MANAGEMENT’S PERCEPTION OF STOCK DIVIDEND DISTRIBUTION IN AN EMERGING CAPITAL MARKET: THE CASE OF KUWAIT

The purpose of this study is to investigate perceptions of top managers of Kuwaiti companies regarding factors the affect their companies’ decision to distribute stock dividend ( SD ). A questionnaire listing 32 reasons that could explain companies’ decisions to declare SDs was distributed to a sample of 120 randomly selected top managers from 100 Kuwaiti companies and 73 responses were received (representing a 61% response rate ). Participants were classified according to: ( 1 )business sector ( investment, real estate, banking, service, and industrial ) and ( 2 ) size of SDs ( small ( less than 25% ) and large ( 25% or more )). Nonparametric statistical tests were employed to analyze the data.Stock Dividends, Importance Ratings, Trading Liquidity, Institutional Investors

Execution Time Prediction for a Web Service Instance

Availability of services on Internet has provided unique opportunity to customers as well as providers for conducting e-business. This new business paradigm can succeed provided selection of services is accomplished to customer satisfaction in terms of service delivery time as well as service quality. Instead of leaving it to service provider to declare, we propose a strategy for forecasting execution time of the web service being called. The paper deals with model details and proposes a framework for implementation of the model. We also demonstrate its usability in scenarios like checkpointing web services

The mental health strategy for Europe: Why service user leadership in research is indispensable

Recent European mental health strategies and programmes declare service user involvement to be essential in the development and evaluation of policy and services. In light of the announcement in March 2011 by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe of a forthcoming new mental health strategy for Europe, we propose that service user leadership in research is the most effective way of enhancing such involvement and consider what is required to broaden initiatives across Europe

The Implementation of Viewboard of the Head of Department as a Media for Student Information is Worth Doing Final Research

Submission of information is a very important thing that is owned by a system. The system that is made very well will be able to convey good and clear information to its users so that it can communicate well. The more rapid technology has been used by several educational institutions, especially universities, to support the existing learning system. For students who have fulfilled the requirements for conducting final research, it is appropriate to declare to carry out the final research. But the head of the department is still required to come to campus to declare that the student is eligible or not to do the final research. Therefore we need a system that can provide convenience for the Head of Department to declare that students are eligible to do final research that can be accessed online so that it can be accessed anywhere and anytime by the Head of Department and does not need to come to campus because the system still uses local networks. In order to provide convenience and effectiveness for the Head of Department to check and provide eligibility for students eligible for final research which then leads to the maximum service to students. In conducting research research methods used in this study namely observation, interviews and literature study In the process of developing the system the writer uses 4 stages, namely problem identification, planning, designing prototypes and reviewing prototypes. Evidenced by the viewboard of the head of the department of service to students, it was very well fulfilled

Challenges for Service Science

The call for papers for the SIG SVC 2011 workshop notes the importance of service oriented thinking and says that the workshop\u27s goal is to explore the challenges of service orientation in IT. This paper is a conceptual contribution to the discussion. It uses ten suggestions as an organizing scheme for exploring basic questions about the nature and subject matter of service science. The questions are related to topics such as the definition of service and service system, the desirability of privileging service and servitization over products and productization, and the treatment of co-production of value, value constellations, and tradeoffs between conflicting stakeholder interests. The final suggestion is that research publications should declare a stance toward people and organizations related to treating them as though they are fallible humans, dutiful components of service systems, or humans simulating machines

Special Issue on “Analysis on Structural Performance”

Structural performance is the most important index to declare the stability, safety and durability of structures in practical engineering. The performance degradation of structures becomes more and more common with the increase of service life. To ensure the safe operation of structures, the hot research has gradually changed from large-scale construction to the detection, repair, reinforcement, renovation and maintenance

Trends of antimicrobial resistance and combination susceptibility testing of cystic fibrosis multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa : A ten-year update

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the laboratories and clinicians who use the Cystic Fibrosis Antibiotics Susceptibility testing service (CFASS) for their support in sending samples. CFASS is an adult patient testing facility funded by the National Services Division of the Common Services Agency. IMG serves as a consultant to and/ speaker to Pfizer and MSD. All other authors declare no competing interests.Peer reviewedPostprin

The Debt Limit: History and Recent Increases

[Excerpt] The statutory debt limit applies to almost all federal debt. The limit applies to federal debt held by the public (that is, debt held outside the federal government itself) and to federal debt held by the government’s own accounts. Federal trust funds, such as Social Security, Medicare, Transportation, and Civil Service Retirement accounts, hold most of this internally held debt. The government’s surpluses or deficits determine essentially all of the change in debt held by the public. The government’s on-budget fiscal balance, which excludes a U.S. Postal Service net surplus or deficit and a large Social Security surplus of payroll taxes net of paid benefits, does not directly affect debt held in government accounts. Increases or decreases in debt held by government accounts result from net financial flows into accounts holding the debt, such as the Social Security Trust Fund. Legal requirements and government accounting practices also affect levels of debt held by government accounts. On August 2, 2011, President Obama signed into law the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; S.365), after an extended debt limit episode. The federal debt reached its statutory limit on May 16, 2011, prompting Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to declare a debt issuance suspension period, allowing certain extraordinary measures to extend Treasury’s borrowing capacity. The BCA included provisions aimed at deficit reduction and would allow the debt limit to rise between $2,100 billion and$2,400 billion in three stages, with the latter two subject to congressional disapproval. Two of the three increases, totaling $900 billion, have occurred, and a request for a third increase is likely to occur in mid-January 2012

Rien Ne Va Plus? Distinguishing Domestic Regulation From Market Access in GATT and GATS

Depending on how one classifies market intervention, trade liberalization disciplines can be lenient or strict. Perhaps the most important distinction in this respect is that between government intervention labeled as a market access restriction and that defined as domestic regulation. Both the GATT and the GATS declare market access restrictions (such as import quotas or limitations on the number of service suppliers) to be, in principle, prohibited. In contrast, domestic regulations (such as internal taxes, health standards, and safety requirements) are treated with much more deference. They are, in essence, only prohibited when discriminatory or more trade restrictive than necessary. Notwithstanding these major legal consequences, the distinction between market access and domestic regulation remains unclear. Based on a recent WTO dispute condemning the United States for banning online gambling, this article is an attempt to clarify the distinction. Starting from broad similarities, it finds crucial differences in this respect between GATT and GATS. For both, however, the paper\u27s basic point is that a domestic regulation should not be regarded as a market access restriction simply because it has the effect of banning certain imports. To do otherwise risks seriously undermining the regulatory autonomy of WTO Members beyond anything imagined by the drafters of the WTO treaty