Search results for: developmental assets

Authors: Mauro Callejas-Cuervo, Andrea C. Alarcon-Aldana

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It is evident that there has been progress in the development and innovation of tools, techniques and methods in the development of software. Even so, there are few methodologies that include the human factor from the point of view of motivation, emotions and impact on the work environment; aspects that, when mishandled or not taken into consideration, increase the iterations in the requirements elicitation phase. This generates a broad number of changes in the characteristics of the system during its developmental process and an overinvestment of resources to obtain a final product that, often, does not live up to the expectations and needs of the client. The human factors such as emotions or personality traits are naturally associated with the process of developing software. However, most of these jobs are oriented towards the analysis of the final users of the software and do not take into consideration the emotions and motivations of the members of the development team. Given that in the industry, the strategies to select the requirements engineers and/or the analysts do not take said factors into account, it is important to identify and describe the characteristics or personality traits in order to elicit requirements effectively. This research describes the main personality traits associated with the requirements elicitation tasks through the analysis of the existing literature on the topic and a compilation of our experiences as software development project managers in the academic and productive sectors; allowing for the characterisation of a suitable profile for this job. Moreover, a psychometric test is used as an information gathering technique, and it is applied to the personnel of some local companies in the software development sector. Such information has become an important asset in order to make a comparative analysis between the degree of effectiveness in the way their software development teams are formed and the proposed profile. The results show that of the software development companies studied: 53.58% have selected the personnel for the task of requirements elicitation adequately, 37.71% possess some of the characteristics to perform the task, and 10.71% are inadequate. From the previous information, it is possible to conclude that 46.42% of the requirements engineers selected by the companies could perform other roles more adequately; a change which could improve the performance and competitiveness of the work team and, indirectly, the quality of the product developed. Likewise, the research allowed for the validation of the pertinence and usefulness of the psychometric instrument as well as the accuracy of the characteristics for the profile of requirements engineer proposed as a reference.

Keywords: emotions, human attitudes, personality traits, psychometric tests, requirements engineering

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Authors: Roberta Martino, Viviana Ventre

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From a theoretical point of view, the relationship between the risk associated with an investment and the expected value are directly proportional, in the sense that the market allows a greater result to those who are willing to take a greater risk. However, empirical evidence proves that this relationship is distorted in the minds of investors and is perceived exactly the opposite. To deepen and understand the discrepancy between the actual actions of the investor and the theoretical predictions, this paper analyzes the essential parameters used for the valuation of financial assets with greater attention to two elements: probability and the passage of time. Although these may seem at first glance to be two distinct elements, they are closely related. In particular, the error in the theoretical description of the relationship between risk and return lies in the failure to consider the impatience that is generated in the decision-maker when events that have not yet happened occur in the decision-making context. In this context, probability loses its objective meaning and in relation to the psychological aspects of the investor, it can only be understood as the degree of confidence that the investor has in the occurrence or non-occurrence of an event. Moreover, the concept of objective probability does not consider the inter-temporality that characterizes financial activities and does not consider the condition of limited cognitive capacity of the decision maker. Cognitive psychology has made it possible to understand that the mind acts with a compromise between quality and effort when faced with very complex choices. To evaluate an event that has not yet happened, it is necessary to imagine that it happens in your head. This projection into the future requires a cognitive effort and is what differentiates choices under conditions of risk and choices under conditions of uncertainty. In fact, since the receipt of the outcome in choices under risk conditions is imminent, the mechanism of self-projection into the future is not necessary to imagine the consequence of the choice and the decision makers dwell on the objective analysis of possibilities. Financial activities, on the other hand, develop over time and the objective probability is too static to consider the anticipatory emotions that the self-projection mechanism generates in the investor. Assuming that uncertainty is inherent in valuations of events that have not yet occurred, the focus must shift from risk management to uncertainty management. Only in this way the intertemporal dimension of the decision-making environment and the haste generated by the financial market can be cautioned and considered. The work considers an extension of the prospectus theory with the temporal component with the aim of providing a description of the attitude towards risk with respect to the passage of time.

Keywords: impatience, risk aversion, subjective probability, uncertainty

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Authors: Usharani Rathinam

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Although policies directing inclusion of marginalized were in effect, majority of chronically impoverished in India belonged to schedule caste and schedule tribes. Also, taking into account that poverty is gendered; destitute women belonged to lower social order whose need is not largely highlighted at policy level. This paper discusses on social relations poverty which highlights on how social order that existed structurally in the society can perpetuate chronic poverty, followed by a critical review on social inclusion policies of India, its merits and demerits in addressing chronic poverty. Multiple case study design is utilized to address this concern in four districts of India; Jhansi, Tikamgarh, Cuddalore and Anantapur. These four districts were selected by purposive sampling based on the criteria; the district should either be categorized as a backward district or should have a history of high poverty rate. Qualitative methods including eighty in-depth interviews, six focus group discussions, six social mapping procedures and three key informant interviews were conducted in 2011, at each of the locations. Analysis of the data revealed that irrespective of gender, schedule castes and schedule tribe participants were found to be chronically poor in all districts. Caste based discrimination is exhibited at both micro and macro levels; village and institutional levels. At village level, lower caste respondents had lesser access to public resources. Also, within institutional settings, due to confiscation, unequal access to resources is noticed, especially in fund distribution. This study found that half of the budget intended for schedule caste and schedule tribes were confiscated by upper caste administrative staffs. This implies that power based on social hierarchy marginalize lower caste participants from accessing better economic, social, and political benefits, that had led them to suffer long term poverty. This study also explored the traditional ties between caste, social structure and bonded labour as a cause of long-term poverty. Though equal access is being emphasized in constitutional rights, issues at micro level have not been reflected in formulation of these rights. Therefore, it is significant for a policy to consider the structural complexity and then focus on issues such as equal distribution of assets and infrastructural facilities that will reduce exclusion and foster long-term security in areas such as employment, markets and public distribution.

Keywords: caste, inclusion policies, India, social order

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Authors: L. Sierra, N. Gambetta, M. A. Garcia-Benau, M. Orta

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Financial scandals and financial crisis have led to an international debate on the value of auditing. In recent years there have been significant legislative reforms aiming to increase markets’ confidence in audit services. In particular, there has been a significant debate on the need to improve the communication of auditors with audit reports users as a way to improve its informative value and thus, to improve audit quality. The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has proposed changes to the audit report standards. The International Standard on Auditing 701, Communicating Key Audit Matters (KAM) in the Independent Auditor's Report, has introduced new concepts that go beyond the auditor's opinion and requires to disclose the risks that, from the auditor's point of view, are more significant in the audited company information. Focusing on the companies included in the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 index, this study aims to focus on the analysis of the determinants of the number of KAM disclosed by the auditor in the audit report and moreover, the analysis of the determinants of the different type of KAM reported during the period 2013-2015. To test the hypotheses in the empirical research, two different models have been used. The first one is a linear regression model to identify the client’s characteristics, industry sector and auditor’s characteristics that are related to the number of KAM disclosed in the audit report. Secondly, a logistic regression model is used to identify the determinants of the number of each KAM type disclosed in the audit report; in line with the risk-based approach to auditing financial statements, we categorized the KAM in 2 groups: Entity-level KAM and Accounting-level KAM. Regarding the auditor’s characteristics impact on the KAM disclosure, the results show that PwC tends to report a larger number of KAM while KPMG tends to report less KAM in the audit report. Further, PwC reports a larger number of entity-level risk KAM while KPMG reports less account-level risk KAM. The results also show that companies paying higher fees tend to have more entity-level risk KAM and less account-level risk KAM. The materiality level is positively related to the number of account-level risk KAM. Additionally, these study results show that the relationship between client’s characteristics and number of KAM is more evident in account-level risk KAM than in entity-level risk KAM. A highly leveraged company carries a great deal of risk, but due to this, they are usually subject to strong capital providers monitoring resulting in less account-level risk KAM. The results reveal that the number of account-level risk KAM is strongly related to the industry sector in which the company operates assets. This study helps to understand the UK audit market, provides information to auditors and finally, it opens new research avenues in the academia.

