Islamic Cultural Values among Malaysian Muslim Accountants and Their Influence on Corporate Social Accountability

This study investigates the influence of Islamic culture on corporate social accountability among Muslim accountants in Malaysia. Two independent variables are proposed namely collectivism and power distance. Multivariate analysis was employed to examine the relationship between variables in the framework and 40 respondents involve in this study. It is found that there is no relationship between collectivism and corporate social accountability. On other hand there is a significant positive relationship between power distance and corporate social accountability. In conclusion this study recommends the need to integrate Islamic values in accounting practice. Encouraging Islamic-driven accounting practice can improve financial disclosure and in turn decision making

The Role of Electronic Records Management in Promoting the Delivery of Justice in Tanzania: Perspectives from Dar es Salaam Commercial Court.

This article discusses the role of electronic records management in promoting the delivery of justice in Tanzania. It addresses the existing relationships between electronic records management and delivery of justice. Data were collected through semi-structured interview and supplemented by docomentary review methods. A sample of 55 respondents was randomly and purposively selected. The findings noted that there was a positive relationships between electronic records management and delivery of justice in the court. Moreover, it was revealed that electronic records management promoted fast retrieval of court records, enhanced fast and informed decision making, reduced unnecessary delays, among others. However, the findings further revealed that, the absence of effective electronic records management infrastructures affected the delivery of justice in the commercial court. The article also establishes that inadequacy storage facilities, staffing levels hindered delivery of justice in the court. The article recommends that the Dar es Salaam Commercial Court should urgently develop and implement a records management policy, seek top management support at the highest level possible, build the capacity of the records staff, and launch a records management sensitisation programme for the entire court staff. Keywords: Electronic records, records management, delivery of justice, commercial court

EFFECTS OF ROTARY INERTIA AND SHEAR DEFORMATION ON EXTENSIONAL VIBRATIONS OF CONTINUOUS CIRCULAR CURVED BEAMS

This dissertation is devoted to the dynamic analysis of continuous circular curved beams. The dynamic stiffness matrix is derived for the determination of natural frequencies of continuous curved beams undergoing in-plane vibrations. The formulation of stiffness matrix may be widely applied to problems with various consideration of Bernoulli-Euler Theory, Rayleigh Theory and Timoshenko Theory. Using this formulation for dynamic loading, the fixed-end moment, shear and thrusts for concentrated and distributed loads have been derived. Two continuous circular curved beams subjected to free and forced vibrations are given to illustrate the application of the proposed method and to show the effects of rotary inertia, shear deformation, axial deformation, frequency of the applied load and the central angle of the arc on the beams

Save and Transmit Scheme for Energy Harvesting MIMO Systems with TAS/MRC

In this paper, we propose and analyze a wirelesstransmitter, for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems,that relies exclusively on energy harvesting. We consider wirelesstransceivers where the transmitter harvests the total requiredenergy from its environment through various sources. We assumethat both transmitter and receiver are equipped with multipleantennas. At the transmitter, a single transmit antenna thatmaximizes the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver isselected for transmission. The remaining antennas are used forenergy harvesting. At the receiver side, maximal-ratio com-bining (MRC) is used. Furthermore, we assume that all theharvested power is used to power the transmitter immediately.The performance of the proposed scheme is analyzed in terms ofoutage probability (OP), symbol error rate (SER) and channelcapacity. The harvested energy comes from random sourcesand is considered as a random variable. Assuming that theharvested power follows a gamma distribution and the MIMOchannel is a Rayleigh flat fading process, we derive a closed-form expressions for the exact cumulative distribution function(CDF) and probability density function (PDF) of the SNR. Basedon this, we analyze the performance of the proposed energyharvesting scheme. The obtained analytical results are validatedby comparing them with the results of Monte-Carlo simulations

CURRENT PRACTICES OF COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS IN COUNSELING PATIENTS ON SMOKING CESSATION IN BEIRUT:A QUESTIONNAIRE – BASED STUDY

