Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Business Process Reengineering and the Performance of Insurance Firms in Nigeria

This study investigated the effect of business process reengineering on the performance of insurance firms in Nigeria, by employing two components of business process reengineering. Survey research design was adopted, through the administration of structured questionnaires on some selected staff of insurance companies at their head offices in Lagos, Nigeria. The research instrument was validated through content validity index (CVI), while the reliability of the research instrument was tested through test-retest method. The findings revealed that, the two components of business process reengineering adopted for this study have individual positive significant effect on insurance firms’ performance and adoption of new process. The F-statistics revealed that the two components of business process reengineering adopted for this study have positive significant combined effect on insurance firms’ performance in Nigeria. The adjusted coefficient of determination implied that, change in insurance firms’ performance is explained by the combined business process reengineering components. It is therefore concluded that, business process reengineering components are important drivers of insurance firms’ performance. It is recommended that, insurance firms should introduce new technology that will aid insurance penetration, especially information communication technology (ICT). The deployment of ICT tends to make it easier for existing and new customers to pick-up insurance policies through their smart phones or personal computers. Furthermore, insurance firms should equally come up with reengineered processes. The process of serving their customers should be enhanced.
The differences between family firms and non-family firms: Evidence in Indonesia

A family firm is a firm controlled by members of a family through their ownership in the management. This study aimed to observe the presence of differences in gender diversity, cash holding, and financial performance on Family Firms (FFs) and Non-Family Firms (NFFs). The purposive sampling conducted in this study produced 67 samples of companies listed on the Compass 100 Index. They mostly belong to the FF criteria. They also have gender diversity, non-conservative capital structure, medium-size, and low cash holding. The results of difference tests proved the presence of significant differences between the FFs and the NFFs on the variables of firm size, leverage, and gender diversity. Although ROE did not show significant differences, the FFs had higher ROE than the NFFs. Furthermore, the practical implication of this study is the need to consider the presence of women on the board and their share in the firms’ decision making. JEL Classification: G10, G19, G32 DOI : https://doi.org/10.26905/jkdp.v23i2. 2687
Elementos de lingüística en sistemas de información y documentación

Los sistemas de informacion y documentacion presentan un universo de problemas, en el analisis y la representacion de datos, de naturaleza esencialmente linguistica que deben ser observados, descritos y resueltos desde los aparatos teoricos y metodologicos provistos por disciplinas como la linguistica y otras afines con una larga tradicion y un camino coincidente, si bien se produce bifurcacion en los objetivos. Por otro lado, la expansion de la informacion, a traves de redes como Internet, convierte a la documentacion en un verdadero mass media internacional y, a pesar del desarrollo tecnologico, los problemas de analisis y busqueda, potenciados, no encuentran mas salida que el tratamiento cientifico desde cruces interdisciplinares como la linguistica documental. Se ilustra la exposicion con el caso de la construccion del Thesaurus andaluz de patrimonio historico para un sistema de informacion cultural en Andalucia, lexico formalizado de bases de datos patrimoniales montado con metodologia linguistica y criterios cientificos.
Enabling Reactive Design of Robust Real-Time Embedded Systems

This thesis aims at advancing the state-of-the-art related to efficient, safe and robust design and execution of Embedded Real-Time Systems by bridging previous published work on code analysis with a simple reactive Model of Computation (MoC). The work builds on the previous licentiate thesis by the author ”Embedded real-time software using TinyTimber: reactive objects in C”, where the C language is used to design reactive embedded systems by adopting the Timber concurrency model complemented by a simple reactive scheduler ”tinyTimber”. The proposed method in the previous work is shown to be useful for the design of embedded systems. However to enable safe, robust and efficient design/execution of these systems more support from the software development tools are needed than is possible to realize from writing the software in C. In this thesis, a development of the system model defined in the licentiate thesis is outlined that enables, directly from the system model, efficient code generation and benchmarking, that together with the proposed analysis methods enables design time verification of timing and memory constraints. In general, a plethora of analysis methods have been developed for checking timing and memory constraints, however there is a lack of tools applicable to mainstream embedded programming. Moreover, in many cases the connection between theoretic work and the practical design and implementation of embedded systems is lacking. In this thesis, the work is focusing on bridging this gap by demonstrating how this system model and its MoC can be used to generate the required input to the analysis steps needed to guarantee the safety and timing properties of the generated executable. A method is also developed to perform precise stack memory analysis by utilizing timing and critical section information to reduce over-approximation. The work described in this thesis is also utilizable for execution and code-generation from other computational models, mappings from tinyOS and IEC61499 are shown in the accompanied papers. The simple and comprehensive MoC makes code-generation from such systems straightforward and thus gives the benefits of the proposed method to these systems, and in the case of IEC61499 enables execution on a new set of devices (embedded bare-metal targets). In conclusion, the work described in this thesis enables the implementation of a tool-chain that is based on the proposed MoC, this tool-chain enables analysis with respect to timing requirements, memory constraints and common programming errors.
Effect of Business Unit Performance on Company Value