Keywords: FTSE 100, IAS 701, key audit matters, auditor’s characteristics, client’s characteristics

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Authors: L. Beltran, S. Solano, T. Lacruz, M. Blanco, M. Rojo, M. Graell, A. R. Sepulveda

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Introduction and Objective: Given the difficulties of assessing Binge Eating Disorder during childhood, episodes of Loss of Control (LOC) eating can be a key symptom. The objective is to know the prevalence of food psychopathology depending on the type of evaluation and find out which psychological characteristics differentiate overweight or obese children who present LOC from those who do not. Material and Methods: 170 children from 8 to 12 years of age with overweight or obesity (P > 85) were evaluated through the Primary Care Centers of Madrid. Sociodemographic data and psychological measures were collected through the Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders & Schizophrenia, Present & Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL) diagnostic interview and self-applied questionnaires: Children's eating attitudes (ChEAT), depressive symptomatology (CDI), anxiety (STAIC), general self-esteem (LAWSEQ), body self-esteem (BES), perceived teasing (POTS) and perfectionism (CAPS). Results: 15.2% of the sample exceeded the ChEAT cut-off point, presenting a risk of pathological eating; 5.88% presented an Eating Disorder through the diagnostic interview (2.35% Binge Eating disorder), and 33.53% had LOC episodes. No relationship was found between the presence of LOC and clinical diagnosis of eating disorders according to DSM-V; however, the group with LOC presented a higher risk of eating psychopathology using the ChEAT (p < .02). Significant differences were found in the group with LOC (p < .02): higher z-BMI, lower body self-esteem, greater anxious symptomatology, greater frequency of teasing towards weight, and greater effect of teasing both towards weight and competitions; compared to their peers without LOC. Conclusion: According to previous studies in samples with overweight children, in this Spanish sample of children with obesity, we found a prevalence of moderate eating disorder and a high presence of LOC episodes, which is related to both eating and general psychopathology. These findings confirm that the exclusion of LOC episodes as a diagnostic criterion can underestimate the presence of eating psychopathology during this developmental stage. According to these results, it is highly recommended to promote school context programs that approach LOC episodes in order to reduce associated symptoms. This study is included in a Project funded by the Ministry of Innovation and Science (PSI2011-23127).

Keywords: childhood obesity, eating psychopathology, loss-of-control eating, psychological symptomatology

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Authors: Dewan Ali Ahsan

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Hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) is one of the most important anadromous fish species of the trans-boundary ecosystem of Bangladesh, India and Myanmar. Hilsa is not only an economically important species specially for Bangladesh and India, but also for the integral part of the culture of the Bangladesh and India. This flag-ship species in Bangladesh contributed alone of 10.82% of the total fish production of the country and about 75% of world’s total catch of hilsa comes from Bangladesh alone. As hilsa is an anadromous fish, it migrates from the Bay of Bengal to rivers for spawning, nursing and growing and for all of these purposes hilsa needs freshwaters. Ripe broods prefer turbid, fast flowing freshwater for spawning but young prefer clear and slow flowing freshwater. Climate change (salinity intrusion, sea level rise, temperature rise, impact of fresh water flow), unplanned developmental activities and other anthropogenic activities all together are severely damaging the hilsa stock and its habitats. So, climate change and human interferences are predicted to have a range of direct and indirect impacts on marine and freshwater hilsa fishery, with implications for fisheries-dependent economies, coastal communities and fisherfolk. The present study identified that salinity intrusion, siltation in river bed, decrease water flow from upstream, fragmentation of river in dry season, over exploitation, use of small mesh nets are the major reasons to affect the upstream migration of hilsa and its sustainable management. It has been also noticed that Bangladesh government has taken some actions for hilsa management. Government is trying to increase hilsa production not only by conserving jatka (juvenile hilsa) but also protecting the brood hilsa during the breeding seasons by imposing seasonal ban on fishing, restricted mesh size etc. Unfortunately, no such management plans are available for Indian and Myanmar territory. As hilsa is a highly migratory trans-boundary fish in the Bay of Bengal (and all of these countries share the same stock), it is essential to adopt a joint management policy (by Bangladesh-India-Myanmar) for the sustainable management for the hilsa stock.

Keywords: hilsa, climate change, south-east Asia, fishery management

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Authors: Kinnsley Travis, Camerron M. Crowder

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Mapk8ip3 (Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 8 Interacting Protein 3) is a gene that codes for the JIP3 protein, which is a part of the JIP scaffolding protein family. This protein is involved in axonal vesicle transport, elongation and regeneration. Variants in the Mapk8ip3 gene are associated with a rare-genetic condition that results in a neurodevelopmental disorder that can cause a range of phenotypes including global developmental delay and intellectual disability. Currently, there are 18 known individuals diagnosed to have sequenced confirmed Mapk8ip3 genetic disorders. This project focuses on examining the impact of a subset of missense patient variants on the Jip3 protein function by overexpressing the mRNA of these variants in a zebrafish knockout model for Jip3. Plasmids containing cDNA with individual missense variants were reverse transcribed, purified, and injected into single-cell zebrafish embryos (Wild Type, Jip3 -/+, and Jip3 -/-). At 6-days post mRNA microinjection, morphological, behavioral, and microscopic phenotypes were examined in zebrafish larvae. Morphologically, we compared the size and shape of the zebrafish during their development over a 5-day period. Total locomotive activity was assessed using the Microtracker assay and patterns of movement over time were examined using the DanioVision assay. Lastly, we used confocal microscopy to examine sensory axons for swelling and shortened length, which are phenotypes observed in the loss-of-function knockout Jip3 zebrafish model. Using these assays during embryonic development, we determined the impact of various missense variants on Jip3 protein function, compared to knockout and wild-type zebrafish embryo models. Variants in the gene Mapk8ip3 cause rare-neurodevelopmental disorders due to an essential role in axonal vesicle transport, elongation and regeneration. A subset of missense variants was examined by overexpressing the mRNA of these variants in a Jip3 knock-out zebrafish. Morphological, behavioral, and microscopic phenotypes were examined in zebrafish larvae. Using these assays, the spectrum of disorders can be phenotypically determined and the impact of variant location can be compared to knockout and wild-type zebrafish embryo models.

Keywords: rare disease, neurodevelopmental disorders, mrna overexpression, zebrafish research

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Authors: Lin-Han Chiang Hsieh, Hsiao-Yi Lin

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This study aims to determine the impact of the disclosure of flood potential map on housing prices. The disclosure is supposed to mitigate the market failure by reducing information asymmetry. On the other hand, opponents argue that the official disclosure of simulated results will only create unnecessary disturbances on the housing market. This study identifies the impact of the disclosure of the flood potential map by comparing the hedonic price of flood potential before and after the disclosure. The flood potential map used in this study is published by Taipei municipal government in 2015, which is a result of a comprehensive simulation based on geographical, hydrological, and meteorological factors. The residential property sales data of 2013 to 2016 is used in this study, which is collected from the actual sales price registration system by the Department of Land Administration (DLA). The result shows that the impact of flood potential on residential real estate market is statistically significant both before and after the disclosure. But the trend is clearer after the disclosure, suggesting that the disclosure does have an impact on the market. Also, the result shows that the impact of flood potential differs by the severity and frequency of precipitation. The negative impact for a relatively mild, high frequency flood potential is stronger than that for a heavy, low possibility flood potential. The result indicates that home buyers are of more concern to the frequency, than the intensity of flood. Another contribution of this study is in the methodological perspective. The classic hedonic price analysis with OLS regression suffers from two spatial problems: the endogeneity problem caused by omitted spatial-related variables, and the heterogeneity concern to the presumption that regression coefficients are spatially constant. These two problems are seldom considered in a single model. This study tries to deal with the endogeneity and heterogeneity problem together by combining the spatial fixed-effect model and geographically weighted regression (GWR). A series of literature indicates that the hedonic price of certain environmental assets varies spatially by applying GWR. Since the endogeneity problem is usually not considered in typical GWR models, it is arguable that the omitted spatial-related variables might bias the result of GWR models. By combing the spatial fixed-effect model and GWR, this study concludes that the effect of flood potential map is highly sensitive by location, even after controlling for the spatial autocorrelation at the same time. The main policy application of this result is that it is improper to determine the potential benefit of flood prevention policy by simply multiplying the hedonic price of flood risk by the number of houses. The effect of flood prevention might vary dramatically by location.

