Rural Resource Centre (RRC) business model: A new agri-based knowledge hub

Poster prepared for a share fair, Addis Ababa, May 201

The Stigma of Wasta: The Effect of Wasta on Perceived Competence and Morality

Wasta is an Arabic word that means the use of social connections to obtain benefits that otherwise would not be provided. Wasta plays a very important role in securing of employment in Arab countries. This paper attempts to study the attribution effects of wasta on perceptions of competence and morality. The main hypotheses is that those that use wasta to obtain employment will be perceived as incompetent and immoral irrespective of their true competence and morality. Data gathered from an Egyptian sample supports the hypotheses. Thus, we conclude that wasta may tarnish the image or stigmatize its user.Nepotism, attribution theory

Hukum Tinggal Serumah Dengan Istri Pasca Talak

This study aims to find out: 1) The rights of post-talaq wives according to an Islamic perspective, 2) How scholars view the law of living in the same house with post-talaq wives. This is so that the Islamic community can know the law surrounding the rights of wives after talaq, and know the law of living in the same house with wives who have been rejected, so that they do not forbid what Allah allows and do not allow what Allah forbids.This research uses library research. The techniques used in this study include; Data collection, after the data is collected, it will go through several stages: Editing, Organizing, Colcluding. After the process of collecting and processing data has been completed, the next step is to analyze the data to get a complete picture related to the problem that is the object of research.The results of this study show that: 1) For women who have been rejected have the following rights: The right to bread, shelter, mut'ah, child maintenance (hadhanah), and also dowry repayment if the dowry has not been paid. 2) The scholars agree that a wife who has been rejected by the raj'i still gets her rights as a wife as long as she is still in the period of iddah and is entitled to her residence. Some scholars argue that he has the right to get a place to live, and others think he is not entitled to a place to live.Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahuai: 1) Hak-hak  istri pasca talak menurut perspektif Islam, 2) Bagaimana pandangan ulama terkait hukum tinggal serumah dengan istri pasca talak. Hal demikian agar masyarakat Islam dapat mengetahui hukum seputar hak-hak istri pasca talak, dan mengetahui hukum tinggal serumah dengan istri yang telah ditalak, sehingga mereka tidak mengharamkan apa yang Allah halalkan dan tidak menghalalkan apa yang Allah haramkan. Penelitian ini menggunakan penelitian riset kepustakaan atau (library research). Adapun teknik yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini antaran lain; Pengumpulan data, setelah data terkumpul maka akan melalui beberapa tahap: Editing, Organizing, Colcluding. Setelah proses pengumpulan dan pengolahan data telah selesai, maka selanjutnya adalah menganalisis data guna mendapat sebuah gambaran utuh terkait dengan permasalahan yang menjadi objek penelitian. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa: 1) Bagi wanita yang telah ditalak memiliki hak-hak sebagai berikut: Hak nafkah, tempat tinggal, mut’ah, pemeliharaan anak (hadhanah), dan juga pelunasan mahar apabila maharnya belum dilunasi. 2) Para ulama sepakat bahwa seorang istri yang telah ditalak raj’i masih mendapatkan haknya sebagai seorang istri selama ia masih berada dalam masa iddah dan berhak atasnya tempat tinggal. Sebagian ulama berpendapat ia behak mendapatkan tempat tinggal, dan sebagian lainnya berpendapat tidak berhak atasnya tempat tinggal.

Determinants of Profitability: A Comparative Study of Textile and Cement Sector of Pakistan

The purpose of this study is to find the internal and external determinants of profitability of textile and cement sector of Pakistan. Secondary data is collected from “Financial Statement Analysis of companies (non-financial) listed at Karachi Stock Exchange” for the period of 2005-2010 by using the random and convenient sampling technique. Dependent variables consist of ROA and ROE and independent variables are liquidity, leverage, growth, capital intensity, size and market share. Out of the six variables, first four represents the internal factors and remaining two are external factors. Panel data analysis is applied to find the relationship among dependent and independent variables. The results of this study indicate that the liquidity and leverage impact significantly in the textile sector but growth, capital intensity, size and market share have no relevance with the profitability of this sector. In case of cement sector, liquidity, leverage and growth shows considerable effect while other factors are insignificant. This study is useful for the management of these sectors while carrying out any decision regarding internal and external variables

Economic Development Amidst Income Inequalities and Tax Structure: A Case Study of Pakistan (1976-2011)

Foremost objective of every state is to ensure equal distribution of incomes and justice among the general public.  As of a macroeconomic point of view, if the governments want to attain this objective, tax is one of the most significant tools of fiscal policy. This research explores the relationship among growth, inequality and economic development in the perspective of Pakistan. Time series macro data were used and the impact of taxes on income distribution has been investigated for the period 1976-2011 by employing Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) econometrics techniques. The index of Gini coefficient was used as an instrument for calculating the income inequality. There are numbers of factors which are responsible for uneven allocation of income in a country, although investment, progressive taxation and growth expenditure on community services play an important function in reducing inequality. This research shows that the share of high income class in GDP is greater as compared to the share of poor class in total manufacture. we may note that this has been as the corporate income raise in developing countries like Pakistan which lead increase in saving and positive impact on the total investment as a outcome its major share goes into the pocket of elite class, so its work in differing direction it lift up income inequality instead of decreasing inequality. The rate at which the income of corporate (elite class) increase is very high than the rate of increase in wages. The results of the estimated model show that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between independent and dependent variables. The results of the long-term equilibrium relationship show that the coefficient of direct taxes is significant and positive. The outcome also point out a positive correlation between per capita GDP and income inequality Keywords: Income, Tax, Wage, Inequality, Gini coefficient, GD

Power Imbalance Detection in Smart Grid via Grid Frequency Deviations: A Hidden Markov Model based Approach

We detect the deviation of the grid frequency from the nominal value (i.e., 50 Hz), which itself is an indicator of the power imbalance (i.e., mismatch between power generation and load demand). We first pass the noisy estimates of grid frequency through a hypothesis test which decides whether there is no deviation, positive deviation, or negative deviation from the nominal value. The hypothesis testing incurs miss-classification errors---false alarms (i.e., there is no deviation but we declare a positive/negative deviation), and missed detections (i.e., there is a positive/negative deviation but we declare no deviation). Therefore, to improve further upon the performance of the hypothesis test, we represent the grid frequency's fluctuations over time as a discrete-time hidden Markov model (HMM). We note that the outcomes of the hypothesis test are actually the emitted symbols, which are related to the true states via emission probability matrix. We then estimate the hidden Markov sequence (the true values of the grid frequency) via maximum likelihood method by passing the observed/emitted symbols through the Viterbi decoder. Simulations results show that the mean accuracy of Viterbi algorithm is at least $5$\% greater than that of hypothesis test.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, accepted by IEEE VTC conference, Fall 2018 editio

Honors First-Year Curriculum Institute Reflection

This reflection outlines the salient points discussed during the week-long Honors First-Year Curriculum Institute. This group was comprised of several instructors from three different disciplines to re-examine the unique experience of Honors GE courses