Proceedings of the Conference on Globalization and Its Discontents

There are variant findings regarding whether the foreign investors’ trading decisions have a significant impact on emerging markets’ future stock returns or whether their decisions are primarily driven by past returns. This study attempts to determine the bilateral interaction between foreign investors’ trading activity and returns in Turkish stock market by utilizing Granger-causality and OLS methodologies. The results gathered from VAR analysis imply a strong Granger-causality between foreign net portfolio inflows and stock returns in Turkish stock market. The results indicate that foreign investors follow a negative (contrarian) feedback strategy by buying (selling) past losers (winners). The results gathered from OLS analyses further support the VAR analysis findings indicating that, contemporaneously, there is a significant bilateral interaction between foreign portfolio inflows and stock returns reflecting the existence of price pressure effect and return chasing behavior in Turkish stock market. Overall, both analyses demonstrate that current and lagged stock returns are important determinants in foreign investors’ asset allocation strategies. Furthermore, the findings of this study reveal that foreign investors frequently change their positions on majority of the stocks in Turkish stock market which might basically stem from the absence of exit barriers in Turkish financial markets.

A High permormance hardware architecture for an sad reuse based hierarchical motion estimation algorithm for H.264 video coding

In this paper, we present a high performance and low cost hardware architecture for real-time implementation of an SAD reuse based hierarchical motion estimation algorithm for H.264 / MPEG4 Part 10 video coding. This hardware is designed to be used as part of a complete H.264 video coding system for portable applications. The proposed architecture is implemented in Verilog HDL. The Verilog RTL code is verified to work at 68 MHz in a Xilinx Virtex II FPGA. The FPGA implementation can process 27 VGA frames (640x480) or 82 CIF frames (352x288) per second

Genetic and Phenotypic Parameters of Body Weight in Ettawa Grade Goats

The aim of this study was to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters of growth traits consisting of birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), 6 mo body weight (6WM), 12 mo body weight (12WM), and 18 mo body weight (18WM) of Ettawa Grade goats. The number of goat used to determine growth traits of BW, WW, 6WM, 12WM, and 18WM were 316; 316; 259; 259 and 165 heads, respectively. Data were analyzed using General Linear Model (GLM) to identify non-genetic effect. Estimation of genetic and phenotypic parameters including heritability, repeatability, genetic and phenotypic correlation were calculated using Restricted Maximum Likelihood and GLM. Genetic trends were calculated using the regression of mean breeding values on birth year. The results showed that parity and type of birth had significant (P<0.05) influence on all growth traits. Estimated heritability of birth, weaning, 6WM, 12WM, and 18WM were 0.54±0.12; 0.35±0.07; 0.37±0.09; 0.68±0.16 and 0.63±0.19, respectively. Estimated repeatability of WW, 6WM, 12WM and 18WM, WW, 6WM, 12WM and 18WM were 0.98±0.01; 0.97±0.01; 0.94±0.03; 0.71±0.12 and 0.91±0.04, respectively. The genetic trends for traits of BW and 18MW were decreased fluctuatively. However, the WW, 6MW, 12MW were increased fluctuatively. The high and positive genetic correlations between all growth traits and 12WM traits in this study indicated that selection for high 12WM will improve genetic merit in Ettawa Grade goats

Strategic, tactical decisions and information in Rapid Manufacturing supply chain

The efficiency and agility of its supply chain is vital to the commercial success of any product. Sharing strategic and tactical information effectively within the supply chain is often a key factor in achieving this goal. This paper proposes a framework to identify strategic, tactical decisions and information. The framework is used to conduct a sector based analysis of the Rapid Manufacturing (RM) industry. The decisions and information identified include amongst others various supply chain strategies and technical information

Neutrino Constraints on the Dark Matter Total Annihilation Cross Section

In the indirect detection of dark matter through its annihilation products, the signals depend on the square of the dark matter density, making precise knowledge of the distribution of dark matter in the Universe critical for robust predictions. Many studies have focused on regions where the dark matter density is greatest, e.g., the Galactic Center, as well as on the cosmic signal arising from all halos in the Universe. We focus on the signal arising from the whole Milky Way halo; this is less sensitive to uncertainties in the dark matter distribution, and especially for flatter profiles, this halo signal is larger than the cosmic signal. We illustrate this by considering a dark matter model in which the principal annihilation products are neutrinos. Since neutrinos are the least detectable Standard Model particles, a limit on their flux conservatively bounds the dark matter total self-annihilation cross section from above. By using the Milky Way halo signal, we show that previous constraints using the cosmic signal can be improved on by 1-2 orders of magnitude; dedicated experimental analyses should be able to improve both by an additional 1-2 orders of magnitude.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures; Matches version published in Phys. Rev.

Las mujeres como madres en las políticas de asistencia : el caso de las familias cuidadoras

Ponencia presentada en: VIII Jornadas Nacionales de Historia de las Mujeres, III Congreso Iberoamericano de Estudios de Género, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Villa Giardino (Córdoba, Argentina), 25 al 28 de octubre de 2006.Fil: Hasan, Alma F.

Telaah Kritis Atas Pemikiran Zakaria Ouzon

This research aims to analyze and critically examine the idea of Zakaria Ouzon in his book Jinayah al-Bukhari. This study becomes relevant in the study of contemporary hadith. Although shaheeh Bukhari is considered as asahhu al-kutub ba\u27da alqur\u27an, but in reality there are some redactions needed to be clarified of the truth that can result proportionate and consistent understanding aligned with the message of Prophet Muhammad SAW as the best figure. From this research, it is found that Ouzon criticized the book of shaheeh bukhori related to the following matters: the history of Al-Bukhari related to al-Qur\u27an al-Karim, the figure of Prophet Muhammad SAW, the religions besides Islam, the law and conditions of Prophet\u27s companions, the women, the figure of Bukhari, and the hadiths which contradict each other. The approach implemented by Ouzon in his book includes three fully integrated components, namely a historical approach, logic, and comparison. However Ouzon\u27s arguments are sometimes polemically and tend to impose his arguments, as Ouzon\u27s assumption to hadiths that contradict science

Analisis Kebijakan Pre-emptive Self Defence George W. Bush, Jr terhadap Afghanistan

PESD becomes controversy because its legality under International lawparticularly in Article 51 of the UN Charter does not set any explicit reference to this action. The academics differently interpret the contents of the chapter, some academics legalize preemptive and others regard it as an act that violates International law because it do not fulfill two conditions the right of defense permissible. The two conditions are there has been an armed attack and the UN Security Council has taken measures in advance. In addition to Article 51 of thecharter, legitimacy and precedent of preemptive action is also present in customary International law, which this action can be performed under certain conditions if meets two conditions: necessity and proportionality. The findings of this research are preemptive self-defense by the United States against Afghanistan does not violate International law. It is based on the transformation of various forms of threats and no longer just an attack by the armed forces as well as terrorism, so the rigid interpretation of Article 51 of the UN Charter is no longer adequate. In addition, the policy of United States meets the elements of necessity and proportionality, which preemptive action is permissible under customary International law