Keywords: flood potential, hedonic price analysis, endogeneity, heterogeneity, geographically-weighted regression

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Authors: Gaëtan Calvar, Christophe Bouvier, Alexis Blasselle

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This paper presents the Sea Striker, a compact hydrofoil designed with the goal to address some of the issues raised by the recent evolutions of naval missions, threats and operation theatres in modern warfare. Able to perform a wide range of operations, the Sea Striker is a 40-meter stealth surface combatant equipped with a gas turbine and aft and forward foils to reach high speeds. The Sea Striker's stealthiness is enabled by the combination of composite structure, exterior design, and the advanced integration of sensors. The ship is fitted with a powerful and adaptable combat system, ensuring a versatile and efficient response to modern threats. Lightly Manned with a core crew of 10, this hydrofoil is highly automated and can be remoted pilote for special force operation or transit. Such a kind of ship is not new: it has been used in the past by different navies, for example, by the US Navy with the USS Pegasus. Nevertheless, the recent evolutions in science and technologies on the one hand, and the emergence of new missions, threats and operation theatres, on the other hand, put forward its concept as an answer to nowadays operational challenges. Indeed, even if multiples opinions and analyses can be given regarding the modern warfare and naval surface operations, general observations and tendencies can be drawn such as the major increase in the sensors and weapons types and ranges and, more generally, capacities; the emergence of new versatile and evolving threats and enemies, such as asymmetric groups, swarm drones or hypersonic missile; or the growing number of operation theatres located in more coastal and shallow waters. These researches were performed with a complete study of the ship after several operational performance computations in order to justify the relevance of using ships like the Sea Striker in naval surface operations. For the selected scenarios, the conception process enabled to measure the performance, namely a “Measure of Efficiency” in the NATO framework for 2 different kinds of models: A centralized, classic model, using large and powerful ships; and A distributed model relying on several Sea Strikers. After this stage, a was performed. Lethal, agile, stealth, compact and fitted with a complete set of sensors, the Sea Striker is a new major player in modern warfare and constitutes a very attractive response between the naval unit and the combat helicopter, enabling to reach high operational performances at a reduced cost.

Keywords: surface combatant, compact, hydrofoil, stealth, velocity, lethal

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Authors: Shazia Ali, Yves Mard, Éric Severin

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To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to have analyzed the impact of a) firm-specific product-market power and b) industry competition on earnings management behavior of European firms in distress versus healthy years while controlling for firm-level characteristics. We predicted a significant relationship between firms’ product market power and earnings management tools and their trade-off under the moderation effect of financial distress. We found that the firm-level market power hereinafter referred to as MP (proxied by the industry-adjusted Lerner Index) is positively associated with both real and accrual earnings management. However, MP is associated with a higher level of real earnings management compared to accrual earnings management in distress years compared to healthy years. On the other hand, industry product market power (representing low competition and proxied by the inverse of the total number of firms in an industry hereinafter referred to as NUMB) and firms product market power (proxied by firm market share hereinafter referred to as MS) are associated with lower inflationary accruals and higher deflationary accruals respectively. On the other hand, they are found to be linked with higher real earnings management in distress versus healthy years. When we divided the sample into small and big firms based on their respective industry-year median total assets, we found that all three measures of industry competition (Industry Median Lerner Index (hereinafter referred to as IMLI), NUMB, and Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (hereinafter referred to as HHI) indicate that small firms in low-competitive industries in financial distress are more likely to inflate their earnings through discretionary accruals. While big firms in this situation are more likely to lower the use of both inflationary and deflationary discretionary accruals as indicated by IMLI and HHI and trade-off accruals earnings management for real earnings management as indicated by NUMB. Moreover, IMLI and HHI did not show any interesting results when we divided the sample based on the firm Lerner Index/Market Power. However, the distressed firms with high market power (MP>industry median) are found to engage in income-decreasing discretionary accruals in low-competitive industries (high NUMB). Whereas firms with low market power in the same industry use downward discretionary accruals but inflate income using real activities (abnCFO). Our findings are robust across alternate measures of discretionary accruals and financial distress, such as the Altman Z-Score. The finding of the study is valuable for accounting standard setters, competition authorities, policymakers, and investors alike to help in informed decision-making.

Keywords: financial distress, earnings management, market competition

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Authors: Amit Kumar Bardhan, Barnali Nag, Chandra Sekhar Mishra

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Microfinance is considered as one of the key drivers of financial inclusion and pro-poor financial growth. Microfinance in India became popular through Self Help Group (SHG) movement initiated by NABARD. In terms of outreach and loan portfolio, SHG Bank Linkage programme (SHG-BLP) has emerged as the largest microfinance initiative in the world. The success of financial inclusion lies in the successful implementation of SHG-BLP. SHGs are generally promoted by social welfare organisations like NGOs, welfare societies, government agencies, Co-operatives etc. and even banks are also involved in SHG formation. Thus, the pro-poor implementation of the scheme largely depends on the credibility of the SHG Promoting Institutions (SHPIs). The rural poor lack education, skills and financial literacy and hence need continuous support and proper training right from planning to implementation. In this study, we have made an attempt to inspect the reasons behind low penetration of SHG financing to the poorest of the poor both from demand and supply side perspective. Banks, SHPIs, and SHGs are three key essential stakeholders in SHG-BLP programmes. All of them have a vital role in programme implementation. The objective of this paper is to find out the drivers and hurdles in the path of financial inclusion through SHG-BLP and the role of SHPIs in reaching out to the ultra poor. We try to address questions like 'what are the challenges faced by SHPIs in targeting the poor?' and, 'what are factors behind the low credit linkage of SHGs?' Our work is based on a qualitative study of SHG programmes in semi-urban towns in the states of West Bengal and Odisha in India. Data are collected through unstructured questionnaire and in-depth interview from the members of SHGs, SHPIs and designated banks. The study provides some valuable insights about the programme and a comprehensive view of problems and challenges faced by SGH, SHPIs, and banks. On the basis of our understanding from the survey, some findings and policy recommendations that seem relevant are: increasing level of non-performing assets (NPA) of commercial banks and wilful default in expectation of loan waiver and subsidy are the prime reasons behind low rate of credit linkage of SHGs. Regular changes in SHG schemes and no incentive for after linkage follow up results in dysfunctional SHGs. Government schemes are mostly focused on creation of SHG and less on livelihood promotion. As a result, in spite of increasing (YoY) trend of number of SHGs promoted, there is no real impact on welfare growth. Government and other SHPIs should focus on resource based SHG promotion rather only increasing the number of SHGs.

