Ownership Structure and Market Liquidity – Sectorial Evidence From India

A firm’s ownership consists of shares held by promoters, public, institutions and other bodies. Ownership concentration in fewer hands leads to amplified agency cost and information asymmetry and impinge on the firm’s performance and market liquidity. Given the large number of liquidity measures and methodologies employed both by practitioners and academic researchers, this paper examines the market liquidity using impact cost, turnover ratio and coefficient of elasticity of trading. Looking at the logic behind their construction, and how they relate to each other and its relation with constituents of firm’s ownership structure, this study also attempts to find the relationship between the ownership structure and liquidity indicators. NSE Banking index stocks were taken as the sample for the period from July 2013 to June 2014. It is observed that the market liquidity as measured by impact cost and turnover ratio is not influenced by promoter group holding, institutions shareholders and non institutions shareholders and it confirms the findings of Paul Brockman, Dennis Y. Chung, and Xuemin (Sterling) Yan (2009). However, promoter group holding and institutions shareholding are significant explanation variables for market liquidity as measured by coefficient of trading model. The granger causality test confirms that public shareholding granger cause coefficient of elasticity of trading. It also shows that there is no causal relationship between promoter group holding, public shareholding, institutions shareholding, non institutions shareholding, and impact cost and turnover ratios. Keywords: ownership structure, market liquidity, impact cost, granger causality

Factors Contributing to Human Trafficking, Contexts of Vulnerability and Patterns of Victimization: The case of stranded victims in Metema, Ethiopia

Human trafficking has recently emerged as an exceedingly intricate international crime. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most vulnerable region from which a substantial amount of victims has been recruited for both continental and intercontinental transaction. This also holds true for Ethiopian men, women and children who have been immensely draining out via various channels within assorted trafficking networks. This study assesses factors contributing to human trafficking and victimization and the contexts of vulnerability with reference to stranded victims in Metema, Ethiopia. Employing a cross-sectional qualitative research, primary data were gathered from various groups of purposely selected subjects: stranded victims, traffickers, law enforcing agents and social service providers. In-depth interviews, key-informant interviews, focus group discussions and non-participant observation were used as methods of acquiring information which was, finally, analyzed thematically to provide a qualitative account on the problem under study. The study found that victims highly pressured by various social structural factors (for instance, poverty, excessive social stress on economic success, the submission of non-economic institutions to the drives of economic calculations, the targets’ bounded economic rationality, the expansion of migration/employment agencies and the effect of migration networks) towards migration which ultimately made them motivated targets of trafficking. Once recruited, they are subjected to abusive and exploitative relationship with the traffickers which exposed them to various difficult situations.Key Words: Human trafficking, migration, victimization, vulnerability, povert

Nexus between Ownership Structure and Stock Liquidity Evidence from Indian Service Sector

This study attempts to find relationship between the firm ownership structure and stock liquidity. Data for this study is taken from the listed stocks of National stocks exchange which are the constituents of CNX500 index, and it includes 74 financial sector, 26 Information technologies and 7 telecommunication sector companies. The sample data for the study is taken from 2009 to 2015 and stock liquidity is measured by using Amihud illiquidity ratio (2002) and turnover ratio. Concentration of ownership in few hands means less liquidity.  It is found that public is the largest shareholder in case of Information technology firms with equal representation from institutions and non institutional holdings and has enhanced liquidity as measured by amihud illiquidity ratio compared to financial service and telecommunication sector. Independent variables like percentage of shares held by mutual fund institutions, financial Institutions, Insurance companies, FII, Individuals holding less than 1 lakh, and Individuals holdings more than 1 lakh have significant positive influence on stock liquidity. The study found that public concentration of firm ownership lead to better liquidity as it enhances the frequency of trade. Higher promoter shareholdings affect the liquidity adversely. Public shareholdings and turnover ratio are highly correlated; indicating better liquidity for shareholders and financial service stocks have superior liquidity compared to Information technology and telecommunication stocks. Keywords: Ownership structure, stock liquidity, Amihud Illiquidity ratio Promoter holdings JEL category: G23, G2

