Earnings management, agency costs and corporate governance : evidence from Egypt

The main purpose of this study is to provide further insights into the potential influence of a number of internal and external governance mechanisms in constraining earnings management and determining the agency costs level. In addition, this study attempts to enhance the understanding of a number of issues relating to ownership structure and corporate governance in an emerging country setting. The international corporate collapse and accounting scandals surrounding some prominent large companies (e.g. Enron, Xerox, World.com, HealthSouth, Tyco, Waste management, RiteAid and Subeam) raised concern about the effectiveness of different monitoring devices that protect investors‘ interests. The majority of failures have resulted, in part, from accounting manipulation and dereliction of efficient corporate governance mechanisms that control opportunistic behaviour of management. This study argues that agency conflicts within a firm are considered to be among the influential sources of earnings management activities. In emerging countries with highly concentrated ownership, the prevalence of agency conflicts is more likely to lie mainly between controlling and minority shareholders rather than between managers and outside shareholders. Such conflicts, combined with the weak legal protection of minority shareholders and the flexibility inherent in accounting choices, are likely to induce managers to manipulate the reported earnings and adopt a range of activities that might be contrary to minority stockholders‘ interests. Using an original data set for a sample of Egyptian listed firms, the findings of the empirical analyses are in agreement with this argument. It is shown that corporate governance mechanisms do not work in isolation but they interact to effectively curb earnings management and alleviate different agency conflicts. It is also shown that firm-specific characteristics (e.g., growth opportunities) play a crucial role in understanding the conditional role of such mechanisms and other governance mechanisms, such as dividends and short debt, may help resolve corporate agency problems

THE CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABLE HISTORICAL CENTERS: THE CASE OF ROSETTE, EGYPT

Historical centers of many Egyptian cities managed to survive as living cities in spite of physical decline and economic depression. Their fabric carries out the spiritual and cultural messages that communicate with their present citizens. The heritage of these historic city centers are not only Material character, but much more. Generally, the conservation of historic centers is fundamentally different from conservation of single monument. While a single monument can be kept on a chosen state of evolution, the historic centers cannot be preserved in particular state \u201cwith exception of the small areas conserved for tourist purposes\u201d. The historic centers, as living cities must meet the varying needs of citizens with sustainable transformations. The challenge is not how to preserve, but how to create dynamic living spaces and places that produce rich in cultural traditions that lead organically from the past to the future. The research will study and analyze the historical center of \u201cRosetta\u201d, which is one of the intermediate cities in northern Egypt that has a particular architectural heritage and many urban problems. The city of Rosetta (Rashid in Arabic) is located on the west bank of the Rosetta branch of the Nile, approximately 65km east of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. Today it is best known for the Rosetta stone, which was discovered in the Qayitbay castle in 1799. The city history passed over many periods of increase and decrease in its importance due to economical and political reasons. Its architectural heritage reveals the influence of various ages, but the most unique are merchant houses and mosques from the ottoman period. The city also has a particular suburban landscape of agricultural land and palm groves that are of great importance. Although Rosetta is no longer a leading commercial center, its citizens are employed in various typical activities, which are mainly agriculture, stocking and processing rice from the Delta, fishing and building ships and yachts. The main problem that faces the historic buildings of Rosetta is moisture from the soil, caused by an excess of underground salt water. The historic merchant houses have been the subject of many restoration projects over the past 20 years, but many of them have regularly been re-damaged by water and humidity and are currently under re-restoration. Unfortunately, some have even collapsed or were demolished. However, there are a number of activities that may take place in the historic buildings no longer used, maintaining the characteristics, such as crafts centers, libraries and cultural places that serve the local communities. Rosetta's historic center future must include renovation and modernization of basic infrastructure and development of traditional production sectors, based on the exploitation of this natural and cultural heritage to promote tourism locally and internationally. Physical restoration of the buildings is not enough to keep the historic center of the city alive, but a project for rehabilitation based on sustainability should be initiated. Not only to preserve and restore the outer shell, but inside the shell should insert some activities, social and economic dynamics that can make best use of resources and potential. The revitalization of Rosetta provides a mix of cultural, social, economic, technical and institutional that needs coordinated investments by the government. Must involve residents, landowners and all those have interest to ensure the careful maintenance and replacement of the elements of the built environment. This does not only depend on the availability of funding but also the specific technical and social skills that make up the traditional know-how. Unfortunately, many historical cities, especially the intermediate cities in Egypt suffer from lack of funds and local expertise. But the main problem is the lack of cooperation between the authorities who make the decisions

