The relationship between firm characteristics and level of corporate social responsibility disclosure in Libyan banks

The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between bank characteristics which include bank size, ownership and profitability and level of corporate social responsibility disclosure in Libyan banks. This study employs the quantitative approach to examine the relationship between bank characteristics and the level of CSR disclosure in Libyan banks. This study found that firm's characteristics influence the level of CSR disclosure information. Bank size, ownership and profitability were found to be positively significant associated with the corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure. This study provides crucial information for the understanding the benefit of CSR disclosure in the annual report in Libyan banks and extends\ud the knowledge derived from previous studies in developing countries, especially Liby

The structure and innervation of tortoise muscle spindles

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Simplicity versus complexity in modelling groundwater recharge in Chalk catchments

Models of varying complexity are available to provide estimates of recharge in headwater Chalk catchments. Some measure of how estimates vary between different models can help guide the choice of model for a particular application. This paper compares recharge estimates derived from four models employing input data at varying spatial resolutions for a Chalk headwater catchment (River Pang, UK) over a four-year period (1992-1995) that includes a range of climatic conditions. One model was validated against river flow data to provide a measure of their relative performance. Each model gave similar total recharge for the crucial winter recharge period when evaporation is low. However, the simple models produced relatively lower estimates of the summer and early autumn recharge due to the way in which processes governing recharge especially evaporation and infiltration are represented. The relative uniformity of land use, soil types and rainfall across headwater, drift-free Chalk catchments suggests that complex, distributed models offer limited benefits for recharge estimates at the catchment scale compared to simple models. Nonetheless, distributed models would be justified for studies where the pattern and amount of recharge need to be known in greater detail and to provide more reliable estimates of recharge during years with low rainfall.</p> <p style='line-height: 20px;'><b>Keywords:</b> Chalk, modelling, groundwater recharge</p

Simultaneous 3D reconstruction and implant placement using allogenic laminar bone membranes in atrophic Mandible. A comparative clinical study

Objective: to compare the outcome of allogenic bone sheets clinically and radiographically in posterior mandibular vertical augmentation in Luhr class III cases with simultaneous implant placement using autogenous versus xenografts. Patients and methods: this study was based on a total of 12 implants placed in 4 patients, 2 of which were males and 2 females. Patients were divided into 2 groups, both treated with implants placed with exposed threads 3 mm crestally and covered buccolingually with the laminar bone membrane; group 1 received autogenous bone obtained from the same surgical site using 4.5 diameter ACM bur mixed with PRP and packed around the crestally exposed implant threads. Group 2 received xenograft bone particles mixed with PRP and packed around the crestally exposed implant threads in the same manner. Results: CBCT was done pre-operatively, immediate post-operatively and 4 months post-operatively for each implant to compare the bone gain radiographically. In group 1, the mean amount of residual bone height pre-operatively was 7.8 mm (SD 0.86) and increased to 14.44 mm (SD 1.75) and 14.1 mm (SD 1.85) immediate and 4 months post-operatively, respectively. The mean amount of bone gain after 4 months was 6.3 mm, denoting a minimal amount of graft loss during the first 4 postoperative months was 0.27 mm (less than 2%). In group 2, the mean amount of residual bone height pre-operatively was 8.37 mm (SD 0.99) and increased to 12.86 mm (SD 1.75) and 12.53 mm (SD 1.65) immediate and 4 months post-operatively, respectively. The mean amount of bone gain after 4 months was 4.16 mm, denoting a minimal amount of graft loss during the first 4 postoperative months was 0.33 mm (less than 3%). Upon comparing bone gain in both groups, Group I (Autogenous) had a bone gain of 6.33 mm versus 4.16 mm for Group II (Xenograft). Denoting more gain in Group I (autogenous). While the amount of graft loss between the immediate and 4 months postoperative CBCT was less than 2% and less than 3% in the autogenous versus the xenograft group respectively . Conclusion: Cases initially lacking keratinized mucosa will need soft tissue intervention along with this technique. Exposure after 4 months appeared to have been too early, which lead to bone loss and exposed threads. Bilateral augmentation has led to patients using the grafted edentulous sites for mastication early following soft tissue healing, prior to prosthetics, which might suggest that tooth-bounded posterior edentulous sites might be a better candidate for such technique. Results were clinically different than radiographically in the CBCT, so longer lag time is recommended before loading. Keywords: mandibular atrophy, bone graft, implants, laminar bone sheet

Exploring the Impact of Preprocessing Techniques on Retinal Blood Vessel Segmentation Using a Study Group Learning Scheme

The segmentation of retinal vessels in retinal images is vital for automated diagnosis of retinal diseases. This is a challenging task because it requires accurate manual labeling of the vessels by expert clinicians and the detection of tiny vessels is difficult due to limited samples, low contrast, and noise. In this study, we explore the use of preprocessing techniques such as contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE), grad-cam analysis and min-max contrast stretching to improve the performance of a study-group learning (SGL) segmentation model. We evaluate the impact of these preprocessing techniques on the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, AUC, IoU, and Dice scores using four publicly available datasets, DRIVE, CHASE, HRF and IOSTAR. Our findings indicate that the utilization of the Min-Max technique resulted in a notable enhancement in the accuracy of both the DRIVE and CHASE datasets, with an approximate increase of 3% and 2% respectively. Conversely, the impact of the CLAHE method was discernible solely in the DRIVE dataset, demonstrating an improvement in accuracy of 1%. In addition, our results demonstrated superior accuracy performance for both the DRIVE and CHASE datasets compared to the findings of the reviewed studies. The GitHub repo for this project is available at Link

Water Salinity Impacts on Some Soil Properties and Nutrients Uptake by Wheat Plants in Sandy and Calcareous Soil

S and S , respectively. Results concluded that, the lower germination percentage and rate in calcareous soil at any salinity level compared to sandy soil. and also, decreased the mean daily germination in both soils. Soil salinity increased as a result of increasing salinity levels of irrigation water. Easily available 1 4 water were negatively correlated with increasing water salinity from S to S , especially in case of calcareous soil. Same trend was observed in case of soluble cations and anions; especially Na which increased by 121, 285, 610 % and 94, 267, 531 % for S , S and S relative to the control, for sandy and 3 calcareous soils, respectively. The higher N, P uptake were attained in calcareous soil under (S ) while, the lowest were found in sandy soil under higher water salinity levels indicating the resistibility of Sakha 8 as wheat cultivar to salinity level up to 6.60 dSm . Substantial decrease of K:Na ratio of wheat was found grain yield by 23 %, while to 16 % reduction is found in calcareous soil. The yield reduction increases by increasing salinity of irrigation water and reaches its maximum at 8.86 dSm salinity level. Grain yield, -1 was highly significant negative correlated with hardly available water, water salinity and soil EC, while the relations were highly positive with easily available water