IoT–smart contracts in data trusted exchange supplied chain based on block chain

Internet of Things (IoT) assumes a critical part in the advancement of different fields. The IoT data trusted exchange in recent year extend of uses influence an awesome request and increasing scale. In such a platform, exchange the data sets that they require and specialist organization can search. However, the enough trust as the third-party mediators for data exchange in centralized infrastructure cannot provide. This paper proposes a blockchain for IoT data trusted exchange based on decentralized solution. In particular, the fundamental standards of blockchain in verify manner, individuals can communicate with each other without a confided in mediator intermediary. Blockchain enable us to have a distributed, digital ledger. IoT (Internet of Things) sensor devices (zigbee) utilizing blockchain technology to assert public availability of temperature records, tracking location shipment, humidity, preventing damage, data immutability. The sensor devices looking the temperature, location, damage of each parcel during the shipment to completely guarantee directions. In blockchain all data is got moved from one position to another, where a smart contract assesses against the product attributes. Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts atlast it gets through knowledge a design to be copied and presents its decentralized distributed digital ledger, auditable, transparent, features visually

Early mobilization improves functional outcomes in critically ill patients

Background\ud Long-term complications of critical illness include intensive care unit (ICU)-acquired weakness and neuropsychiatric disease. Immobilization secondary to sedation might potentiate these problems.\ud \ud Methods\ud Objective\ud To assess efficacy of combining daily interruption of sedation with physical and occupational therapy on functional outcomes in patients receiving mechanical ventilation in intensive care.\ud \ud Design\ud Open label randomized clinical trial.\ud \ud Setting\ud Study was conducted at two university hospitals on patients receiving sedation and mechanical ventilation. Subjects were those who received mechanical ventilation for < 72 hrs, were functionally independent prior to hospitalization, and were expected to continue for at least 24 hrs after enrollment.\ud \ud Subjects\ud 104 mechanically ventilated patients in the ICU.\ud \ud Intervention\ud Patients were randomized to receive either early exercise and mobilization (physical and occupational therapy) during periods of daily interruption of sedation (intervention; n = 49) or daily interruption of sedation with therapy as ordered by the primary care team (control; n = 55). Therapists who undertook patient assessments were blinded to treatment assignment.\ud \ud Outcomes\ud The primary endpoint was the number of patients returning to independent functional status at hospital discharge defined as the ability to perform six activities of daily living and the ability to walk independently. Secondary endpoints included duration of delirium and ventilator-free days during the first 28 days of hospital stay.\ud \ud Results\ud The return to independent functional status at hospital discharge occurred in 29 (59%) patients in the intervention group compared with 19 (35%) patients in the control group (p = 0.02; odds ratio 2.7 [95% CI 1.2-6.1]). Patients in the intervention group had shorter duration of delirium (median 2.0 days, IQR 0.0-6.0 vs 4.0 days, 2.0-8.0; p = 0.02), and more ventilator-free days (23.5 days, 7.4-25.6 vs 21.1 days, 0.0-23.8; p = 0.05) during the 28-day follow-up period than did controls. There was one serious adverse event in 498 therapy sessions (desaturation less than 80%). Discontinuation of therapy as a result of patient instability occurred in 19 (4%) of all sessions, most commonly for perceived patient-ventilator asynchrony.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud A strategy for whole-body rehabilitation consisting of interruption of sedation and physical and occupational therapy in the earliest days of critical illness was safe and well tolerated, and resulted in better functional outcomes at hospital discharge, a shorter duration of delirium, and more ventilator-free days compared with standard care

Ab-inito study on different phases of ferromagnetic CeMnNi4

Using first-principles density functional calculations, we study the possible phases of CeMnNi$_{4}$ and show that the ground state is ferromagnetic. We observed the hexagonal phase to be lowest in energy whereas experimentally observed cubic phase lies slightly higher in energy. We optimized the structure in both phases and in all different magnetic states to explore the possibility of the structural and magnetic phase transitions at ground state. We do not find any phase transitions between the magnetic and non-magnetic phases. The calculated structural, magnetic properties of cubic phase are in excellent agreement with experiments. Further, we do not observe half metallic behavior in any of the phases. However, the cubic phase does have fewer density of states for down-spin component giving a possibility of forming half metallic phase artificially, introducing vacancies, and disorder in lattice

