Managing earnings using classification shifting: Novel evidence from Jordan

open access journalIn response to McVay calls for more research to provide additional cross-sectional tests of classification shifting, the current paper examines whether Jordanian public companies engage in earnings management through classification shifting. Using a sample consisting of 112 public firms from Jordan during the 2010-2014 period, this study applies McVay (2006) Model to investigate the relationship between the non-recurring items (NREC) and the variation in unexpected core earnings (UCE). This analysis was supplemented with employing Fan et al., (2010) Model as a robustness check. Our empirical results reveal that managers in Jordan misclassify their recurring expenses to inflate their core earnings. More precisely, we find that non-recurring items (NREC) are significantly and positively associated with the variation in unexpected core earnings (UCE); thus, classification shifting is a common practice among Jordanian firms. Additionally, we find out stronger evidence on classification shifting when our sample was restricted to those firms with a more significant opportunity to misclassify recurring items (firms with positive NREC). This study contributes to the body of accounting literature by providing the first empirical evidence in the Middle East region overall on the use of classification shifting by Jordanian firms. We are also the first to apply McVay (2006) and Fan et al., (2010) models in the Middle East region. Our findings have important policy implications for standard setters, regulators, auditors and investors in their attempts to constrain earnings management practices and improve the financial reporting quality in Jordan

Lack of Association between LCS6 Variant in KRAS Gene with the Occurrence of Breast Tumors in Iraqi Women

      سرطان الثدي هو أكثر أنواع السرطان شيوعًا ولا يزال أحد الأسباب الرئيسية للوفيات المرتبطة بالسرطان لدى النساء في جميع أنحاء العالم. يرتبط التباين الوراثي(T<G rs61764370)  بزياده خطر الاصابه بالعديد من انواع السرطانات . أجريت هذه الدراسه على135 امراه حيث تضمنت  45 عينه من النساء العراقيات مصابات بسرطان الثدي و45 مصابه باورام الثدي الحميده و45 من النساء الاصحاء لتحليل العلاقه بين التغايرات الوراثيه احاديه النيوكليوتيده ((rs61764370 مع الاصابه بسرطان الثدي تم تضخيم LCS 6 variant لجين KRAS باستخدام بادئات محددة ، ثم تم الكشف عن النمط وراثيّ بعد استخدام التعاقب النيوكليوتي لنواتج تفاعل  السلسله المتبلمره . ولقد أظهرت النتائج أن النمط الوراثي وتكرار الأليل من TT و GT أليل الجين KRAS كانت غير ذات دلالة إحصائية (P <0.01) بين مرضى سرطان الثدي واورام الثدي الحميده مقارنة مع عينات النساء العراقيات الاصحاء.Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and remains one of the main reasons of cancer-related mortality in women worldwide. KRAS variant rs61764370 (T>G) is associated with an increased risk of occurrence of many cancers, Here The case-control study was accomplished on 135 women including 45 women with breast cancer patients, 45 women with benign breast lesions and 45 healthy women to analyze the association of KRAS variant rs (61764370 T>G) with breast cancer. LCS 6 variant in KRAS gene was amplified by using specific primers, then genotype was detected after sequencing the PCR products. The results showed that the genotype and allele frequency of TT and GT allele of  KRAS gene were statistically non-significant (p< 0.01) among breast cancer patients and breast benign lesions compared with healthy controls in Iraqi women

Synthesis and Characterization of New Selenonitrone Derivative and Its Effect on Breast Cancer Cell Line Viability in Vitro

