THE PROBLEMS FACED BY THE HOUSEKEEPING DEPARTMENT OF NOVOTEL SOLO

The aims of this final project report are to present the importance of Housekeeping Department of Novotel Solo and to present the problems and solutions of the Housekeeping Department of Novotel Solo. Direct interview and library study are used to collect the data. The activities during his job training are as follows: wearing the uniform, taking presence and briefing, preparing the guest supplies, cleaning the room, taking a break, returning the guest supplies to the Housekeeping Department, and finally preparing to go home. The Housekeeping Department of Novotel Solo is one of hotel departments which has duties and responsibilities to maintain freshness, neatness, tidiness, and cleanness of hotel area. During the job training period, the writer found several problems, such as most of the Housekeeping staffs cannot speak other languages than English, many staffs cannot speak English fluently, limited work time, limited numbers of the Housekeeping staffs, many staffs working out of procedure, lack of amenities supplies. The writer suggests holding language training programs, holding upgrading programs, adding more staff members, and controlling the amenities regularly

Does financial instability weaken the finance-growth nexus? A case for Pakistan

The paper investigates whether financial instability weakens finance-growth nexus in case of Pakistan. In doing so ARDL bounds testing approach is used for cointegration among variables over the period of 1971-2005. The results show that financial instability does weaken finance-growth nexus. Trade openness increases economic growth through spillover effects. Increasing inflation retards economic growth i.e., lower inflation rates are necessary for sustained economic growth. Political instability impedes economic growth. The present study indicates new direction for policy makers to sustain the pace of economic growth and avoid financial crisis.Financial Crisis, Financial Development, Economic Growth

Does financial instability weaken the finance-growth nexus? A case for Pakistan

The paper investigates whether financial instability weakens finance-growth nexus in case of Pakistan. In doing so ARDL bounds testing approach is used for cointegration among variables over the period of 1971-2005. The results show that financial instability does weaken finance-growth nexus. Trade openness increases economic growth through spillover effects. Increasing inflation retards economic growth i.e., lower inflation rates are necessary for sustained economic growth. Political instability impedes economic growth. The present study indicates new direction for policy makers to sustain the pace of economic growth and avoid financial crisis.Financial Crisis, Financial Development, Economic Growth

Fiscal decentralization for poverty reduction in Asia: opportunities, challenges and policy issues

The increasing popularity of decentralization has been due to political imperatives and the economic rationale of improving the efficiency of the allocation of resources and the responsiveness of policymaking to local needs and preferences. There are various forms of decentralization, but this paper is focused mainly on fiscal decentralization. The paper analyses the challenges and policy issues of decentralization with respect to experiences of countries in Asia. It examines the benefits and advantages of decentralization, as well as the various costs. The financial and human resources costs can be quite large, especially in the early phases of decentralization. It is essential to conduct a careful cost-benefit evaluation before making a decision on the process of fiscal decentralization. The paper concludes with some suggestions for measures and policy options that could maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of the fiscal decentralization process and make it conducive to poverty reduction.

Does economic growth cause terrorism in Pakistan?

This paper analyzes the relationship between terrorism and economic growth for Pakistan by incorporating capital and trade openness. We used the data from 1971-2010 and have applied ARDL bounds testing approach to cointegration to examine the long run relationship between the variables. The VECM Granger causality approach is used to detect the direction of causality between terrorism and economic growth. Our empirical results confirm the existence of long run relationship between economic growth and terrorism. The Granger causality analysis indicates bidirectional causality between terrorism and capital, trade openness and capital, and terrorism and trade openness. However, unidirectional causality is found running from economic growth to terrorism.Terrorism, Economic Growth, Cointegration and Causality

Restricted maximum-likelihood method for learning latent variance components in gene expression data with known and unknown confounders

Random effect models are popular statistical models for detecting and correcting spurious sample correlations due to hidden confounders in genome-wide gene expression data. In applications where some confounding factors are known, estimating simultaneously the contribution of known and latent variance components in random effect models is a challenge that has so far relied on numerical gradient-based optimizers to maximize the likelihood function. This is unsatisfactory because the resulting solution is poorly characterized and the efficiency of the method may be suboptimal. Here we prove analytically that maximum-likelihood latent variables can always be chosen orthogonal to the known confounding factors, in other words, that maximum-likelihood latent variables explain sample covariances not already explained by known factors. Based on this result we propose a restricted maximum-likelihood method which estimates the latent variables by maximizing the likelihood on the restricted subspace orthogonal to the known confounding factors, and show that this reduces to probabilistic PCA on that subspace. The method then estimates the variance-covariance parameters by maximizing the remaining terms in the likelihood function given the latent variables, using a newly derived analytic solution for this problem. Compared to gradient-based optimizers, our method attains greater or equal likelihood values, can be computed using standard matrix operations, results in latent factors that don't overlap with any known factors, and has a runtime reduced by several orders of magnitude. Hence the restricted maximum-likelihood method facilitates the application of random effect modelling strategies for learning latent variance components to much larger gene expression datasets than possible with current methods.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 3 supplementary figures, 19 pages supplementary methods; minor revision with expanded Discussion sectio

Equivalent Binary Quadratic Form and the Extended Modular Group

Extended modular group $\bar{\Pi}=$, where R:z\rightarrow -\bar{z}, \sim T:z\rightarrow\frac{-1}{z},\simU:z\rightarrow\frac{-1}{z +1} , has been used to study some properties of the binary quadratic forms whose base points lie in the point set fundamental region $F_{\bar{\Pi}}$ (See \cite{Tekcan1, Flath}). In this paper we look at how base points have been used in the study of equivalent binary quadratic forms, and we prove that two positive definite forms are equivalent if and only if the base point of one form is mapped onto the base point of the other form under the action of the extended modular group and any positive definite integral form can be transformed into the reduced form of the same discriminant under the action of the extended modular group and extend these results for the subset \QQ^*(\sqrt{-n}) of the imaginary quadratic field \QQ(\sqrt{-m}).Comment: Paper contains two figures and twelve page

The size of informal economy in Pakistan

This paper estimates the size of informal economy in Pakistan by using monetary approach with some modifications, electricity consumption approach and MIMIC model. Under monetary approach, we take care of the issue of the stationarity of variables and use autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model instead of simple OLS and add education as an additional factor affecting the size of informal economy along with some other technical improvements in the standard monetary models. The electricity consumption approach and MIMIC models are used for the first time in case of Pakistan. The results show that the informal economy in Pakistan has been about 30 percent of the total economy which declined considerably in 2000s. Currently, about 20 percent of the economic transactions are taking place in the informal sector.Informal Economy, ARDL, MIMIC