An enhanced kernel weighted collaborative recommended system to alleviate sparsity

User Reviews in the form of ratings giving an opportunity to judge the user interest on the available products and providing a chance to recommend new similar items to the customers. Personalized recommender techniques placing vital role in this grown ecommerce century to predict the users’ interest. Collaborative Filtering (CF) system is one of the widely used democratic recommender system where it completely rely on user ratings to provide recommendations for the users.  In this paper, an enhanced Collaborative Filtering system is proposed using Kernel Weighted K-means Clustering (KWKC) approach using Radial basis Functions (RBF) for eliminate the Sparsity problem where lack of rating is the challenge of providing the accurate recommendation to the user.  The proposed system having two phases of state transitions: Connected and Disconnected. During Connected state the form of transition will be ‘Recommended mode’ where the active user be given with the Predicted-recommended items. In Disconnected State the form of transition will be ‘Learning mode’ where the hybrid learning approach and user clusters will be used to define the similar user models. Disconnected State activities will be performed in hidden layer of RBF and Connected Sate activities will be performed in output Layer. Input Layer of RBF using original user Ratings. The proposed KWKC used to smoothen the sparse original rating matrix and define the similar user clusters. A benchmark comparative study also made with classical learning and prediction techniques in terms of accuracy and computational time. Experiential setup is made using MovieLens dataset

Healthcare information exchange using blockchain technology

Current trend in health-care industry is to shift its data on the cloud, to increase availability of Electronic Health Records (EHR) e.g. Patient’s medical history in real time, which will allow sharing of EHR with ease. However, this conventional cloud-based data sharing environment has data security and privacy issues. This paper proposes a distributed solution based on blockchain technology for trusted Health Information Exchange (HIE). In addition to exchange of EHR between patient and doctor, the proposed system is also used in other aspects of healthcare such as improving the insurance claim and making data available for research organizations. Medical data is very sensitive, in both social as well as legal aspects, so permissioned block-chain such as Hyperledger Fabric is used to retain the necessary privacy required in the proposed system. As, this is highly permissioned network where the owner of the network i.e. patient holds all the access rights, so in case of emergency situations the proposed system has a Backup Access System which will allow healthcare professionals to access partial EHR and this backup access is provided by using wearable IOT device

Quantum cryptography for secured communication networks

Quantum cryptography is a method for accessing data with the cryptosystem more efficiently. The network security and the cryptography are the two major properties in securing the data in the communication network. The quantum cryptography uses the single photon passing through the polarization of a photon. In Quantum Cryptography, it's impossible for the eavesdropper to copy or modify the encrypted messages in the quantum states in which we are sending through the optical fiber channels. Cryptography performed by using the protocols BB84 and B92 protocols. The two basic algorithms of quantum cryptography are Shor’s algorithm and the Grover’s’s algorithm. For finding the number of integer factorization of each photon, Shor’s algorithm is used. Grover’s’s algorithm used for searching the unsorted data. Shor’s algorithm overcomes RSA algorithm by high security. By the implementation of quantum cryptography, we are securing the information from the eavesdropper and thereby preventing data in the communication channel

‘Site of contact genotoxicity’ assessment for implants - Potential use of single cell gel electrophoresis in biocompatibility testing of medical devices

Toxicological risk assessment of medical devices requires genotoxicity assessment as per ISO 10993, Part 3, which is designed to address gene mutations, clastogenicity and/or aneugenicity endpoints. ‘Site of contact genotoxicity’ is a potential genotoxic risk especially for medical implants, that is currently not addressed in biocompatibility standards. We therefore performed initial validation study on the use of alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay) for detecting ‘site of contact genotoxicity’ of medical devices, using test items made of acrylic implants impregnated with ethyl methanesulphonate (EMS). Comet assay detected increased DNA migration at the site of implantation, but not in the liver. The same implants also failed to show any genotoxicity potentials, when tested on the standard test battery using Salmonella/microsome and chromosome aberration assays. The study suggested that some medical implants can cause ‘site of contact genotoxicity’, without producing systemic genotoxicity. In conclusion, comet assay will add new dimension to safety assessment of medical devices, and this assay can be added to the battery of genetic toxicology tests for evaluating biocompatibility of medical implants