Technical Efficiency of Resource-Conserving Technologies in Rice -Wheat Systems: The Case of Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh in India

This study has evaluated the technical efficiency of farmers engaged in rice-wheat cropping systems in North-eastern India, who are using Resource-Conserving Technologies (RCTs) such as Zero Tillage (ZT) and Direct Seeded Rice (DSR). These technology promotions are being carried out under the intervention of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project, primarily funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The resource-conserving technologies are being promoted as part of conservation agriculture supported by the project. The data used in this study have been derived from the socioeconomic surveys conducted in Eastern Uttar-Pradesh and Bihar in North-eastern India during the kharif season of 2009 and rabi season of 2010. A stochastic frontier analysis was carried out to investigate and compare the determinants of technical efficiency among the farmers receiving intervention and those who are not. The study has revealed that farmers receiving CSISA intervention have realized higher levels of technical efficiency. Additionally, farmers who are receiving subsidies and farmers who are planting more diversified crops have higher levels of technical efficiency.Conservation agriculture, Direct seeded rice, India, Resource-conserving technology, Technical efficiency, Stochastic frontier, Zero tillage, Agricultural and Food Policy, O30, Q18, O22,

Non-linear unit root properties of stock prices : evidence from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

This study applies a threshold autoregressive (TAR) model to monthly stock prices for three South Asian countries over the period from 1991:01 to 2009:09. Two main conclusions are drawn. Firstly, the results indicate that all the stock prices in this study exhibit non-linear behavior. Secondly, a partial unit root was found to be present in one of the regimes indicating that the stock prices are weak form efficiency, but not all the time

Relationship between Macroeconomics and Stock Market: Empirical Study in Malaysia

This paper attempt to investigate the relationship between macroeconomic variables and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, the samples are divided into 2 groups such as foreign macroeconomic variables and local macroeconomic variables, foreign macroeconomic variables consist of Gold Bullion LBM price and Dow Jones Index, meanwhile local macroeconomic variables consist of Consumer Price Index, Base Lending Rate, Exchange Rate.This study employs data from Jan 2000 to Dec 2013 which contains a monthly data set of 168 observations. There are 3 methodologies used in this study to investigate the relationship, the first test is Unit Root test which used to test the stationary of each variable, the results indicate that all the variables are stationary in first difference, this is important to use stationary variables because if the variables are not stationary, it might lead to spurious regression. The second methodology is Johansen & Juselius Co-integration test to investigate the long run relationship among these variables, the results show that the foreign macroeconomic variables and local macroeconomic variables have long run relationship with KLCI and significant. Next, this study will investigate the short run relationship between macroeconomic variables and KLCI, the results indicate that Gold, BLR and CPI can granger cause KLCI and significant at 1%, 5% significance level respectively

The Effects of Insider Ownership Capital Structure of Main Board Listed Companies

In this paper, researcher tends to discuss the “internal control protects shareholders from agency problem”. The term of insider ownership refer to the shareholders who manage the company as well. In other words, the managers are also the owner of the company. Hence, the conflict of interest between the shareholders and managers will reduce as the higher on concentration insider ownership. In this study, insider  ownership expressed as the percentage of the firm’s outstanding share held by the insider. Insider ownership can be classified into outstanding share held by directors, director’s family members (e.g., spouse and siblings), board members and employees’ share option scheme committees. Family or insider groups as a significant shareholder is more likely to be interested in control benefit as well as profit and decision making (Teall, 2007). Small firms usually are higher in insider ownership than outsider control. When a firm expands the business through public listing, the ownership will distribute ownership opportunity to the public. In Malaysia, when go to public listing, the 30% shares must hold by bumiputra. If there are non-bumiputra companies, the companies will gather 30% shares from outsiders who are bumiputra to meet the listing requirement

Predictive Modelling Using Unstructured Data From Online Forums: A Case Study on E-cigarette Users

In the age of the digital economy, social media, forums and other online platforms have played active parts in our daily activities. The amount of data digitized and recorded in these platforms have surged exponentially. Many believed that this underexplored unstructured data sources have huge potential in offering insights to policy makers and companies. This paper aims to propose a hybrid approach using inductive and deductive reasoning to identify motivational factors to use e-cigarettes for predictive modelling. A total of 790 comments and discussions relevant to e-cigarette use and motivations to use e-cigarette were scraped and stored from online forums like Reddit, Vapingunderground and e-cigarette-forum. A series of text analytics were conducted on the text corpus and the cluster analysis enabled us to build a predictive model. Using Bayesian Structural Equation Modelling, we concluded that the constructs derived by clustering, i.e. Cost and Convenience and Enjoyment, have significant associations with smokers trying to quit smoking. While health-related issues were inherent to the notion of quitting smoking, enjoyment, cost and convenience were motivational factors which will generate favourable response towards quitting smoking. The findings showed encouraging results from a methodological standpoint and offered insights to policy makers and companies on health-related issues pertaining to the use of e-cigarettes

Mapping radiation dose distribution on the Fractional Anisotropy Map: application in the assessment of treatment-induced white matter injury

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Discrepant FA reduction between the frontal and parietal lobes of post irradiation medulloblastoma survivors: preliminary findings of regional susceptibility?

In this study of 16 medulloblastoma survivors and corresponding age-matched control subjects, we tested the hypothesis that fractional anisotropy (FA) in the frontal lobe is more severely reduced than the parietal lobe after whole brain irradiation. Quantitative measurement of regional mean FA was performed using automatically generated masks. We found significant FA reduction in the frontal lobe, but not parietal lobe, in the medulloblastoma survivors compared to controls. Although more severe FA reduction in the frontal lobe was found, this difference did not achieve statistical significance. However, a trend of regional susceptibility of the frontal lobe to radiation was suggested.published_or_final_versio

Improving health professional\u27s knowledge of hepatitis B using cartoon based learning tools: a retrospective analysis of pre and post tests

Background: Hepatitis B serology is complex and a lack of knowledge in interpretation contributes to the inadequate levels of screening and referral for highly effective hepatitis antiviral treatments. This knowledge gap needs to be addressed so that current and future healthcare professionals are more confident in the detection and assessment of hepatitis B to improve the uptake of treatment and reduce long-term complications from the disease. Cartoons have been used effectively as a teaching tool in other settings and were considered as a potentially useful teaching aid in explaining hepatitis B serology. This study examines the impact of cartoons in improving healthcare professionals’ knowledge. Methods: A cartoon based learning tool designed to simplify the complexities of hepatitis B serology was developed as part of an online learning program for medical practitioners, nurses and students in these professions. A retrospective analysis was carried out of pre and post online test results. Results: An average improvement of 96% of correct answers to case study questions in hepatitis B serology was found across all ten questions following the use of an online cartoon based learning tool. Conclusion: The data indicates a significant improvement of participants’ knowledge of hepatitis B serology from pre-test to post-test immediately following an online cartoon based learning tool. However, further research is required to measure its long term impact