Potentiometric Determination of Ketotifen Fumarate in Pharmaceutical Preparations and Urine Using Carbon Paste and PVC Membrane Selective Electrodes

This study compares between unmodified carbon paste (CPE; the paste has no ion pair) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) membrane selective electrodes that were used in potentiometric determination of ketotifen fumarate (KTF), where sodium tetraphenylborate (NaTPB) was used as titrant. The performance characteristics of these sensors were evaluated according to IUPAC recommendations which reveal a fast, stable, and linear response for KTF over the concentration range of 10−7 to 10−2 mol L−1. The electrodes show Nernstian slope value of 52.51 ± 0.20 and 51.51 ± 0.25 mV decade−1 for CPE and PVC membrane electrodes at 30°C, respectively. The potential is nearly stable over the pH range 3.0–6.0 and 2.0–7.0 for CPE and PVC membrane electrodes, respectively. Selectivity coefficient values towards different inorganic cations, sugars, and amino acids reflect high selectivity of the prepared electrodes. The electrodes responses at different temperatures were also studied, and long operational lifetime of 12 and 5 weeks for CPE and PVC membrane electrodes, respectively, were found. These are used for determination of ketotifen fumarate using potentiometric titration, calibration, and standard addition methods in pure samples, its pharmaceutical preparations (Zaditen tablets), and biological fluid (urine). The direct potentiometric determination of KTF using the proposed sensors gave recoveries % of 98.97 ± 0.53 and 98.62 ± 0.74 with RSD 1.42 and 0.63% for CPE and PVC membrane selective electrodes, respectively. Validation of the method shows suitability of the proposed sensors for use in quality control assessment of KTF. The obtained results were in a good agreement with those obtained using the reported spectrophotometric method

The Burr X Exponentiated Weibull Model: Characterizations, Mathematical Properties and Applications to Failure and Survival Times Data

In this article, we introduce a new three-parameter lifetime model called the Burr X exponentiated Weibull model. The major justification for the practicality of the new lifetime model is based on the wider use of the exponentiated Weibull and Weibull models. We are motivated to propose this new lifetime model because it exhibits increasing, decreasing, bathtub, J shaped and constant hazard rates. The new lifetime model can be viewed as a mixture of the exponentiated Weibull distribution. It can also be viewed as a suitable model for fitting the right skewed, symmetric, left skewed and unimodal data. We provide a comprehensive account of some of its statistical properties. Some useful characterization results are presented. The maximum likelihood method is used to estimate the model parameters. We prove empirically the importance and flexibility of the new model in modeling two types of lifetime data. The proposed model is a better fit than the Poisson Topp Leone-Weibull, the Marshall Olkin extended-Weibull, gamma-Weibull , Kumaraswamy-Weibull , Weibull-Fréchet, beta-Weibull, transmuted modified-Weibull, Kumaraswamy transmuted- Weibull, modified beta-Weibull, Mcdonald-Weibull and transmuted exponentiated generalized-Weibull models so it is a good alternative to these models in modeling aircraft windshield data as well as the new lifetime model is much better than the Weibull-Weibull, odd Weibull- Weibull, Weibull Log-Weibull, the gamma exponentiated-exponential and exponential exponential-geometric models so it is a good alternative to these models in modeling the survival times of Guinea pigs. We hope that the new distribution will attract wider applications in reliability, engineering and other areas of research

