Commerce de Marbre et Remploi dans les Monuments de L’Ifriqiya Médiévale

Der Artikel untersucht das Phänomen der Wiederverwendung antiker Baumaterialien im mittelalterlichen Ifriqiya. Die historischen Chroniken und geographischen Texte heben oft die Bedeutung und den Umfang des Handels mit Marmor und anderen Materialien hervor, die den antiken Stätten entnommen wurden. Eine aufmerksame Untersuchung juristischer Texte lässt erkennen, dass sich die Rechtsgelehrten schon sehr früh mit der Frage beschäftigt haben, wie die geläufige und lukrative Praxis reguliert werden könnte. In archäologischer Hinsicht ist jedes wiederverwendete Objekt genau zu analysieren, um voreilige und irreführende Schlussfolgerungen zu vermeiden. Das wird anhand der Inschriften demonstriert, die im Mihrab der Großen Moschee von Kairouan bzw. in der al-Kasr-Moschee in Tunis gefunden worden sind

Relationship Financial Development and Economic Growth: An Empirical Test for MENA Countries

This paper examines the link between economic growth and the financial system. We discuss the effect of the financial development on growth in the MENA region, while trying to know how manifests this effect and under what conditions it would be positive. And this through i) building a financial development index ii) Estimate the relationship between financial development and economic growth based on a panel of MENA countries over the period 1990-2014. The results show that the positive contribution of financial development remains dependent on the stability of the financial system. The results also confirm theoretical suggestions that instability in financial development is detrimental to the positive effect of financial development on growth. However, it should be noted that the financial development effect depends to a large extent on the structural and cyclical specificities of each country. Moreover, the results do not make it possible to determine the structure of the financial system that is best suited to the economic growth of the countries studied, a structure that the national authorities of these countries should certainly promote for a faster convergence towards potential growth. Indeed, the reforms of the financial system must follow a comprehensive and cautious approach that requires a thorough study to clear the threshold from which financial development can boost economic growth. Keywords: Financial development, Economic growth, Panel Data, Middle East and North Africa Countrie

The effect of tax planning and corporate governance on tax disclosure in Malaysia

Tax authorities are still facing unresolved issues of a company‘s tax planning activities, whether they involve direct or indirect taxes. In Malaysia direct tax is the fundamental source of the government‘s income. The transformations in the tax systems and accounting standards have given companies opportunities to manage their tax affairs for the benefit of their shareholders. This study reports results of the relationship between tax disclosure and tax planning. At the same time it also considers corporate governance as a moderating influence. This study used a large sample of non-financial listed companies in Bursa Malaysia. To this end, the study used dataset of hand-gathered information from 286 company financial statements for the fiscal years 2010 to 2012. The results indicate that tax planning exhibits a strong positive relationship with tax disclosure, which is unconditional upon corporate governance. This relationship can be further explained as tax disclosure exhibits a significant positive association with the tax losses component of tax saving, but has a significant negative relationship with permanent differences component of tax saving and the temporary differences component of tax saving. This study contributes to the field of taxation in that it uses the ETR reconciliations to measure the level of tax disclosure in financial statements. Moreover, it contributes to the discussion of who verifies and benefits from tax disclosure conducted by companies. The findings of this study also contribute to the body of knowledge since there is a general dearth of published research that investigates these relationships, particularly in Malaysia

Voluntary Disclosure and Ownership Structure Among Saudi Arabia Companies

This paper examines the effect of corporate governance characteristics (ownership structure) on the extent of voluntary disclosure in the financial reports among non-financial listed companies in Saudi Arabia. Currently, there is a growth in demands by stakeholders for companies to demonstrate greater transparency on their performance. However, few studies have been conducted in Saudi Arabia on the area of voluntary disclosure. The present study aimed to evaluate the current level of voluntary disclosure (VODSC) and investigate the influence of the variables, ownership structure (managerial ownership, family member on the board and government ownership level) and control variables (size, leverage and return on assets) in relationship to the level of voluntary disclosure in 2009 among 89 non-financial companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange. The results suggest that the corporate governance-related variables influence the level of information disclosed, thus confirming the hypotheses. The results showed that the level of voluntary disclosure (VODSC) level was acceptable compared to other studies. With regard to the quality of disclosure, my results on the corporate governance characteristics (ownership structure) showed that all the variables were significant positively linked to the level of voluntary disclosure extent (VODSC). Moreover, my results on the control variables (size, leverage and return on assets) indicate that there is significantly positive association with the level of voluntary disclosure extent (VODSC). The results of this study might be of interest to regulators, investment analysts, and market participants and can help Saudi authorities to enforce new policies toward improving the quality of financial reporting

A comparative study of energy efficient routing strategies based on OLSR

Energy efficiency is a key issue in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. In order to maximize network lifetime, several directions have been explored, among them energy efficient routing. In this report, we show how to extend the standardized OLSR routing protocol, in order to make it energy efficient. To take into account residual node energy, the native selection of multipoint relays of OLSR is changed. Three selection algorithms based on the minimum residual energy are evaluated and the best one is chosen. The OLSR extension we propose, selects the path minimizing the energy consumed in the end-to-end transmission of a flow packet and avoids nodes with low residual energy. As it has been shown that two-path routing is energy efficient, we compare this extension with a two-path source routing strategy (with different links or different nodes). An extensive performance evaluation allows us to conclude that our proposal maximizes both network lifetime and the amount of data delivered

