THE RELATION BETWEEN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: ANALYTICAL APPROACH AT THE LEVEL OF THE RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

This paper presents the contribution of corporate governance to the risk management system of an enterprise from the perspective of the financial leverage. We assume that companies with a strong corporate governance framework are likely to enhance the optimality of their financial structure. We perform a literature overview on this topic, in parallel with an empirical approach that brings forth the effect of corporate governance framework on the company financial structure, with a special focus on leverage. The empirical approach is developed using the Ordinary Least Squares methodology; the results of the research reflect a strong impact of corporate governance on the company financial structure. We construct this finding from the perspective of the beneficial effects of an enhanced corporate governance framework which reduces agency costs, conferring to the company more credibility in the eyes of creditors.capital structure, financial management, governance, leverage, risk management

Location based modelling for Heritage Mobile Applications

Recent strategies for increasing museum income have heightened the need to motivate visits. Consequently, ICT has been increasingly used in historical locations to educate and entertain visitors. This exploratory study concerns one such museum that is developing its understanding of these technologies through the perspective of visitors as the key stakeholder. It views the significance of historical landscapes’ technologies that reflect the views of visitors. A quantitative study is conducted to explore preferred technologies and the way in which digital media can be presented in a natural environment, as well as how visitors prefer such experiences to be described. To define and assess the technologies in Dorset County Museum and Maiden Castle, data was collected using a survey in both locations. The results identified differences in visitors’ perceptions regarding the importance of technologies in these museum and physical locations. The outcomes of this study can be applied to improve the effectiveness of technology in interlinked heritage landscapes through development of mobile or web prototypes

The effect of reverse osmosis membrane microscopic structure on its performance and reverse osmosis performance in oily water

Abstract unavailable please refer to PD

Towards more effective EFL writing revision strategies: Omani Basic and Post Basic students’ perceptions, practices and encountered challenges

Research on the writing process over the last four decades suggests that revision as a sub process in writing is crucial because it contributes to the development of learning to write in general, and compensates for the discrepancy between the writer’s intended writing and the text already written with regard to the intended reader. Although much is known about the usefulness of revision, and the distinct difference between expert and unskilled writers in the English language, little is known about secondary and high school students’ perspectives and practices of revision in EFL school writing. Whilst a reform of Basic Education in Oman has advocated for learner-centered learning and the implementation of a process approach in the teaching of writing, research in the Omani context has revealed that it was not fruitful try to develop the students’ writing skills nor the process of revising their work. Instead, textual issues continue to be a problem in various areas, for example difficulties in writing coherent, concise, and well-reasoned texts. Research also revealed that high school students rarely reflected on their awareness of the encountered challenges in writing revision compared to first year tertiary students. Whilst there is a necessity to understand Basic and Post Basic students’ perceptions and practices with respect to revision in EFL writing to better support students in developing their revision skills, studies in this area tend to be sparse. Hence, this study aims to address this gap. It attempts to develop an understanding of how Omani Basic and Post Basic student writers perceive the purpose of revision, understand the revision process, understand the success criteria for revision, and address the challenges that are encountered during revision. It also aims to comprehend the nature of progress in students’ writing revision by contrasting any differences in practices between Basic and Post Basic Education which are two different phases in the Omani educational system. Working with four classes of students (two Basic level; and two Post Basic level), the study used a two-phase design. Through focus group interviews, the first phase investigated students’ opinions of writing revision. With a sub-sample of students in each class, a detailed investigation of students’ perceptions of writing revision processes was conducted in the second phase. This included observing students revising their writing in class, conducting semi-structured interviews with each student, and collecting their drafts and final revisions. While one of the limitations of this study is that the findings are suggestive, the analysis of Basic and Post Basic EFL student writers’ comments and reflection on their own writing revision efforts provides useful insights into how individuals conceptualize the revision process, and how they focus their thoughts, while handling writing challenges. Students’ reflection on their practice as well as their actual practice suggests that they perceive writing revision at a local level where they revise at word and sentence levels with a tendency towards technical accuracy, such as grammar, spelling or punctuation. Students also perceive the writing process as a linear process, and they evaluate their success and set parameters based on external factors such as their reader examiner. They also encountered some linguistic challenges and most importantly psychological and motivational challenges. While theoretical models stipulate that the quality of revision skills depends on students’ language ability, the research results on Post Basic students’ revision performance were insignificant. In fact, different instructional, social and cultural factors seem to account for a better performance rather than the cognitive and metacognitive strategies that students may use. These findings will hopefully provide policy makers with more guidance in their endeavour to design more relevant curricula, addressing more comprehensive criteria, in order to develop the students’ writing skills with particular reference to the process of revising throughout the activity of writing