Association of dopamine D4 receptor gene variants with autism

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heritable neurodevelopmental disorder with poorly understood and complex etiology. The central dopaminergic system is strongly implicated in ASD pathogenesis. Genes encoding various elements of this system have been linked to ASD. This study aimed to estimate the distribution frequency of dopamine D4 receptor-exon III repeat region polymorphic genotypes among Egyptian children with autism.Methods: This case-control study included 178 children with autism (mean age 4.46±1.72 years) (118 males and 60 females) and a normal control group (n=128) of matching age and gender. Assessments by DSMIV- TR criteria, Stanford-Binet intelligence scale and childhood autism rating scale (CARS) were done. Assay for DRD4 48 bp VNTR genotypes was performed on amplified DNA by RFLP-PCR.Results: The 4/4 allele had the highest frequency among both autistic (39.32%) and control children (62.5%), with no significant difference between them. The 7/7 allele had also a high frequency (33.7%) among autistic patients, which was significantly different (p˂0.05) from the control group (12.5%) Furthermore, 70% of the patients carrying the 7/7 allele had the lowest IQ scores (58.5±6.5).Conclusions: There is a strong evidence that the DRD4 7/7 allele might be a risk factor for autism.

Assessment of Thermal Comfort in Operating Rooms Using PMV-PPD Model

Operating rooms (ORs) are the most critical and expensive sector of healthcare facilities. The air conditioning system is designed to provide a well-controlled indoor air quality (IAQ). This design guarantees a perfect infection control and a good thermal comfort of patient and operating staff.This paper aims to analyze and evaluate indoor thermal comfort at different cases to assign the proper inlet air temperature to the OR. The predicted mean vote (PMV) and the predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) models in accordance with ISO 7730 were used for this study.Field measurements were first carried out in an OR at Kafr El-Sheikh educational hospital to get the thermal environment parameters. These parameters are required to determine the thermal comfort indices namely (PMV & PPD). Four different cases of supplied air temperature 17.5, 18.5, 19.5 and 20.5oC were studied and compared through 105 measuring points distributed in the operating room. The PMV and PPD indices were computed at each case for three groups of medical staff: surgeons (metabolic rate equal to 120 W/m2), nurses and surgeon\u27s assistants (100 W/m2), anesthetists (70 W/m2).The results revealed that inlet air temperature has a minor effect on the air velocities and airflow patterns inside the OR at the same air change rate. For the current ventilation system, it is difficult to create a very comfortable work conditions for all operating staff at the same time due to their different thermal requirements. It was concluded that a supplied air temperature of 18.5oC provides almost comfortable conditions for all surgical staff

Interaction Effects of Different Soil Moisture levels, Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Three Phosphate Levels on: II-Mineral ions, Protein and Amino Acids contents of Garden Cress (Lepidium sativum L.) plant

The contents of mineral ions, protein and amino acids in seeds of (Lepidium sativum L.) were determined in response to water stress (85, 55 and25% depletion of the available soil water), Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and three phosphate levels (control (without mycorrhiza and phosphorus), zero phosphorus + mycorrhiza (P0), 25% recommended phosphorus + mycorrhiza (P1), 50% recommended phosphorus + mycorrhiza (P2) and 100% recommended phosphorus + mycorrhiza (P3)). Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete blocks design with five replicates. The results revealed significant decrease in protein and mineral ions contents of L. sativum seeds with increasing water stress level. These changes were accompanied with an increment in proline and amino acids contents of L. sativum seeds. AMF inoculation clearly increased protein and mineral ions contents compared with non-AMF plants. Moreover, the composition of amino acids was changed by AMF inoculation, where their contents were mostly decreased specially after phosphate addition. It seems that the AMF symbiosis enhanced drought tolerance mechanisms of L. sativum plants

EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCES FOR THE PROMISING HERAPEUTIC ROLE OF VITIS VINIFERA SEED EXTRACT AGAINST NONALCOHOLIC STEATOHEPATITIS

