Abstract: Milk is a very important nutrient. Low productivity is
a problem of Turkish dairy farming. During recent years, Turkish government has supported cooperatives that assist milk producers and
encouraged farmers to become cooperative members. Turkish
government established several ways to support specially smallholders. For example Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
(MARA) provided two to four cows to villagers on a grant or loan basis with a long repayment period at low interest rates by
cooperatives. Social Support Project in Rural Areas (SSPRA) is
another support program targeting only disadvantaged people,
especially poor villager. Both programs have a very strong social
support component and similar objectives. But there are minor
differences between them in terms of target people, terms and conditions of the credit supplied Isparta province in Mediterranean region of Turkey is one of the
supported regions. MARA distributed dairy cows to 1072 farmers through 16 agricultural cooperatives in Isparta province in the context
of SSPRA. In this study, economic-social impacts on dairy cattle project
implemented through cooperatives were examined in Isparta. Primary data were collected from 12 cooperatives- president. The
data were obtained by personal interview through a questionnaire and
to cooperatives and given to farms benefiting from the project in
order to reveal the economic and social developments.
Finding of the study revealed that project provided new job
opportunities and improved quality of livestock. It was found that producers who benefited from the project were more willing to
participate in cooperative or other producer organizations.
Abstract: This study aims at providing empirical evidence on a
comparison of two equity valuation models: (1) the dividend discount
model (DDM) and (2) the residual income model (RIM), in
estimating equity values of Thai firms during 1995-2004. Results
suggest that DDM and RIM underestimate equity values of Thai
firms and that RIM outperforms DDM in predicting cross-sectional
stock prices. Results on regression of cross-sectional stock prices on
the decomposed DDM and RIM equity values indicate that book
value of equity provides the greatest incremental explanatory power,
relative to other components in DDM and RIM terminal values,
suggesting that book value distortions resulting from accounting
procedures and choices are less severe than forecast and
measurement errors in discount rates and growth rates.
We also document that the incremental explanatory power of book
value of equity during 1998-2004, representing the information
environment under Thai Accounting Standards reformed after the
1997 economic crisis to conform to International Accounting
Standards, is significantly greater than that during 1995-1996,
representing the information environment under the pre-reformed
Thai Accounting Standards. This implies that the book value
distortions are less severe under the 1997 Reformed Thai Accounting
Standards than the pre-reformed Thai Accounting Standards.
Abstract: Stocking density is considered one of the important
factors affecting fish growth. But, information related to impact of
stocking density on growth performance of monosex tilapia population
under the ecological conditions of Gangetic plains in West Bengal,
India is limited. The aim of our study was to compare the growth
potential of monosex tilapia at various stocking densities and to
determine an ideal stocking density for culture of all-male monosex
fish. The males were isolated by examination of genital papilla region
and were stocked separately in 0.01 ha earthen ponds at different
stocking densities (5000, 10000, 15000, 20000, 25000 and 30000
fingerlings/ha). It was found that the highest weight, length, daily
weight gain, growth rate and protein content were observed for the
20000 fish/ha density class. Thus, culture of monosex tilapia at a
density of 20000 fish/ha can be considered ideal for augmented
production of the fish under Indian context.
Abstract: Chatter vibration has been a troublesome problem for a
machine tool toward the high precision and high speed machining.
Essentially, the machining performance is determined by the dynamic
characteristics of the machine tool structure and dynamics of cutting
process. Therefore the dynamic vibration behavior of spindle tool
system greatly determines the performance of machine tool. The
purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of the machine
frame structure on the dynamic frequency of spindle tool unit through
finite element modeling approach. To this end, a realistic finite
element model of the vertical milling system was created by
incorporated the spindle-bearing model into the spindle head stock of
the machine frame. Using this model, the dynamic characteristics of
the milling machines with different structural designs of spindle head
stock and identical spindle tool unit were demonstrated. The results of
the finite element modeling reveal that the spindle tool unit behaves
more compliant when the excited frequency approaches the natural
mode of the spindle tool; while the spindle tool show a higher dynamic
stiffness at lower frequency that may be initiated by the structural
mode of milling head. Under this condition, it is concluded that the
structural configuration of spindle head stock associated with the
vertical column of milling machine plays an important role in
determining the machining dynamics of the spindle unit.
