Perceptions on the usefulness of published financial information to the Egyptian capital marker

The main objective of this study is to investigate empirically users' perceptions of the usefulness of financial information that could be provided in corporate annual reports presented by listed companies in Egypt. This investigation is carried out, in the light of the requirements of the Egyptian Accounting Standards (EASs) issued in 1997, the new listing rules of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE) adopted in 2000 and the Capital Market Law (CML) No. 95/1992, using a set of eleven qualitative characteristics of accounting information (QCOAI) in a hierarchy, which should be possessed by financial information if it is to be useful to its users. Those characteristics are: understandability, relevance, reliability, comparability, predictive value, timeliness, faithful representation, neutrality, verifiability, consistency and materiality. A survey was carried out, based on a questionnaire, which was designed and pre-tested in two stages, as a basic data collection instrument supported by some semi-structured personal interviews. 320 questionnaires were personally distributed, and a total of 232 questionnaires were collected. Of them 222 were usable and analysable, representing about 69.38%. The survey was conducted to examine the perceptions of five groups of users of corporate annual reports, namely, financial analysts, decision makers, academics, stock brokers, and staff of the regulatory and observatory bodies, regarding the importance they attach to corporate annual reports and different sources of financial information, sections of corporate annual reports, each of the QCOAI selected earlier in the study, and some financial information items.The collected data were largely quantifiable and based on a five-point scale. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences — SPSS was used in analysing the collected data and the analysis was carried out for the overall sample and for the various sub-groups using the descriptive statistics and the statistical analysis (the non-parametric tests such as the Chi-square Test, the Kruskal-Wallis H Test and the Mann-Whitney U Test).A major finding is that "corporate annual reports" were perceived as the most important source of financial information by users in Egypt, followed by "newspapers and magazines" and "the direct contact with the company management". Also, there was a clear finding that "income statement" was considered as the most important section among the various sections of corporate annual reports followed by "balance sheet" and "cash flow statement". It was found that users as a whole, and as occupation, education and experience groups, considered the selected set of QCOAI to be suitable for use in the evaluation of the usefulness of financial information provided in corporate annual reports. All selected characteristics were perceived to be important or very important characteristics, to slightly different degrees. Furthermore, the study found that "timeliness" was considered as the most important characteristic. Lastly, the majority of financial information items that were perceived as the most important items, whether or not mandatorily required, are not disclosed by listed companies

Perceptions on the usefulness of published financial information to the Egyptian capital marker

The main objective of this study is to investigate empirically users' perceptions of the usefulness of financial information that could be provided in corporate annual reports presented by listed companies in Egypt. This investigation is carried out, in the light of the requirements of the Egyptian Accounting Standards (EASs) issued in 1997, the new listing rules of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE) adopted in 2000 and the Capital Market Law (CML) No. 95/1992, using a set of eleven qualitative characteristics of accounting information (QCOAI) in a hierarchy, which should be possessed by financial information if it is to be useful to its users. Those characteristics are: understandability, relevance, reliability, comparability, predictive value, timeliness, faithful representation, neutrality, verifiability, consistency and materiality. A survey was carried out, based on a questionnaire, which was designed and pre-tested in two stages, as a basic data collection instrument supported by some semi-structured personal interviews. 320 questionnaires were personally distributed, and a total of 232 questionnaires were collected. Of them 222 were usable and analysable, representing about 69.38%. The survey was conducted to examine the perceptions of five groups of users of corporate annual reports, namely, financial analysts, decision makers, academics, stock brokers, and staff of the regulatory and observatory bodies, regarding the importance they attach to corporate annual reports and different sources of financial information, sections of corporate annual reports, each of the QCOAI selected earlier in the study, and some financial information items. The collected data were largely quantifiable and based on a five-point scale. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences — SPSS was used in analysing the collected data and the analysis was carried out for the overall sample and for the various sub-groups using the descriptive statistics and the statistical analysis (the non-parametric tests such as the Chi-square Test, the Kruskal-Wallis H Test and the Mann-Whitney U Test). A major finding is that "corporate annual reports" were perceived as the most important source of financial information by users in Egypt, followed by "newspapers and magazines" and "the direct contact with the company management". Also, there was a clear finding that "income statement" was considered as the most important section among the various sections of corporate annual reports followed by "balance sheet" and "cash flow statement". It was found that users as a whole, and as occupation, education and experience groups, considered the selected set of QCOAI to be suitable for use in the evaluation of the usefulness of financial information provided in corporate annual reports. All selected characteristics were perceived to be important or very important characteristics, to slightly different degrees. Furthermore, the study found that "timeliness" was considered as the most important characteristic. Lastly, the majority of financial information items that were perceived as the most important items, whether or not mandatorily required, are not disclosed by listed companies