Keywords: financial inclusion, inclusive growth, microfinance, Self-Help Group (SHG), Self-Help Group Promoting Institution (SHPI)

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Authors: Linghua Kong, Xinxia Chen, Mika Gissler, Catharina Lavebratt

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Background: Prenatal exposure to preeclampsia has been associated with an increased risk of offspring attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and intellectual disability. However, little is known about the association between prenatal exposure to severe preeclampsia and neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in offspring. Objective: This study aimed to assess the risk of maternal preeclampsia combined with perinatal problems, specifically low birth weight and prematurity, on offspring neuropsychiatric disorders. Methods: All singleton live births in Finland between 1996 and 2014 (n=1 012 723) were followed up in nation-wide registries until 2018. Main exposures included pre-eclampsia, small for gestational age, and delivery before 34 gestational weeks. Offspring neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders (ICD-10 codes) were examined as outcomes variables. Offspring birth year, sex, maternal age at delivery, parity, marital status at birth, mother's country of birth, maternal smoking, maternal gestational diabetes, maternal use of psychotropic medication during pregnancy, and maternal systemic inflammatory diseases were used as covariates. Risks for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders were estimated using Cox proportional hazards modeling. Results: Of the 1 012 723 offspring, 25 901 (2.6%) were exposed to preeclampsia, and 93 281 (9.2%) were diagnosed with a neuropsychiatric disorder. Compared to births unexposed to preeclampsia, small for gestational age or delivery before 34 gestational weeks, those exposed to preeclampsia only had a 21% increase in the likelihood of any neuropsychiatric disorders after adjusting for potential confounding (adjusted HR=1.21, 95% CI: 1.15-1.26), while exposure to preeclampsia combined with small for gestational age or delivery before 34 gestational weeks had a more than twofold increased risk of having a child with neuropsychiatric disorders (adjusted HR=2.16, 95% CI: 2.02-2.32). The adjusted HR for neuropsychiatric disorders in offspring with small for gestational age or delivery before 34 gestational weeks only was 1.79 (95% CI: 1.73-1.83). In addition, the risk estimate in offspring exposed to both preeclampsia and perinatal problems was greater than those only exposed to preeclampsia for having personality disorders (adjusted HR=1.66; 95% CI: 1.07-2.57), intellectual disabilities (adjusted HR=3.47; 95% CI: 2.86-4.22), specific developmental disorders (adjusted HR=2.91; 95% CI: 2.69-3.15), ASD (adjusted HR=1.75; 95% CI: 1.42-2.17), ADHD and conduct disorders (adjusted HR=2.00; 95%CI: 1.76-2.27), and other behavioral and emotional disorders (adjusted HR=2.09; 95% CI: 1.84-2.37). Conclusion: In utero exposure to severe preeclampsia increased the risk of several neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in offspring. Our findings are relevant to women with hypertensive disorders with regard to pregnancy consultation and management and may yield effective clues for the prevention of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders in childhood.

Keywords: low birth weight, neurodevelopmental disorders, preeclampsia, prematurity, psychiatric disorders

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Authors: Rapuane Eric Jan Pule

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Sport participation plays a significant role in learners’ well-being and lifestyle. Learners spend most of their time in the school environment, where they are monitored, guided and advised by teachers. Teachers have a good relationship with the learners, therefore they can play a major role in promoting and influencing learners to participate in physical activities, both competitive and recreational purposes. Their influence and involvement could assist in increasing the number learners' involvement in physical activities, sport and recreation at Township schools. The national sport and recreation plan in South Africa, recommends that promotion of sport and physical activities at primary and secondary schools should play an important role in helping learners commit to a live-long participation in sport, recreational and physical activities. Schoolteachers could play an influential role in ensuring that learners spent their leisure time productively through physical and recreational activities. However, the role and the influence of teachers in promoting physical and recreational activities have been previously overlooked in the literature. Part of this study focuses on the in-depth challenges encountered by primary and secondary school teachers at Township schools in promoting and influencing learners’ involvement in sport, recreation and physical activities. 109 primary and secondary teachers at Township schools agreed to participate in the study through the provision of informed consent. The participants consisted of 49 primary school teachers and 60 secondary school teachers. Quantitative approach was followed using validated structured questionnaire comprising 12 close-ended items were used. Findings indicated that teachers' can play a significant role in influencing and encouraging learners to participate in sport, recreation or physical activities. Teachers view physical activity as an important developmental component for learners. Primary school teachers believe that they have a significant role to play in encouraging and promoting physical activities, sport and recreation, as compared to the secondary school teachers. Both group of teachers at primary and secondary schools, believe that infrastructure development, financial support, and extra incentives could motivate them to promote physical, recreational and sporting activities at schools. Teachers also acknowledge that schools are facing challenges in implementing and coordinating physical activities and recreational programmes as required by the Department of sport and recreation South Africa. It is recommended that the Department of Basic Education and Sport and Recreation South Africa revise their policies regarding the role of teachers in promoting and administering physical and recreational activities at schools.

Keywords: township, physical activities, sport and recreation participation, learners, teachers, primary and secondary schools, physical education

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Authors: Rajni Singh, Rakesh Mishra, Mukunda Upadhyay

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India is among the nations born out of partition that led to one of the greatest forced migrations that marked the past century. The Indian subcontinent got partitioned into two nation-states, namely India and Pakistan. This led to an unexampled mass displacement of people accounting for about 20 million in the subcontinent as a whole. This exemplifies the socio-political version of displacement, but there are other identified reasons leading to human displacement viz., natural calamities, development projects and people-trafficking and smuggling. Although forced migrations are rare in incidence, they are mostly region-specific and a very less percentage of population appears to be affected by it. However, when this percentage is transcripted in terms of volume, the real impact created by such migration can be realized. Forced migration is thus an issue related to the lives of many people and requires to be addressed with proper intervention. Forced or involuntary migration decimates peoples' assets while taking from them their most basic resources and makes them migrate without planning and intention. This in most cases proves to be a burden on the destination resources. Thus, the question related to their security concerns arise profoundly with regard to the protection and safeguards to these migrants who need help at the place of destination. This brings the human security dimension of forced migration into picture. The present study is an analysis of a sample of 1501 persons by NSSO in India (National Sample Survey Organisation), which identifies three reasons for forced migration- natural disaster, social/political problem and displacement by development projects. It was observed that, of the total forced migrants, about 4/5th comprised of the internally displaced persons. However, there was a huge inflow of such migrants to the country from across the borders also, the major contributing countries being Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Gulf countries and Nepal. Among the three reasons for involuntary migration, social and political problem is the most prominent in displacing huge masses of population; it is also the reason where the share of international migrants to that of internally displaced is higher compared to the other two factors /reasons. Second to political and social problems, natural calamities displaced a high portion of the involuntary migrants. The present paper examines the factors which increase people's vulnerability to forced migration. On perusing the background characteristics of the migrants it was seen that those who were economically weak and socially fragile are more susceptible to migration. Therefore, getting an insight about this fragile group of society is required so that government policies can benefit these in the most efficient and targeted manner.

Keywords: involuntary migration, displacement, natural disaster, social and political problem

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Authors: Sharmistha Chanda, Anindita Choudhuri

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This exploratory study highlights the psychological aspects of women's empowerment to find the importance of the psychological dimension of empowerment, such as; meaning, competence, self-determination, impact, and assumption, especially in the weaker marginalized section of women. A large proportion of rural, suburban, and urban poor survive by working in unorganized sectors of metropolitan cities. Relative Poverty and lack of employment in rural areas and small towns drive many people to the metropolitan city for work and livelihood. Women working in that field remain unrecognized as people of low socio-economic status. They are usually willing to do domestic work as daily wage workers, single wage earners, street vendors, family businesses like agricultural activities, domestic workers, and self-employed. Usually, these women accept such jobs because they do not have such an opportunity as they lack the basic level of education that is required for better-paid jobs. The unorganized sector, on the other hand, has no such clear-cut employer-employee relationships and lacks most forms of social protection. Having no fixed employer, these workers are casual, contractual, migrant, home-based, own-account workers who attempt to earn a living from whatever meager assets and skills they possess. Women have become more empowered both financially and individually through small-scale business ownership or entrepreneurship development and in household-based work. In-depth interviews have been done with 10 participants in order to understand their living styles, habits, self-identity, and empowerment in their society in order to evaluate the key challenges that they may face following by qualitative research approach. Transcription has been done from the collected data. The three-layer coding technique guides the data analysis process, encompassing – open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Women’s Entrepreneurship is one of the foremost concerns as the Government, and non-government institutions are readily serving this domain with the primary objectives of promoting self-employment opportunities in general and empowering women in specific. Thus, despite hardship and unrecognition unorganized sector provides a huge array of opportunities for rural and sub-urban poor to earn. Also, the upper section of society tends to depend on this working force. This study gave an idea about the well-being, and meaning in life, life satisfaction on the basis of their lived experience.

