Structural Price Changes Due To H5N1

Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Livestock Production/Industries,

Partial stochastic analysis with the European Commission's version of the AGLINK-COSIMO model

This report describes the methodology for performing partial stochastic analysis of the European Commission’s annual outlook projections for agricultural markets. The simulation model used is AGLINK-COSIMO, which is developed and maintained jointly by the OECD and FAO. Partial stochastic analysis quantifies the extent to which future uncertainty surrounding selected exogenous market drivers, which underlie the projections, affects the projected outlook for markets and prices. It does so by providing the range of values within which medium-term outcomes may lie in a future year, given the unforeseen variability exhibited by these exogenous variables in the past. This information supplements the point estimates provided by the outlook projections and allows the user to take into account the relative uncertainty of the various projected outcomes. The report details the statistical underpinnings of the methodology and the sequence of operational steps involved, as well as the additional software required. It then applies the methodology to the Commission’s 2012 outlook projections, providing information on how the projected agricultural market outcomes are affected by the uncertainty surrounding key macroeconomic variables (including exchange rates and the crude oil price) and agricultural crop yields. The potential of the approach to provide information relating to policy or behavioural discontinuities and thresholds, and for analysing specific ‘less likely’ situations, is also illustrated.JRC.J.4-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

Offer-price discount of bank seasoned equity offers: do voluntary and involuntary offers convey different information?

Seasoned equity offers made by undercapitalized banks (labeled involuntary offers) could be different from other seasoned equity offers because the issuer is presumably under regulatory duress to make up the shortfall in required capital. For this reason, involuntary offers may exhibit limited managerial opportunism. When a firm issues seasoned equity, investment bankers gather information about the issuer in the period between the registration of the offer and its issue date. The information gathered during the book-building process gets reflected in the offer price discount on the issue date. We find that the offer price discount appears to convey more information to investors on the issue date for the voluntary issuers. However, we find that both types of issues show signs of market timing, and that investors react negatively to both types of issuance announcements. Our results are robust to several checks.Bank stocks

Bank seasoned equity offers: do voluntary and involuntary offers differ?

Recent research has shown that for industrial and utilities’ seasoned equity offers (SEOs) the offer price discount is informative and has significant price effects. We examine whether the offer price discount for SEOs made by undercapitalized banks is different from those made by banks that were already overcapitalized prior to issue announcement. The former are labeled "involuntary" issues, and the latter "voluntary." Voluntary issues are likely made by opportunistic managers at times when their stock is overvalued. Prior research has argued and provided evidence suggesting that for involuntary issues, such timing discretion may be limited. However, we find no significant differences in the issue-date discount, and in issue-date abnormal returns between the two types of issues. We find that trading volume increases dramatically at the offer date, stays at abnormally high levels over a 60-day post–issue period, and is accompanied by a positive abnormal return in the post-offer period for both types of issues.Bank stocks

On the origin of the Epps effect

The Epps effect, the decrease of correlations between stock returns for short time windows, was traced back to the trading asynchronicity and to the occasional lead-lag relation between the prices. We study pairs of stocks where the latter is negligible and confirm the importance of asynchronicity but point out that alone these aspects are insufficient to give account for the whole effect.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; to appear in the Proceedings of Econophysics Colloquium 2006 References adde

Effect of Policy and Employee Capacity on the Provision of Quality Service among Private Security Firms for Mitigating Crime in Nairobi County in Kenya

This study assessed effect of policy and employee capacity on the provision of quality service among private security firms for mitigating crime in Nairobi County in Kenya. The specific objectives were to explore how policy and employee capacity affect the provision of quality service among PSFs for mitigating crime in Nairobi County in Kenya. The study was guided by SERVQUAL theory. This study used descriptive survey design with structured questionnaires as the instrument for data collection. The study targeted top managers, assistant managers and the immediate supervisors in 55 Private security firms registered under KISIA in Nairobi County. A census was used to sample the respondents of the study. The study employed drop and pick method to administer the questionnaires to the respondents. The study also conducted a pilot study on 10 respondents’ to check for the reliability and validity of the research instrument. The respondents who partook in the pilot study were no included in the final study. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 21 to achieve the study results. Descriptive statistics was presented using; pie charts, frequency table, and graphs. Correlation and regression analysis results were presented using tables. Results of the study revealed that policy and employee capacity has a positive and significant influence on the provision of quality service for mitigating crime among the private security firms in in Nairobi County. The study established that the adoption of the right policies such as compliance with the KISIA regulations has a positive influence on the provision of quality security service by PSFS for mitigating crime in Nairobi County. The study also established that employee capacity positively and significantly influences the provision of quality security service for mitigating crime among PSFs in Nairobi County. The study recommends the Public Security Firms to ensure they comply with KISA regulations to allow for effective provision of standard quality of security. The study recommends the PSFs to put in place proper control structures to assess the suitability of their staff. PSFs should also adopt proper training methods with the current technical skills and knowledge, and interactive skills. Key Terms: Policy, Employee Capacity, Quality Service, Crime Mitigation, Private Security Firms DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/11-6-03 Publication date:July 31st 202

Self-Employment in Cameroon: Do Technical Education and Credit Availability Matter?

