: the sovereign chosen by the issuer from among the federal government, the fifty states, or foreign nations. The aim is to replicate for the securities setting the benefits produced by state competition for corporate charters -- a responsive legal regime that has tended to maximize share value. As a competitive legal market supplants a monopolist federal agency in the fashioning of regulation, it will produce rules more aligned with the preferences of investors, whose decisions drive the capital market. Competitive federalism for U.S. securities regulation also has important implications for international securities regulation. The jurisdictional principle applicable to domestic securities transactions is equally applicable: Foreign issuers selling shares in the United States would be able to opt out of the federal securities laws and choose the law of another nation, such as their country of incorporation, or of a U.S. state, to govern those U.S. transactions.
BLDC motor driven water pump fed by solar photovoltaic array using boost converter

This paper deals with the development of a simple, cost-effective, efficient, reliable and eco-friendly water pumping system utilizing a DC-DC boost converter as an intermediate power conditioning unit in solar photovoltaic (SPV) array fed brushless DC (BLDC) motor driven water pump. The power optimization of SPV array and limiting starting inrush current of the BLDC motor are two major functions of the boost converter. The starting inrush current is bounded without any additional circuitry or control. The boost converter, over the various prevalent DC-DC converters, offers many privileges in SPV array based applications. The voltage source inverter (VSI) is used to perform electronic commutation of the BLDC motor which is operated with the pulses of fundamental frequency, avoiding switching losses caused by the high frequency switching pulses. Furthermore, the speed of BLDC motor is controlled through the variable DC link voltage resulting in the absolute elimination of sensors required for speed control. The proposed water pumping system is modeled, designed and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink and its various performances indices are analyzed, under the practical operating conditions, which manifests its suitability for water pumping.
Evaluation of packaging options for very low noise amplifiers

In this work packaging options for very low noise amplifiers (VLNA) with a single on-chip output-choke inductor are investigated. For very low noise amplifiers package parasitics can add significant noise, degrading LNA performance. Flip-chip bonding is a newer approach to attaching integrated circuits onto printed circuit boards with reduced parasitics. In this work, it was found that choice of packaging depends on the available gain of the amplifier. As an example, for bond wires and flip-chip process used in this work for LNA available gains above ∽ 10 dB, flip-chip bonding is preferred.
Coronary artery calcium and primary prevention risk assessment: what is the evidence? An updated meta-analysis on patient and physician behavior.

Over 600 000 myocardial infarctions (MIs) occur yearly in the United States, and more than half of patients whose MI presents as sudden cardiac death have no antecedent symptoms.1 Furthermore, men >40 years of age have an almost 50% lifetime risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD) and women of the same age have a risk of approximately 1 in 3.2 The Framingham Risk Score (FRS) is the most commonly used CHD risk prediction model and is an integral component of cardiovascular screening and lipid-lowering guidelines.3 Although the FRS provides a reasonable estimation of risk in certain subgroups, it was derived from a relatively homogenous population in an era when pharmacological treatment options and use were limited.4 Furthermore, chronologic age is the dominant risk factor in the FRS equation, although it is a poor surrogate for atherosclerotic burden and limits the personalization of risk estimates.5 As a result, the majority of MIs occur in individuals classified as low or moderate risk who therefore do not meet the Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III criteria for statin therapy.3,6 To improve risk estimation, recent research has focused on identifying novel risk predictors. However, when they are added to existing risk prediction models, there is little improvement in CHD risk stratification.7,8 As a result, there is an increasing interest in selectively using atherosclerosis imaging to increase the accuracy of traditional risk prediction models in persons broadly classified as intermediate risk.9 Coronary artery calcium (CAC), measured using noncontrast cardiac CT, is a relatively low-cost and noninvasive imaging technique. CAC testing provides an individualized measure of atherosclerotic burden that integrates an individual’s cumulative lifetime risk factor exposure that cannot be obtained from serum markers.10,11 The use of CAC screening in select …
Conditions for Effective Large-Scale Anticorruption Efforts and the Role of External Actors: What Does the Slovak Experience Tell Us?