Keywords: marginalized women, psychological empowerment, relative poverty, unorganized sector

Procedia PDF Downloads 46

Authors: Farzaneh Badinlou, Reza Kormi-Nouri, Monika Knopf, Kamal Kharrazi

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When we teach, we have two critical elements at our disposal to help students: learning styles as well as testing styles. There are many different ways in which educators can effectively teach their students; verbal learning and experience-based learning. Lecture as a form of verbal learning style is a traditional arrangement in which teachers are more active and share information verbally with students. In experienced-based learning as the process of through, students learn actively through hands-on learning materials and observing teachers or others. Meanwhile, standard testing or assessment is the way to determine progress toward proficiency. Teachers and instructors mainly use essay (requires written responses), multiple choice questions (includes the correct answer and several incorrect answers as distractors), or open-ended questions (respondents answers it with own words). The current study focused on exploring an effective teaching style and testing methods as the function of age over school ages. In the present study, totally 410 participants were selected randomly from four grades (2ⁿᵈ, 4ᵗʰ, 6ᵗʰ, and 8ᵗʰ). Each subject was tested individually in one session lasting around 50 minutes. In learning tasks, the participants were presented three different instructions for learning materials (learning by doing, learning by observing, and learning by listening). Then, they were tested via different standard assessments as free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks. The results revealed that generally students remember more of what they do and what they observe than what they hear. The age effect was more pronounced in learning by doing than in learning by observing, and learning by listening, becoming progressively stronger in the free-recall, cued-recall, and recognition tasks. The findings of this study indicated that learning by doing and free recall task is more age sensitive, suggesting that both of them are more strategic and more affected by developmental differences. Pedagogically, these results denoted that learning by modeling and engagement in program activities have the special role for learning. Moreover, the findings indicated that the multiple-choice questions can produce the best performance for school-aged children but is less age-sensitive. By contrast, the essay as essay can produce the lowest performance but is more age-sensitive. It will be very helpful for educators to know that what types of learning styles and test methods are most effective for students in each school grade.

Keywords: experience-based learning, learning style, school-aged children, testing methods, verbal learning

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Authors: Asadullah Sheikh, Kerry Barnett, Paul Ayres

Abstract:

Despite significant progress in access, equity and public examination success, poor student performance in mathematics in secondary schools has become a major concern in Bangladesh. A substantial body of research has emphasised the important contribution of teaching practices to student achievement. However, this has not been investigated in Bangladesh. Therefore, the study sought to find out the effectiveness of mathematics teaching practices as a means of improving secondary school mathematics in Dhaka Municipality City (DMC) area, Bangladesh. The purpose of this study was twofold, first, to identify the 20 highest performing secondary schools in mathematics in DMC, and second, to investigate the teaching practices of mathematics teachers in these schools. A two-phase mixed method approach was adopted. In the first phase, secondary source data were obtained from the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Dhaka and value-added measures used to identify the 20 highest performing secondary schools in mathematics. In the second phase, a concurrent mixed method design, where qualitative methods were embedded within a dominant quantitative approach was utilised. A purposive sampling strategy was used to select fifteen teachers from the 20 highest performing secondary schools. The main sources of data were classroom teaching observations, and teacher interviews. The data from teacher observations were analysed with descriptive and nonparametric statistics. The interview data were analysed qualitatively. The main findings showed teachers adopt a direct teaching approach which incorporates orientation, structuring, modelling, practice, questioning and teacher-student interaction that creates an individualistic learning environment. The variation in developmental levels of teaching skill indicate that teachers do not necessarily use the qualitative (i.e., focus, stage, quality and differentiation) aspects of teaching behaviours effectively. This is the first study to investigate teaching behaviours of effective secondary mathematics teachers within Dhaka, Bangladesh. It contributes in an international dimension to the field of educational effectiveness and raise questions about existing constructivist approaches. Further, it contributes to important insights about teaching behaviours that can be used to inform the development of evidence-based policy and practice on quality teaching in Bangladesh.

Keywords: effective teaching, mathematics, secondary schools, student achievement, value-added measures

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Authors: Martin Pellon Consunji

Abstract:

Due to the rise in popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto assets as a store of wealth and speculative investment, there is an ever-growing demand for automated trading tools, such as bots, in order to gain an advantage over the market. Traditionally, trading in the stock market was done by professionals with years of training who understood patterns and exploited market opportunities in order to gain a profit. However, nowadays a larger portion of market participants are at minimum aided by market-data processing bots, which can generally generate more stable signals than the average human trader. The rise in trading bot usage can be accredited to the inherent advantages that bots have over humans in terms of processing large amounts of data, lack of emotions of fear or greed, and predicting market prices using past data and artificial intelligence, hence a growing number of approaches have been brought forward to tackle this task. However, the general limitation of these approaches can still be broken down to the fact that limited historical data doesn’t always determine the future, and that a lot of market participants are still human emotion-driven traders. Moreover, developing markets such as those of the cryptocurrency space have even less historical data to interpret than most other well-established markets. Due to this, some human traders have gone back to the tried-and-tested traditional technical analysis tools for exploiting market patterns and simplifying the broader spectrum of data that is involved in making market predictions. This paper proposes a method which uses neuro evolution techniques on both sentimental data and, the more traditionally human-consumed, technical analysis data in order to gain a more accurate forecast of future market behavior and account for the way both automated bots and human traders affect the market prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This study’s approach uses evolutionary algorithms to automatically develop increasingly improved populations of bots which, by using the latest inflows of market analysis and sentimental data, evolve to efficiently predict future market price movements. The effectiveness of the approach is validated by testing the system in a simulated historical trading scenario, a real Bitcoin market live trading scenario, and testing its robustness in other cryptocurrency and stock market scenarios. Experimental results during a 30-day period show that this method outperformed the buy and hold strategy by over 260% in terms of net profits, even when taking into consideration standard trading fees.

Keywords: neuro-evolution, Bitcoin, trading bots, artificial neural networks, technical analysis, evolutionary algorithms

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Authors: Anjula Negi, D. T. V. Raghu Ramaswamy, Rajneesh Sareen

Abstract:

Road infrastructure is emphatically one of the top most critical infrastructure to the Indian economy. Road network in the country of around 3.3 million km is the second largest in the world. Nationwide statistics released by Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways reveal that every minute an accident happens and one death every 3.7 minutes. This reported scale in terms of safety is a matter of grave concern, and economically represents a national loss of 3% to the GDP. Union Budget 2016-17 has allocated USD 12 billion annually for development and strengthening of roads, an increase of 56% from last year. Thus, highlighting the importance of roads as critical infrastructure. National highway alone represent only 1.7% of the total road linkages, however, carry over 40% of traffic. Further, trends analysed from 2002 -2011 on national highways, indicate that in less than a decade, a 22 % increase in accidents have been reported, but, 68% increase in death fatalities. Paramount inference is that accident severity has increased with time. Over these years many measures to increase road safety, lessening damage to physical assets, reducing vulnerabilities leading to a build-up for resilient road infrastructure have been taken. In the context of national highway development program, policy makers proposed implementation of around 20 % of such road length on PPP mode. These roads were taken up on high-density traffic considerations and for qualitative implementation. In order to understand resilience impacts and safety parameters, enshrined in various PPP concession agreements executed with the private sector partners, such highway specific projects would be appraised. This research paper would attempt to assess such safety measures taken and the possible reasons behind an increase in accident severity through these PPP case study projects. Delving further on safety features to understand policy measures adopted in these cases and an introspection on reasons of severity, whether an outcome of increased speeds, faulty road design and geometrics, driver negligence, or due to lack of discipline in following lane traffic with increased speed. Assessment exercise would study these aspects hitherto to PPP and post PPP project structures, based on literature review and opinion surveys with sectoral experts. On the way forward, it is understood that the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highway’s estimate for strengthening the national highway network is USD 77 billion within next five years. The outcome of this paper would provide an understanding of resilience measures adopted, possible options for accessible and safe road network and its expansion to policy makers for possible policy initiatives and funding allocation in securing critical infrastructure.

