Rationality, traditionalism and the state of corporate governance mechanisms: illustrations from a less developed country

Purpose ? The purpose of this research is to provide an account of corporate governance practices in Bangladesh. This paper demonstrates that the traditionalist culture mediates the rationalist/legalist framework of corporate governance in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach ? A series of semi-structured interviews were conducted. Observations and the personal working experience of one of the researchers, along with documentation, provided rich sources of information for the paper. Findings ? The findings show that families have a dominant presence in all aspects of corporate governance. Boards of directors in companies play a significant part in serving the interests of families rather than those of general shareholders. Research limitations/implications ? This study focuses on corporate governance practices in a traditional setting and shows how traditional culture and values are in conflict with the rational ideas imported from a different setting. It suggests that the World Bank?s expectations that Anglo-American models of corporate governance will be effective in Bangladesh and possibly other LDCs are unfounded. Originality/value ? The paper adds to the literature on corporate governance, especially in the context of LDCs. It will be of great value to researchers and practitioners seeking to gain a better understanding of corporate governance frameworks in various settings

Understanding Management Accounting Changes in a Family-Owned Company: A Greek Case Study

This study seeks to understand the changes to management accounting controls in a large Greek company in the context of the rapidly changing socio-economic environment. The paper investigates the case of FA (here anonymised), a Greek dairy company, as it has been transformed from a small family-run firm to one of the biggest companies in Greece. Familial and informal management controls have been transformed into a relatively formal and professional form of control over the years. The dynamics and nature of management accounting changes are understood by drawing on critical realism, a theoretical framework pioneered by Roy Bhaskar (1975, 1979). Our analysis revealed that a changed wider structural environment, changed control needs of owners and ?politics of control within capital? between competing management positions (Armstrong, 1989) precipitated the changes in the management control practices of the organization

Seipin oligomers can interact directly with AGPAT2 and lipin 1, physically scaffolding critical regulators of adipogenesis

This work was supported by a Merit Scholarship from the Islamic Development Bank (to M.M.U.T.), The Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore (A*STAR) (M.F.M.S), the Medical Research Council (MRC) [NIRG GO800203 and Research Grant MR/L002620/1 (to J.J.R.), Program GrantG09000554 (to S.O.R)], The Wellcome Trust [078986/Z/06/Z (to S.O.R.)], the MRC Centre for Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders (MRC-CORD) [GO600717] and the NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre [CG50826].Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Analysis of naturally occurring mutations in the human lipodystrophy protein seipin reveals multiple potential pathogenic mechanisms

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Seismic Evaluation and Remediation of Embankment Dam

The seismic stability of the Croton Dam left embankment, was evaluated for potential earthquake ground motions. Field and laboratory test results were used to characterize the static and dynamic properties of the embankment and foundation materials. Results showed liquefaction and strength loss in certain zones of the embankment resulting in large deformation of the slope. Remediation of these areas of the dam was necessary. Various techniques were evaluated including drainage, construction of a berm at toe, vibro-grouted stone columns and compaction grouting. Compaction grouting was selected

Prevalence and Demographic, Socioeconomic, and Behavioral Risk Factors of Self-Reported Symptoms of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) among Ever-Married Women: Evidence from Nationally Representative Surveys in Bangladesh

Sexually transmitted infections (STI) symptoms (e.g., abnormal genital discharge and genital sores/ulcers) are a major public health concern in Bangladesh because the symptoms can indicate an STI and cause sexual and reproductive health complications in women of reproductive age. To our knowledge, no study examined the prevalence and risk factors of STI symptoms using a nationally representative sample. This study investigates the prevalence of STI symptoms among ever-married women in Bangladesh and the associations of STI symptoms with various demographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral risk factors using the most recent available data (2007, 2011, and 2014) of the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (BDHS). The BDHS employs a two-stage stratified sampling technique. The analytic sample comprised 41,777 women of reproductive age (15–49 years). Outcome variables included STI symptoms: abnormal genital discharge and genital sores/ulcers. Multivariate logistic regression was employed to find the adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval to assess the associations of outcome measures with explanatory variables. The study found that the prevalence of abnormal genital discharge and genital sores/ulcers among ever-married women aged 15–49 years was 10% and 6%, respectively. Multi-variable analysis revealed that for women aged 25–34 years, those who used contraceptives and married earlier had an increased likelihood of STI symptoms. Furthermore, women from the wealthiest wealth quintile and couple’s joint decision-making were less likely to have STI symptoms. Findings have implications for interventions efforts aiming to improve women’s sexual and reproductive health in Bangladesh

Couple's concordance and discordance in household decision-making and married women's use of modern contraceptives in Bangladesh

© 2017 The Author(s). Background: Although a large body of studies documents that women's autonomy in the household is associated with better reproductive health outcomes, these studies typically examined autonomy only from women's point of view. The current study employs husband's and wife's perspectives together to examine the relationship between the decision-making arrangements in the household and the women's use of modern contraceptives in Bangladesh. Methods: The study used the couple dataset of 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. The sample was comprised of 3336 married couples. Binary logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between the selected items on household decision-making and the use of modern contraceptives. Results: Our results indicate that the couples disagree considerably as to who in the household exercises the decision-making power. The pattern of decision-making regarding visiting family and relatives emerged as an important predictor of use of modern contraceptives in the multivariate regression analysis. The results suggest that compared to the couple's concordant joint decision-making, the husband-only decision-making is associated with lower odds of contraceptives use (OR 0.49; 95% CI 0.28-0.85). Only a small part of this association is explained by spousal communication about family planning issues while the socio-demographic correlates hardly affected the association. On the contrary, the wife-only decision-making did not result in increased contraceptives use (OR 0.71; 95% CI 0.45-1.13). Conclusions: The study findings imply that women's greater autonomy may not necessarily result in improved reproductive health behavior, and therefore, a balance of power in the spousal relationship is warranted

Detection of brain functional-connectivity difference in post-stroke patients using group-level covariance modeling

Functional brain connectivity, as revealed through distant correlations in the signals measured by functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), is a promising source of biomarkers of brain pathologies. However, establishing and using diagnostic markers requires probabilistic inter-subject comparisons. Principled comparison of functional-connectivity structures is still a challenging issue. We give a new matrix-variate probabilistic model suitable for inter-subject comparison of functional connectivity matrices on the manifold of Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD) matrices. We show that this model leads to a new algorithm for principled comparison of connectivity coefficients between pairs of regions. We apply this model to comparing separately post-stroke patients to a group of healthy controls. We find neurologically-relevant connection differences and show that our model is more sensitive that the standard procedure. To the best of our knowledge, these results are the first report of functional connectivity differences between a single-patient and a group and thus establish an important step toward using functional connectivity as a diagnostic tool