Stability indicating square-wave stripping voltammetric method for determination of gatifloxacin in pharmaceutical formulation and human blood

A fully validated, sensitive and precise stability-indicating square-wave adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetric method has been developed for determination of gatifloxacin in the bulk form, pharmaceutical formulation, and in spiked human serum and real plasma samples. The achieved detection limits of gatifloxacin in the bulk form and human serum were 1.5 × 10-9 and 2.2 × 10-9 mol L-1, respectively. The described method was applied successfully for determination of gatifloxacin in formulation and human biological samples without extraction prior to the analysis. No significant interferences from common excipients, some common metal ions, organic species, co-administrated drugs and from the acid-induced degradation products were obtained during analysis of gatifloxacin in the various analyzed samples. Besides, pharmacokinetic parameters of gatifloxacin in plasma of healthy volunteers following the administration of an oral single dose (400 mg gatifloxacin) were also estimated by means of the described stripping voltammetric method

Deep Learning for Environmentally Robust Speech Recognition: An Overview of Recent Developments

Eliminating the negative effect of non-stationary environmental noise is a long-standing research topic for automatic speech recognition that stills remains an important challenge. Data-driven supervised approaches, including ones based on deep neural networks, have recently emerged as potential alternatives to traditional unsupervised approaches and with sufficient training, can alleviate the shortcomings of the unsupervised methods in various real-life acoustic environments. In this light, we review recently developed, representative deep learning approaches for tackling non-stationary additive and convolutional degradation of speech with the aim of providing guidelines for those involved in the development of environmentally robust speech recognition systems. We separately discuss single- and multi-channel techniques developed for the front-end and back-end of speech recognition systems, as well as joint front-end and back-end training frameworks

Identification of terrestrial gastropods species in Sohag Governorate, Egypt

The study aims to identify of terrestrial gastropods species in Sohag Governorate during the year 2016 and 2017. The present study was carried out for survey and identification for random land snail in 11 districts, i.e. (Tema, Tahta, Gehyena, El-Maragha, Saqultah, Sohag, Akhmim, El-Monshah, Gerga, El-Balyana, and Dar El-Salam) at Sohag Governorate, Egypt. Samples were collected from 5 different locations in each district during 2016-2017 seasons. The monthly samples were taken from winter and summer crops (areas were cultivated with the field crops such as wheat, Egyptian clover, and vegetables crops. The results showed that found two species of land snails, Monacha obstracta (Montagu) and Eobania vermiculata (Muller). It was also observed that the occurrence of the spread of land snails was increased from the previous periods. The results further indicated that land snails were recorded in Sohag for a second time more widespread and may be that this pest moved to these governorates with transportation, passengers from places spread these new places and happened to her adaptation and after have transferred from infestation regions so, have adapted under weather factors of new region also, several factors e.g., the presence of more preferable food, shelter, intra-specific competition, fecundity increasing, several hosts or habitat in the new ecosystems. Therefore, this study gives an interesting indication of the development of a plan in effective strategy for land snail’s management program in agro ecosystems in Upper Egypt

Protective Effects of Carvedilol and Vitamin C against Azithromycin-Induced Cardiotoxicity in Rats via Decreasing ROS, IL1- β

