Emerging market liberalization and the impact on uncovered interest rate parity

In this paper we make use of the uncovered interest rate parity (UIRP) relationship to examine the extent that the liberalization of emerging financial markets has resulted in the integration of developing countries’ currency markets into the international capital market. Previous tests of the impact of liberalization on the integration of emerging markets capital markets into world financial markets are confined to equity markets, ignoring currency markets that arguably are more important in determining the success of financial liberalization. We find that, in general, deviation from UIRP in the emerging markets is systematic in nature and that a significant part of emerging market currency excess returns is attributable to time-varying risk premium. Importantly we also find that these countries’ currency deposits provide U.S. (equity) investors the benefits of international diversification. Our results also show that for some markets, liberalization improved (worsened) investors’ perception of growth opportunity while reducing (increasing) investors' perception of the probability of financial distress. Finally, while several countries benefited from liberalization and have become more integrated into the world capital market, the experience is country specific.Capital market ; Financial markets ; Markets

Price Discovery in the World Sugar Futures and Cash Markets: Implications for the Domincan Republic

This paper examines the relationship between #11 sugar futures prices traded in New York and the world cash prices for exported sugar. It was found that the futures market for sugar leads the cash market in price discovery. However, we fail to find evidence that changes in the cash price causes changes in futures price, that is, causality is unidirectional from futures to cash. The finding of cointegration between futures and cash prices suggests that the sugar futures contract is a useful vehicle for reducing overall market price risk faced by cash market participants selling at the world price (i.e., not enjoying favorable trade incentives). Further reliability on the usefulness of the WSF as a price discovery market is found through the impulse response functions; a shock in the futures price innovation generates a quick (one month) and positive response in futures and cash prices; but not vice versa.

Determinants of Process Maturity in English-speaking Caribbean Firms

For decades the IS community has been struggling with the delivery of low quality systems. Software process improvement (SPI) programs are accepted as one of the remedies to overcome this problem, with process maturity being a key element. A major contributor of process maturity is the capability maturity model integration (CMMI). However, most studies regarding process maturity and the determinants of IS quality have been conducted in large firms in developed countries. But it is imperative for software development firms both large and small to understand what is needed to deploy high quality systems. This study seeks to assess the determinants of process maturity in firms in the English-speaking Caribbean (ESC), using the established practices in the CMMI as a baseline for discussion and analysis. Applying PLS as the analytical tool, it was found that project monitoring and control, and verification and validation are major determinants of process maturity in the ESC. These findings can assist practitioners in their pursuit to produce higher quality software products, as well as provide a platform for further refinement of the research model by IS researchers

The structural and functional diversity of arbuscular mycorrhiza in Australia

Both land degradation of natural systems and the use of finite fertilisers in crop production highlight the need to more efficiently utilise limited nutritional resources in soils. Furthermore, greater protection against plant pathogens is required to lessen the effects of diseases that severely limit productivity in both natural and managed systems. The symbiotic association known as arbuscular mycorrhiza, which forms between most plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, is a promising potential solution to these issues facing plant productivity. These multifunctional associations have been observed to improve host nutrient-uptake as well as offer a degree of pathogen protection to host plants. However, AM fungal taxa vary in how capably they perform these functions. These taxa can also respond differently to changes in their environment. Therefore, there is a need to better understand how particular environmental variables might alter the structure and function of AM fungal communities. Current models of partner promotion in AM associations suggest AM fungi are promoted for their nutrient trade capabilities. However, it remains unclear how the availability of these soil nutrients influence the structure and function of AM fungal communities. Furthermore, these partner promotion models do not account for the promotion of AM fungi that specialise in secondary functions, such as pathogen protection. This thesis aimed to address two primary objectives. The first was to study the role of soil fertility as a driver of functional diversity in AM fungal communities. The second was to investigate the significance and taxonomic distribution of capable pathogen protection among AM fungi in natural systems. This work suggests that AM fungi most beneficial in alleviating nutrient limitation in hosts, such as the Gigasporaceae, are more frequently observed as soil fertility declines. This is consistent with current models of partner promotion in AM associations, but fails to explain why the populations of AM fungal taxa that do not specialise in nutrient trade are maintained in natural systems. A common hypothesis is that taxa such as the Glomeraceae might instead be promoted for more capable pathogen protection. However, I found no evidence to suggest that the Glomeraceae are proportionally more capable than other AM fungal families at altering the distribution of fungal plant pathogens in natural systems. These findings contribute to our ability in predicting the responses of AM fungal communities to environmental conditions and developing optimal AM fungal inoculum for targeted applications

The Adoption of Software Process Improvement Programs in the English-Speaking Caribbean

Managing and improving the processes used to develop software products is widely accepted as one of the remedies to overcome the problem of poor quality systems being delivered. As a result, the IS community has adopted several software process improvement (SPI) programs. The tenets of these programs are grounded in the belief that a mature development process can increase the likelihood of producing high quality software products with the requisite requirements which should add business value. However, small firms in developing countries like the English-speaking Caribbean (ESC) are not aware nor adopting these SPI programs because they are seen as costly, time consuming and disruptive; hence, not realizing the potential benefits. This study examined the awareness, adoption and benefits of SPI programs in ESC software development firms. The result found that a slight majority (54.5%) of firms in the region are aware of SPI programs, with only 20% of those who are aware using any form of SPI programs in the development of software. These findings reinforces the need for SPI training in the ESC to articulate the compelling need for a change towards the adoption and use of SPI programs in software development