Purpose: This research aims to examine the effect of business unit performance on the value of BUMD business units in West Java. Design/Methodology/Approach: The research was conducted using a quantitative approach. The unit of analysis in this study is the business unit of BUMD owned by West Java Province. The observation unit is the management of the business unit owned by the West Java Province BUMD. Questionnaires were distributed to 34 managers of the West Java Provincial BUMD business units. Findings: Business unit performance influences the value of the company. Resources provide the highest influence in increasing the value of the company, when compared to operation management and culture. Practical Implications: The research has implications for the management of BUMD business units in West Java where in order to increase the value of the company it can be done by increasing the ownership of resources supported by the development of operation management, and culture. Originality/Value: This research shows how to increase the value of the company by increasing the ownership of resources, supported by the development of operation management, and culture.
Board Attributes and Financial Performance of Listed Firms in Uganda

This study examines the relationship between Board of director attributes and financial performance of listed firms in Uganda. Board attributes of board size, Non-executive directors (board independence) and directors’ shareholding are examined while controlling for firm size and leverage. The study uses a cross sectional research design, employing panel data of listed firms in Uganda for a period of four years. Financial and board attributes information is collected from annual reports of each firm. The study finds that non executive director’s independence on board and large boards increase firm performance. We do not provide evidence to suggest that director’s shareholding affects firm performance differently. Thus this study is consistent with evidence that shows the importance of board of directors’ attributes on firm´s financial performance. Keywords: Board attributes, Firm performance DOI : 10.7176/RJFA/10-14-04 Publication date :July 31 st 2019
Les déterminants de l'efficience des institutions de microfinance au Cameroun

L’objectif de cette étude est d’identifier les déterminants de l’efficience des Institutions de Microfinance (IMF) au Cameroun. Pour ce faire, nous avons appliqué sur un échantillon de 47 IMF appartenant au réseau des Mutuelles Communautaires de Croissance (MC²) le modèle de Tobit censuré pour d’identifier les facteurs qui influencent l’efficience des IMF considérées. Les résultats globaux du modèle DEA montre que les institutions de microfinance du réseau des MC² sont techniquement efficientes. Cependant, le milieu d’implantation de l’institution et le nombre de clients servis exercent une influence positive sur l’efficience, alors que la taille de l’institution et les provisions constituées exercent une influence négative, mais significative sur celle-ci. Cette étude fait ressortir un ensemble de facteurs qui expliquent la performance des institutions de microfinance.
Corporate governance practices of contributory pension scheme operators in Nigeria

Unlike the previous defined benefit pension scheme in Nigeria, the current contributory pension scheme (CPS) is characterised by separation of ownership and management of pension fund. In view of agency problem this portends, the need to empirically examine corporate governance (CG) practices of operators is of importance for CPS survival. Thus, this study examines corporate governance practices of operators of CPS in management and custody of the CPS fund. Survey data from 212 managers and assistant managers of CPS operators were analysed using one-sample t-test and mixed ANOVA. The results showed significant practices of CG mechanisms in the form of board independence, director independence, board disclosure and audit committee effectiveness. Significant difference was found in practice of above CG mechanisms. However, there was no significant difference in GC practices among various types of CPS operators. Similarly, the interaction of CG mechanisms with CPS operator type was also found to be insignificant. Based on the results, good corporate governance practices in the management of CPS fund is evident. However, it is recommended that there is an urgent need to intensify regulatory role of the part of CPS regulator- National Pension Commission to ensure that operators are not lacking behind in practices of various mechanisms of CG.
Tensions in the relationships : exploring Japanese beginning teachers’ stories

