Earnings persistence, value relevance, and earnings timeliness: The Case of Thailand

This research aims to investigate the enhancement of accounting quality in Thailand after adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in its domestic accounting system. The accounting quality consists of three properties of earnings– earnings persistence, value relevance and earnings timeliness. This research examines the improvement of accounting quality after the IFRS adoption in Thailand by expanding the conditioning institutional factor to include the magnitude of book-tax differences. In addition, the relationship between the Thai accounting quality and firm governance systems is investigated. The results reveal that the accounting quality, including earnings persistence and value relevance, has been improved after the IFRS adoption in Thailand. The earnings timeliness is observed in Thai firms, but it has been declined after the IFRS adoption. The results also indicate that the improvement of accounting quality after the IFRS adoption in Thailand is varied according to the magnitude of book-tax differences. This research finds that the firm governance system is related to the improvement of accounting quality in Thai settings. This research concludes that the adoption of IFRS has generally improved accounting quality in Thailand. The book-tax difference contains significant information about accounting quality in Thai settings. And, the firm governance system plays an important role in accounting quality after the IFRS adoption in Thailand

Strength-Based Operations as Organization Development Intervention (SBO-ODI) on Enhancing Teacher Commitment, Engagement, and Performance: A Case Study of Assumption College Ubon Ratchathani (ACU)

AbstractIn the 21th century, four aspects in the era of globalization: complexity, change, competition, and connectivity, has impacted people's livings. To remain competitive the organization needs to design working environments with strong continuous-learning process to enhance commitment and engagement of the employees for better performance. Strength-Based Operation as Organization Development Intervention (SBO-ODI) was designed as a strategic intervention to support the working capabilities of the teaching and supporting staff at Assumption College Ubon Ratchathani, and was constructed based on the notions of worker strengths and right conditions as the foundation driving effective performance and success of work. The intervention was run under the core aspects of Action Research, and together with the framework of cross-functional team working, Appreciative Inquiry (A.I.) approach, Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results (SOAR) approach, positive coaching, and strength-based projects. The overall objectives of the study was to implement and to investigate the effects of the SBO-ODI method on the enhancement of ACU teaching and supporting staffs' commitment, engagement, and performances. The results from the questionnaires and observations revealed that the commitment, engagement, and performances of the ACU staffs were increased through the intervention. The participants expressed obviously in both understandings of goals in working and actions in conveying the project activities. There was a significant improvement in the participants' commitment, engagement, and performances at the level of 0.000* (p<.05), and the SBO-ODI intervention, finally, yielded the new model supposed to be assertive approach for working achievement of an organization.Key words: strength-based operations (SBO), organization development intervention (ODI), strength-based projects, commitment, engagement, performance

Multiobjective Optimization Models for Distributing Biosolids to Reuse Fields

The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DCWASA) operates the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant located in Washington, DC. It serves more than two million Washington Metro Area customers, and treats more than 330 million gallons a day of raw sewage from area jurisdictions, including Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland, and Fairfax and Loudoun Counties in Virginia. Each day, DCWASA produces approximately 1,200 tons of biosolids or byproducts of wastewater that have been treated to reduce pathogens and can be used as fertilizer for agricultural purposes. These generated biosolids require removal from the treatment facility and distribution to reuse fields located in Maryland and Virginia. In spite of the benefits of reuse, biosolids are generally considered by many as potentially malodorous. Recently, DCWASA has received complaints from the surrounding communities and needed to minimize biosolids odors. However, trying to minimize biosolids odors could result in costly treatment processes. Therefore, one needs to determine how to minimize the odors while at the same time minimizing the treatment costs. This compromise of balancing the competing objectives of odors and costs results in a two-objective or more generally, multiobjective optimization problem. In this dissertation, we develop multiobjective optimization models to simultaneously minimize biosolids odors as well as wastewater treatment process and biosolids distribution costs. A weighting method and constraint method were employed to find tradeoff, so called Pareto optimal, points between costs and odors. Schur's decomposition and special order set type two variables were used to approximate the product of two decision variables. A Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition technique was successfully applied to break apart and solve a large optimization model encountered in this dissertation. Using the Blue Plains advanced wastewater treatment plant as a case study, we find several Pareto optimal points between costs and odors where different treatments (e.g., lime addition) and biosolids distribution (e.g., to what reuse fields biosolids should be applied) strategies should be employed. In addition, to hedge the risk of equipment failures as well as for historical reasons, an on-site dewatering contractor has also been incorporated into the model. The optimal solutions indicate different uses of the contractor (e.g., percent flow assigned) when dewatering cost employed by DCWASA varies. This model can be used proactively by any typical advanced wastewater treatment plants to produce the least malodorous biosolids at minimal costs and to our knowledge, this is the first instance of such a model

Comparison of Preschoolers' Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior While Viewing Sesame Street and Pink Panther

