Corporate Governance and the Financial Leverage: Evidence from Jordan.

Does corporate governance play a role in determining the capital structure of the firms? this study has been  examined the relationship between corporate governance and the use of debt financing. The study shown that funds and institutional holdings has a negative and significant impact on leverage, suggesting that financial leverage degree decreased with the increased monitoring power of funds and institutional stockholdings. On the other hand, the holdings of large owners have a positive and significant relationship with leverage. In this study we present a number of explanations by viewing that entrenched managers may obtain a better access to debt market and then they can finance with extra debt this possibly is consider as an outcome of conservative investments policy they used. Our findings could be a helpful and practical for not only investors and financial managers, it could be useful also for financial consultants. Keywords: Corporate governance; financial leverage; funds holdings, capital structure

Economic Freedom And Investment Efficiency In The MENA Region

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of economic freedom level on investment efficiency; predicted by market return and volatility; using data covering the period from 1996 tell 2015 for the MENA region countries. Simple regression models and multivariate regression models were applied to test our hypothesis. The results show that the economic freedom level has a little impact on market return, and the capital market performance get better as the government regulations get highly efficient and the financial system is accessible and effi­ciently functioning. In the same time, the evidence points out that economic freedom decrease market returns’ volatility (risk), indicating that; if government’s regulation in banking and financial systems doesn’t assure transparency and honesty, then financial markets efficiency will be hindered, the cost of financing will increase and the completion will be limited. Keeping in mind that the two fundamental aspects of investment are risk and return; it is obvious that economic freedom enhances the risk-return investment efficiency in the MENA region

Influence Of Human Resource Practices, Job Satisfaction And Person-Organization Fit On Job Performance Of Private Healthcare Employee In Jordan’s Medical Tourism Industry.

This study outlines and tests a wide range model of human resource management (HRM) practices and its association with outcomes through a path including employee attitudes and behaviours. In view of this, this study will provide a mechanism to support the role played by private hospitals employees to improve the medical tourism industry in Jordan. Drawing on social exchange theory, this study contributes a new way of opening the so-called ‘black box’ between HRM practices and performance. Furthermore, this study aims to assess the moderating effect of person-organization (P-O) fit in the relationships of recruitment and selection, job design, training and development, employee empowerment, performance appraisal, compensation and job satisfaction. This mechanism contributes to enhance the knowledge on the relationship between HRM and P-O fit by examining possible moderating roles of P-O fit in the relationship between HRM practices and employee job satisfaction. The study focuses on two self-report measures called employee job performance: organizational citizenship behaviour and task performance. Data were collected via non-random conveniently sampling among employees at private hospitals in Amman, Jordan through a structured self-administered survey questionnaire. In total, 457 usable responses were received and analysed using Smart PLS version 3.2.8 and SPSS version 23.0. The results of this study showed that dimensions of HRM practices (recruitment and selection, job design, training and development, employee empowerment and performance appraisal) have a significant positive influence on employees’ job satisfaction, except compensation. In turn, job satisfaction has significant influence on employee job performance. The dimensions of HRM practices comprises of recruitment and selection, job design, training and development and employee empowerment have significant influence on employee job performance through the mediating effect of job satisfaction. Job satisfaction does not mediate the relationship between performance appraisal and compensation and employee job performance. In addition, data analysis results also indicated that of P-O fit only moderates the relationship between training and development and employee job satisfaction. P-O fit does not moderate the relationship between recruitment and selection, job design, employee empowerment, performance appraisal and, compensation and between job satisfaction. From the academic perspective, this study highlights that level of fit between employees and their organization has significance influence on the relationship between HRM practices and job satisfaction. This in line with the idea propagated by social exchange theory on relation between the HRM and employee performance. From the practical aspect, this study has highlighted the important dimensions of HRM practice that the hospital management should focus in enhancing their employee performance, that indirectly will enhance its organisational performance and medical tourism industry in Jordan

Obesity and Related Factors among Jerash University Population

This study aims to measure the prevalence of obesity, to assess the food habits and physical activity among university population in Jerash University, Northern Jordan. A cross-sectional survey of (203) university students and employee (147 males and 56 females) aged 20 to 60 years were selected randomly during the spring 2016 semester. Participants filled out a self-reported questionnaire (included questions on eating and physical activity habits). Weights, heights body mass index (BMI) measured. Study results showed that (39.4%) of sample were overweight and (24.1%) were obese. Prevalence of overweight and obesity was more common among males compared to females (40.8% and 25.2% vs. 35.7% and 21.45 respectively). In contrast 12.5% females were under weight compared to 5.4% males. Majority of the sample (68%) reported taking meals irregularly. A total of (64.3%) of the subjects reported the consumption of colored vegetable while (30%) reported eating fruits daily. More than half of both males and females did not eat fast foods. The prevalence of overweight and obesity were higher in males within the age of 20-25 years while in contrast it is higher in females within the age of more than 30 years (36% and 22.5% in males vs. 7.1% and 26% in females). More than one third of the participants did not engage in any sport exercises for at least 30 minutes during the week. Keywords: Overweight, Obesity, Food consumption, physical activity, Jordan

The Role of Fintech Payment Instruments in Improving Financial Inclusion

This study examines the role of Fintech payments instruments in evolving accounts ownership as- a master indicator of financial inclusion; to determine if their effectiveness differs according to the different income levels of countries. The sample of the study consists of a panel of twenty-two countries over the period 2010-2020. The database is gathered from the Global Findex; 2021 edition of World Bank. The account ownerships are regressed on Fintech instruments using (FMOLS) method. The results had shown a significant effect of digital remittances, debit and credit cards; and macroeconomic indicators on financial inclusion, in high and middle-income countries, indicating that Fintech payment instruments had been accelerated financial inclusion, but with different levels due to the variation in technological developments and low level of financial literacy. An insignificant effect of the S&P indicator across varying income countries had shown the need for more attention to Fintech and financial literacy to accelerate financial inclusion. In addition to that, countries should work to develop and strengthen of the communication and information infrastructure especially, in developing countries, in order to activate the role of financial technology

