Culture, corporate governance and analysts forecast in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Bumiputra (in reference to Malay indigenous race) directors, a proxy for culture and analysts forecast. In addition, the study investigates whether corporate governance affects that relationship. Design/methodology/approach – The sample of this study is based on 664 firm-year observations from 193 firms during the 1999-2009 periods. The authors employ a panel least square regression with both period and industry fixed effects. The authors retrieved of analyst data from the Institutional. Broker Estimate System (I/B/E/S) database while the authors hand collected the corporate governance variables. The remaining data were collected from Compustat Global. Findings – The authors find a positive relationship between the proxy of culture, Bumiputra directors and analysts forecast error suggesting that cultural values influences the level of information in the Malaysian capital market

Design and Construction of a Continuous Solar Absorption Refrigeration Unit

The main objective of this thesis is to design and construct a continuous solar absorption refrigeration machine. A solar heated ammonia-water refrigeration machine with 0.111kw cooling capacity was designed and built. It consists of five heat exchangers (generator, condenser, evaporator, absorber and solution heat exchanger),two pumps, two throttle valves, two cooling water tanks and solar collectors with storage tanks(two evacuated and two flat plate collectors). The refrigeration unit was set up on roof of the north building of Faculty of Engineering, Khartoum University. A series of experiments were carried out to evaluate the performance of the heat exchangers and the solar collector fields. Then the absorption machine was tested to validate the design procedure and to evaluate the impact of the system components on the overall performance of the refrigerating system. It was found that reduction of heat losses, increase of streams flow rates, increase of delivery temperature of the evacuated collector field and further optimization of the system components are necessary for better system performance

EFEK PENAMBAHAN SERAT POLYPROPYLENE TERHADAP KUAT TEKAN BETON PADA PERKERASAN KAKU

Rigid pavement or cement concrete pavement is a construction (pavement) with aggregate and raw materials and uses cement as a binding material. Rigid pavements have good compressive strength, but in contrast to flexural strength, this is due to their brittle nature, so when planning rigid pavements, fiber is added to the concrete mixture in the hope of increasing the elastic or flexible properties of the rigid pavement itself. This study aims to analyze the effect of adding polypropylene fibers to a mixture of rigid pavement concrete with a variation of 0.1%; 0.3%; 0.5%; 0.7%; and 1.0% by weight of cement. Control test objects without using polypropylene fiber. The number of cylindrical specimens of 15x30 cm was 30 pieces. Compressive strength test. The results showed that the compressive strength were optimum at 0.30%.Perkerasan kaku atau perkerasan beton semen adalah konstruksi (perkerasan jalan) dengan agregat dan bahan baku serta menggunakan semen sebagai bahan pengikat. Perkerasan kaku memiliki kuat tekan yang baik, namun berbeda dengan kuat lentur, hal ini dikarenakan sifatnya yang getas, sehingga pada saat merencanakan perkerasan kaku, ditambahkan serat pada campuran beton dengan harapan dapat meningkatkan sifat elastis atau lentur dari perkerasan kaku itu sendiri. Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis pengaruh penambahan serat polypropylene pada campuran beton perkerasan kaku dengan variasi 0,1%; 0,3%; 0,5%; 0,7%; dan 1,0% berat semen. Benda uji tanpa menggunakan serat polypropylene sebagai benda uji kontrol. Jumlah benda uji berbentuk silinder 15x30 cm sebanyak 30 buah. Uji kuat tekan Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kuat tekan optimum pada kadar serat polypropylene 0,30% terhadap berat seme

THE TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION AND THE DYNAMICS OF ISLAMIC DA'WAH

In Islamic teachings, the effort to carry out Islamic da'wah is an obligation, so that Islam is great because of the vital flow of da'wah. In this technological era, da'wah must be continued by exploiting technology. To complete this discussion, we have conducted a series of literature searches on many online publications, including book journals and websites. In order to obtain valid findings, a series of analyzes involving the tuning coding system and critical evaluation under phenomenology have been carried out. Finally, we believe that the findings include that all Muslims must become a preacher by having Islamic knowledge and skills in using technologically advanced da'wah facilities. Hopefully, this finding will complement the study of da'wah and the technological revolution in the future

Age and site of Colonic Neoplastic Lesions: Implications of screening in South Asia.

Objective : To evaluate the Age of patients and the site of Colonic Neoplastic Lesions (CNL) and to determine the appropriate screening strategy for Colorectal Carcinoma (CRC) (sigmoidoscopy versus colonoscopy) in our population. Methods : This is a cross sectional study. Data of all patients more than 16 years of age who underwent full colonoscopic examination at the Aga Khan University hospital between January 2011 till December 2013 and were diagnosed to have CRC or advanced adenomas (defined as polyp more than 1 cm and/or having villous morphology on histology) was recorded. Lesions found distal to the splenic flexure were characterized as distal lesions and while lesions found between the splenic flexure and the cecum were characterized as proximal lesions. RESULTS: During the study period colonic neoplastic lesions were found in 217 patients; 186 (85.7%) patients had CRC and 31(14.3%) patients had advanced adenomatous polyps. Mean age was 55.8±14 years and amongst them 72 (33.2%) patients were less than 50 years of age while 145 (66.8%) were more than 50 years. In 144 (66.4%) patients lesions were located in the distal colon, 65 (30%) had lesions in the proximal colon while in 8 (3.7%) patients the neoplastic lesions were found both in the proximal and distal colon. The predominant symptoms were bleeding per rectum in 39.6% of patients followed by weight loss in 31.8% of patients. Only 3 patients had familial syndromes with multiple polyps. When patients younger than 50 years of age were compared with patients more than 50 years there was no statistically significant difference between the site of neoplastic lesion as well as the presenting symptoms. (p value 0.85). CONCLUSION: Colonic Neoplastic Lesions presented at younger age in our study population and one third of the lesions were found in the right sided colon. Hence screening for CNLs should be implied at an earlier age preferably with colonoscopy. More population based data is required to further validate our results