Study of an open circut hydraulic power system with compact cooler-reservoir unit

In this research, a complete open hydraulic drive mixer system has been designed, instrumented and commissioned, and an extensive programme of experimental tests has been undertaken to 1)- investigate the effectiveness of a cooling unit as an integral part of the open hydraulic system and 2)- validate the mathematical model. The results have shown that the working temperature could be reduced by 40 % by using the integral cooling/reservoir unit and the temperature is always kept below the recommended operation temperature. A mathematical model for temperature distribution under unsteady state conditions in an open hydraulic systems has been developed to predict pipe wall and fluid temperatures in the system. The thermodynamics processes and heat transfer by convection, conduction and radiation have been taken into account. The developed temperature transient equations are solved by using numerical integration technique which are used widely in computer programming. A software package has been developed to be used in hydraulic system design. The main advantage of this package is the user friendliness. The simulation results shows a significant difference between the temperatures of the fluid and the pipe wall in the hydraulic systems and demonstrated that this mathematical model is more accurate than those reported elsewhere. The main results of this investigation is that the hydraulic reservoir has been reduced in the size to about 15 percent of the conventional reservoir in the open hydraulic systems. Furthermore, the experimental results have shown a close agreement with the theoretical results

Eliminate the harassment of putting shame on someone for something

Some old linguistics said that the verb Aiyara (Reproach) with the preposition Al-Ba a (of) is not a good language. But some of them said it is not a very good language, this article proves, through the investigation of classic Arabic prose and poetry, and through grammar, that the verb Aiyara (Reproach) with the preposition Alba a (of) is highly correct. And is better than to be without the preposition Alba a (of)

Performance audit : the need for a responsive approach case study in Oman

In recent times performance audit has become a subject of attention, experimentation, application and debate in the public sectors across the global world. Performance audit is not a replacement for financial audit; indeed, it is a type of audit that aims to examine the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of a public sector entity. Thus an important role is reserved for performance external auditing executed by external state audit institutions, sometimes known as national audit offices.A number of studies have criticized the contribution of performance audit in delivering recommendations that are not representative of citizens’ needs and/or preferences and do not consider social values. Thus this thesis examines whether performance audit practices and reporting take into account the public perspective and social value performance elements. Moreover, it concentrates on understanding the process of decision-making by performance auditors during their assessment and evaluation of public sector performance. The latter involves discussion and explanation of the approach implemented by performance auditors and how does certain types of information in the early stages of the auditing process influence their reporting process. Further, this research provides arguments regarding the contribution of performance audit in improving public sector services, and provides recommendations for decision-makers.The Throughput model is used to form a theoretical framework allowing us to understand the relation between using performance information and performance perception, and judgement and decision-making in performance audit reporting. The different pathways show how auditors prioritize certain aspects of organizational performance in their assessment and decisions.Auditors from the State of Audit Institution in Oman (SAI) participated in this study by responding to an online questionnaire. Structural equation modelling (SEM) via partial square least (PLS) was used as a data analysis approach to test the hypothetical relationships. The first stage used was the measurement model assessment, and the second stage was structural model assessment, via the smart PLS version 2. Additionally, indirect exploratory effects of the moderators (such as gender, age, experience level and educational level) were examined using multi-group analysis (MGA) method.The findings show that auditors in performance audit rely heavily on performance information of the audited entity to make their judgements, and that their perception of social value and being public responsive does not impact upon their judgement. Simultaneously there was a direct relation between performance perception and decision-making, and a strong relation between judgement and decision choice (i.e. reporting) in performance audit. The findings located some areas of weakness in current performance audit practice. Moreover, the findings of this research may be of great value and have empirical contributions to make for government decision-makers, auditors of state of Audit institutions and managers of public sectors

Women\u27s representation in majlis al shura in Oman: how do gender ideology, Islam, and tribalism matter?