This research examines stories told by beginning teachers’ and asks what kinds of tensions characterise their work? In earlier research tensions have been seen as personal, but here the emphasis is on how they are embedded and born in the interaction between the teachers and the relational and micropolitical environments of their schools. Tensions refer to situations, where teachers do not know how to act correctly, when two or more values or views conflict and several possible justifiable courses for action exist. Tensions are not emotions, but they are often accompanied by a strong emotional experiences. Tensions are often seen just as problems, but they can also contribute to professional growth. The empirical part is based on the basic view in narrative research, where telling stories is understood as a means through which people make sense of themselves and the world around them. The main research material are stories produced in interviews with sixteen (16) Japanese beginning teachers. For one sub-study, interviews with seven (7) senior teachers and field notes in one junior high school were also produced. In the analysis, holistic reading of individual stories, multi-voiced analysis of one narrative environment and a more traditional thematic analysis were utilised. The results show how the tensions in beginning teachers’ work are connected to their ideals on being a good teacher conflicting with expectations in the micropolitical environment of the schools. As a junior, the beginning teacher is expected to assume an obedient position with their seniors. The results also show how the views on being a good teacher emphasize putting common interests and responsibilities over personal matters. By acting against the expectations, the beginning teacher may risk harming the very important collegial relationships and therefore often decides to give up his or her ideals. The tensions are therefore born from the teacher having to give up his or her ideals and assuming opposing views. Learning how to deal and live with these relational and micropolitical tensions is connected to teacher well-being and attrition. Therefore, it is recommendable that tensions are paid sufficient attention to in both teacher education and in the schools.
The Influences of Supplier Selection and Partnership Quality on Buyer-Supplier Relationship and Firm Performance on Small and Medium Restaurants in Greater Jakarta

All companies require all factors of production, including labour and raw materials, to provide goods and services to their customers. The raw materials are usually obtained from the suppliers, while labour and other services can be managed in-house or obtained through outsourcing activities. The objective of this research is specifically to investigate the influences of supplier selection on partnership quality, partnership quality and supplier selection on buyer-supplier relationship (BSR) and firm performance of small and medium restaurants in Greater Jakarta, Indonesia. A questionnaire is developed and distributed through a field survey to 96 respondents who are restaurant owners/managers in Greater Jakarta. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is used to analyze the survey data. The results show that supplier selection has influences on partnership quality and BSR, while partnership quality does not affect BSR, and BSR has an influence on firm performance.
Improved Detecting Host Based Intrusions Based On Hybrid SVM Using Grey Wolf Optimizer

The blooming of intrusion instance trace notified as grim threat as per internet industry is concerned. To overcome, detection methodologies are designed by adopting an extensive intense research in the internet industry. Based on the consideration of challenging task and performance existence of contemporary computational methodologies, the objective of this Proposed Research has developed the enhanced hybrid strategy by combining the Support Vector Machine approach from classifier-based techniques and the Grey Wolf Optimizer from evolutionary techniques to optimize the support vector machine parameter towards the accurate classification of Host based intrusions with high detection accuracy and minimal false leads.
Placing their bets: The influence of strategic investment on CEO pay‐for‐performance

Research Summary A number of studies examine the extent to which boards compensate CEOs for their firm's performance (i.e., pay‐for‐performance), but these studies typically do not incorporate what CEOs actually do to bring about those performance outcomes. We suggest that directors will make stronger internal attributions about firm performance when the CEO engages in high levels of corporate strategic investment. CEOs that invest in firm growth essentially “place their bets,” so the pay‐for‐performance relationship is stronger for them than it is for CEOs who do not invest as much in firm growth. We also theorize and find that directors make internal attributions about firm performance more for prestigious, but not less prestigious, CEOs and more when the directors collectively exhibit conservative, but not liberal, political ideologies. Managerial Summary Shareholders and other stakeholders often demand that CEOs should be paid for performance. In other words, CEOs should be paid well when the company is performing well and paid less when the company is not performing well. We add an additional dimension: boards might also consider what CEOs actually do to bring about performance outcomes. Our findings suggest that when CEOs make heavy corporate investments, they essentially “place their bets. ” In this scenario, boards attribute performance to the CEO so that CEO compensation rises and falls with company performance. When CEOs make fewer corporate investments, their compensation is not as strongly associated with company performance. This primary relationship is particularly true when CEOs have high social recognition or when the directors are collectively conservative.
OpenPGP Extensions for Device Certificates