Keywords: national highways, policy, PPP, safety

Procedia PDF Downloads 232

Authors: Matthew Conner, Leah Plocharczyk

Abstract:

This study examines the role of academic libraries in support of the intellectually disabled (ID) in post-secondary education. With the growing public awareness of the ID, there has been recognition of their need for post-secondary educational opportunities. This was an unforeseen result for a population that has been associated with elementary levels of education, yet the reasons are compelling. After aging out of the school system, the ID need and deserve educational and social support as much as anyone. Moreover, the commitment to diversity in higher education rings hollow if this group is excluded. Yet, challenges remain to integrating the ID into a college curriculum. This presentation focuses on the role of academic libraries. Neglecting this vital resource for the support of the ID is not to be thought of, yet the library’s contribution is not clear. Library collections presume reading ability and libraries already struggle to meet their traditional goals with the resources available. This presentation examines how academic libraries can support post-secondary ID. For context, the presentation first examines the state of post-secondary education for the ID with an analysis of data on the United States compiled by the ThinkCollege! Project. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and statistical analysis will show regional and methodological trends in post-secondary support of the ID which currently lack any significant involvement by college libraries. Then, the presentation analyzes a case study of a book club at the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) libraries which has run for several years. Issues such as the selection of books, effective pedagogies, and evaluation procedures will be examined. The study has found that the instruction pedagogies used by libraries can be extended through concepts of Universal Learning Design (ULD) to effectively engage the ID. In particular, student-centered, participatory methodologies that accommodate different learning styles have proven to be especially useful. The choice of text is complex and determined not only by reading ability but familiarity of subject and features of the ID’s developmental trajectory. The selection of text is not only a necessity but also promises to give insight into the ID. Assessment remains a complex and unresolved subject, but the voluntary, sustained, and enthusiastic attendance of the ID is an undeniable indicator. The study finds that, through the traditional library vehicle of the book club, academic libraries can support ID students through training in both reading and socialization, two major goals of their post-secondary education.

Keywords: academic libraries, intellectual disability, literacy, post-secondary education

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Katherine Karayianis

Abstract:

Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have trouble learning in traditional classrooms. These children miss out on important developmental opportunities in school, which leads to challenges starting in early childhood, and these problems persist throughout their adult lives. Despite receiving supplemental support in school, children with ADHD still perform below their non-ADHD peers. Thus, there is a great need to find better ways of facilitating learning in children with ADHD. Evidence has shown that children with ADHD learn best through interactive engagement, but this is not always possible in schools, given classroom restraints and the large student-to-teacher ratio. Redesigning classrooms may not be feasible, so informal learning opportunities provide a possible alternative. One popular informal learning opportunity is educational TV shows like Sesame Street. These types of educational shows can teach children foundational skills taught in pre-K and early elementary school. One downside to these shows is the lack of interactive dialogue between the TV characters and the child viewers. Pseudo-interaction is often deployed, but the benefits are limited if the characters can neither understand nor contingently respond to the child. AI technology has become extremely advanced and is now popular in many electronic devices that both children and adults have access to. AI has been successfully used to create interactive dialogue in children’s educational TV shows, and results show that this enhances children’s learning and engagement, especially when children perceive the character as a reliable teacher. It is likely that children with ADHD, whose minds may otherwise wander, may especially benefit from this type of interactive technology, possibly to a greater extent depending on their perception of the animated dialogic agent. To investigate this issue, I have begun examining the moderating role of inattention among children’s learning from an educational TV show with different types of dialogic interactions. Preliminary results have shown that when character interactions are neither immediate nor accurate, children who are more easily distracted will have greater difficulty learning from the show, but contingent interactions with a TV character seem to buffer these negative effects of distractibility by keeping the child engaged. To extend this line of work, the moderating role of the child’s perception of the dialogic agent as a reliable teacher will be examined in the association between children’s attention and the type of dialogic interaction in the TV show. As such, the current study will investigate this moderated moderation.

Keywords: attention, dialogic TV, informal learning, educational TV, perception of teacher

Procedia PDF Downloads 49

Authors: Sharmistha Chanda, Anindita Chaudhuri

Abstract:

This exploratory study highlights the psychological aspects of women's empowerment to find the importance of the psychological dimension of empowerment, such as; meaning, competence, self-determination, impact, and assumption, especially in the weaker marginalized section of women. A large proportion of rural, suburban, and urban poor survive by working in unorganized sectors of metropolitan cities. Relative Poverty and lack of employment in rural areas and small towns drive many people to the metropolitan city for work and livelihood. Women working in that field remain unrecognized as people of low socio-economic status. They are usually willing to do domestic work as daily wage workers, single wage earners, street vendors, family businesses like agricultural activities, domestic workers, and self-employed. Usually, these women accept such jobs because they do not have such an opportunity as they lack the basic level of education that is required for better-paid jobs. The unorganized sector, on the other hand, has no such clear-cut employer-employee relationships and lacks most forms of social protection. Having no fixed employer, these workers are casual, contractual, migrant, home-based, own-account workers who attempt to earn a living from whatever meager assets and skills they possess. Women have become more empowered both financially and individually through small-scale business ownership or entrepreneurship development and in household-based work. In-depth interviews have been done with 10 participants in order to understand their living styles, habits, self-identity, and empowerment in their society in order to evaluate the key challenges that they may face following by qualitative research approach. Transcription has been done from the collected data. The three-layer coding technique guides the data analysis process, encompassing – open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. Women’s Entrepreneurship is one of the foremost concerns as the Government, and non-government institutions are readily serving this domain with the primary objectives of promoting self-employment opportunities in general and empowering women in specific. Thus, despite hardship and unrecognition unorganized sector provides a huge array of opportunities for rural and sub-urban poor to earn. Also, the upper section of society tends to depend on this working force. This study gave an idea about the well-being, and meaning in life, life satisfaction on the basis of their lived experience.

Keywords: marginalized women, psychological empowerment, relative poverty, and unorganized sector.

Procedia PDF Downloads 44

Authors: Lucksini Raveendran

Abstract:

Introduction: This mixed-methods study focuses on the experiences of ethnocultural youth and families in Canada, identifying key barriers and opportunities to inform service programming and policies that can better meet their mental health needs during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Methods: Mental Health Commission of Canada's Headstrong initiative administered the youth survey (April – June 2020) and family survey (June – August 2020) with a total sample size of 137 and 481 respondents, respectively. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify key challenges faced, coping strategies used, and help-seeking behaviours. A similar approach was also applied to the family survey data, but instead, a representative sample was collated to analyze geographically variable and ethnically diverse subgroups. Results and analysis: Multiple challenges have impacted families, including increased feelings of loneliness and distress from border travel restrictions, especially among those navigating pregnancy alone or managing children with developmental needs, which is often understudied. Also, marginalized groups were disproportionately affected by inequitable access to communication technologies, further deepening the digital divide. Some reported living in congregated homes with regular conflicts, thus leading to increased anxiety and exposure to violence. For many families, urbanicity and ethnicity played a key role in how families reported coping with feelings of uncertainty while managing work commitments, navigating community resources, fulfilling care responsibilities, and homeschooling children of all ages. Despite these challenges, there was evidence of post-traumatic growth and building community resiliency. Conclusions and implications for policy, practice, or additional research: There is a need to foster opportunities to promote and sustain mental health, wellness, and resilience for families through social connections. Also, intersectionality must be embedded in the collection, analysis, and application of data to improve equitable access to evidence-based and recovery-oriented mental health supports among diverse families in Canada. Lastly, address future research on the long-term COVID-19 impacts of travel border restrictions on family wellness.