The paper looks at what policy-makers can do to decrease corruption in developing and transition countries, based on an in-depth examination of effectiveness of actual anticorruption measures in Slovakia. The research presents a synthesis of 12 case studies where measures in the sectors most associated with corruption as well as horizontal measures were analysed. The research shows that corruption can be decreased significantly within several years and external actors can play a substantial role in the process. An overall decrease in corruption can be based on aggregation of individual sectoral changes in areas most suffering from graft. In particular, the Slovak strategy was based on a sector-by-sector economic approach to resolving supply-demand imbalances based on either liberalization/privatization, limitations on discretion or managing supply and/or demand. Horizontal reforms complemented by sectoral reforms with their strong focus on increasing transparency. Concerning the role of external actors, we conclude that even when there is a domestically driven anticorruption effort, the external actors can still help significantly by serving as sources of inspiration, legitimacy, know-how and funding for reform design and implementation.
THE RELEVANCE OF INITIAL CONDITIONS FOR THE GERMAN UNIFICATION

The authors analyze whether and how recent theories in which equilibria are path-dependent can be used to sustain the proposition that the adverse initial conditions are relevant for the long-run outcome of the German unification process. Though these theories are rather abstract, they strongly suggest that the actual analysis of the unification process should take into account the fact that initial conditions of the German unification are probably more important than the neoclassical theory predicts. Copyright 1993 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG
Dynamic Spillover Between The Oil And Stock Markets Of Emerging Oil-Exporting Countries

The paper investigates the time-varying correlations between stock market returns and oil prices in oil-exporting countries. A multivariate GARCH-DCC process is employed to evaluate this relationship based on data from Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The results show that there are time-varying correlations between the oil and stock markets in emerging, oil-producing countries, indicating that they are affected by conditions in world markets. In addition, the relationship between oil prices and stock returns is found to be influenced by the origin of shocks to oil prices, with stock market responses being stronger to demand-side shocks caused by political turmoil or fluctuations in the global business cycle than to supply-side shocks caused by cuts in oil production. The results also provide evidence of volatility spillovers between the oil and stock markets.
WiFi RSS fingerprint database construction for mobile robot indoor positioning system

Mobile robot positioning in an indoor environment via fingerprinting technique is made by matching the unknown WiFi data to a spatial WiFi power map database. In past years, this technique has gained reasonable accuracies in the cost of high labor yielded for the database. Thus, automatic database construction by means of interpolating missing data is desired. This paper described a variation of Inverse Distance Weight (IDW) interpolation which is the Modified Shepard's Method (MSM) for our medical-oriented mobile robot - Terapio. By properly selecting the reference locations, we found that this method is better than the conventional IDW method and comparable to the recently popular Kriging interpolation algorithm in an indoor environment by employing the state-of-the-art WKNN positioning algorithm.
Capital Accumulation and Structural Change in a Small Open Economy

This paper explores the relation between capital accumulation and transformation of industrial structure in a small open economy. Using a three-sector neoclassical growth model with non-homothetic preferences, we examine the dynamic behaviour of the small country in the alternative trade regimes. We show that capital accumulation plays a leading role in the process of structural transformation. It is also revealed that the trade pattern significantly affects structural change. We demonstrate that our model can mimic a typical pattern of change in industrial structure that has been observed in many developed economies.
Accurate automatic identification of slow wave sleep using a single electro-oculogram channel

Diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders require analysis of the sleep stages and patterns in the polysomnographic (PSG) signals recorded over several hours. Traditionally, sleep is monitored based on PSG signals that require several measurements collected from different locations on the head and the body. These signals are used to evaluate the sleep quantity and quality. However, the need for unobtrusive monitoring and convenience motivates a variety of alternative approaches focused on the minimization of a number of monitored physiological signals. Previous studies have shown that the quantity and length of slow wave sleep (SWS) periods during sleep are the major indicators of the sleep quality. The aim of this paper is to present a new automatic method to detect SWS epochs using a single-channel electro-oculography (EOG). This method is based on a simple rule based algorithm with an adaptive method to adjust thresholds. The new method is evaluated through 9 healthy subjects and the results are compared to the clinical visual scoring. The agreement of our detection method for the validation data was 90.0%, the sensitivity was 90.5% and the specificity was 89.9% and the kappa value was 0.74.
Tourism Market Segmentation Based on Price Sensitivity

