Interaction effects of country-level governance quality and debt on stock returns in developing nations

This study examines the moderating effects of country-level governance quality on the relationship between debt and stock returns, using 3,891 firms from 23 developing countries covering the period from 2006 to 2014. Applying the panel generalized method of moments to control for endogeneity, the findings reveal that country-level governance quality has positive moderating effects on the relationship between book debt and stock returns. Robustness check using market debt show that country-level governance quality has positive moderating effects on the relationship between market debt and stock returns. Additional analysis controls for the financial crisis years and the results are broadly similar, except that the coefficients of some variables change. The results suggest that strong governance quality lowers financial risk which encourage firms to raise debt capital needed to maximize stockholders’ returns

Working and corporate performance: case of Malaysia.

Working capital always being disregard in financial decision making since it involve investment and financing in short term period. However, it is an important component in firm financial management decision. An optimal working capital management is expected to contribute positively to the creation of firm value. To reach optimal working capital management firm manager should control the trade off between profitability and liquidity accurately. The intention of this study is to examine the relationship between working capital management and firm profitability. Cash conversion cycle is used as measure of working capital management. This study is used panel data of 1628 firm-year for the period of 1996-2006 that consist of six different economic sectors which are listed in Bursa Malaysia. The coefficient results of Pooled OLS regression analysis provide a strong negative significant relationship between cash conversion cycle and firm profitability. This reveals that reducing cash conversion period results to profitability increase. Thus, in purpose to create shareholder value, firm manager should concern on shorten of cash conversion cycle till optimal level is achieved

Subsea DC collection grid with high power security for offshore renewables

This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number EP/K006428/1]; and the European Regional Development Fund [grant number LUPS/ERDF/2010/4/1/0164].Peer reviewedPostprin

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for Simulating Robot Movement on Two-Dimensional Space Based on Odor Sensing

Nowadays, researches in robotic field have grown increasingly. There are several types of research categories in the field of robotic. Recently, one of the famous research works recently was odor sensing. Within the technology that grows rapidly, this topic has become an interest among researchers. An odor sensing is not only applied in the medical field, but it has also been widely used in the industry. The gradient of concentration of an odor is measured by diluting some amount to reach the threshold of an odor. This paper focused on the implementation of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method based on odor sensing in two (2) dimensional space. However, it only discusses and focuses on applying in ideal condition. An ideal condition here means that there is no disturbance included in this simulation. The main idea of this paper was to observe how the particle agents make the movement based on concentration by applying the PSO method. The real sensor cannot be implemented in this simulation because the value of concentration is measured due to the distance from the particles agent to the goal of agents. Higher gradient concentration is shown at the shorter distance to the goal. The contributions in this paper are mainly to create an algorithms model by using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to calculate the paths of movement of mobile robot until they reach the goals (source of odor) with respect to the concepts of odor sensing

Graphical User Interface (GUI) Controlled Mobile Robot

The advanced design and development of robotic technology in producing multi task are increasingly. In this paper presents about designing and developing mobile robot model that can be controlled using Graphical User Interface (GUI) via wireless protocol. This paper focuses on the control mobile robot by using the GUI as navigation control and the user can get a view an image and real time video on visual basic software. To address the problem of sired based control, XBee wireless communication circuit was used in mobile robot through a computer command. The development of this mobile robot consists of a chassis, a graphical user interface (GUI), XBee module, DC gear motor, camera, track wheels and microcontroller type PIC18F4550. Differential driving method using L298 circuit was used to control movement of the robot. In mechanical design, the wheel track has been used instead of conventional wheels to enable the robot to travel through different types of surfaces or rough terrain. In addition, wireless cameras was attached to the robot as a system of monitoring function. Finally, the robot will be designed to control wireless remote control that can control robots. Wireless remote control allows the user of an environment that is unsafe or dangerous device and evades wires or cables interfere with the movement of the robot

Squirrel cage induction motor scalar control constant V/F analysis

In constant V/f control technique it is assume that the stator resistance and leakage inductance drops are negligible, especially at high speed and small load. In other words, the back emf is comparatively large at high speed and hence these voltage drops can be neglected. By maintaining constant V/f, constant Eg/f and hence constant air-gap flux is assumed. This assumption is however invalid at low speeds since a significant voltage drop appears across the stator impedance. The terminal voltage, V no longer approximates ag. By using MATLAB Simulink, the open-loop constant V/f is simulated. It is shown that the performance of the drive deteriorates at low speeds. The improvement in the performance by applying voltage boost is shown and discussed

Intelligent Image Capturing Alarm System Using Raspberry Pi

Home surveillance system assumes an essential part in this present day living style to help recognizing illegal activities. In this proposed paper, an intelligent image capturing alarm system to protect locker was developed. Raspberry Pi 2 is used as the main controller (server). At the point when any conceivable intrusion is identified, a webcam installed to Raspberry Pi 2 will capture the picture of the intruder. In the meantime, the spotlight or light of the house which represented by an LED will be turned "ON" alongside an alarm sound from a buzzer which is fixed as an output. Taking everything into account, this improvement offers reasonable and easy to use surveillance alarm system

Consumers’ purchasing decision towards food products of small and medium enterprises

The gross domestic product (GDP) of Malaysia has continuously increased from year to year. All industry sectors are responsible for contributing to Malaysia’s GDP, including the food and beverage (F&B) industry. The sales within the Malaysian F&B retail industry were forecast to grow yearly. This study is to examine Malaysian consumers’ acceptance of F&B products of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In depth, this study also tries to investigate whether consumers use experience when making a decision to buy SMEs’ F&B products in the hypermarket. Results from structural equation modeling shows that consumers are barely aware of the existence of SMEs’ F&B products and prefer to buy establish brands’ products in the hypermarket. Hence, we suggest SMEs be more prominent in marketing their products. This action will influence consumer decisions in choosing SMEs brands over established brands’ products