Impact of Strategic Initiatives in Management Accounting on Corporate Financial Performance: Evidence from Amman Stock Exchange

This article aims at investigating the link between the practice of Activity Based Costing (ABC), Just-in-Time (JIT), and Total Quality Management (TQM) as strategic initiatives and the improvement in corporate financial performance of 56 industrial shareholding companies in Jordan. Ordinary Least Squares Regression analysis is used to test the association between the awareness level of the importance of using the initiatives and the level of adopting these initiatives. It is also used to identify the improvement in ROA as a mean of financial performance which is associated with the initiatives. Analysis shows that 26.8% of the companies under consideration use at least one of the strategic initiatives. In addition, the awareness level of the importance of using the strategic initiatives is found to be significantly high among the financial managers, but such awareness is not reflected in the implementation of these initiatives. Furthermore, strong evidence emerges that the use of strategic initiatives leads to improvement in financial performance of the companies under consideration.ABC, JIT, TQM, strategic initiatives, improvement in financial performance

Initial analytical investigation of overhead sign trusses with respect to remaining fatigue life and predictive methods for inspection

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Civil EngineeringHayder RasheedMost state highway agencies do not perform routine fatigue inspections on highway signs, luminaires, and traffic signals, thereby increasing the potential for unnoticed fatigue cracking. The Kansas Highway System utilizes over 450 sign trusses, most of which have been in service for 30-45 years. In addition, to aging support structures, the structural designs these signs and signals sometimes result in significant cyclical loading due to wind gust. This study conducted fatigue evaluations using nominal axial member-specific stress ranges corresponding to a wind speed database for a 45-year period, as well as, hundreds of structural analysis simulations. Potential fatigue failure was assessed for each member of the support structure by evaluating the ratio of consumed fatigue cycles to ultimate fatigue cycles using Miner’s rule to estimate finite life. If the ratio was close to zero after 45 years or any number of actual service years, the member was expected to have a practically infinite life. If the ratio was close to 1 after the service years, the member was expected to be at the end of its life. This information can help inspectors identify for critical spots that may have developed fatigue cracks that otherwise would be difficult to detect. Two approaches were hypothesized to account for fatigue life deterministically and probabilistically. Fatigue Life Simulator Software (FLSS) was developed to manage hundreds of simulations and determine the fatigue life of all members in a structure in specific areas of Kansas. FLSS is compatible and works simultaneously with STAAD Pro Software and Sign Truss Interface provided by KDOT, to generate results. Users apply the results to study the behavior of overhead structures and identify critical spots that should be physically inspected and potentially replaced. Results in Kanas indicated a range of structural fatigue life varying by city. Modifications were made to the output files of Sign Truss Interface to incorporate American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) load cases 1 and 2 and simulate wind speed into wind pressure using the effect of the two load cases. The modification also automatically incorporated 45-years of wind speed data into the Sign Truss Interface to simulate and generate structural models to determine corresponding stresses to the wind effect

Analysis of wastewater of AL GUNEID Sugar Factory

• لاشك ان صناعة السكر لها اهميه اقتصادية واجتماعيه بالغه ..........إلا ان لهذه الصناعه الكثير من السلبيات المتمثله في مياه الصرف الصناعيه (wastewater). • تناول البحث مصادر مياه الصرف الناتجة من صناة السكر معددا هذه المصادر ,مياه غسيل القصب ,مياه المرشحات ,مياه المكثفات ,مياه الغلايات ,مياه غسيل المولاس . • تناول البحث ايضا المخاطر البيئيه الناتجه من طريقة التخلص من مياه الصرف الصناعي مباشرة في النيل دون معالجتها . • تناول البحث ايضا طرق معالجة مياه الصرف الناتجه من صناعة السكر (الاحيائيه,والكيميائيه ). • كما تناول البحث طرق تحليل مياه الصرف الناتجه من صناعة السكر بإجراء احتبارات لقياس (TSS,PH,TDS,……..etc) ومن ثم تحديد امكانية استحدام هذا الماء من عدمه . • عند مقارنة النتائج المتحصل عليها مع المقاييس العالميه وجد ان هنالك فروقات شاسعه مما يؤكد عدم صلاحيه مياه الصرف الناتجه من صناعة السكر للاستخدلم الادمي وغيره الا بعد معالجتها

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

The accounting measurement and disclosure requirements in Islamic banks : the case of Murabahah and Mudarabah

This research has three main purposes. First, it discusses the differences between the conventional and the Islamic perspectives of accounting in terms of the accounting definition, objectives, principles, rules, measurements and disclosure requirements. Second, it discusses and formulates the accounting measurements and the disclosure requirements, which should be applied in Islamic banks for Murabahah and Mudarabah operations.Third, to provide insight into the current practice of these measures and requirements, the study reports the results of a survey which aims at identifying the gap between the suggested measures and requirements and the current practice of the Dubai Islamic Bank and the Jordan Islamic Bank. The analysis reveals that there are differences between the conventional and the Islamic perspectives of accounting. It also indicates the need for specific accounting measures for Murabahah and Mudarabah operations as well as the need to disclose more information about these operations and their accounting measurement methods in an Islamic bank's annual reports as well as in other disclosures.Finally, the direction for future research on Islamic banks operations and their accounting measurement problems are presente

The implementation of activity-based costing and the financial performance of the Jordanian industrial shareholding companies

The purpose of this study is to investigate the improvement in financial performance associated with the use of activity-based costing (ABC). Data were obtained through a cross-sectional mail survey of financial managers who furnished information regarding company financial performance, the extent of ABC usage, and the enabling conditions that have been identified in the literature as affecting ABC efficacy. Data were obtained from the Jordanian shareholding companies as of the end of 2009. Regression analysis is used to test the association between the awareness level of using ABC and the level of adopting ABC. It is also used to identify the improvement in ROA as a mean of financial performance which associated with ABC initiatives. Results show that the awareness level of using ABC is high among the financial managers, but ABC implementation is not high; also it is found that there is a positive association between ABC and improvement in ROA.performance improvement; financial performance; ABC success factors; structural equation modelling; Jordan; activity-based costing.

Attitudes toward learning accounting by computers: The impact on perceived skills

Accountancy has been significantly affected by information technology. Accounting education curricula, however, still largely ignore the use of computers as tools in the learning process, mainly because of budgetary and timetable constraints. This study investigates the impact of learning accounting by computers on students ' perceived skills. The aim of our study was to determine the effectiveness of teaching undergraduate accounting students courses in using computer in accounting, Four hundred and sixty-three accounting students were included in the study, a multiple choice question survey was performed after finishing a course offered to teach students computer skills in accounting. The results showed that such course has an impact on attitudes towards the perceived skills from using computers for accounting purposes. After the course, no gender differences with respect to attitudes towards the perceived skills were found, but males report shows slightly more computer experience than females