Preparation of Chlorodeoxycellulose from Shambat Cotton Lint Using Dimethyl Acetamide / Lithium Chloride Solvent System

Cotton cellulose has interesting properties which can be controlled to a large degree by chemical modification. This study was designed to prepare cellulose derivatives with different functional groups using novel homogenous solubilisation media. Raw cotton was modified (mercerized) in (15%) NaOH solution to weaken the aggregation of the bundles of cotton cellulose fibers and; subsequently, to facilitate the dissolution in N,N-dimethylacetamide/lithium chloride (DMA/LiCl) solvent system. Chlorodeoxycellulose was synthesized by treatment of the solubilised cotton cellulose with N-chlorosuccinimide in the presence of triphenylphosphine to convert the hydroxyl groups into the chlorodeoxy derivative of cellulose. The chemical structure of this derivative was investigated using infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis and thermal analysis (TGA, DSC). Chlorordeoxycellulose  proved to be a flame retardant polymer; since  thermal analysis showed that it has less thermal stability compared to unmodified cellulose. Thermal analysis also showed different behaviour between modified and unmodified cotton cellulose. Solubility in some organic solvents was tested for the prepared derivative to explore possible new uses and applications. This research has shown the versatility of Shambat cotton cellulose as a raw material for novel and advanced cellulose-based materials; and to widen and simplify the existing synthetic methodologies for cellulose modification, to yield novel derivatives using homogenous reaction media

Preparation of Bromodeoxycellulose and Derivatives from Shambat Cotton Lint Using Dimethyl Acetamide / Lithium Bromide Solvent System

This study was designed to prepare cellulose derivatives  with different   functional  groups  from  Sudanese  Shambat  cotton lint using   a homogenous   solubilisation  medium. The raw cotton lint was   mercerized    in   (15%)   NaOH     solution   to   weaken   the aggregation   of    the   bundles   of   cellulose    fibers;    and    was subsequently      dissolved      in     N,N-dimethylacetamide/lithium bromide    (DMA/LiBr)    as    a homogenous      solvent     system. Bromodeoxycellulose   was    synthesized   by   treatment,   of   the     solubilised   cotton  cellulose with N-bromosuccinimide (NBS)  in the    presence   of   triphenylphosphine   (Ph3P)   to   convert   the hydroxyl  groups  into  the  bromodeoxy  derivative  of   cellulose. The  chemical   structure  this  derivative  was  investigated  using infrared  spectroscopy,  elemental  analysis  which  confirmed  the presence  of  C-Br   bonds.  Thermal   analysis   (TGA,  DSC)  has shown     that    unlike   chlorordeoxycellulose    and    unmodified mercerized  cotton, bromodeoxycellulose was relatively thermally stable.  Azido  and  amino  deoxycellulose  were   easily  prepared from   bromodeoxycellulose   since   bromide   is  a good  leaving. Solubility in some organic solvents was tested to explore possible new uses and applications

Audit Committee Effectiveness, Audit Quality and Earnings Management: An Empirical Study of the Listed Companies in Egypt

The role of audit committees and audit quality in ensuring the quality of corporate financial reporting has come under considerable scrutiny due to recent high-profile earnings management cases in the world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between the audit committee effectiveness, audit quality and earnings management practices of more active 50 Egyptian companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange of the non-financial sector during the period 2007-2010. After controlling for size, leverage and cash flow from operation activities, the results of univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that audit committees independence; experience of audit committee members; audit committee meetings; and audit quality have significant negative association with discretionary accruals as a proxy for earnings management. On the other hand, no significant relationship is found between audit committees size and the level of discretionary accruals. This paper is important because it offers useful information that is of great value to policy makers, academics and other stakeholders. Keywords: Audit Committee Effectiveness, Audit Quality, Earning Management, Egyp

Cost Information as an Aid in Decision-Making : with Particular Reference to Hospitals.