            تم تحضير مركبات جديده من النترون والسيلينونترون. استخدمت طريقه التكاثف بين2)-N- هيدروكسي ايثايل)هيدروكسيل امين ومركبات الكربونيل المعوضه وهي ] البنزل و 4,4- ثنائي كلوروبنزل و2,2 – ثنائي نايتروبنزل[  وادت هذه الطريقه الى تحضير مجموعه جديده من مركبات النترون. بينما التكاثف بين N – بنزايل هيدروكسيل امين و مركبات السيلينوكربونيل المعوضه وهي ]ثنائي( 4- فلوروبنزوايل) ثنائي سيلينايد و (4- كلوروبنزوايل سيلينونايترايل)[ ادت هذه الطريقه الى تحضير مركبات جديده من سيلينونترون. اما تكاثف N-(4- كلوروفينايل هيدروكسيل امين مع ثنائي بنزوايل ثنائي سيلينايد ادى الى تحضير نوع اخر من مركبات سيلينونترون. ﺷﺧﺻت اﻟﻣرﻛﺑﺎت اﻟﻣﺣﺿرة ﺑﺄﺳﺗﺧدام ﺗﻘﻧﯾﺔ ﺗﺣﻠﯾل اﻟﻌﻧﺎﺻر اﻟدﻗﯾق واﻟطراﺋق اﻟطﯾﻔﯾﺔ اﻟﻣﺧﺗﻠﻔﺔ ﻛﻣطﯾﺎﻓﯾﺔ ﺗﺣت اﻟﺣﻣراء، ﻣطﯾﺎﻓﯾﺔ ﻓوق اﻟﺑﻧﻔﺳﺟﯾﺔ  ،ﻣطﯾﺎﻓﯾﺔ اﻟرﻧﯾن اﻟﻧووي اﻟﻣﻐﻧﺎطﯾﺳﻲ 1H،13C وﻣطﯾﺎﻓﯾﺔ اﻟﻛﺗﻠﺔ. واكد ت ﻧﺗﺎﺋﺞ اﻟﺗﺣﻠﯾل اﻟطﯾﻔﻲ وﺗﺣﻠﯾل اﻟﻌﻧﺎﺻر اﻟدﻗﯾق ﺻﺣﺔ اﻟﺗراﻛﯾب اﻟﻛﯾﻣﯾﺎﺋﯾﺔ اﻟﻣﺗو ﻗﻌﺔ ﻟﻠﻣرﻛﺑﺎت اﻟﻣﺣﺿرة ﻓﻲ ﻫذﻩ اﻟدراﺳﺔ. كشفت نتائج تاثير مشتقات السيلسنونايترون الجديدة (N1) على  خلايا سرطان الثدي  MDA-MBخارج الجسم الحي زيادة في تكاثر الخلايا بازدياد تراكيز السلينوناتيرون وفي كل الفترات الزمنية.          New nitrone and selenonitrone compounds were synthesized. The condensation method between N-(2-hydroxyethyl) hydroxylamine and substituted carbonyl compounds such as [benzil, 4, 4́-dichlorobenzil and  2,2́ -dinitrobenzil] afforded a variety of new nitrone compounds while the condensation between N-benzylhydroxylamine and substituted selenocarbonyl compounds such as [di(4-fluorobenzoyl) diselenide and (4-chlorobenzoyl selenonitrile] obtained selenonitrone compounds. The condensation of N-4-chlorophenylhydroxylamine with dibenzoyl diselenide obtained another type of selenonitrone compounds. The structures of the synthesized compounds were assigned based on spectroscopic data (FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, MS and elemental analysis. The result spectra and the result of elemental analysis were verified the expected structure. The results of new selenonitron derivative (N1) effect on the MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells in vitro revealed that is an increase in the proliferation of cells with increased concentrations of selenonitron at all periods of the times

A Resource Guide To Empower Older Adults to Make Informed Health Decisions About Prescription Opioids And The Potential For Misuse

INTRODUCTION: In the past two decades, the U.S. has been combating the public health crisis of prescription opioids misuse among older adults. There is an increasing prevalence of older adult misuse and abuse of prescription opioids. However, through greater awareness of proper use and alternatives to prescription opioids, this trend can be reversed. AIM: To develop a resource guide that will empower older adults to engage their health care providers as it pertains to prescription opioid use in the treatment of pain. METHODS: A literature review of research articles, review of fact sheets, and interviews with three medical doctors in various fields of medicine was conducted. RESULTS: A guide was created that included key statistics about older adults, the definition and identification of prescription opioids, reasons for and risks of addiction and abuse, key steps to avoid addiction and abuse, and available resources. DISCUSSION: Research on the misuse and abuse of prescription opioids was limited and, in many cases, outdated. Furthermore, the information available needed to be made more accessible. CONCLUSION: The creation of a resource guide containing critical information about opioids was feasible. The guide can serve as a key first step in prompting conversations with health care providers

The effectiveness of new technologies for urban land management

Peer Reviewe

Investigation of Performance and Cavitation Treatment in a Kaplan Hydro Turbine

Cavitation is a phenomenon that occurs in various turbomachinery applications causing drawbacks on the. Some of these downsides are damaging the components of the system, generating noise and vibration, and loss of the turbine efficiency over time. Thus, it is imperative to address issue of cavitation to increase the life span of the equipment in addition to improve the system performance. This thesis introduces a method used to mitigate the cavitation phenomenon in a 3-inch Kaplan hydro turbine via injecting air at the leading edge of the rotor blades. The study is based on modeling the turbine using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software as well as carrying out experimental tests. The simulations were conducted at different air injection pressures over a spectrum of rotational speeds using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) for turbulence and volume of fluid for multiphase interactions: water, vapor water and air. The cavitation behavior was observed first without aeration, then followed by air injection simulations to investigate the effect of aeration. Each case was simulated for 12 cycles at rotational speeds of 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, and 5000 rpm. The Vapor Volume Fraction (VVF) and the output mechanical power were monitored throughout the simulations. The data acquired from the simulations were compared to the experimental results for verifications. It was observed that the cavitation was mitigated in both the computer simulations and the experiment testing reaching up to 49.7% as an average reduction, while the output power was reduced by 6.6%