PID CONTROL OF ELECTRONIC THROTTLE FOR DRIVE BY WIRE APPLICATION

The importance of electronic throttle in modern automotive engines is obvious. The opening of the throttle blade has to be controlled. This final year project is an attempt to control the opening of the throttle blade to a certain position by tuning the parameters of PID controller. This is to eliminate the disturbances and make the electronic throttle perform more accurately. The purpose of this report is to give an overview on the method chosen to perform the control system analysis of electronic throttle for drive by wire applications. In addition, the report discusses the results obtained and the tuning procedures used to control the opening of the throttle blade. It also shows the initial steps taken in order to develop an electronic throttle control system for the project as well as representing the tools needed to develop the system based on the chosen method. A general review on PID controller and its parameters as well as the H-bridge driver and the procedure analysis is also given in this report

SERENA: an energy-efficient strategy to schedule nodes activity in wireless ad hoc and sensor networks

In wireless ad hoc and sensor networks, an analysis of the node energy consumption distribution shows that the largest part is due to the time spent in the idle state. This result is at the origin of SERENA, an algorithm to SchEdule RoutEr Nodes Activity. SERENA allows router nodes to sleep, while ensuring end-to-end communication in the wireless network. It is a localized and decentralized algorithm assigning time slots to nodes. Any node stays awake only during its slots and the slots assigned to its neighbors, it sleeps the remaining time. SERENA is based on distributed and localized two-hop coloring. The node's color is then mapped in time slot. Thus, each node is ensured to get at least one time slot, it also gets additional time slots proportionally to its traffic rate. Such a solution adapts to varying traffic rates and supports late node arrivals. A performance evaluation allows us to compare SERENA coloring algorithm with existing ones such as DLF, both in terms of number of colors and complexity. Simulation results show that SERENA enables us to maximize network lifetime while increasing the number of user messages delivered. We quantify the slot reuse and evaluate the impact of the frame size on network performance. We then study how to dimension buffers at the router nodes. Finally, we show how SERENA improves the node energy consumption distribution and maximizes the energy efficiency of wireless ad hoc and sensor networks

Determinants of Intellectual Capital Performance of GCC Listed Banks

This study examines the level of intellectual capital (IC) performance of listed banks in the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries using VAIC methodology and investigates the hypothesized impact of corporate governance variables (namely board diversity and ownership structure), bank specific characteristics (namely bank internationality, financial performance, bank adherence to Islamic Shariah principles, and bank risk), banking industry characteristics (namely banking industry concentration and presence of foreign banks) and macroeconomic environment on IC performance. In addition, this study determines the moderating role of the frequency of board meetings in the relationship between board diversity and IC performance. Multiple regression analyses are used to analyze the data. Hierarchical regression analysis is employed to examine if the frequency of board meetings moderates the relationship between board diversity and IC performance. The results of a survey of a sample of 128 GCC listed banks for the period 2008-2010, show that IC performance of GCC listed banks is low. Findings show that board interlocking, board size, representation of independent directors, family ownership, government ownership (when a government holds a majority of shares that is 51% or more), domestic strategic ownership, and domestic non-strategic ownership have significant relationships with IC performance. In addition, this study provides evidence that except for bank internationality, bank specific characteristics, banking industry characteristics, and macroeconomic environment play important roles in determining IC performance among GCC banks. Furthermore, the results generally do not support the study`s hypothesis that the impact of board diversity on IC performance is positive as the frequency of board meetings increases. The result of this study contributes to the body of knowledge in IC-related studies, particularly with regards to the determinants of IC performance. Findings provide some input to investors, managers, regulators and policymakers, as well as researchers in addressing the factors affecting IC performance

A Compact Dual Band Elliptical Microstrip Antenna for Ku/K Band Satellite Applications

This paper presents an original elliptical microstrip patch antenna is proposed for Ku/K band satellite applications. The proposed antenna has a simple structure, small size with dimensions of about 10×12×1.58 mm³. The antenna has been designed and simulated on an FR4 substrate with dielectric constant 4.4 and thickness of 1.58 mm. The design is simulated by two different electromagnetic solvers. The results from the measured data show that the antenna has two resonant frequencies that define 2 bandwidths, defined by a return loss of less than -10 dB, and are: (14.44 GHz, 829 MHz) and (21.05 GHz, 5126 MHz),with the gain 5.59 dB and 5.048 dB respectively. The proposed antenna can be used in many applications such as in satellite, and wireless communications

Effect Of Morinda Citrifolia (Linn.) On Phase 1 And II Drug Metabolism And Its Molecular Mechanism Elucidation In Rat Liver [QK495.R85 M214 2006 f rb].

Morinda citrofilia umumnya dikenali sebagai Noni dan orang tempatan menamakannya mengkudu adalah satu di antara tumbuhan ubat Polinesia yang sangat penting. Morinda citifolia (Noni) telah digunakan secara meluas dalam perubatan kampong oleh orang-orang Polinesia sejak lebih 2000 tahun dahulu. Ia dikatakan mempunyai kesan terapeutik yang meluas termasuk kegunaan antikanser dalam klinikal, dan terhadap haiwan makmal, dan juga bekesan sebagai agen antibakteria, antivirus, antikulat, antihelmin, analgesik, antihipotensif, antiinflamasi dan juga mempunyai kesan menguatkan sistem imun. Morinda citrifolia commonly known as Noni and locally known as mengkudu is one of the most important traditional Polynesian medicinal plants. Morinda citrifolia (Noni) has been used extensively in folk medicine by Polynesians for over 2,000 years. It has been reported to have broad therapeutic effects, including anticancer properties in clinical practice and in laboratory animal models and are effective as antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antihelminthics, analgesic, hypotensive, anti-inflammatory agents, and immune system enhancing effects. As the use of phytomedicine together with modern medications has become more popular nowadays, the possibilities of herbdrug interactions have increased