Investigating the biological roles of the HSPRO genes in Arabidopsis thaliana

As a consequence of an immobile lifestyle, plants have had to evolve appropriate perception mechanisms and responses to diverse environmental stresses. Stress can be the result of both biotic and abiotic agents and the ORTHOLOG OF SUGAR BEET HS1 PRO-1 (HSPRO 1) and HSPRO2 genes were previously shown to be induced in response to several stresses including infection with Pseudomonas syringae and drought stress in Arabidopsis thaliana. The aim of this study was to characterise the biological role(s) played by these proteins in Arabidopsis. Several bioinformatics approaches provided evidence that supported function of both genes in response to both biotic and abiotic stresses and identified potential regulatory elements that may drive HSPRO gene expression during stress responses. Accordingly, analysis of null hspro mutants revealed antagonistic functions of the two proteins in PAMP-triggered immunity to P. syringae infections of shoot tissues and osmotic stress tolerance in plant roots. HSPRO proteins have been shown to interact with a central integrator of stress and energy signalling, SUCROSE NON-FERMENTING-1-RELATED KINASE1 (SnRK1) and microarray analysis of the null mutants suggested potential roles in carbohydrate signalling. An array of energy responsive genes including a subset of SnRK1 targets were misregulated in hspro mutants under standard growth conditions supporting involvement of HSPRO in energy signalling. Mutant phenotype and gene expression analysis revealed that HSPRO2 may be of importance in energy perception as hspro2 seeds were hypersensitive to exogenous glucose during germination, and that perception and/or signalling of low energy status may require HSPRO2. Although HSPRO2 expression may be driven via perception of environmental stress cues, promoter-luciferase assays revealed a diurnal expression pattern of the gene that was driven by the circadian clock. However, phenotypic analysis did not reveal a requirement of HSPRO2 for normal clock modulation. Since stress perception typically causes fluctuations in energy levels, it is proposed that HSPRO genes are important for the integration of energy and stress signalling in an effort to maintain a homeostatic balance between coping with environmental stress and normal growth and development

PRICE DISCOVERY IN THE FUTURES AND CASH MARKET FOR SUGAR

Pricing function using world sugar futures (WSF) has received limited research interest. Findings indicate that WSF and cash prices for the Dominican Republic appears cointegrated with changing relationships. Previous work suggests that futures markets price the cheapest quality of commodities deliverable on contracts. Cointegration results are consistent with this argument.Marketing,

Creating a culture for African American young adults in Seventh-Day Adventist Church leadership in San Bernardino County

The history of youth ministry in the African American church in the U.S. has always had young adults leading and taking action. In San Bernardino African American churches, that is not the case. Reasons such as fear, pressure, and lack of peer group have kept many young adults from wanting to be in leadership in their local church. The local church should be the place where emerging adults can be valued, supported and developed. By using the human resource frame and the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, local churches can create a new paradigm for leadership transfer that includes and empowers emerging adults. This process of leadership should be reproducible and transferable to create a culture that breeds young adult leadership.https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/hrsa/1203/thumbnail.jp

The impact of cybercrime on e-banking: A proposed model

Each day cybercrime attacks are getting more frequent, dangerous and sophisticated. In 2016 the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 1,408,849 complaints and a reported loss of $4.63 billion. The concept of cybercrime is complex, and as such the drive to overcome the problem is very difficult. However, the continual escalation of cybercrimes can have a negative impact on businesses and by extension the economies of countries. As a result, it is imperative that measures be identified to overcome the problem. Hence, this study seeks to propose a research model which can be used to evaluate the significance of cybercrime in deterring the use of e-banking in the financial sector. It is hoped that the proposed research model will influence other researchers to conduct empirical research in their context

The potential impact of trade policy changes on Caribbean sugar

This study of the Caribbean Sugar Industry summarizes its sugar trading activities and evaluates the potential impact of changes in preferential trading arrangements with the European Union (EU) on the six countries that makes up the Sugar Association of the Caribbean, namely: Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, St. Kitts-Nevis, and Trinidad & Tobago. The trading policies that govern sugar trade between these countries and developed countries such as the EU, the United States of America (US) and to a limited extent trade among them is discussed. The report briefly describes how the Caribbean sugar industry is organized, including supply and demand determinants, marketing of its sugar via the EU Sugar Protocol, and the US tariff rate quota system, and safeguards within the Caribbean Common Market (Caricom) from extra-regional sugar producers. The study then analyses the impact of price changes based on different price scenarios that may occur after preferential prices disappear. Data and estimated model specifications are described, elasticities of dependent variables responses to independent variables changes are calculated, and these results, in addition to different price simulations are presented. The analysis shows that modest decreases in prices to Caribbean sugar producers would not result in huge changes in the structure of the Caribbean sugar industry since responses of production, consumption, imports and exports are inelastic to prices changes in the short-run. This could be due of asset fixity within the industry. This industry requires huge capital investments, thus, after these investments are made producer are forced to operate at full capacity to minimize fix costs. Secondly, the industry within this region is a mass employer of labor and a huge contributor to their country\u27s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), therefore, any major changes with this industry could result in massive social instability