Factors That Influence Non-financial Disclosures: Evidence from Jordan

This study aimed to explain the commitment level required in non-financial disclosures according to annual report circulars for Jordanian listed companies issued by the Jordan Securities Commission. Additionally, the study aimed to define the factors affecting non-financial disclosures for industrial companies, including company size, profitability, and the size of receivables on non-financial disclosure.The study conducted a survey using a study population that comprehensively represented all industrial listed companies in Jordan from 2013-2017.The study found that the level of non-financial disclosures reached 94.6%; company size and receivable size positively and negatively impacted the level of non-financial disclosure, respectively, while profitability had no effect. Keywords: non-financial disclosure, annual report circular, company size, profitability, receivable size

Thermal comfort prediction, conditions and air quality for younger and older children in Kuwait schools

The thesis presents the field and laboratory work conducted to investigate the applicability of different thermal comfort indices and equations to assess the thermal sensation of very young children (6-10 years) and older children (11-17 years) in Kuwait classrooms under different ventilation modes (hybrid, natural and air-conditioned), in addition to investigating the quality of the air inside the classrooms. Few thermal comfort and indoor air quality studies have been conducted to determine the thermal comfort and indoor air quality situation inside the classrooms (especially where the young children are presents) in comparison to that for adults in other building environments such as offices or vehicles. The aim of this thesis was to provide baseline data and expand the knowledge for young children s thermal comfort (as well as older children) and the effects of the indoor air quality inside classrooms on them throughout different ventilation modes (hybrid, natural and air-conditioned). The work was achieved by conducting both laboratory and field experiments, as follows: Laboratory tests were conducted to measure the insulation value of the different schoolwear ensembles used in Kuwait classrooms. Three methods were used to indicate and compare the thermal insulation values of different schoolwear ensembles worn by girls and boys in Kuwait classrooms during summer and winter seasons. Results suggest that the clothing insulation values found from the measured and adapted data were similar to the adult s data in standards tables for the same summer and winter seasons ensembles. In addition, the temperature ratings of the clothing are close to, and in agreement with, the scholars comfort temperature. A new thermal comfort questionnaire has been designed for gathering thermal sensation and reflected data from younger children. The questionnaire has been designed employing learning and educational techniques for very young people, and was statistically tested against the standard questionnaire and with old age groups to ensure no bias was introduced. The results show that the new designed thermal comfort questionnaire can help children to assess their sensation in a better manner than that of the standard questionnaire, and that it can be considered as a new subjective assessment tool that can support the thermal comfort standard by investigating the thermal comfort sensations of younger children age groups. A large scale field study was then conducted to investigate the applicability of different thermal comfort indices for Kuwait classrooms along the academic year and under different ventilation modes to assess the thermal sensations for younger (6-10 years) and older (11-17 years) students age group during the school day. The newly designed thermal comfort questionnaire and the clothing insulation values mentioned previously were used to collect the subjects responses for comparison with a range of thermal comfort indices (PMV, ePMV, PMV10 and adaptive, and various comfort equations). Results show that no difference in the neutral temperature between both age groups during the different ventilation modes and the PMV model is the most appropriate model to predict the thermal sensations of the younger subjects during the different ventilation modes, including the natural ventilation mode, since Kuwait classrooms largely considered as air-conditioned spaces. This work provides knowledge of thermal comfort and comfort conditions in Kuwait classrooms. The final part of the field study was conducted to investigate the adequacy of the ventilation rates during naturally and air-conditioned ventilation modes inside 10 elementary classrooms in Kuwait occupied by 6-10 year old children by measuring the CO2 concentration levels inside these classrooms. The findings showed that naturally ventilated classrooms have lower average CO2 concentration levels (708 ppm) than air-conditioned classrooms (1596 ppm). The main reason for the high CO2 concentration in air-conditioned classrooms is attributed to the possibly inappropriate selection of ventilation system type (wall-mounted split units) inside the classrooms. This type of ventilation system cools recirculated room air provides no outside air (fresh air), which is may not be appreciated for high occupancy zones like classrooms. Suitable means for fresh air provision must be made for this mode of operation. Some remedial solutions are theoretically suggested to reduce the high CO2 levels in air-conditioned classrooms which may enhance the students and staffs performance. The latter data on CO2 levels being above recommended values have been communicated to Kuwaiti government

Homogenization of semi-linear PDEs with discontinuous effective coefficients

20 pagesInternational audienceWe study the asymptotic behavior of solution of semi-linear PDEs. Neither periodicity nor ergodicity will be assumed. In return, we assume that the coefficients admit a limit in \`{C}esaro sense. In such a case, the averaged coefficients could be discontinuous. We use probabilistic approach based on weak convergence for the associated backward stochastic differential equation in the S-topology to derive the averaged PDE. However, since the averaged coefficients are discontinuous, the classical viscosity solution is not defined for the averaged PDE. We then use the notion of "$L^p-$viscosity solution" introduced in \cite{CCKS}. We use BSDEs techniques to establish the existence of $L^p-$viscosity solution for the averaged PDE. We establish weak continuity for the flow of the limit diffusion process and related the PDE limit to the backward stochastic differential equation via the representation of $L^p$-viscosity solution

Do American and Korean Instructors Hold the Same Perceptions of Arguments for and against Online Teaching? An Exploratory Study

This study compared instructors’ perceptions of arguments for and against online teaching in the United States and South Korea and examined the impact of selected demographical variables on these perceptions. Results showed that American and Korean instructors had similar perceptions about online teaching. However, the two groups significantly differed on the extent of agreement or disagreement with the statements included in the study. Several of the demographic variables that were examined in the study had significant impacts on participants’r esponses

New Non-deterministic Approaches for Register Allocation

In this paper two algorithms for register allocation are presented. The first algorithm is a simulated annealing algorithm. The core of the algorithm is the Metropolis procedure. The algorithm presented in the paper has a linear time asymptotic complexity. The second algorithm is a genetic algorithm. The algorithm has a linear time complexity

Remote Sensing Satellites Planning System

A Remote Sensing Satellites Planning system (RSSP) for satellite constellations is responsible for managing these satellites by assigning the imaging tasks to each satellite in the constellation such that the loads are balanced and the resources are well used. The proposed system can be used with heterogeneous constellations that consist of satellites whose different specifications, different orbits' types and/or different payload types. This problem is a combinatorial optimization NP-hard problem modeled in this paper as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem using the Constraint Programming Technique. The output plan is obtained using one of three objective functions (gain maximization, area maximization, and image quality maximization) using four search algorithms (simulated annealing, hill climbing, tabu search and late acceptance) and different planning horizons (one track, one day and one month)