Simulation discounted cash flow valuation for internet companies

Discounted cash flow (DCF) is the most accepted approach for company valuation. It is well grounded in theory and practice. However, the DCF approach, which is commonly used for traditional companies valuation, presents a number of serious weaknesses within the Internet companies’ context. One of these weaknesses is tackling the uncertainty that characterize future cash flows of these companies. Specifically DCF assumes that future cash flow streams are highly predictable. The effects of uncertainty are therefore tackled implicitly by discounting the expected value of the cash flows at a risk-adjusted interest rate. However, under uncertainty, future cash flows of these companies can no longer be characterized by a single value but rather by a range of values of its possible consequences. This paper looks at the way in which uncertainty can be incorporated into the traditional DCF approach so that the latter, which is otherwise conceptually sound, becomes relevant. This is done by recognizing that the DCF input variables are uncertain and will have a probability distribution pertaining to each of them. Thus by utilizing a probability-based valuation model (using Monte Carlo Simulation) it is possible to incorporate uncertainty into the analysis and address the shortcomings of the current model. The MC simulation assigns a range of values in order to cope with uncertainty underlies each key cash flow variable. The process leads to a probability distribution of the valuation criterion used, giving investors a quantitative measure of risk involved

American Adolescents at Work

Despite advances in technology and medicine, safety for working adolescents still challenges 21st century Americans. One would think that by now, in the beginning of the new millennium, America would have cured this disease of child labor that infects its younger population. Yet, injuries still maim and kill America's working youth. Politicians speak out against child obesity, and both celebrities and ordinary citizens criticize school violence, especially after a Columbine or Virginia Tech massacre. Human rights activists picket clothing lines that depend upon the work of underpaid children in developing countries, and Congress holds hearings to ensure that American consumers do not buy goods produced by these exploited children. However, health care providers, legislators, and the general public often relegate child labor to the back burner. Moreover, many diminish the role of child labor in the United States by viewing child labor as a social, economic, and political problem limited to developing countries. The employment of children in the work force should be in the forefront of domestic health policy because of its social and economic significance to public health. Even though current societal awareness indicates some understanding of the health risks of adolescent workers, statistics continue to show a bleak picture of preventable workplace injuries and fatalities of this vulnerable population.This paper defines "child or youth" as any individual 17 or younger who engages in some kind of work. In discussing youth employment, the paper does more than just describe child labor laws; it also focuses on the unique traits of this young population and the trends that characterize its employment. This gives an identity to the faceless young men and women who deal with the risks of the industrial and agricultural work places. Once presenting the current statistics on injuries and fatalities incurred by youth in both the industrial and agricultural sectors, the paper compares the similarities and differences in the major industries between youth and adult workers. It then moves into the legal arena, describing what has been done and what still needs to happen to combat child labor problems

Some issues of regional development and planning in Libya

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityThis thesis is primarily concerned with the issues of regional development as they relate to a classic problem of underdevelopment, namely, the dualism of the space economy. The reversal of regional imbalance becomes a complex problem because the polarizing process is historically conditioned and is deeply ingrained into the structural economy. Accordingly, the present study of regional development in Libya started with a historical analysis of the space economy. Understanding of the historical evolution of regional economic relations is essential for the contemporary purposes of formulating development plans for modern Libya. Against a painful background of poverty resulting from historical influences and geographical constraints, the Libyan economy has experienced the "oil boom" of the Sixties. Since then, Libya has been characterized by a large capital surplus, as it became one of the major oil producing and exporting nations of the world. However, despite the abundance of capital the economy still reflects the classic structural traits of underdevelopment, i.e., sectoral imbalance and overdependence on a single product. While the oil industry has been developed extensively, other sectors of the economy remained comparatively less developed. In addition to that, the new oil wealth initiated the following problems: 1) the extension of a modern market economy into the traditional subsistence economy, disrupting the life-styles and the population base of the latter; 2) a widening gap between the rapidly growing modern cities and the stagnation or slow growth in rural areas; and 3) increased rural-to-urban migration. Given the fact that oil is an extractive economy of a nonrenewable resource, this research stresses the need for regional population policies that would link the exploitation of oil with areally dispersed industrial and agricultural activities. In this respect, population data from 1954 to 1973 were analyzed in order to identify the growing and declining regions. This analysis was supplemented by a spatial analysis of hierarchical service-centers in order to identify the gaps in space and in the hierarchical order. The results of this investigation were used to suggest a settlement policy for northeastern Libya

Polyketide Synthase III isolated from uncultured deep-sea Proteobacterium from the Red Sea- functional and evolutionary characterization

Natural polyketide products are one of the major secondary metabolites produced among bacteria, fungi, and plants. They vary from flavonoids, pyrones, and stilbenes to phloroglucinols and resorcinols that are involved in important functions as antimicrobial activity, defense mechanisms and pigmentation. They are biosynthesized from acyl-CoA precursors by polyketides synthases (PKSs) that are categorized into 3 types: I, II and III. PKS type III is considered the simplest in its structure. It was believed that PKS type III was exclusively encoded by higher plants until the enduring efforts of bacterial genomes sequencing revealed the presence of more and more PKSs type III among them. There is an urge to investigate novel PKSs type III due to their promising polyketides of great biological and pharmaceutical advantages. This allowed metagenomic approaches to be a valuable tool to explore diverse environments for PKSs type III. Extreme environments as deep sea brine pools could probe unique natural polyketides capable of functioning in such conditions with valuable biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications. In this study, screening of the Lower Convective Layer (LCL) of Atlantis II (ATII) deep brine pool in the Red Sea was done. It identified sequences belonging to bacterial PKSs type III. A candidate encoding sequence was amplified from the environmental DNA. Functional annotations were assigned to the translated open reading frame including the conserved catalytic triad, domains, motifs and 3D modelling. Preliminary structural analysis showed well-fitted superimposition with the flowering plant Medicago sativa PKS type III crystal structure and predicted the interaction of the catalytic triad with the most common substrate malonyl-CoA. Further optimization of heterologous expression is required to investigate this isolated PKS type III functional activity. In an approach to gain better insights into the enzyme’s unresolved evolutionary origin, a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis was conducted. The analysis pinpoints the possible involvement of symbiotic bacterium Parachlamydia acanthamoebae in horizontal gene transfer events to eukaryotes. On the other hand, the sequence isolated from ATII brine pool was clustered in a clade with related PKSs type III sequences belonging to alpha-proteobacteria. Environmental assessment of PKSs type III abundance in ATII and nearby Discovery Deep (DD) brine pool revealed the presence of PKSs type III in ATII only, where most sequences were located in the LCL. This could be attributed to the high aromatic content within the brine as possible substrates for the enzyme. Based on these analyses, we could propose ATII microbial community as a unique source for natural polyketides