Despite various strategies and efforts exerted in the form of awareness campaigns, health conferences, targeted advertisements and laws, the prevalence of smoking is alarmingly increasing for both genders in Lebanon. Because of the ease of accessibility, community pharmacists are ideally positioned to help their patients quit smoking. The current study aims to assess the Lebanese pharmacists’ practices in counseling their patients on smoking cessation. A cross-sectional study targeting community pharmacists in Beirut was conducted during June 2017 to September 2017. The adopted questionnaire was designed based on the WHO approved 5A’s toolkit program for delivering brief tobacco interventions in primary care. Results were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences program (SPSS) version 20 and Mega Stat. Our results showed that, for most of the survey questions, the performance of fresh pharmacy graduates (having less than 5 years of practice experience) and senior pharmacists (having 6-10 years of practice experience) with regards to counseling patients on smoking cessation using was not statistically different compared to that of older pharmacists (having more than 10 years of practice experience). In a similar pattern to that obtained concerning the length of professional experience, the participating pharmacist in our study, irrespective to their graduating universities, displayed inconsistent practices during counselling their patients on smoking cessation. Interestingly, the presence of on-duty assistance to the participating pharmacists during their practice shift was shown to be significant (P\u3c 0.05 for all questions) in helping them provide their smoking patients proper counselling on smoking cessation. In conclusion, our study highlighted the discrepancy in the participating community pharmacists’ practices relevant to their ability to provide their smoking patients with appropriate smoking cessation services. In order to address the current situation, well-planned, structured interventions at both educational and professional levels should be made as a priority

An Application of Genetic Algorithms to Time-Cost-Quality Trade-off in Construction Industry

Time, cost and quality are used for measuring project success. So, they are considered the most important objectives in construction projects. Project managers should deliver their project on time with minimum cost and at a certain quality level. To get these conflicting objectives, project managers introduce many possible methods of execution (modes) for each activity in the project. This paper presents an optimization model that supports project managers and decision makers in performing this challenging task and leads to identification of the best solution. Developed model is based on Genetic Algorithms which have many advantages over traditional optimization techniques and considered suitable for more than one objective function. The developed Genetic Algorithms model considers target function, design variables affecting that target, and problem constraints. Through application to two projects, the model feasibility is examined. The results show that the proposed approach can help the practitioners in considering different modes for activities and easily find minimum cost for a certain project time meeting the quality requirements. The model can easily reach the best solution from huge number of solutions in reasonable running time. In addition, the results tell that the present method can be used in generating a group of optimal solutions. Key words: construction projects; time-cost-quality; trade-off; optimization; Genetic Algorithm

Constructing theory with big result now (BRN): Contribution of Tanzania to the theory of knowledge sharing behaviour

Purpose- This paper intends to discourse development of theory in the Tanzania context, based on potentiality of advancing of knowledge sharing theory globally.The aim of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework which essential for studying knowledge sharing behaviour which is critical significant for the organizational changes and national reforms as well for sustaining in tremendous competition.Moreover, the study established the needs to undergo investigation in order to illustrate the degree of performance of theory in the context of Tanzania, which will depict comparison with developed countries.Methodology- This paper reviewed the theory of planned behaviour and it portrayed TPB as underpinned theory for revising knowledge sharing in the context of Tanzania.Findings- The study revealed propositions which are fundamental in developing theory of planned behaviour for studying knowledge sharing in Tanzania context.Limitations of the study- this paper offers suggestions for proposition testing and direction for further studies in knowledge sharing behaviour.Implication of the study- the paper provides development of theory and practically, the research might provide insight for improving knowledge sharing practices in order to realise organizational development and national reforms(BRN) in the context of Tanzania.Value- This paper relies on theoretical approaches, particularly on advancement of theory of planned of behaviour under addition of the collectivist culture and interpersonal relation towards knowledge sharing behaviour in Tanzania

Development of scalable video compression algorithm

The technology based on scalable video coding appears as a new phenomenon. The use of internet needs a huge bandwidth and possesses extreme requirements in terms of jitter, latency and loss experiences by viewers. It is very crucial to have the idea of monochrome digital video data sequence which is a set of individual pictures called frames. This frame needs to be considered as a light intensity of two dimensions, x and y, where x and y denote spatial coordinates. It is proportional to the brightness of the frame or the gray level at the point for monochrome. The normal standard speed at which these frames are displayed is 30 frames per second. This representation is called canonical representative. However. canonical representation has negative impact because it needs very huge amounts of memory. Therefore, video needs to be compressed considerably for efficient storage and sharing over the web [1]