Mass Communicatio

Isolation of linobiflavonoid, a novel biflavonoid from Linostoma pauciflorum Griff

A novel biflavonoid, that we have named linobiflavonoid, and the known biscoumarin ether, daphnoretin, were isolated from the root extracts of Linostoma pauciflorum Griff. The structure of linobiflavonoid was determined from interpretation of its NMR spectroscopic data and from a comparison of this data with those of known biflavonoids and biflavones. The known flavones, 5,4\u27-dihydroxy- 7,3\u27,5\u27-trimethoxyflavone and 5,4\u27-dihydroxy-7-methoxyflavone along with stigmasterol were isolated from the vines of the same plant. 4\u27-Dihydroxy-7,3\u27-5\u27-trimethoxyflavone was active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MIC 3.13 mu M) and KB-oral cavity cancer (IC50 17.41 mu M). (C) 2011 Phytochemical Society of Europe. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Design-for-debug: A vital aspect in education

Paper presented at 2007 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, ICASSP '07, Honolulu, HI.We often assume that debugging is a skill that comes with common sense. However, we have observed that many students do not have an inherent aptitude for debugging. Hands-on projects teaching the engineering design process can become troublesome for some students who cannot complete their projects and consequently fail their courses. In this paper, we advocate the importance of teaching debugging skills throughout digital design courses, especially during the introductory courses. We present teaching techniques in developing the skills for debugging for both introductory and advanced digital design courses. These techniques include emphasis on incremental design stages, test stimuli and observation techniques, and debugging using critical (divergent and convergent) thinking

Jacobi load flow accelerator using FPGA

Paper presented at the 37th Annual North American Power Symposium, Ames, IA.Full-AC load flow is a crucial task in power system analysis. Solving full-AC load flow utilizes iterative numerical methods such as Jacobi, Gauss-Seidel or Newton- Raphson. Newton-Raphson is currently the preferred solver used in industrial applications such as Power World and PSS/E due to it faster convergence than either Jacobi or Gauss-Seidel. In this paper, we reexamine the Jacobi method for use in a fully pipelined hardware implementation using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) as an alternative to Newton-Raphson. Using benchmark data from representative power systems, we compare the operation counts of Newton-Raphson software to the proposed Jacobi FPGA hardware. Our studies show that Jacobi method implemented in an FPGA for a sufficiently large power system has the potential to be a state of the art full-AC load flow engine

พารามิเตอร์ทางเภสัชจลนศาสตร์ของวอริโคนาโซลแบ่งตามฟีโนไทป์ของ CYP2C19 Voriconazole Pharmacokinetic Parameters Based on CYP2C19 Phenotype