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of self-employment in the Ndop Central sub-division in the North West Region of Cameroon. Specifically, the study aimed to examine the usefulness of technical education and finance in the creation of self-employment in the sub-division. Methods: Using a survey research design, data were collected from primary sources with the help of a questionnaire. The convenience sampling technique was used to collect the needed data from a sample of 384 people from three villages of the sub-division. Binary logistics was used to analyze the data. Results: Results revealed that the coefficient of technical education was significant and negative (-2.6581). This finding signifies that graduates from the technical system of education are less likely to join self-employment as compared to graduates of general education background. Also, the availability of finance was seen to have a negative effect on the probability of being self-employed (-0.0632). It implies that individuals who have easy access to loans are less likely to be self-employed. Implication: The study is expected to guide the government to revisit the curriculum and focus of technical education in the country, as regards its contribution to the unemployment problem of the country. The study also points to the fact that those who have access to loans are not those who deserve it

Studies of the Effect of Old Age on Invitro Blood Clotting In Yenagoa Bayelsa State Nigeria.

Aging has been defined as “a progressive unfavourable loss of adaption, leading to increased vulnerability, decreased viability, and decreased life expectancy. Enablers of aging could be retarded as a result of proper medical intervention of the old aged. The aim of the research is to provide interventions that could also serve a retarder to aging and in the management of the aged. A total of 300 subjects were recruited into the study, 200 subjects constituted the aged defined based on 65 and above years. 100 subjects constituted the  middle aged defined  based on age range of 20-33 years.   Samples were divided into two groups, group A constitutes the control (middle aged) and group B constitutes the aged.  Platelets, serum calcium and clotting time were analyzed using WHO approved methods.  The mean and SD of platelet count of group A 379±137 as compare to group B of 210±122. The CT for group A was 4.8±1.1 as compare to group B of 9.2±1.6. While serum calcium was  2.3±0.30 in the control as against the aged of  1.8±0.34. A statistical significances p<0.05 were observed for all the studied parameters. However, the platelets count and serum calcium had a decline in the aged as compared to the middle aged. Clotting time showed a significant increase. The decline in platelets count of the aged was attributed to decline in the thrombopoietin, senile production sites of platelets precursors and components. The prolonged CT observed for the aged was hinged on the decline in platelets count, coagulation factors and serum calcium concentration. Based on these finding, aged are advice not to expose themselves to injuries and cut. Also heath care providers should treat all injuries in the geriatrics as an emergency. Keywords: Platelets, clotting time, geriatrics, calciu

Proposed General Shop Program on the Junior High School Level in the Attucks Separate School, Ponca City, Oklahoma

The scope of the problem is to formulate a desirable industrial arts program on a junior high school level in a general shop program in the Attucks Separate School in Ponca City that will help boys and girls find themselves. The results of this study are based primarily on material studied on industrial arts in junior high schools of Oklahoma in Industrial Arts Education 572. Further library study has included current literature, periodicals, and books pertaining to junior high schools, and to industrial arts in the general shop in particular. The writer has also visited several junior high schools over the state, and discussed general shops as to organization. This was done in order to make the study more complete. Industrial arts in the junior high schools are changing constantly; only much slower at present than they have in the past, because it is a fact that most of the imperfections have been worked out. However, just as junior high schools began to operate smoothly, the school populations increased and the senior high schools introduced a general shop program which more or l ess disturbed the junior high school industrial arts program. This junior high school industrial arts course must be flexible and ex� ploratory. After several conferences with the Attucks School principal and state department officials, it was decided that the following courses s hould be offered i n grades seven, eight, and nine: (1) applied drawing, (2) woodworking, (3) elementary electricity, (4) leathercraft and shoe repair, and (5) home mechanics for girls.Industrial Arts Education and Engineerin

Comparison of Mouse Ly5a and Ly5b Leucocyte Common Antigen Alleles

The family of leucocyte common antigen (LCA) transmembrane glycoproteins is expressed in most hematopoietic cells. Molecular isoforms of the LCA molecule are generated by alternative splicing of a single gene encoded on the murine chromosome 1. Three LCA alleles with different antigenic reactivities have been identified in inbred mouse strains. To investigate the divergence between alleles, cDNA clones to the SJA (Ly5a) LCA gene have been isolated and sequenced. A comparison of this information to the Ly5b allele sequence identifies 12 allele-specific nucleotide changes. These base substitutions correspond to five amino-acid changes within the extracellular domain of the LCA molecule. These amino-acid differences are clustered in a region that also contains the greatest divergence between mouse and rat LCA sequences. Thus, these two mouse LCA alleles exhibit a pattern of sequence conservation that mimics that found over a much broader scale of evolution. Analysis of antigenicity profiles for each of the allelic sequence changes reveals three molecular domains of altered antigenicity that could account for observed serological differences between the two alleles. Sequence information from the 5' end of the Ly5a LCA gene, generated using polymerase chain-reaction techniques on genomic DNA, reveals eight additional nucleotide differences between the Ly5a and Ly5b alleles