This article builds on the double role of the effect of prices on the choice of tourism activities: not only is it the sole component of the destination marketing mix that represents revenue but also a determinant factor in tourist choice. On this account, identifying patterns of tourists with different degrees of sensitivities to prices would help destinations design an appropriate bundle of activities and have a clear definition of the segment they should try to attract. Accordingly, the objective of this article is to identify tourist segments from individual price sensitivities to activities. The results show—although price has a dissuasive influence on the choice of activities—a differentiated effect (as this dissuasiveness is not general for all individuals); this heterogeneous responsiveness to price supports its use as a segmentation criterion. In the empirical application, four segments are found with significantly different price sensitivities.
Does Size Matter? CFSP Committees after Enlargement

Abstract This article examines the impact of the 2004 and 2007 enlargements on CFSP committees. It aims to determine in which manner enlargement has affected the deliberative nature of CFSP committees and in which ways formal and informal mechanisms have contributed to overcoming deadlock in the decision‐making process. The article concludes, first, that formal and informal adjustment mechanisms have ensured a smooth functioning of the CFSP. Second, socialization and consensual decision‐making are still prevalent in the practice of CFSP bodies and have prevented deadlock. Moreover, learning processes remain crucial in committee governance, allowing newcomers to familiarize themselves with CFSP practices. As regards legitimacy, however, a less positive assessment can be made. By increasing the informality of CFSP negotiations and the role of ‘like‐minded’ groups, and decreasing the role of formal meetings, enlargement may have contributed to an erosion of the CFSP’s democratic legitimacy.
Estimating the Economic Contribution of Visitor Spending in the Kruger National Park to the Regional Economy

Tourism has been labelled the economic driver of the 21st century due to the multiplier effect of tourist spending and the linkage of this industry to almost all other industries. This paper aims to estimate the economic impact of visitor spending in the Kruger National Park. The following objectives are set: (1) to determine the spending pattern of a typical tourist visiting the Kruger National Park, (2) to determine the contribution of tourists visiting the Park to the economy of the region. The methodology used includes both a survey and an input-output analysis. A survey conducted in June 2002 was used to determine the spending pattern of tourists visiting the Park and together with additional secondary data, were used to determine the contribution of visitor spending in the Park to the economy of the region. The results of the survey indicate that tourists spend most of their money on accommodation and transport in the Park. The South African National Parks (SANP) has created an environment that induces spending, but recommendations are made to encourage even more spending by tourists, thereby enhancing the economic benefits of the Park.
Health Care Expenditures and Economic Growth in Developing Countries: Panel Co-Integration and Causality

This paper investigated the causality and co-integration relationships between economic growth and health care expenditures in developing countries during 1990-2009. This paper concentrated on panel co- integration and causality in VECM framework. The findings revealed that there is a short-run causality from GDP to health care spending, while it is not observed any short-run causality from health spending to economic growth. Likewise, there is a bilateral causality and long-run relationship between economic growth and health spending. In other words, the findings indicated that income is an important factor across developing countries in the level and growth of health care expenditure, in long-run. As well, the health-led growth hypothesis in developing countries is confirmed.
A generalized uncovered interest parity model of real exchange rates

Sticky price monetary models of the real exchange rate, while reasonable theoretically, have been disappointing empirically. The most likely reason is that shocks to the market's expectation of the future equilibrium real exchange rate weaken the stability of the statistical association between the real exchange rate and the real interest rate differential. This study identifies three types of shocks that appear to be important. These are productivity growth that changes the relative price of traded goods at home versus abroad, government budget deficits, and the real price of oil. ; These factors along with real interest rates are shown to explain about 80 percent of the longer run variation in both the real trade-weighted dollar and real bilateral rates against the dollar. However, taking these additional factors into account reduces the estimated effects of interest rates on the dollar. An error-correction model that includes these factors explains about half of the in-sample variation of changes in the real trade-weighted dollar and has out-of-sample prediction errors that are 60 percent lower than those from a naive model of no change at a horizon of eight quarters. ; Although the error-correction model explains nearly as much of the in-sample variation of changes in real bilateral rates as changes in the real trade-weighted dollar, its out-of-sample predictions of bilateral rates are not nearly as good. Nevertheless, they are distinctly better than those from a naive model of no change. This is an improvement over results from the simple open interest parity model that relies only on interest rates.