Emerging market equities and US policy uncertainty: evidence from Malaysia based on ARDL

‘When Wall Street sneezes, the world catches pneumonia. And when America recovers, the planet has a spring in its step’ – this metaphor appeared to be an accurate description of the global economy for decades. This paper examines the short and the long-term impact of the influential global factor (US Policy Uncertainty) on the emerging markets’ stocks using Malaysia as a case study. The study applies the ‘Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag’ (ARDL) technique, which has taken care of a major limitation of the conventional co-integration tests, in that they suffer from the pre-test biases. Based on the above rigorous methodology, the developed world disturbances appear to have limited impact on the Malaysian stock markets in the long run. This finding is plausible and has strong policy implications on portfolio investing and diversifications by investing in the emerging equity markets as the Bursa-Malaysia could function as a hedge against negative shocks in advanced economies

(WP 2011-01) It Takes Two: The Incidence and Effectiveness of co-CEOs

This study examines the phenomenon of co-CEOs within publicly traded firms. Although shared executive leadership is not widespread, it occurs within some very prominent firms. We find that co-CEOs generally complement each other in terms of educational background or executive responsibilities. Our results show that firms most likely to appoint co-CEOs have lower leverage, a more limited firm focus, less independent board structure, fewer advising directors, lower institutional ownership and greater levels of merger activity. The governance structure of co-CEO firms suggest that co-CEOships can serve as an alternative governance mechanism, with co-CEO mutual monitoring substituting for board or external monitoring and co-CEO complementary skills substituting for board advising. An event study indicates that the market reacts positively to appointments of co-CEOs while a propensity score analysis shows that the presence of co-CEOs increases firm valuation

Geoarchaeology of the ancient city of Utica (Tunisia) and evolution of the palaeoenvironment of the Medjerda delta

Phoenician Utica remains today largely unknown, as is its role in the Phoenician expansion in the western Mediterranean. Aristotle and Pliny the Elder mention Utica as a maritime and port city and estimate its origin around the 11th c. BC. However, in the present state of research, no archaeological evidence is earlier than the 9th c. BC, and the location of the Phoenician and Roman port infrastructures remains unknown. Today, the ancient city is located on a promontory in the heart of the Medjerda delta, 10 km inland. This project proposes an interdisciplinary effort to understand the Medjerda delta landscape changes during the Holocene. It starts from an archaeological problem and proposes the contribution of geoarchaeology to the understanding of the relationship between ancient societies and their environment. The fluvial palaeoenvironments and sedimentary processes are studied through the mechanical extraction of cores (15-20 m deep) to reach the early Holocene. Selected sediment samples are then studied in laboratory, using different and complementary approaches. The location of port infrastructures will bring initial answers to the question of the foundation of the city. The study of river palaeoenvironments of the Medjerda delta during the Holocene aim at a better understanding of the nature of the settlement, as well as the function of the city of Utica over time. This study will also assess the impact of the ancient city on the environment and understand how the city adapted to the mobility of this Mediterranean delta. Furthermore, the analysis of sedimentary processes causing the filling of the harbour basin will lead to speculation about the causes of the abandonment of the structures and more generally the decline of the city in favor of Carthage. It will also examine whether natural or anthropogenic factors have influenced this deltaic progradation over the centuries

CD44 targeting reduces tumour growth and prevents post-chemotherapy relapse of human breast cancers xenografts

CD44 is a marker of tumour-initiating cells and is upregulated in invasive breast carcinoma; however, its role in the cancer progression is unknown. Here, we show that antibody-mediated CD44-targeting in human breast cancer xenografts (HBCx) significantly reduces tumour growth and that this effect is associated to induction of growth-inhibiting factors. Moreover, treatment with this antibody prevents tumour relapse after chemotherapy-induced remission in a basal-like HBCx

Measuring internet addiction in arab based knowledge societies: A case study of Saudi Arabia

As the technology is getting entwined with the lives of people, the adverse impacts are also mushrooming. Since decades, researchers have been trying to identify the reasons for such negative impacts with the help of various measuring tool. The present study used the modified version of the Widyanto’s Internet Addiction Test questionnaire designed by introducing ‘culture’ construct to the existing three constructs. This tool is exercised for 306 respondents, selected at random in Saudi Arabia to know the extent of internet addiction prevalence and the triggering factors. Three levels of analysis are done on the data – basic analysis for demographic characteristics, binary logistic regression analysis and principal component analysis. The results revealed interesting facts about the internet usage phenomenon in Saudi Arabia. Though culture is added in the study tool to understand its impact on the level of internet usage, it is not highlighted in the final result. However, education level is proved to be the most influencing factor internet addiction. The principal component analysis also revealed that only the demographic factors like age, gender, income level and education are the variables that could explain the variation in the internet usage phenomenon to a greater extent. Thus, this study not only throws light on the influencing factors but also gives room for further analysis to look for the possible influencing factors such as the emotional/psychological, time management, mood management and culture in all the regions. © 2005 – ongoing JATIT & LLS.Scopu