The Study of the Effect of the Board of Directors’ Independency on the Relationship between Information Asymmetry and Financial Reporting Quality of the Companies Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of board of directors’ independency on the relationship between information asymmetry and financial reporting quality of the companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. To test the research hypotheses, the data of 135 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during a ten- year-period (2004-2013) were analyzed using combinational data method and Eviews 6. The results indicate a negative significant relationship between board of directors’ independency and financial reporting quality and a positive significant relationship between board of directors’ independency and information asymmetry. That is, as board of directors’ independence increases, board efficiency increases too and the level of information asymmetry decreases afterward; besides, decreases in information asymmetry lead to increase in financial reporting quality. Moreover, the results show that board of directors’ independency affects the relationship between information asymmetry and financial reporting quality. In other words, it can be considered that board of directors’ independency is a moderating factor in the relationship between information asymmetry and financial reporting quality

Economic-Based Synchronization and Control of New Fractional-Order Chaotic System Based on Lyapunov Theorem

The chaotic systems play a critical role in a wide range of communication systems, form both economical and technical. Recently, a new fractional-order chaotic system was proposed and dynamical analysis was investigated. Here, we focus on synchronization of the drive and response systems, which can have significant impact on the economic side of the problem. Furthermore, stability of mentioned system is discussed based on Lyapunov theorem. It is shown that Lyapunov theorem can be extended to the systems which have terms with orders higher than 2. Numerical simulations prove our claims from the objective evaluation

Economic Operation of Self-Sustained Microgrid Optimal Operation by Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Decomposition

This paper focuses on the optimal operation of the islanded microgrid. A novel heuristic method known as the Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Decomposition is presented to search for the optimal solution with a fast response. The efficiency of the method is tested on the IEEE 33 bus test network

Consequences of Lethal-Whole-Body Gamma Radiation and Possible Ameliorative Role of Melatonin

Gamma radiation induces the generation of free radicals, leading to serious cellular damages in biological systems. Radioprotectors act as prophylactic agents that are administered to shield normal cells and tissues from the deleterious effects of radiation. Melatonin synergistically acts as an immune-stimulator and antioxidant. We investigated the possible radioprotective role of melatonin (100 mg/kg i.p.) against lethal-whole-body radiation-(10 Gy) induced sickness, body weight loss, and mortality in rats. Results of the present study suggest that exposure to lethal-whole-body radiation incurred mortality, body weight loss, and apoptosis and it also depleted the immunity and the antioxidant status of the rats. Our results show that melatonin pretreatment provides protection against radiation induced mortality, oxidative stress, and immune-suppression. The melatonin pretreated irradiated rats showed less change in body weight as compared to radiation only group. On the other hand, melatonin appeared to have another radioprotective role, suggesting that melatonin may reduce apoptosis through a caspase-3-mediated pathway by blocking caspase-3 activity

The role of metalloproteinase and hypoxia conditions in endometrial cells and embryo implantation

In the process of implantation, metalloproteinase enzymes play a key role in basement membrane degradation and endometrial extracellular matrix. The activity of these enzymes is impeded by binding Tissue Inhibitors of Metalloproteinase (TIMP). The oxygen concentration in the mammalian uterus at the time of implantation is about 2-5%. It is seen that the imposition of hypoxia on cancer cells increases the expression of metalloproteinase enzymes and reduces the expression of metalloproteinase inhibitors, resulting in increased cell invasion. To know the effect of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor (HIF) and other related factors, we decided to evaluate hypoxic conditions on endometrial epithelial cells of the uterus and roll of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) on angiogenesis and invasion of the embryo during implantation. In this study, human and mouse endometrial epithelial cells were incubated for 24-48 hours in hypoxic conditions. Subsequently, the expression level of TIMP-1 was measured in mouse and human epithelial cells by Real-Time PCR technique. The cell viability in hypoxic conditions was evaluated by MTT assay. Our results demonstrated that hypoxia reduced the quantitative gene expression of TIMP-1 in the human and mouse endometrial epithelial cells compared to the control group. It can be concluded that applying hypoxic conditions by reducing the TIMP-1 expression and consequently increasing MMP expression, may improve the embryo implantation rate

Does increased Nitric Oxide production and oxidative stress due to high fat diet affect cardiac function after myocardial infarction?

Background &Objectives: High fat (HF) diet by affecting the oxidative stress and nitric oxide (NO) production may lead to different effects on function of the heart after myocardial infarction (MI). In the present study we aimed to address the hypothesis that high release of NO by activated macrophages affects LV function after MI.Methods: The animals were randomly divided into four groups comprising each of 10 rats: 1) Sham; 2) MI; 3) Sham+ HF diet; 4) MI+ HF diet. Animals fed with HF diet 30 days before sham and MI surgery. MI was induced by permanent ligation of left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD). Nitric oxide (NO) production of peritoneal macrophages, the concentrations of MDA in the heart and the infarct size were measured.Results: Our study indicated that HF has adverse effects on myocardium and it may increase NO production as well as oxidative stress, resulting in augmentation of infarct size.Conclusion: Our results add to our knowledge that HF diet was associated with overproduction of NO by peritoneal macrophages and ROS that lead to development of infarct size and adverse remodeling

PEPSI: Practically Efficient Private Set Intersection in the Unbalanced Setting

Two parties with private data sets can find shared elements using a Private Set Intersection (PSI) protocol without revealing any information beyond the intersection. Circuit PSI protocols privately compute an arbitrary function of the intersection - such as its cardinality, and are often employed in an unbalanced setting where one party has more data than the other. Existing protocols are either computationally inefficient or require extensive server-client communication on the order of the larger set. We introduce Practically Efficient PSI or PEPSI, a non-interactive solution where only the client sends its encrypted data. PEPSI can process an intersection of 1024 client items with a million server items in under a second, using less than 5 MB of communication. Our work is over 4 orders of magnitude faster than an existing non-interactive circuit PSI protocol and requires only 10% of the communication. It is also up to 20 times faster than the work of Ion et al., which computes a limited set of functions and has communication costs proportional to the larger set. Our work is the first to demonstrate that non-interactive circuit PSI can be practically applied in an unbalanced setting

A machine learning based exploration of COVID-19 mortality risk

Early prediction of patient mortality risks during a pandemic can decrease mortality by assuring efficient resource allocation and treatment planning. This study aimed to develop and compare prognosis prediction machine learning models based on invasive laboratory and noninvasive clinical and demographic data from patients’ day of admission. Three Support Vector Machine (SVM) models were developed and compared using invasive, noninvasive, and both groups. The results suggested that non-invasive features could provide mortality predictions that are similar to the invasive and roughly on par with the joint model. Feature inspection results from SVM-RFE and sparsity analysis displayed that, compared with the invasive model, the non-invasive model can provide better performances with a fewer number of features, pointing to the presence of high predictive information contents in several non-invasive features, including SPO2, age, and cardiovascular disorders. Furthermore, while the invasive model was able to provide better mortality predictions for the imminent future, non-invasive features displayed better performance for more distant expiration intervals. Early mortality prediction using non-invasive models can give us insights as to where and with whom to intervene. Combined with novel technologies, such as wireless wearable devices, these models can create powerful frameworks for various medical assignments and patient triage