Political and Social Developments in Morocco During the Reign of Mawlay Sulayman 1792-1822.

Mawlay Sulayman's reign (1792-1822) has so far received little attention from students of Moroccan history. The present work is designed to fill this gap in the modern history of Morocco by investigating the social, economic, political and religious aspects of this period of thirty years. It is intended to provide students of the modern history of Morocco with basic factual knowledge about the period. Initially, the thesis describes the structures of the Moroccan State and of Moroccan society at the turn of the nineteenth century. The economic history of the period is emphasised, particularly Morocco's commercial relations with Europe and the reasons behind the weakening of these relations at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The thesis then reconstructs the political history of Morocco during Mawlay Sulayman's reign. The discussion of political relations with the major European powers is intended to invalidate the long-held view of Morocco's isolation during the period under study. However, the most important - and the least known -aspect of the period from 1792 to 1822 is made up by Mawlay Sulayman's religious ideas and policy. To what extent was he reformist in his ideas? What was the real impact of the Wahhabi doctrine on the religious debate in Morocco, and what made the confrontation between Mawlay Sulayman and religious groups inevitable? These are some of the questions the thesis seeks to answer before moving on to discuss the Fes rebellion (1820-1822) which was really the last serious attempt by traditionalist groups to change the course of history to their advantage

Design and Development of a Tractor Mounted Sweet Potato Transplanting Machine

Transplanting is an important method of establishing field sweet potatoes. Design of a suitable transplanting machine depends on transplanting method. A design concept for the sweet potato transplanting machine was developed using Auto CAD R14. A prototype transplanter was designed, fabricated and field tested at the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, UPM, Serdang, Malaysia. The overall construction of the machine consists of the main chassis, power transmission system, transplanting pocket and handling system of the sweet potatoes vine cuttings. The machine was ground driven and mounted on the 3-point hitch linkage system of a mini or medium size tractor of 20-40 kW. Two operators were required in the transplanting operation; a driver for the tractor and an operator to feed the sweet potato seedlings manually. The operational activities for the machine include the preparation of planting furrow, placement of seedlings horizontally in the prepared furrow, covering of the seedlings and compacting the soil around the planted seedlings. The machine allowed all possible variations and component adjustments to ensure prompt and comprehensive field evaluation. The power requirement was about 8.9 kW for a single row machine. The machine was simple in design, easily manufactured locally and able to operate at high efficiency (77%). Forward speeds were significant parameter for transplanting and machine efficiency. These experimental results showed that first speed of 2km/hr together with planting depth of 20cm is the best among speeds and depths tested as it gave the lower number of missing plants. The sweet potato transplanting machine had an average capacity of 0.19 ha/hr at low speed (2km/hr) while the vegetable transplanter had about 0.09 ha/hr at the same speed. The expected yield for this machine should be greater than the yield produced vertically

An inexpensive and rapid diagnostic method of Koi Herpesvirus (KHV) infection by loop-mediated isothermal amplification

BACKGROUND: Koi Herpesvirus (KHV) affects both juvenile and adult common carp and koi, and is especially lethal to fry. The high mortalities caused by the disease have had a negative impact on the international koi trade. Different diagnostic techniques have been used to detect KHV, including: isolation of the virus in cell culture, electron microscopy, several PCR tests, ELISA and in situ hybridisation. All of these methods are time consuming, laborious and require specialised equipment. RESULTS: A rapid field diagnosis of KHV in common and koi carp was developed using loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). The LAMP reaction rapidly amplified nucleic acid with high specificity and efficiency under isothermal conditions using a simple water bath. Two methods of extracting DNA from host tissue were compared: extraction by boiling and by using a commercial extraction kit. A set of six primers – two inner primers, two outer primers and two loop primers – was designed from a KHV amplicon. The reaction conditions were optimised for detection of KHV in 60 min at 65°C using Bst (Bacillus stearothermophilus) DNA polymerase. When visualised by gel electrophoresis, the products of the KHV LAMP assay appeared as a ladder pattern, with many bands of different sizes from 50 base-pairs (bp) up to the loading well. The KHV LAMP product could also be simply detected visually by adding SYBR Green I to the reaction tube and observing a colour change from orange to green. All samples positive for KHV by visual detection were confirmed positive by gel electrophoresis. The KHV LAMP had the same sensitivity as a standard PCR assay for the detection of KHV. CONCLUSION: This paper describes an accelerated LAMP assay for diagnosis of KHV. The entire procedure took only 90 minutes to produce a result: 15 minutes for DNA extraction; 60 min for the LAMP reaction; 2 min for visual detection using SYBR Green I. The test can be used under field conditions because the only equipment it requires is a water bath