Abstract: After the accounting scandals and the financial crisis, regulators have stressed the need for more financial experts on boards. Several studies conducted in countries with developed capital markets report positive effects of board financial competencies. As each country offers a different context and specific institutional factors this paper addresses the subject in the context of Romania. The Romanian capital market offers an interesting research field because of the heterogeneity of listed firms. After analyzing board members education based on public information posted on listed companies websites and their annual reports we found a positive association between the proportion of board members holding a postgraduate degree in financial fields and market based performance measured by Tobin q. We found also that the proportion of Board members holding degrees in financial fields is higher in bigger firms and firms with more concentrated ownership.
Abstract: Salinity level may affect early development of
biofuel feedstock crops. The biofuel feedstock crops canola
(Brassica napus L.), sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench], and
sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.); and the potential feedstock crop
sweet corn (Zea mays L.) were planted in media in pots and treated
with aqueous solutions of 0, 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 M NaCl once at: 1)
planting; 2) 7-10 days after planting or 3) first true leaf expansion.
An additional treatment (4) comprised of one-half strength of the 0.1,
0.5 and 1.0 M (concentrations 0.05, 0.25, 0.5 M at each application)
was applied at first true leaf expansion and four days later. Survival
of most crops decreased below 90% above 0.5 M; survival of canola
decreased above 0.1 M. Application timing had little effect on crop
survival. For canola root fresh and dry weights improved when
application was at plant emergence; for sorghum top and root fresh
weights improved when the split application was used. When
application was at planting root dry weight was improved over most
other applications. Sunflower top fresh weight was among the
highest when saline solutions were split and top dry weight was
among the highest when application was at plant emergence. Sweet
corn root fresh weight was improved when the split application was
used or application was at planting. Sweet corn root dry weight was
highest when application was at planting or plant emergence. Even at
high salinity rates survival rates greater than what might be expected
occurred. Plants that survived appear to be able to adjust to saline
during the early stages of development.
Abstract: Hydrogen is regarded to play an important role in
future energy systems because it can be produced from abundant
resources and its combustion only generates water. The disposal of
waste tyres is a major problem in environmental management
throughout the world. The use of waste materials as a source of
hydrogen is particularly of interest in that it would also solve a waste
treatment problem. There is much interest in the use of alternative
feedstocks for the production of hydrogen since more than 95% of
current production is from fossil fuels. The pyrolysis of waste tyres
for the production of liquid fuels, activated carbons and gases has
been extensively researched. However, combining pyrolysis with
gasification is a novel process that can gasify the gaseous products
from pyrolysis. In this paper, an experimental investigation into the
production of hydrogen and other gases from the bench scale
pyrolysis-gasification of tyres has been investigated. Experiments
were carried using a two stage system consisting of pyrolysis of the
waste tyres followed by catalytic steam gasification of the evolved
gases and vapours in a second reactor. Experiments were conducted
at a pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C using Ni/Al2O3 as a catalyst. The
results showed that there was a dramatic increase in gas yield and the
potential H2 production when the gasification temperature was
increased from 600 to 900 oC. Overall, the process showed that high
yields of hydrogen can be produced from waste tyres.
Abstract: The interrelationship between international stock
markets has been a key study area among the financial market
researchers for international portfolio management and risk
measurement. The characteristics of security returns and their
dynamics play a vital role in the financial market theory. This study
is an attempt to find out the dynamic linkages among the equity
market of USA and emerging markets of Pakistan and India using
daily data covering the period of January 2003–December 2009. The
study utilizes Johansen (Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control,
12, 1988) and Johansen and Juselius (Oxford Bulletin of Economics
and Statistics, 52, 1990) cointegration procedure for long run
relationship and Granger-causality tests based on Toda and
Yamamoto (Journal of Econometrics, 66, 1995) methodology.