Concentration of Heavy Metals on Roots, Stem and Leaves of Enhalus Acoroides, in Tunda Island, Banten Bay

Heavy metal pollution is one of serious problem for tropical mangrove ecosystem. Heavy metals can decrease the quality of a waters. The decreasing in water quality can caused by pollutants such as heavy metals with high concentrations greatly affects the aquatic environment, especially living organisms. The aimed of study is to determine the accumulation level of heavy metals such as Al, Cu, Pb, As, Ni, Cr, Ti, Mn, dan Fe, in root, leaves and stem of E. acoroides. The sampling was carried out in the northern and southern parts of Tunda Island, in March 2015. The method used for seagrass destruction is 6 mL 65% HNO3 and mL H2O2 30%, sediment destruction using Milestone Start D microwave labstation. and using ICP-OES (Inductive Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry) Thermo Scientific iCAP 700 Series. The result show that, the Al, was the dominant heavy metals observed both in sea water and sediment surrounding the observed sea grass areas. Similar result was also observed for seagrass. The dominant sediment grain size absorbing heavy metals is silt-clay because it has more organic matter to control the binding of heavy metals. Heavy metal bioaccumulation is predominant in seagrass leaves and stems due to heavy metal entry into seagrass, substance storage tissue, and seagrass characteristics that are completely submerged in water. Seagrass meadow ecosystem in Tunda Island has been contaminated by several heavy metals

Sinteza i antimikrobno djelovanje derivata nafto[2,1-b]pirano[2,3-d]pirimidina i pirano[3,2-e][1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-c]pirimidina

Several novel naphtho[2,1-b]pyrano[2,3-d]pyrimidines, pyrano[3,2-e][1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-c]pyrimidines and their coumarin-3-yl derivatives were synthesized. Some of these derivatives exhibited pronounced antimicrobial activities.Sintetizirano je nekoliko novih nafto[2,1-b]pirano[2,3-d]pirimidina, pirano[3,2-e][1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-c]pirimidina i njihovih kumarin-3-il derivata. Neki od njih imaju izraženo antimikrobno djelovanje

Lack of antigenic diversification of major outer membrane proteins during clonal waves of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup A colonization and disease

In particular in the ‘meningitis belt' of sub-Saharan Africa, epidemic meningococcal meningitis is a severe public health problem. In the past decades, serogroup A lineages have been the dominant etiologic agents, but also other serogroups have caused outbreaks. A comprehensive vaccine based on subcapsular outer membrane proteins (OMPs) is not available. Here, we have investigated whether meningococcal populations overcome herd immunity by changing antigenic properties of their OMPs. Meningococcal isolates were collected in the context of longitudinal studies in Ghana between 2002 and 2008 and in Burkina Faso between 2006 and 2007. Serogroup A strains isolated during two clonal waves of colonization and disease showed no diversification in the genes encoding their PorA, PorB, and FetA proteins. However, we detected occasional allelic exchange of opa genes, as well as wide variation in the number of intragenic tandem repeats, showing that phase variation of Opa protein expression is a frequent event. Altogether we observed a remarkable antigenic stability of the PorA, PorB and FetA proteins over years. Our results indicate that while herd immunity may be responsible for the disappearance of meningococcal clones over time, it is not a strong driving force for antigenic diversification of the major OMPs analyzed her

From Voluntary Principles to Binding Precedent: The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa comes into Force

Large-scale displacement of people has become a defining characteristic of Africa. Unlike refugees, the legal framework for protection of internally displaced persons in Africa like many parts of the world have just evolved.  The idea to protect this category of persons within the region have not attracted the much attention that it deserves despite the truism that in Africa internally displaced persons outnumber refugees. The burden of offering protection to internally displaced persons have been left within the shoulders of national government on the ground that they remains within the borders of their own states  who in rare if not in all cases have no municipal law to cater for their welfare. Worse still, in the case of Africa, no specialized institution exists to cater for this class of her citizens as intervention in most cases are Ad- hoc in nature coupled with the attendant highly fragmented response. This paper assesses the emerging/evolving trend of legal protection for internally displaced persons in Africa especially with the coming into force of the regional framework- Kampala Convention for the Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons in Africa which imposes expanded obligations on states beyond the traditional horizon.  The paper apart from tracing briefly the antecedents of the Kampala convention also delved into monumental and unprecedented advancements that have been made in it which has now become realistic and profound with its entry into force. Keywords: Africa Union, Internally Displaced Persons, Refugees, Kampala Conventio

Radiation pattern reconfigurable fm antenna

In this work, a radiation pattern reconfigurable antenna design using compact printed spiral monopoles that operates at 102 MHz is reported. The proposed antenna changes its radiation behaviour that responds towards a desired direction with the use of RF switches. The antenna is printed on a 76.6mm × 50mm PCB layer providing more than 20MHz bandwidth at -10 dB threshold and is easily fabricated with low manufacturing cost. The antenna was also simulated on 500mm × 500mm ground plane that represents the roof top of a vehicl