Fund Family Selectivity Skills and Market Timing Ability: Comparison Study

This study aims to examine fund family performance, in terms of selectivity skills and marketing timing ability, in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Pakistan in 2007–2021. The sample is divided into three levels. First, analysis of the whole sample. Second, analysis by country. Third, analysis of Islamic- and conventional-focused families. The main results are: First, the fund family provides numerous advantages and facilities to managers, for instance diversification opportunities and market research, allowing them to select stocks well. However, their timing ability is still poor. Second, Saudi Arabia has the best performance while Pakistan has the worst performance. Third, as a novel contribution, there are difference in skills and ability between Islamic and conventional family managers due to their difference in main objectives. The findings are important for managers and investors. Managers can position themselves better relative to their competitors, while investors can more effectively allocate their resources to funds that are managed well by fund families

The site-2 protease

AbstractThe site-2 protease (S2P) is an unusually-hydrophobic integral membrane protease. It cleaves its substrates, which are membrane-bound transcription factors, within membrane-spanning helices. Although structural information for S2P from animals is lacking, the available data suggest that cleavage may occur at or within the lipid bilayer. In mammalian cells, S2P is essential owing to its activation of the sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs); in the absence of exogenous lipid, cells lacking S2P cannot survive. S2P is also important in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response, activating several different membrane-bound transcription factors. Human patients harboring reduction-of-function mutations in S2P exhibit an array of pathologies ranging from skin defects to neurological abnormalities. Surprisingly, Drosophila melanogaster lacking S2P are viable and fertile. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Intramembrane Proteases

Expression and Characterization of Drosophila Signal Peptide Peptidase-Like (sppL), a Gene That Encodes an Intramembrane Protease

Intramembrane proteases of the Signal Peptide Peptidase (SPP) family play important roles in developmental, metabolic and signaling pathways. Although vertebrates have one SPP and four SPP-like (SPPL) genes, we found that insect genomes encode one Spp and one SppL. Characterization of the Drosophila sppL gene revealed that the predicted SppL protein is a highly conserved structural homolog of the vertebrate SPPL3 proteases, with a predicted nine-transmembrane topology, an active site containing aspartyl residues within a transmembrane region, and a carboxy-terminal PAL domain. SppL protein localized to both the Golgi and ER. Whereas spp is an essential gene that is required during early larval stages and whereas spp loss-of-function reduced the unfolded protein response (UPR), sppL loss of function had no apparent phenotype. This was unexpected given that genetic knockdown phenotypes in other organisms suggested significant roles for Spp-related proteases

Evolutionary origins of the estrogen signaling system : insights from amphioxus

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 127 (2011): 176–188, doi:10.1016/j.jsbmb.2011.03.022.Classically, the estrogen signaling system has two core components: cytochrome P450 aromatase (CYP19), the enzyme complex that catalyzes the rate limiting step in estrogen biosynthesis; and estrogen receptors (ERs), ligand activated transcription factors that interact with the regulatory region of target genes to mediate the biological effects of estrogen. While the importance of estrogens for regulation of reproduction, development and physiology has been well-documented in gnathostome vertebrates, the evolutionary origins of estrogen as a hormone are still unclear. As invertebrates within the phylum Chordata, cephalochordates (e.g. the amphioxus of the genus Branchiostoma) are among the closest invertebrate relatives of the vertebrates and can provide critical insight into the evolution of vertebrate-specific molecules and pathways. To address this question, this paper briefly reviews relevant earlier studies that help to illuminate the history of the aromatase and ER genes, with a particular emphasis on insights from amphioxus and other invertebrates. We then present new analyses of amphioxus aromatase and ER sequence and function, including an in silico model of the amphioxus aromatase protein, and CYP19 gene analysis. CYP19 shares a conserved gene structure with vertebrates (9 coding exons) and moderate sequence conservation (40% amino acid identity with human CYP19). Modeling of the amphioxus aromatase substrate binding site and simulated docking of androstenedione in comparison to the human aromatase shows that the substrate binding site is conserved and predicts that androstenedione could be a substrate for amphioxus CYP19. The amphioxus ER is structurally similar to vertebrate ERs, but differs in sequence and key residues of the ligand binding domain. Consistent with results from other laboratories, amphioxus ER did not bind radiolabeled estradiol, nor did it modulate gene expression on an estrogen-responsive element (ERE) in the presence 59 of estradiol, 4-hydroxytamoxifen, diethylstilbestrol, bisphenol A or genistein. Interestingly, it has been shown that a related gene, the amphioxus “steroid receptor” (SR), can be activated by estrogens and that amphioxus ER can repress this activation. CYP19, ER and SR are all primarily expressed in gonadal tissue, suggesting an ancient paracrine/autocrinesignaling role, but it is not yet known how their expression is regulated and, if estrogen is actually synthesized in amphioxus, whether it has a role in mediating any biological effects . Functional studies are clearly needed to link emerging bioinformatics and in vitro molecular biology results with organismal physiology to develop an understanding of the evolution of estrogen signaling.Supported by grants from the NIEHS P42 ES07381 (GVC, SV) and EPA (STAR-RD831301) (GVC), a Ruth L Kirschstein National Research Service Award (AT, F32 ES013092-01), an NIH traineeship (SS, SG), a NATO Fellowship (AN) and the Boston University Undergraduate Research Program (LC)