NASHAZ FOR ORCHSTRA

Nashaz is a composition for orchestra in two movements lasting approximately 11-12 minutes in duration. It is mainly inspired by the musical language of my home country, Egypt. The word “Nashaz” is an Arabic word with no direct English translation, but conceptually meaning “out of tune” or more appropriately for the affect of piece, “out of conformity” or “out of proportion”. In Nashaz, Arabic modes, which make use of three-quarter tone steps called maqams, are integrated with western musical materials including diatonicism, octatonicism and free atonality to create the harmonic vocabulary in the piece. The first movement applies the lyrical characteristics of Classical Arabic Song to this idea, while the second movement puts the idea in the context of asymmetric Arabic rhythms in a faster tempo. The climax, which is at the end of the piece, is a violent ostinato in a subdivided 7/4 pattern with both additive and subtractive rhythms, with each section of the orchestra fighting for supremacy of its role. Eventually the music crashes into a brick wall. The concept of asymmetry in both rhythmic and pitch content is the heart of the compositional design and has the goal of being accessible to both eastern and western ears

The association of external auditor's attributes with management fraud risk assessment in financial reporting: empirical evidence from Yemen

As stated by the International Standard of Auditing (ISA No. 240), the effectiveness of the external auditors' attributes is the primary process in management fraud risk assessment (MFRA). Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the associations of external auditor effectiveness-related attributes and independent-related factors with MFRA in the context of Yemen. To achieve the objective of this study, questionnaires were distributed out to 410 external auditors working in private audit firms and the Yemeni Central Organization for Control and Accounting (COCA) for the year 2012. A total of 273 questionnaires were returned back out of which 19 were unusable. As such, the final sample of this study consists of 254 external auditors. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the study's hypotheses. This study finds positive associations of the external auditor's effectiveness score and external auditor's independence score with MFRA. Furthermore, questioning discussion ability, professional qualification, fraud detection experience, information technology (IT) skill, training on fraud detection, and social relationships are reported to have positive and significant associations with MFRA, while job position is found to have a negative association. The findings of this study indicate that Yemeni government and COCA should issue new regulations to increase the external auditors' awareness and effectiveness towards MFRA. This study also indicates that the audit profession in Yemen needs more control, regulations, laws and policies to enhance the structure of the external auditors' decision in issues related to MFRA in order to protect the interests of demand-supply sides of audit services and the related parties. Moreover, this study has implications for the Yemeni policy makers and government to enrich the external auditors' effectiveness and independence by issuing new regulations, new laws, and applying more control on the quality of auditing profession to protect the economy and the society stability

Finite time sliding mode control for piezoelectric actuators / Ahmed Abood Faraq Al-Hadad

The piezoelectric actuator (PEA) is a device which performs very small displacements within the range of less than or equal to 100 μm. However, the PEAs suffer from the inherent non-linearity because of the hysteresis, creep and vibrations effects. These effects may cause a displacement error as high as 15% of the total range. This high error shows the necessity of a controller. Due to Sliding Mode Control (SMC) simple design steps, high robustness and low sensitivity to disturbances, it has been implemented to overcome and minimize the error. This research project has successfully accomplished the following three objectives. The first is to overcome the robustness and accuracy issue by applying the SMC method which is robust and accurate, using the mathematical model of the PEA which includes all the uncertainties and disturbances. The second is to apply the Terminal Sliding Mode Control (TSMC) concept to overcome the global infinite time stability to reach convergence or zero error in finite time. The third is to reach chattering free non-singular system. Chattering and singularity phenomena reduce the service lifetime of the PEA and create unwanted noise in the control input single. To reduce the chattering, sigmoid (sig) function has been used in the sliding function. This method is called continues terminal sliding mode. To overcome the singularity problem, the sliding function and the derivative of the sliding function does not result in terms with negative (fractional) powers which mean there will be no singularity. The chattering free nonsingular finite time system has been proved mathematically and in the simulation

Pleural pressure swing and lung expansion after malignant pleural effusion drainage: the benefits of high-temporal resolution pleural manometry

BackgroundMalignant pleural effusion is a common complication in end-stage cancer patients and can cause severe dyspnea. Therapeutic thoracentesis is often limited to 1 to 1.5 L. Pleural manometry can be used to recognize a not-expanded lung.MethodsInterval pleural pressure measurements with a high temporal resolution were performed after each removal of 200 mL of fluid to observe pleural pressure swings. Pleural elastance was defined as the difference in pleural pressure divided by the change in volume. Chest x-rays were performed to evaluate lung expansion, reexpansion pulmonary edema, and fluid residue.ResultsThirty-four procedures in 30 patients were eligible for analysis. Four patients had incomplete lung expansion after drainage. No reexpansion pulmonary edema was observed. Pleural pressure swing after 200 mL drainage was higher when the lung did not expand. Pleural elastance after removal of 500 mL was higher in the not-expanded subgroup.ConclusionsWe demonstrated that a high pleural pressure swing after removal of only 200 mL was related to incomplete lung expansion. We confirmed the association between pleural elastance and lung expansion.Boshuizen, Rogier C.; Sinaasappel, Michiel; Vincent, Andrew D.; Goldfinger, Vicky; Farag, Sheima; van den Heuvel, Michel M