No cointegration was found among stock markets of USA, Pakistan
and India, while Granger-causality test showed the evidence of
unidirectional causality running from New York stock exchange to
Bombay and Karachi stock exchanges.
Abstract: Natural gas is the most popular fossil fuel in the
current era and future as well. Natural gas is existed in underground
reservoirs so it may contain many of non-hydrocarbon components
for instance, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen and water vapor. These
impurities are undesirable compounds and cause several technical
problems for example, corrosion and environment pollution.
Therefore, these impurities should be reduce or removed from natural
gas stream. Khurmala dome is located in southwest Erbil-Kurdistan
region. The Kurdistan region government has paid great attention for
this dome to provide the fuel for Kurdistan region. However, the
Khurmala associated natural gas is currently flaring at the field.
Moreover, nowadays there is a plan to recover and trade this gas and
to use it either as feedstock to power station or to sell it in global
market. However, the laboratory analysis has showed that the
Khurmala sour gas has huge quantities of H2S about (5.3%) and CO2
about (4.4%). Indeed, Khurmala gas sweetening process has been
removed in previous study by using Aspen HYSYS. However,
Khurmala sweet gas still contents some quintets of water about 23
ppm in sweet gas stream. This amount of water should be removed or
reduced. Indeed, water content in natural gas cause several technical
problems such as hydrates and corrosion. Therefore, this study aims
to simulate the prospective Khurmala gas dehydration process by
using Aspen HYSYS V. 7.3 program. Moreover, the simulation
process succeeded in reducing the water content to less than 0.1ppm.
In addition, the simulation work is also achieved process
optimization by using several desiccant types for example, TEG and
DEG and it also study the relationship between absorbents type and
its circulation rate with HCs losses from glycol regenerator tower.
Abstract: This paper attempts to identify the significance of
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and
competitiveness to the profit efficiency of commercial banks in
Malaysia. The profit efficiency of commercial banks in Malaysia, the
dependent variable, was estimated using the Stochastic Frontier
Approach (SFA) on a sample of unbalanced panel data, covering 23
commercial banks, between 1995 to 2007. Based on the empirical
results, ICT was not found to exert a significant impact on profit
efficiency, whereas competitiveness, non ICT stock expenditure and
ownership were significant contributors. On the other hand, the size
of banks was found to have significantly reduced profit efficiency,
opening up for various interpretations of the interrelated role of ICT
and competition.
Abstract: This interdisciplinary study is an investigation to evaluate user-interfaces in business administration. The study is going to be implemented on two computerized business administration systems with two distinctive user-interfaces, so that differences between the two systems can be determined. Both systems, a commercial and a prototype developed for the purpose of this study, deal with ordering of supplies, tendering procedures, issuing purchase orders, controlling the movement of the stocks against their actual balances on the shelves and editing them on their tabulations. In the second suggested system, modern computer graphics and multimedia issues were taken into consideration to cover the drawbacks of the first system. To highlight differences between the two investigated systems regarding some chosen standard quality criteria, the study employs various statistical techniques and methods to evaluate the users- interaction with both systems. The study variables are divided into two divisions: independent representing the interfaces of the two systems, and dependent embracing efficiency, effectiveness, satisfaction, error rate etc.
Abstract: The majority of existing predictors for time series are
model-dependent and therefore require some prior knowledge for the
identification of complex systems, usually involving system
identification, extensive training, or online adaptation in the case of
time-varying systems. Additionally, since a time series is usually
generated by complex processes such as the stock market or other
chaotic systems, identification, modeling or the online updating of
parameters can be problematic. In this paper a model-free predictor
(MFP) for a time series produced by an unknown nonlinear system or
process is derived using tracking theory. An identical derivation of the
MFP using the property of the Newton form of the interpolating
polynomial is also presented. The MFP is able to accurately predict
future values of a time series, is stable, has few tuning parameters and
is desirable for engineering applications due to its simplicity, fast
prediction speed and extremely low computational load. The
performance of the proposed MFP is demonstrated using the
prediction of the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index.
Abstract: A large section of the society in Urban India is unable
to afford a basic dwelling unit. Housing shortage due to the rising unafforability makes it logical to consider alternative technologies more seriously for their application How far do these alternative
technologies match up with the conventional techniques? How do these integrate with the present-day need for urban amenities and
facilities? Are the owners of bamboo dwellings, for instance, a part of
the mainstream housing sector, having the same rights and privileges
as those enjoyed by other property owners? Will they have access to loans for building, improving, renovating or repairing their
dwellings? Why do we still hesitate to build a bamboo house for ourselves? Is our policy framework and political resolve in place, to
welcome such alternative technologies? It is time we found these answers, in order to explore the reasons for large-scale nonacceptance,
of a technology proven for its worthiness.
Abstract: The interdependences among stock market indices
were studied for a long while by academics in the entire world. The
current financial crisis opened the door to a wide range of opinions
concerning the understanding and measurement of the connections
considered to provide the controversial phenomenon of market
integration. Using data on the log-returns of 17 stock market indices
that include most of the CEE markets, from 2005 until 2009, our
paper studies the problem of these dependences using a new
methodological tool that takes into account both the volatility
clustering effect and the stochastic properties of these linkages
through a Dynamic Conditional System of Simultaneous Equations.
We find that the crisis is well captured by our model as it provides
evidence for the high volatility – high dependence effect.
Abstract: The paper addresses a problem of optimal staffing in
open shop environment. The problem is to determine the optimal
number of operators serving a given number of machines to fulfill the
number of independent operations while minimizing staff idle. Using
a Gantt chart presentation of the problem it is modeled as twodimensional
cutting stock problem. A mixed-integer programming
model is used to get minimal job processing time (makespan) for
fixed number of machines' operators. An algorithm for optimal openshop
staffing is developed based on iterative solving of the
formulated optimization task. The execution of the developed
algorithm provides optimal number of machines' operators in the
sense of minimum staff idle and optimal makespan for that number of
operators. The proposed algorithm is tested numerically for a real life
staffing problem. The testing results show the practical applicability
for similar open shop staffing problems.
Abstract: This paper has as its main aim to analyse how
corporate web pages can become an essential tool in order to detect
strategic trends by firms or sectors, and even a primary source for
benchmarking. This technique has made it possible to identify the key
issues in the strategic management of the most excellent large Spanish
firms and also to describe trends in their long-range planning, a way of
working that can be generalised to any country or firm group. More
precisely, two objectives were sought. The first one consisted in showing
the way in which corporate websites make it possible to obtain direct
information about the strategic variables which can define firms. This
tool is dynamic (since web pages are constantly updated) as well as
direct and reliable, since the information comes from the firm itself, not
from comments of third parties (such as journalists, academicians,
consultants...). When this information is analysed for a group of firms,
one can observe their characteristics in terms of both managerial tasks
and business management. As for the second objective, the methodology
proposed served to describe the corporate profile of the large Spanish
enterprises included in the Ibex35 (the Ibex35 or Iberia Index is the
reference index in the Spanish Stock Exchange and gathers periodically
the 35 most outstanding Spanish firms). An attempt is therefore made to
define the long-range planning that would be characteristic of the largest
Spanish firms.
Abstract: The aim of the article is extending and developing
econometrics and network structure based methods which are able to
distinguish price manipulation in Tehran stock exchange. The
principal goal of the present study is to offer model for
approximating price manipulation in Tehran stock exchange. In order
to do so by applying separation method a sample consisting of 397
companies accepted at Tehran stock exchange were selected and
information related to their price and volume of trades during years
2001 until 2009 were collected and then through performing runs
test, skewness test and duration correlative test the selected
companies were divided into 2 sets of manipulated and non
manipulated companies. In the next stage by investigating
cumulative return process and volume of trades in manipulated
companies, the date of starting price manipulation was specified and
in this way the logit model, artificial neural network, multiple
discriminant analysis and by using information related to size of
company, clarity of information, ratio of P/E and liquidity of stock
one year prior price manipulation; a model for forecasting price
manipulation of stocks of companies present in Tehran stock
exchange were designed. At the end the power of forecasting models
were studied by using data of test set. Whereas the power of
forecasting logit model for test set was 92.1%, for artificial neural
network was 94.1% and multi audit analysis model was 90.2%;
therefore all of the 3 aforesaid models has high power to forecast
price manipulation and there is no considerable difference among
forecasting power of these 3 models.
Abstract: In this research relationship between to be smooth the
interest and output of accepted companies stock at negotiable paper
exchange of Tehran is studied. Static community capacity included
363 companies member of negotiable paper exchange of Tehran that
54 companies were, by considering research limitation, selected from
2004 to 2009. Needed data for model test in librarian method was
chosen from RAH AVARDE NOVIN informative banks, TADBIR
and collecting needed data was selected from Tehran negotiable
paper exchange archive. Given results show that in spite of belief
among people based on companies have more smooth interest have
more output, but resulted outcomes of test-done reveals that there is
no relation between smooth interest and stock output.
Abstract: The effect of varying holding temperature on hatching success, occurrence of deformities and mortality rates were investigated for goldlined seabream eggs. Wild broodstock (600 g) were stocked at a 2:1 male-female ratio in a 2 m3 fiberglass tank supplied with filtered seawater (37 g L-1 salinity, temp. range 24±0.5 oC [day] and 22±1 oC [night], DO2 in excess of 5.0mg L-1). Females were injected with 200 IU kg-1 HCG between 08.00 and 10.00 h and returned to tanks to spawn following which eggs were collected by hand using a 100μm net. Fertilized eggs at the gastrulation stage (120 L-1) were randomly placed into one of 12 experimental 6 L aerated (DO2 5 mg L-1) plastic containers with water temperatures maintained at 24±0.5 oC (ambient), 26±0.5 oC, 28± 0.5 oC and 30±0.5 oC using thermostats. Each treatment was undertaken in triplicate using a 12:12 photophase:scotophase photoperiod. No differences were recorded between eggs reared at 24 and 26 oC with respect to viability, deformity, mortality or unhatched egg rates. Increasing temperature reduced the number of viable eggs with those at 30 oC returning poorest performance (P < 0.05). Mortality levels were lowest for eggs incubated at 24 and 26 oC. The greatest level of deformities recorded was that for eggs reared at 28 oC.
Abstract: Partial combustion of biomass in the gasifier generates producer gas that can be used for heating purposes and as supplementary or sole fuel in internal combustion engines. In this study, the virgin biomass obtained from hingan shell is used as the feedstock for gasifier to generate producer gas. The gasifier-engine system is operated on diesel and on esters of vegetable oil of hingan in liquid fuel mode operation and then on liquid fuel and producer gas combination in dual fuel mode operation. The performance and emission characteristics of the CI engine is analyzed by running the engine in liquid fuel mode operation and in dual fuel mode operation at different load conditions with respect to maximum diesel savings in the dual fuel mode operation. It was observed that specific energy consumption in the dual fuel mode of operation is found to be in the higher side at all load conditions. The brake thermal efficiency of the engine using diesel or hingan oil methyl ester (HOME) is higher than that of dual fuel mode operation. A diesel replacement in the tune of 60% in dual fuel mode is possible with the use of hingan shell producer gas. The emissions parameters such CO, HC, NOx, CO2 and smoke are higher in the case of dual fuel mode of operation as compared to that of liquid fuel mode.