Little work examines women\u27s representation in elected office in non-Western countries, especially in the Arab region. Cross-national studies considering Arabic countries have argued that Islam and culture are the main reasons the Arab region has the lowest rate of women\u27s representation in the world. However, this topic cannot be fully understood without taking into account informal politics, especially tribalism and the practices of social elites in this region. This study investigates the determinants of voting for female candidates using data from the first electoral survey ever conducted in Oman, prior to the October 2015 elections for Majlis al Shura (the elected consultative council). It incorporates cross-nationally recognized factors (gender ideology and religion) with a factor heretofore largely unexplored (tribalism). The analysis shows the strong effect of cultural factors in explaining women\u27s legislative representation, as suggested in previous cross-national studies. Individuals with high religiosity and traditional attitudes toward women are less supportive for women in the council. In contrast to what this researcher had expected, tribalism has no direct effect on self-reported likelihood of supporting women candidates. However, there is an indication of its importance; tribal nomination is associated with traditional gender attitudes more generally. The more important tribal nomination is to an individual in selecting a candidate, the less egalitarian attitudes toward women an individual has. Implications of these findings and suggestion for further research are discussed

EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ROYAL HOSPITAL’S ELECTRONIC REFERRAL SYSTEM

The study evaluates the effectiveness of the electronic referral system in reducing waiting time for patients who are referred to Royal Hospital for coronary angiography. The Study hypothesis is that with the current workflow, patients who are referred to Royal Hospital for coronary angiography using electronic referral system have relatively the same or higher waiting time when compared with patients who are referred with the fax referral system. It is a comparative retrospective study that analyzes a random sample of 392 referral requests received from two secondary hospitals from January 1st, 2009 to June 30th, 2012. The study measures the waiting time for each referral request and calculates the median waiting time for the fax and electronic referral requests. Waiting time for referrals received by fax are distributed according to the following: 1) 98 referral requests (50%) was 3 days or less; 2) 69 referral requests (35%) was 4 to 7 days; 3) 26 referral requests (13%) was 8 to 14 days; 4) 3 referral requests (2%) was 15 to 20 days; 5) 0 referral requests (0%) was over 20 days. The minimum waiting time was 0 days and the maximum was 16 days. The median waiting was 3.5 days. For the electronic referral requests, 1) 77 referral requests (39%) was 3 days or less; 2) 64 referral requests (33%) was 4 to 7 days; 3) 37 referral requests (19%) was 8 to 14 days; 4) 14 referral requests (7%) was 15 to 20 days; 5) 4 referral requests (2%) was over 20 days. The minimum waiting time was 1 day and the maximum was 21 days. The median waiting time was 5 days. The differences seen between the average wait time for electronic referrals and fax referrals was statistically significant (p<0.001). Based on these results a new workflow model was developed and simulated within the Cardiology Department at Royal Hospital in Oman. The current workflow increases the waiting time for electronic referral requests when compared with fax referral system. Changes to the current workflow are required to eliminate the inefficiencies that hinder the effectiveness of the system

Analysis load forecasting of power system using fuzzy logic and artificial neural network

Load forecasting is a vital element in the energy management of function and execution purpose throughout the energy power system. Power systems problems are complicated to solve because power systems are huge complex graphically widely distributed and are influenced by many unexpected events. This paper presents the analysis of load forecasting using fuzzy logic (FL), artificial neural network (ANN) and ANFIS. These techniques are utilized for both short term and long-term load forecasting. ANN and ANFIS are used to improve the results obtained through the FL. It also studied the effects of humidity, temperature and previous load on Load Forecasting. The simulation is done by the Simulink environment of MATLAB software