Keywords: mental health, youth mental health, family wellness, health equity

Procedia PDF Downloads 64

Authors: Oris Tom-Lawyer, Michael Thomas

Abstract:

This paper seeks to analyse the hegemony of the English language in Western Africa through the lens of educational policies and the socio-economic functions of the language. It is based on the premise that there is a positive link between the English language and development contexts. The study aims to fill a gap in the research literature by examining the usefulness of hegemony as a concept to explain the role of English language in the region, thus countering the negative connotations that often accompany it. The study identified four main research questions: i. What are the socio-economic functions of English in Francophone/lusophone countries? ii. What factors promote the hegemony of English in anglophone countries? iii. To what extent is the hegemony of English in West Africa? iv. What are the implications of the non-hegemony of English in Western Africa? Based on a meta-analysis of the research literature between 2003 and 2018, the findings of the study revealed that in francophone/lusophone countries, English functions in the following socio-economic domains; they are peace keeping missions, regional organisations, commercial and industrial sectors, as an unofficial international language and as a foreign language. The factors that promote linguistic hegemony of English in anglophone countries are English as an official language, a medium of instruction, lingua franca, cultural language, language of politics, language of commerce, channel of development and English for media and entertainment. In addition, the extent of the hegemony of English in West Africa can be viewed from the factors that contribute to the non-hegemony of English in the region; they are French language, Portuguese language, the French culture, neo-colonialism, level of poverty, and economic ties of French to its former colonies. Finally, the implications of the non-hegemony of English language in West Africa are industrial backwardness, poverty rate, lack of social mobility, drop out of school rate, growing interest in English, access to limited internet information and lack of extensive career opportunities. The paper concludes that the hegemony of English has resulted in the development of anglophone countries in Western Africa, while in the francophone/lusophone regions of the continent, industrial backwardness and low literacy rates have been consequences of English language marginalisation. In conclusion, the paper makes several recommendations, including the need for the early introduction of English into French curricula as part of a potential solution.

Keywords: developmental tool, English language, linguistic hegemony, West Africa

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Ismatilla Mardanov

Abstract:

There are three types of countries, the first of which is willing to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in enormous amounts and do whatever it takes to make this happen. Therefore, FDI pours into such countries. In the second cluster of countries, even if the country is suffering tremendously from the shortage of investments, the governments are hesitant to attract investments because they are at the hands of local oligarchs/cartels. Therefore, FDI inflows are moderate to low in such countries. The third type is countries whose companies prefer investing in the most efficient locations globally and are hesitant to invest in the homeland. Sorting countries into such clusters, the present study examines the essential institutions and economic factors that make these countries different. Past literature has discussed various determinants of FDI in all kinds of countries. However, it did not classify countries based on government motivation, institutional setup, and economic factors. A specific approach to each target country is vital for corporate foreign direct investment risk analysis and decisions. The research questions are 1. What specific institutional and economic factors paint the pictures of the three clusters; 2. What specific institutional and economic factors are determinants of FDI; 3. Which of the determinants are endogenous and exogenous variables? 4. How can institutions and economic and political variables impact corporate investment decisions Hypothesis 1: In the first type, country institutions and economic factors will be favorable for FDI. Hypothesis 2: In the second type, even if country economic factors favor FDI, institutions will not. Hypothesis 3: In the third type, even if country institutions favorFDI, economic factors will not favor domestic investments. Therefore, FDI outflows occur in large amounts. Methods: Data come from open sources of the World Bank, the Fraser Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and other reliable sources. The dependent variable is FDI inflows. The independent variables are institutions (economic and political freedom indices) and economic factors (natural, material, and labor resources, government consumption, infrastructure, minimum wage, education, unemployment, tax rates, consumer price index, inflation, and others), the endogeneity or exogeneity of which are tested in the instrumental variable estimation. Political rights and civil liberties are used as instrumental variables. Results indicate that in the first type, both country institutions and economic factors, specifically labor and logistics/infrastructure/energy intensity, are favorable for potential investors. In the second category of countries, the risk of loss of assets is very high due to governmentshijacked by local oligarchs/cartels/special interest groups. In the third category of countries, the local economic factors are unfavorable for domestic investment even if the institutions are well acceptable. Cluster analysis and instrumental variable estimation were used to reveal cause-effect patterns in each of the clusters.

Keywords: foreign direct investment, economy, institutions, instrumental variable estimation

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Pradip Kumar Das

Abstract:

As the entire world continues its rapid move towards industrialization, it has seriously threatened mankind’s ability to maintain an ecological balance. Geographical and natural forces have a significant influence on the location of industries. Industrialization is the foundation stone of the development of any country, while the unplanned industrialization and discharge of waste by industries is the cause of environmental pollution. There is growing degree of awareness and concern globally among nations about environmental degradation or pollution. Environmental resources endowed by the gift of nature and not manmade are invaluable natural resources of a country like India. Any developmental activity is directly related to natural and environmental resources. Economic development without environmental considerations brings about environmental crises and damages the quality of life of present, as well as future generation. As corporate sectors in the global market, especially in India, are becoming anxious about environmental degradation, naturally more and more emphasis will be ascribed to how environment-friendly the outcomes are. Maintaining accounts of such environmental and natural resources in the country has become more urgent. Moreover, international awareness and acceptance of the importance of environmental issues has motivated the development of a branch of accounting called “Environmental Accounting”. Environmental accounting attempts to detect and focus the resources consumed and the costs rendered by an industrial unit to the environment. For the sustainable development of mankind, a healthy environment is indispensable. Gradually, therefore, in many countries including India, environment matters are being given top most priority. Accounting and disclosure of environmental matters have been increasingly manifesting as an important dimension of corporate accounting and reporting practices. But, as conventional accounting deals with mainly non-living things, the formulation of valuation, and measurement and accounting techniques for incorporating environment-related matters in the corporate financial statement sometimes creates problems for the accountant. In the light of this situation, the conceptual analysis of the study is concerned with the rationale of environmental accounting on the economy and society as a whole, and focuses the failures of the traditional accounting system. A modest attempt has been made to throw light on the environmental awareness in developing nations like India and discuss the problems associated with the implementation of environmental accounting. The conceptual study also reflects that despite different anomalies, environmental accounting is becoming an increasing important aspect of the accounting agenda within the corporate sector in India. Lastly, a conclusion, along with recommendations, has been given to overcome the situation.