Objective: The present study was planned to investigate the possible therapeutic effect of methanolic extract of Vitis vinifera seeds on high fat diet-induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in forty adult female Wistar rats.Methods: The animals were divided into four groups, (G1)was served as healthy control group and the other three groups received high fat diet for 32 weeks for induction of NASH were assigned as follow: (G2) in which the animals bearing NASH were left untreated, (G3) in which the animals bearing NASH were treated with Vitis vinifera seed extract in a dose of 0.28g/kg b. wt (GSH) and (G4) in which the animals bearing NASH were treated with Vitis vinifera seed extract in a dose of 0.14g/kg b. wt (GSL).Results: The results revealed significant increase in serum ALT activity, plasma glucose, insulin levels, serum resist in, NF-κB, TNF-α, HGF levels, hepatic TNF-α and HGF gene expression levels. While, serum albumin, adiponectin levels and hepatic adiponectin gene expression level were decreased significantly in NASH group. Conversely, treatment of NASH groups with GSH or GSL resulted in significant decrease in serum ALT activity, plasma glucose, insulin levels, serum resist in, NF-κB, TNF-α, HGF levels, hepatic TNF-α and HGF gene expression levels. However, serum albumin, adiponectin levels and hepatic adiponectin gene expression level were increased significantly as a consequence of treatment with GSH or GSL.Conclusions: The efficacy of Vitis vinifera extract against NASH might be attributed to its strong hepatoprotective potential and powerful anti-inflammatory activity in addition to its potent role in ameliorating insulin resistance indices.Â

Effect of extreme low and high temperatures on the almond moth, Ephestia cautella (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

he different immature stages of the almond moth, Ephestia cautella (Walker) were exposed to low temperature of -5ºC for different exposure times. Exposure of eggs to 240 to 360 minutes is sufficient to achieve 100% mortality for this stage. Exposed early larval instar to -5ºC for 180 minutes is sufficient to achieve 100% mortality. Exposure of the late larval instars to 300 and/or 360 minutes is effective to achieve a complete mortality for the late larval instars of the pest. The calculated LT50 and LT95 were 113.73 and 208.64 minutes. Exposure of pupae to 300 minutes or more is effective to get a complete mortality for the pupal stage. High temperatures of 45º, 50º, 55º and 60ºC were tested against egg, late larval instars and pupal stages of E. cautella. Mortality tended to be increased with the increasing of temperature and exposure time. Exposure time for more than one hour at 45ºC, 15 minutes at 50ºC and 10 minutes at 55ºC were more effective and led to more than 95% mortality for the egg stage of E. cautella. Exposure of the late larval instars for more than 97.22, 72.17, 17.65 minutes at 45, 50 and 55ºC is sufficient to achieve more than 95% mortality for the late larval instars as indicated by LT95 values. Exposing the pupae to 25 minutes at high temperatures of 50ºC and to 15 minutes at 55ºC is an effective to get complete mortality for the pupal stage. Thus exposure times for more than 90 minutes at high temperature of 45ºC; 33 minutes at 50ºC and/or 11.67 minutes at 55ºC were more effective to achieve more than 95% mortality of the pupal stage of E. cautella.

Reduced graphene oxide-multiwalled carbon nanotubes hybrid film with low Pt loading as counter electrode for improved photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells

In this work, the role of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with hyperbranched surfactant and its hybridisation with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) as counter electrode (CE) were investigated to determine the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). Sodium 1,4-is(neopentyloxy)-3-(neopentyloxycarbonyl)- 1,4-dioxobutane-2-sulphonate (TC14) surfactant was utilised as dispersing and stabilising agent in electrochemical exfoliation to synthesise graphene oxide (GO) as initial solution for rGO production prior to its further hybridisation and fabrication as thin film. A chemical reduction process utilising hydrazine hydrate was conducted to produce rGO due to the low temperature process and water-based GO solution. Subsequently, hybrid solution was prepared by mixing 1 wt% MWCNTs into the produced rGO solution. TC14-rGO and TC14-rGO_MWCNTs hybrid solution were transferred into fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate to fabricate thin film by spraying deposition method. Finally, the CE films were prepared by coating with thin Pt NPs. Photoanode film was prepared by a two-step process: hydrothermal growth method to synthesise titanium dioxide nanowires (TiO2 NWs) and subsequent squeegee method to apply TiO2 NPs. According to solar simulator measurement, the highest energy conversion efficiency (η) was achieved by using CE-based TC14-rGO_MWCNTs/Pt (1.553%), with the highest short current density of 4.424 mA/cm2. The highest η was due to the high conductivity of CE hybrid film and the morphology of fabricated TiO2 NWs/TiO2 NPs. Consequently, the dye adsorption was high, and the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs was increased. This result also showed that rGO and rGO_MWCNTs hybrid can be used as considerable potential candidate materials to replace Pt gradually