An Adaptive Modular Redundancy Technique to Self-regulate Availability, Area, and Energy Consumption in Mission-critical Applications

As reconfigurable devices\u27 capacities and the complexity of applications that use them increase, the need for self-reliance of deployed systems becomes increasingly prominent. A Sustainable Modular Adaptive Redundancy Technique (SMART) composed of a dual-layered organic system is proposed, analyzed, implemented, and experimentally evaluated. SMART relies upon a variety of self-regulating properties to control availability, energy consumption, and area used, in dynamically-changing environments that require high degree of adaptation. The hardware layer is implemented on a Xilinx Virtex-4 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to provide self-repair using a novel approach called a Reconfigurable Adaptive Redundancy System (RARS). The software layer supervises the organic activities within the FPGA and extends the self-healing capabilities through application-independent, intrinsic, evolutionary repair techniques to leverage the benefits of dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (PR). A SMART prototype is evaluated using a Sobel edge detection application. This prototype is shown to provide sustainability for stressful occurrences of transient and permanent fault injection procedures while still reducing energy consumption and area requirements. An Organic Genetic Algorithm (OGA) technique is shown capable of consistently repairing hard faults while maintaining correct edge detector outputs, by exploiting spatial redundancy in the reconfigurable hardware. A Monte Carlo driven Continuous Markov Time Chains (CTMC) simulation is conducted to compare SMART\u27s availability to industry-standard Triple Modular Technique (TMR) techniques. Based on nine use cases, parameterized with realistic fault and repair rates acquired from publically available sources, the results indicate that availability is significantly enhanced by the adoption of fast repair techniques targeting aging-related hard-faults. Under harsh environments, SMART is shown to improve system availability from 36.02% with lengthy repair techniques to 98.84% with fast ones. This value increases to five nines (99.9998%) under relatively more favorable conditions. Lastly, SMART is compared to twenty eight standard TMR benchmarks that are generated by the widely-accepted BL-TMR tools. Results show that in seven out of nine use cases, SMART is the recommended technique, with power savings ranging from 22% to 29%, and area savings ranging from 17% to 24%, while still maintaining the same level of availability

Synthesis of substituted phenylene-ethynylene- based conjugated rods

A series of -substituted-4-(4-trimethylsilanylethynyl-phenylethynyl)benzenes (4a-e) have been prepared via Pd(^1’")/Cu(^1)-catalysed cross-coupling of 1-iodo- or bromo-p-substituted benzenes with l-(trimethylsilylethynyl)-4-ethynyl benzene (3). Deprotection by removal of the TMS from compounds (4a-e) was used to obtain p-ethynyl tolans with different functional groups (5a-e) at the other para position. A number of new symmetrical conjugated diynes (6a-e) were formed by homocoupling of the terminal alkynes (5a-e).A Harnett plot λ(_masx) (Abs) versus Hammet constants Cp for compounds (4a-e), (5a-e) and (6a-e) showed that both donors and acceptors red shift absorption. Also, diynes have been synthesised from esters containing a long chain aliphatic group to improve solubility. Thus, 4-bromobenzoic acid was reacted with octan-1-ої to obtain 4- bromobenzoic acid octyl ester, 7, which has a Cg chain and a Br group in the preposition for subsequent coupling reactions. Then compound 7 was used in two pathways. In path A, compound 7 was coupled with TMSA to obtain the protected alkyne, 8. Then the TMS protecting group was removed under mild condition to give the terminal alkyne, 9, which was oxidatively homocoupled to give diyne, 10.In path B， compound 7 was coupled with compound 3 to give 4-(4- trimethylsilanylethynylphenylethynyl) benzoic acid octyl ester, 11. The next step was deprotection of 11 to form the terminal alkyne 12. Lastly, 2 equivalents of compound 12 was oxidatively homqcoupled to give 4,4'-bis-(4"-carbooctyloxylphenylethynyl)diphenylbuta-1,3-diyne, 13

Virtual Screening of Phytochemicals for Cancer Therapy

Cancer is one of the leading cause of deaths in the world. Vast majority of contemporary cancer therapies have side effects. Dietary plants and plant-based products have been shown to reduce the severity of the condition with minimal or no side effects. However, the precise molecular interactions that lead to this are largely unknown. In this study, several target proteins in cancer pathways were chosen and a collection of chemical derived from plants, or phytochemicals, were virtually screened in silico using molecular docking techniques. Furthermore, the docking modes were subjected to extended molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The pharmacokinetic properties of these phytochemicals were also checked using in silico prediction techniques. A short list of phytochemicals were identified, including ellagic acid, macrocarpal A, epigallocatechin gallate and quercetin, which appeared to bind to the protein Rab5A, a GTPase involved in intracellular membrane trafficking. MD simulations also produced stable interactions between the protein and the ligands. These molecules also showed an acceptable drug score and could therefore be subjected to further validation