The OpenPGP Message Formats defined in RFC 4880 specify packet formats and methods for combining those packets to form messages and certificates. However RFC 4880 made an architectural decision that keys are owned by users and must be self-certified. New use cases have emerged where that is not the case. There is a desire to have certificates that are not tied to a user (e.g. device certificates) which may only have encryption keys so may not be self certifiable. Moreover, devices might be space constrained so reducing size is important. This draft specifies extensions to (and updates) RFC 4880 that loosen the definitions of certificates in order to enable userless certificates without self-certifications and specifies a set of notations to enable compact device certifications.
Good governance and integration for sustainable municipal solid waste management: a case study of Egypt

APA Citation El Masry, R. (2019). Good governance and integration for sustainable municipal solid waste management: a case study of Egypt [Master’s thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt. edu/etds/805 MLA Citation El Masry, Randa. Good governance and integration for sustainable municipal solid waste management: a case study of Egypt. 2019. American University in Cairo, Master's thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt. edu/etds/805
Analysis and design of on-line decision-making solutions for time-critical planning and scheduling under uncertainty

This thesis addresses the problems of designing a system to interact with a dynamic, uncertain environment such that the system must make quick decisions about how to respond to situations in the environment, yet has limited on-line time and space resources to employ in decision making. We provide methods for understanding the inherent tradeoffs in this design problem, and for evaluating how various design-time choices impact execution-time behavior. The class of problems in which these tradeoffs arise includes those of time-critical planning and scheduling under uncertainty. This dissertation conceptually models on-line decision making as a hierarchical storage problem, and formulates and analyzes on-line decision-making solutions as time-critical control systems with specific time/space tradeoffs. Time/space tradeoffs are evaluated with respect to a characterization of predictable temporal patterns in the interaction of control system and environment. These patterns capture design-time understanding of short-term and long-term interactions in which later situations of the environment are dependent upon earlier actions of the control system. The utility of the framework of this thesis is demonstrated through the development of a new approach to the design and analysis of real-time avionics systems. This approach may be generalized to posing and solving a variety of scheduling problems in hard real-time environments under uncertainty. The practical application of the framework and techniques of this thesis is evaluated through the development and implementation of a careful empirical study. This study provides evidence of the practicality of the design-time analytical techniques of this thesis with respect to the design and analysis of real-time avionics systems.
Goodwill Accounting Under the IFRS Impairment-only Approach? An Asia-Pacific Study

ii List of Figures . viii List of Tables . ix List of Appendices . xi List of Abbreviations . xii Attestation of Authorship . xv Acknowledgements . xvi Dedication. xviii CHAPTER
Knowledge Understanding and Advanced Searching

It's a comprehensive fact that millions of people around the world surf the Internet for want of answers for their questions. Generally, the questions are asked in the form of Searching or direct questions which follow perfect ontological directions. It is important that the system understands the questions in the right sense and can provide the best answer for all the questions raised in the web forum. One such pragmatic method is required which is expected to provide optimum solution to achieve best answers for questions that not only percepts language but also follows perfect ontological information in accordance with the cyber law. This Proposed Model presents a new dynamic model called Knowledge Understanding and Advance Searching (KUAS) that studies the importance of Smart Question Answering with other question answering engines like START and proves to give the optimal solution compared to them.
Bank loan loss provisions research: A review of the empirical literature

This paper aims to provide an overview of the literature on Loan loss provisions in the Banking industry. This research was conducted by reviewing some literature. LLP is a solution for banks to deal with risks that will be faced by banks or as a prudent banking principle. We have reviewed and mapped the literature in several sections, developments in the Basel Regulations, mapping LLP literature based on the research area, and LLP and hypothesis mapping. The main fact that we reveal is that most banks use LLP regulations for various purposes. This paper relies on the literature and highlights information as well as important issues related to LLP in the research field, this study highlights several important issues related to the banking industry in various countries. This study observed the role of LLP during the application of Basel III regulation which tended to provide flexibility to bank managers in determining provision reserves. We have reviewed the specific LLP literature in one country and cross-country research. This study identifies gaps and provides direction that can be used as a research contribution in the future. JEL Classification: G1, G2, G4 DOI : https://doi.org/10.26905/jkdp.v23i2. 2835
Review and Analysis of Glitch Reduction for Low Power VLSI Circuits

: Due to miniaturization of circuit’s mobility degradation, velocity saturation and power dissipation issues are critical in the design of VLSI circuits. In this paper various techniques to minimize power dissipation due to glitches are discussed. Total power consumption consists of two major parts like static power consumption and dynamic power consumption. In the total power, the static power is 30% and dynamic power is 70 %. The power due to glitches is 70% of the dynamic power and 30 % of the total power. Various methods are developed by researchers to minimize the power due to glitches.