Keywords: environmental accounting, environmental degradation, environmental management, environmental resources

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Authors: Monica Santi, Evita Puspitasari

Abstract:

International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) has developed the principle based accounting standard. Based on this, IASB then eliminated the conservatism concept within accounting framework. Conservatism concept represents a prudent reaction to uncertainty to try to ensure that uncertainties and risk inherent in business situations are adequately considered. The conservatism concept has two ingredients: conditional conservatism or ex-post (news depending prudence) and unconditional conservatism or ex-ante (news-independent prudence). IFRS in substance disregards the unconditional conservatism because the unconditional conservatism can cause the understatement assets or overstated liabilities, and eventually the financial statement would be irrelevance since the information does not represent the real fact. Therefore, the IASB eliminate the conservatism concept. However, it does not decrease the practice of unconditional conservatism in the financial statement reporting. Therefore, we expected the earnings quality would be affected because of this situation, even though the IFRS implementation was expected to increase the earnings quality. The objective of this study was to provide empirical findings about the unconditional conservatism and the earnings quality before and after the IFRS adoption. The earnings per accrual measure were used as the proxy for the unconditional conservatism. If the earnings per accrual were negative (positive), it meant the company was classified as the conservative (not conservative). The earnings quality was defined as the ability of the earnings in reflecting the future earnings by considering the earnings persistence and stability. We used the earnings response coefficient (ERC) as the proxy for the earnings quality. ERC measured the extant of a security’s abnormal market return in response to the unexpected component of reporting earning of the firm issuing that security. The higher ERC indicated the higher earnings quality. The manufacturing companies listed in the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) were used as the sample companies, and the 2009-2010 period was used to represent the condition before the IFRS adoption, and 2011-2013 was used to represent the condition after the IFRS adoption. Data was analyzed using the Mann-Whitney test and regression analysis. We used the firm size as the control variable with the consideration the firm size would affect the earnings quality of the company. This study had proved that the unconditional conservatism had not changed, either before and after the IFRS adoption period. However, we found the different findings for the earnings quality. The earnings quality had decreased after the IFRS adoption period. This empirical results implied that the earnings quality before the IFRS adoption was higher. This study also had found that the unconditional conservatism positively influenced the earnings quality insignificantly. The findings implied that the implementation of the IFRS had not decreased the unconditional conservatism practice and has not altered the earnings quality of the manufacturing company. Further, we found that the unconditional conservatism did not affect the earnings quality. Eventhough the empirical result shows that the unconditional conservatism gave positive influence to the earnings quality, but the influence was not significant. Thus, we concluded that the implementation of the IFRS did not increase the earnings quality.

Keywords: earnings quality, earnings response coefficient, IFRS Adoption, unconditional conservatism

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Authors: Maria Campos, Alain Massart, Hugo Sarmento

Abstract:

The Meter Matters Erasmus Sport European Project (ID: 101050372) explores the field of social inclusion in and through sports with the aim of a) proposing appropriate criteria for co-funding sports programs involving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and other more vulnerable people, primarily in mainstream sports organizations and b) proposing a model for co-funding social inclusion in and through sports at the national level. This European project (2022-2024) involves 6 partners from 3 countries: Univerza V Ljubljani – coordinator and Drustvo Specialna Olimpiada Slovenije (Slovenia); Magyar Specialis Olimpia Szovetseg and Magyar Testnevelesi Es Sporttudomanyi Egyetem (Hungary) and APPDA Coimbra - Associação Portuguesa para as Perturbações do Desenvolvimento e Autismo and Universidade De Coimbra, Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education (Portugal). Equal involvement of all people in sports activities is, in terms of national and international guidelines, enshrined in some conventions and strategies in the field of sports, as well as human rights, social security, physical and mental health, architecture, environment and public administration. However, there is a gap between the practice and EU guidelines in terms of sustainable support for socially inclusive sports programs in the form of co-funding by state and local (municipal) resources. We observe considerable opacity in the regulation of the field. Given that there are both relevant programs and inclusive legislation and policies, we believe that the reason for the missing article is reflected in the undeveloped criteria for measuring social inclusion in sports. Major sports programs are usually co-funded based on crowds (number of involved athletes) and performance (sports score). In the field of social inclusion in sports, the criteria cannot be the same, as it is a smaller population. Therefore, the goals of inclusion in sports should not be the focused on competitive results but on opening equal opportunities for all, regardless of their psychophysical abilities. In the Meter Matters program, we are searching for criteria for co-funding social inclusion in sports through focus groups with coaches, social workers, psychologists and others professionals involved in inclusive sports programs in regular sports clubs and with athletes and their parents or guardians. Moreover, experts in the field of social inclusion in sports were also interviewed. Based on the proposals for measuring social inclusion in sports, we developed a model for co-funding socially inclusive sports programs.

Keywords: European project, meter matters, inclusion, sport

Procedia PDF Downloads 84

Authors: Hilal Karakuş, Berrin Akman

Abstract:

Preschool years are considered as critical years because of shaping the future lives of individuals. All of the knowledge, skills, and concepts are acquired during this period. Also, basis of academic skills is based on this period. As all of the developmental areas are the fastest in that period, the basis of mathematics education should be given in this period, too. Mathematics is seen as a difficult and abstract course by the most people. Therefore, the enjoyable side of mathematics should be presented in a concrete way in this period to avoid any bias of children for mathematics. This study is conducted to examine mathematics concept acquisition of children in terms of different variables. Screening model is used in this study which is carried out in a quantity way. The study group of this research consists of total 300 children, selected from each class randomly in groups of five, who are from public and private preschools in Çankaya, which is district of Ankara, in 2014-2015 academic year and attending children in the nursery classes and preschool institutions are connected to the Ministry of National Education. The study group of the research was determined by stage sampling method. The schools, which formed study group, are chosen by easy sampling method and the children are chosen by simple random method. Research data were collected with Bracken Basic Concept Scale–Revised Form and Child’s Personal Information Form generated by the researcher in order to get information about children and their families. Bracken Basic Concept Scale-Revised Form consists of 11 sub-dimensions (color, letter, number, size, shape, comparison, direction-location, and quantity, individual and social awareness, building- material) and 307 items. Subtests related to the mathematics were used in this research. In the “Child Individual Information Form” there are items containing demographic information as followings: age of children, gender of children, attending preschools educational intuitions for children, school attendance, mother’s and father’s education levels. At the result of the study, while it was found that children’s mathematics skills differ from age, state of attending any preschool educational intuitions , time of attending any preschool educational intuitions, level of education of their mothers and their fathers; it was found that it does not differ by the gender and type of school they attend.

Keywords: preschool education, preschool period children, mathematics education, mathematics concept acquisitions

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Authors: Jessica Gu, Yu Chen

Abstract:

Knowledge Management (KM) is undoubtable crucial to organizational value creation, learning, and adaptation. Although the rapidly growing KM domain has been fueled with full-fledged methodologies and technologies, studies on KM evolution that bridge the organizational performance and adaptation to the organizational environment are still rarely attempted. In particular, creation (or generation) and diffusion (or share/exchange) of knowledge are of the organizational primary concerns on the problem-solving perspective, however, the optimized distribution of knowledge creation and diffusion endeavors are still unknown to knowledge workers. This research proposed an agent-based model of knowledge creation and diffusion in an organization, aiming at elucidating how the intertwining knowledge flows at microscopic level lead to optimized organizational performance at macroscopic level through evolution, and exploring what exogenous interventions by the policy maker and endogenous adjustments of the knowledge workers can better cope with different environmental conditions. With the developed model, a series of simulation experiments are conducted. Both long-term steady-state and time-dependent developmental results on organizational performance, network and structure, social interaction and learning among individuals, knowledge audit and stocktaking, and the likelihood of choosing knowledge creation and diffusion by the knowledge workers are obtained. One of the interesting findings reveals a non-monotonic phenomenon on organizational performance under turbulent environment while a monotonic phenomenon on organizational performance under a stable environment. Hence, whether the environmental condition is turbulence or stable, the most suitable exogenous KM policy and endogenous knowledge creation and diffusion choice adjustments can be identified for achieving the optimized organizational performance. Additional influential variables are further discussed and future work directions are finally elaborated. The proposed agent-based model generates evidence on how knowledge worker strategically allocates efforts on knowledge creation and diffusion, how the bottom-up interactions among individuals lead to emerged structure and optimized performance, and how environmental conditions bring in challenges to the organization system. Meanwhile, it serves as a roadmap and offers great macro and long-term insights to policy makers without interrupting the real organizational operation, sacrificing huge overhead cost, or introducing undesired panic to employees.

Keywords: knowledge creation, knowledge diffusion, agent-based modeling, organizational performance, decision making evolution

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