The absence or the ineffectiveness of input-output information for the activities of the public sector is always recognized as a serious problem. This is because it represents a solid obstacle facing the application of effective control and preventing access to a significant aid for policy decisions and the choice between alternatives. The reason for this problem is the absence of a costing system or the ineffectiveness of the reported information. Since the first years of the National Health Service (NHS) and till very recently, different costing systems were introduced respectively for the hospital. Unfortunately, none of them has succeeded in providing the information which enables meeting the requirements of effective control and planning. It is a fact that the decision involving resource allocation is a political decision, and the choice of the decision-maker is between benefits. But in order to assist the decision-maker in general, and in relation to the health sector, for instance, it is essential to have costing information on the activities producing the intermediate outputs which comprise the final output. The hospital has a particular significance, because the hospital is the consumer of the lion's share of the NHS budget and it comprises different activities in achieving many of the health programmes. In spite of the importance of the information on the performance level of these activities for the internal manager, the programme manager and for preparing the planner's requests, that should not be oversold or provided at the expense of other essential types of information, such as that required for vote accounting. Therefore, in designing an accounting system for the hospital, the system, should provide the information which is regularly demanded. Chapter 1 deals generally with, the factors affecting the decision of resource allocation, pinpointing the problem of public expenditure, and gives brief of the possible contribution of hospital costing system by shedding light on the big decision problems outlined. A social and political background of health services is the concern of Chapter 2. An example of decision analysis in the public sector is introduced in Chapter 3 by presenting an analysis of the issue of reorganising the NHS, The question of performance budgeting in the non-trading activities, explanation of the past misunderstanding of its real role and the obstacle in the way of its implementation are the concern of Chapter 4. In fact, the importance of performance budgeting has been increased (and therefore the importance of adequate costing system) by the introduction of Planning Programming Budgeting System (PPBS). The importance of adequate costing system, for establishing performance budgeting, which is a prerequisite for the implementation of PPBS for facilitating the analyst's role and for achieving the accountant's objectives, is presented in Chapter 5. The same chapter is concerned with the components of PPBS and focuses attention on some problems in cost-benefit studies. Chapter 6 deals with an application of the principles of PPBS to a health problem, and shows the effect of a lack of costing information, particularly for hospital activities, which stands as a real obstacle in making cost-benefit analysis. Chapter 7 deals first with the analyses of the shortcomings and advantages associated with different costing systems introduced for the hospital; secondly, with the analyses of the costing methodologies used in three researches in the area of disease costing; thirdly, with answers to the following two questions: What should hospital costing systems report for achieving effective control? and What decisions is the information from a hospital costing system supposed to assist

Improving water resources management using different irrigation strategies and water qualities: Field and modelling study

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of two different irrigation strategies, regulated deficit irrigation, RDI and partial root drying, PRD using surface freshwater (SW) and brackish treated wastewater (TWW) for maize and potato crops. The SALTMED model has been applied using the field measurements of two cropping seasons 2013 and 2014 at the Canale Emiliano Romagnolo, CER’s experimental farm located in Mezzolara di Budrio (Bologna, Italy). In 2013, PRD irrigated potato received 17% less irrigation water than RDI but produced nearly the same yield as under RDI. The water productivity, o naverage, was 11% higher for PRD compared with RDI. For maize 2014 season, the PRD strategy received almost 15% less irrigation water, but produced a yield only 6% lower than that of RDI and gave equal water productivity to RDI. Given that the two strategies received the same amount of rainfall the results favour the PRD over RDI. Had the site not received above average rainfall (258 mm in 2013 and 259 mm during the 2014 growing seasons), PRD might have produced higher yield and water productivity than RDI. In terms of model simulations, overall, the model showed a strong relationship between the observed and the simulated soil moisture and salinity profiles, total dry mater and final yields. This illustrates SALTMED model’s ability to simulate the dry matter and yield of C3 and C4 crops as well as to simulated different water qualities and different water application strategies. Therefore, the model can run with “what if” scenarios depicting several water qualities, crops and irrigation systems and strategies without the need to try them all in the field. This will reduce costs of labour and investment

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