The Food and Drug Administration recently warned of the fatal cardiovascular risks of azithromycin in humans. In addition, a recently published study documented azithromycin-induced cardiotoxicity in rats. This study aimed to justify the exact cardiovascular events accompanying azithromycin administration in rats, focusing on electrocardiographic, biochemical, and histopathological changes. In addition, the underlying mechanisms were studied regarding reactive oxygen species production, cytokine release, and apoptotic cell-death. Finally, the supposed protective effects of both carvedilol and vitamin C were assessed. Four groups of rats were used: (1) control, (2) azithromycin, (3) azithromycin + carvedilol, and (4) azithromycin + vitamin C. Azithromycin resulted in marked atrophy of cardiac muscle fibers and electrocardiographic segment alteration. It increased the heart rate, lactate dehydrogenase, creatine phosphokinase, malondialdehyde, nitric oxide, interleukin-1 beta (IL1-β), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-κB), and caspase-3. It decreased reduced glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase. Carvedilol and vitamin C prevented most of the azithromycin-induced electrocardiographic and histopathological changes. Carvedilol and vitamin C decreased lactate dehydrogenase, malondialdehyde, IL1-β, TNF-α, NF-κB, and caspase-3. Both agents increased glutathione peroxidase. This study shows that both carvedilol and vitamin C protect against azithromycin-induced cardiotoxicity through antioxidant, immunomodulatory, and antiapoptotic mechanisms

Synthesis of Sulfated Carbohydrates Using Sulfuryl Imidazolium Salts

Sulfated polysaccharides are widespread in nature. These compounds are implicated in a wide variety of important biological processes such as blood clotting, cell adhesion, and cell–cell communication. However, detailed characterization of their specific biological roles has proved to be very challenging. One reason for this is that the synthesis of even relatively small sulfated oligosaccharides still remains a considerable challenge. A general approach to the synthesis of sulfated carbohydrates was examined in which the sulfate group is incorporated at the beginning of the syntheses as a protected sulfodiester. Towards this end, a series of modified sulfuryl imidazolium salts were prepared and examined as reagents for incorporating 2,2,2-trichloroethyl-protected sulfate esters into monosaccharides.. A more efficient sulfating agent was obtained by incorporating a methyl group at the 2-position of the imidazolium ring. O-Sulfations that required prolonged reaction times and a large excess of the original sulfuryl imidazolium salt (SIS) which bears no alkyl groups on the imidazolium ring, were more readily achieved using the new reagent. Direct regioselective incorporation of TCE-protected sulfates into monosaccharides was achieved using the new imidazolium salt. We have also shown that the new SIS can also be used for the direct disulfation of monosaccharides and that trisulfated monosaccharides can also be prepared from the disulfated compounds. SIS’s bearing the TFE and phenyl groups, were readily prepared. In most instances, both TFE- and phenyl protected sulfated carbohydrates were easily prepared in good yields using SIS’s. Deprotection of the TFE group from secondary sulfates in carbohydrates and aryl sulfates was achieved in excellent yields using NaN3 in DMF. We applied the sulfate protecting group strategy towards the total synthesis of the tetrasaccharide portion of a disulfated glycosphingolipid called SB1a. Efficient routes were developed for the construction of the left- and right-hand protected disaccharide portions of the SB1a tetrasaccharide

Thermodynamic Parameters of the Uncatalyzed Redox Reaction Between Potassium Peroxydisulphate and D(+)Glucose

The uncatalyzed redox reaction between potassium peroxydisulphate and D(+) glucose was  studied titremetically . The progress of the reaction was followed by examining the concentration of potassium peroxydisulphate in the reaction mixture at different time intervals by iodometric titration method. Thermodynamic parameters, activation energy (Ea), frequency factor (A), entropy change (?S) and the free energy change (?G) of the uncatalyzed redox reaction were evaluated from the values of the fractional order rate constants ko at different temperatures. Keywords: Uncatalyzed redox reaction, thermodynamic parameters, D(+)glucose, Potassium peroxydisulphate