The Relationship between Net Interest Margin and Return on Assets of Listed Banks in Ghana

The purpose of the study was to find out the trends of Net Interest Margin (NIM) and Return on Assets (ROA).  It also sought to find out the relationship between the NIM and the ROA of the listed banks in Ghana, considering the period 2005-2011. Seven out of the nine listed banks were considered for the study. The main sources of data were from the annual reports of the selected listed banks, as well as other relevant scholarly journals. Trend analysis was used to find the trend of NIM and ROA of the listed banks. Regression and correlation analyses were used to find the relationship and the strength thereof between NIM and the ROA. The dependent variable was Profitability (ROA); while the independent variable was Net Interest Margin (NIM). The study revealed that there is a strong positive correlation between the NIM and the ROA (Profitability) of the listed banks. The regression equation between NIM (X - Axis) and ROA (Y - Axis) is Y = 0.577X – 1.427. The correlation co-efficient, R2 is 0.826. This means that 82.6% of ROA is explained by the NIM. When Net Interest Margin decreases, Return on Assets (Profitability) decreases; and vice versa. Keywords: Net interest margin, return on assets, profitability, relationship, regression, correlatio

Star of the North, or the Comet of 1861

The pictorial envelope depicts Abraham Lincoln\u27s head as a falling comet in a starry sky. The envelope is cream and features red and blue ink. The envelope has some adhesive damage to its reverse.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-ephemera/1037/thumbnail.jp

Towards Responsible Governance of Biological Design Tools

Recent advancements in generative machine learning have enabled rapid progress in biological design tools (BDTs) such as protein structure and sequence prediction models. The unprecedented predictive accuracy and novel design capabilities of BDTs present new and significant dual-use risks. For example, their predictive accuracy allows biological agents, whether vaccines or pathogens, to be developed more quickly, while the design capabilities could be used to discover drugs or evade DNA screening techniques. Similar to other dual-use AI systems, BDTs present a wicked problem: how can regulators uphold public safety without stifling innovation? We highlight how current regulatory proposals that are primarily tailored toward large language models may be less effective for BDTs, which require fewer computational resources to train and are often developed in an open-source manner. We propose a range of measures to mitigate the risk that BDTs are misused, across the areas of responsible development, risk assessment, transparency, access management, cybersecurity, and investing in resilience. Implementing such measures will require close coordination between developers and governments.Comment: 10 pages + references, 1 figure, accepted at NeurIPS 2023 Workshop on Regulatable ML as oral presentatio

Properties of pedestrians walking in line: Stepping behavior

In human crowds, interactions among individuals give rise to a variety of self-organized collective motions that help the group to effectively solve the problem of coordination. However, it is still not known exactly how humans adjust their behavior locally, nor what are the direct consequences on the emergent organization. One of the underlying mechanisms of adjusting individual motions is the stepping dynamics. In this paper, we present first quantitative analysis on the stepping behavior in a one-dimensional pedestrian flow studied under controlled laboratory conditions. We find that the step length is proportional to the velocity of the pedestrian, and is directly related to the space available in front of him, while the variations of the step duration are much smaller. This is in contrast with locomotion studies performed on isolated pedestrians and shows that the local density has a direct influence on the stepping characteristics. Furthermore, we study the phenomena of synchronization -walking in lockstep- and show its dependence on flow densities. We show that the synchronization of steps is particularly important at high densities, which has direct impact on the studies of optimizing pedestrians flow in congested situations. However, small synchronization and antisynchronization effects are found also at very low densities, for which no steric constraints exist between successive pedestrians, showing the natural tendency to synchronize according to perceived visual signals.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Effects of exercise, cognitive, and dual-task interventions on cognition in type 2 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: Previous evidence has shown significant effects of exercise, cognitive and dual-task training for improving cognition in healthy cohorts. The effects of these types of interventions in type 2 diabetes mellitus is unclear. The aim of this research was to systematically review evidence, and estimate the effect, of exercise, cognitive, and dual-task interventions on cognition in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Method: Electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, and MEDLINE were searched for ongoing and completed interventional trials investigating the effect of either an exercise, cognitive or dual-task intervention on cognition in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Results: Nine trials met the inclusion criteria – one dual-task, two cognitive, and six exercise. Meta-analyses of exercise trials showed no significant effects of exercise on measures of executive function (Stroop task, SMD= -0.31, 95% CI -0.71–0.09, P=0.13, trail making test part A SMD= 0.28, 95% CI -0.20–0.77 P=0.25, trail making test part B SMD= -0.15, 95% CI -0.64–0.34 P=0.54, digit symbol SMD= 0.09, 95% CI -0.39–0.57 P=0.72), and memory (immediate memory SMD= 0.20, 95% CI -0.28–0.69, P=0.41 and delayed memory SMD= -0.06, 95% CI -0.55–0.42, P=0.80). A meta-analysis could not be conducted using cognitive or dual-task data, but individual trials did report a favourable effect of interventions on cognition. Risk of bias was considered moderate to high for the majority of included trials. Conclusions: Meta-analyses of exercise trials identified a small effect size (0.31), which whilst not significant warrants further investigation. Larger and more robust trials are needed that report evidence using appropriate reporting guidelines (e.g. CONSORT) to increase confidence in the validity of results. Trial Registration: Protocol was registered (CRD42017058526) on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO)