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Traffic accident on inter-city expressways might cause large-scale traffic congestion. It might increase travel times of many drivers and it produces a large social loss. This study aims to estimate the social loss of travel time of drivers caused by traffic accidents on inter-city expressway using traffic simulation model, and to evaluate the effects of outflow recommendations when an accident occurs on the expressway. The traffic simulation model on Tomei Expressway is constructed to estimate the dynamic traffic congestion. Travel time losses of drivers are estimated by the simulation results with hypothetical traffic accidents. It is understood that the total losses of travel times are depending on the positions of accident spots and the occurrence times of accidents, because it might influence to congestion at the bottlenecks of flow capacity. Moreover, the effect of traffic control in emergency situation is discussed. The influences of outflow recommendations for drivers are estimated using the traffic simulation model.

The uncertainty as to whether investments in riskier and less efficient markets allow managers to ‘beat the market’ remains a question to which answers are required. Accordingly, the purpose of this chapter is to offer new insights on portfolios of the US, European and Emerging Market (‘EM’) domiciled equity mutual funds whose objectives are the investment in emerging economies, and specifically analyses two main issues: alpha generation and the influence of the funds’ characteristics on their risk-adjusted performance.

The dataset is made up a survivorship-bias controlled sample of 137 equity funds over the period January 2004 to December 2014, which are then grouped into equally weighted portfolios according to the scheme’s origin. The Jensen’s (1968) Single-Factor model along with the Fama and French’s (1993) and Carhart’s (1997) multifactor models are employed to authenticate results and answer both research questions.

Research analysis reveals that EM exposed fund managers fail to collectively outperform the market. It thereby offers ground to believe that the emerging world is very close to being efficient, proving that the Efficient Market Hypothesis (‘EMH’) ideal exists in this scenario where market inefficiency might only be a perception of market participants as any apparent opportunity to achieve above-average returns is speedily snapped up by very active managers. Overall these managers take a conservative approach to portfolio construction, whereby they are more unperturbed investing in large cap equity funds so as to lessen somewhat the exposure towards risks associated with liquidity, stability and volatility.

Furthermore, the findings show that large-sized equity portfolios have the lead over the medium and small-sized competitors, whilst the high cost and mature collective investment vehicles enjoy an alpha which although is negative is superior to their peers. The riskiest funds generated the lowest alpha, and thereby produced doubts as to whether investors should accept a higher risk for the hope of earning higher returns, at least when aiming to gain an exposure into the emerging world.

Mutual fund performance is not an innovative topic so to speak. Nonetheless, researchers and academia have centred their efforts on appraising the behaviour of fund managers domiciled primarily in developed and more efficient economics, leaving the emerging region highly uncovered in this respect. This study, therefore aims at crafting meaningful contributions to the literature as well as to the practical perspective.

Purpose – This purpose of the research is to investigate the process of manufacturing LDPE recycle thermoplastic composites with reinforcement oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) biomass microfillers.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Methods of physical and chemical modification of OPEFB fibers into the LDPE matrix and the addition of some compatibilizer such as MAPE and xylene process through melt blending can improve mechanical properties, electrical properties, biodegradability, and improve the morphology of composites.

Research Limitations/Implications – These composites are prepared by the following matrix ratio: filler (70:30)% and filler size (63, 75, 90, and 106) μm. The LDPE plastic is crushed to a size of 0.5–1 cm, then pressed with hot press free heating for 5 min and with a pressure of 10 min at 145 °C. Based on the characterization obtained, the tensile strength and the high impact on the use of 106 μm filler is 13.86 MPa and 3,542.6 J/m², and thermal stability indicates the degradation temperature (T₀) 497.83 °C. FT-IR analysis shows the presence of functional groups of cellulose and lignin molecules derived from TKKS collected in the composite.

Practical Implications – Based on the characterization obtained, this composite can be applied as furniture material and vehicle dashboard.

Originality/Value – Composites obtained from recycle of LDPPE plastics waste has some advantages such as good compatibility and high tensile strength. This composite used the OPEFB filler whose size is in micrometer, and so this product is different from other products.

The typical accounting curriculum focuses on technical knowledge, which makes it challenging to devote time toward developing other important skills, such as examining how accounting rules may impact a company’s financial statements. Recently, the accounting rules for lease transactions changed significantly, and this chapter provides an overview of an assignment used in an intermediate accounting course to engage students in a real-world application. Students had the opportunity to apply accounting rules to a publicly traded company, measure the significance of changes to generally accepted accounting principles, read financial disclosures, reinforce concepts of present value and ratio analysis, and engage in critical thinking. This type of assignment does not have to be limited to leases, and instructors could discuss any accounting rule by following a similar model, whether the rule itself is current or proposed. This would offer students context beyond textbook learning.

Sampling units for the 2013 Methods-of-Payment survey were selected through an approximate stratified two-stage sampling design. To compensate for nonresponse and noncoverage and ensure consistency with external population counts, the observations are weighted through a raking procedure. We apply bootstrap resampling methods to estimate the variance, allowing for randomness from both the sampling design and raking procedure. We find that the variance is smaller when estimated through the bootstrap resampling method than through the naive linearization method, where the latter does not take into account the correlation between the variables used for weighting and the outcome variable of interest.