บทคัดย่อ วัตถุประสงค์: เพื่อหาค่าพารามิเตอร์ทางเภสัชจลนศาสตร์ของวอริโคนาโซลซึ่งจะนำไปสู่ขนาดวอริโคนาโซลที่เหมาะสมโดยแบ่งตามฟีโนไทป์ของ CYP2C19 เพื่อให้ได้ระดับยาต่ำสุดในเลือดอยู่ในช่วงการรักษาที่ 1-5 มก./ลิตร วิธีการศึกษา: การวิจัยเชิงสำรวจโดยการเก็บข้อมูลย้อนหลังจากเวชระเบียนของผู้ปวยผู้ใหญ่ที่ได้รับการรักษาด้วยวอริโคนาโซลระหว่างเดือนมกราคม 2555 ถึงมีนาคม 2559 ณ โรงพยาบาลรามาธิบดี ข้อมูลดังกล่าว ได้แก่ อายุ เพศ น้ำหนัก จีโนไทป์และฟีโนไทป์ของ CYP2C19 แบบแผนการให้ยาวอริโคนาโซลและระดับยาต่ำสุดในเลือด แล้วคำนวณค่าพารามิเตอร์ทางเภสัชจลนศาสตร์ของวอริโคนาโซลโดยใช้สมการ Michaelis-Menten จากนั้นคำนวณขนาดวอริโคนาโซลเพื่อให้ระดับยาอยู่ในช่วงการรักษาแบ่งตามฟีโนไทป์ของ 2C19 ผลการศึกษา:จากผู้ป่วยทั้งหมด 53 ราย เป็นเพศชาย 29 ราย (54.7%) อายุและน้ำหนักเฉลี่ย 52.98 ปี และ 57.97 กิโลกรัม ตามลำดับ ค่ามัธยฐานของค่าคงที่ Michaelis-Menten (Km) สำหรับผู้ที่มีฟีโนไทป์ของ CYP2C19 แบบ extensive metabolizer (EM) และ แบบ non-extensive metabolizer (non-EM) เท่ากับ 0.262 มก./ลิตร และ 0.666 มก./ลิตร ตามลำดับ (P-value = 0.008) ค่ามัธยฐานของอัตราการเมทาบอลิสมยาสูงสุด (Vmax) สำหรับ EM และ non-EM เท่ากับ 0.425 มก./กก./ชม. และ 0.483 มก./กก./ชม. ตามลำดับ (P-value = 0.262) ขนาดวอริโคนาโซลที่แนะนำเพื่อให้ได้ระดับยาต่ำสุดในเลือดอยู่ในช่วง 1 - 5 มก./ลิตร เท่ากับ 8.9 - 10.7 มก./กก./วัน และ 6.7 - 9.9 มก./กก./วัน สำหรับ EM และ non-EM ตามลำดับ และเพื่อให้สะดวกในทางปฏิบัติ ขนาดวอริโคนาโซลที่แนะนำสำหรับ EM และ non-EM เท่ากับ 10 มก./กก./วัน และ 8.5 มก./กก./วัน ตามลำดับ เพื่อให้ได้ระดับยาต่ำสุดในเลือดประมาณ 2 มก./ลิตร สรุป: การศึกษานี้ให้ข้อมูล Km,Vmax และขนาดยาวอริโคนาโซลสำหรับผู้ป่วยผู้ใหญ่ไทยแบ่งตามฟีโนไทป์ของ CYP2C19 แต่จากค่า Km และ Vmax ที่มีความแปรปรวนค่อนข้างมากพิจารณาจากช่วงที่กว้าง จึงยังไม่แนะนำให้ใช้ขนาดยาที่คำนวณได้จากการศึกษานี้จนกว่าจะได้ทดสอบความเหมาะสมของขนาดยาดังกล่าว การติดตามตรวจวัดระดับยาในเลือดจึงยังจำเป็น คำสำคัญ: วอริโคนาโซล, ฟีโนไทป์ของ CYP2C19, เภสัชจลนศาสตร์แบบไม่เป็นเส้นตรง, ขนาดยาแนะนำ AbstractObjective: To determine pharmacokinetic parameters of voriconazole (VRZ) that will lead to finding appropriate VRZ dose to maintain trough concentration (Ctr) within target therapeutic range of 1-5 mg/L based on CYP2C19 phenotype. Methods: The medical records of adult patients who received VRZ treatment between January 2012 and March 2016 at Ramathibodi Hospital were retrospectively reviewed. Patient’s data including gender, age, body weight, CYP2C19 genotype and phenotype, VRZ dosing regimen, and VRZ Ctr were collected. The pharmacokinetic parameters of VRZ were calculated using conventional nonlinear pharmacokinetic study, i.e., Michaelis-Menten equation. Proper dose for keeping VRZ Ctr within therapeutic range were then determined for each CYP2C19 phenotype. Results: A total of 53 patients were included into this study. Twenty-nine (54.7%) were male with mean age and body weight of 52.98 yrs and 57.97 kg, respectively. Median Michaelis-Menten constant (Km) for CYP2C19 extensive metabolizers (EM) and non-extensive metabolizers (non-EM) were 0.262 mg/L and 0.666 mg/L, respectively (P-value = 0.008). Median maximum rate of metabolism (Vmax) for EM and non-EM were 0.425 mg/kg/h and 0.483 mg/kg/h, respectively (P-value = 0.262). The doses to achieve therapeutic Ctr (1 - 5 mg/L) were 8.9 - 10.7 mg/kg/day and 6.7 - 9.9 mg/kg/day for EM and non-EM, respectively. For more applicable in real world practice, the rounded dose of 10 mg/kg/day and 8.5 mg/kg/day for EM and non-EM, respectively, were recommended to provide VRZ Ctr around 2 mg/L. Conclusion: This present study provided Michaelis-Menten constant (Km and Vmax) of VRZ for Thai adult patients and the dose recommendation for this patient group based on CYP2C19 phenotype. The Km and Vmax of VRZ in this study show high variability judged from their wide range, therefore our recommended doses still cannot be used in practice unless its appropriate would be validated. Therapeutic drug monitoring of VRZ is still warranted. Keywords: voriconazole, CYP2C19 phenotype, nonlinear pharmacokinetic, dose recommendation

8-O-Acetyl-8-epi-9-de­oxygoniopypyrone

The title compound (systematic name: 7-oxo-3-phenyl-2,6-dioxabicyclo­[3.3.1]nonan-4-yl acetate), C15H16O5, is a styryllactone derivative which was isolated from Goniothalamus macrophyllus. The mol­ecule has two fused rings consisting of a tetra­hydro-2H-pyran and a lactone ring, with the benzene ring and the acetyl group attached to the tetra­hydro-2H-pyran ring. The tetra­hydro-2H-pyran ring is in a standard chair conformation, whereas the lactone ring is in an envelope conformation. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by weak C—H⋯O inter­actions into sheets parallel to the ac plane. Weak C—H⋯π inter­actions are also observed