Exploring the Constructed Corporate Governance Index’s Effect on the Firm Performance and Firm Value: An Empirical Study on Service and Industrial Companies Listed in Amman Stock Exchange

The purpose of this study is to investigate corporate governance’s quality for Shareholding Companies Listed on the Amman Stock Exchange; to see how corporate governance index (CGI) and firm performance and firm value are associated; and last but not the least is to check how CGI affects firm performance and firm value. A comprehensive CGI containing 112 points was constructed and analyzed for years 2010 and 2015. It reported that the Jordanian industrial and service companies have a good CGI during these two years. Pearson correlation has showed positive but weak relationships between CGI and all variables in the two years. Multiple regression analysis was performed to evaluate corporate governance index effects on the performance and the value of firm. The results did not support the hypotheses that CGI significantly affects these two variables. To reach to better corporate governance in Jordanian industrial and service companies, the Jordanian authorities might need to modify the inconsistence between laws and corporate governance rules

Impact of Improvements to the International Accounting Standards on Earnings Management in the Jordanian Industrial Corporations

This study investigates the practices of earnings management in Jordanian Industrial Corporations (JIC) after the mandatory adoption of the Improvements of the International Accounting Standards (IASs) on 1st January, 2005. The Modified Jones model was used to measure earnings management. The binomial test and Pearson correlation test were used to test the hypotheses. It was discovered that JIC practiced earnings management for the period, 2005-2013,by 50%. It was also discovered that earnings management decreased in the 2008-2010 Financial Crisis that occurred, in JIC. Overall, the results suggest that the improvements to the IASs did not prevent earnings management in these corporations

The Extent to Which the Jordanian Private Industrial Companies Use SMA Techniques

This study aims to examine the extent of usage of SMA techniques in the Jordanian private industrial companies (JPIC) and to examine the impact of general and financial managers’ characteristics on the adoption of SMA techniques. It also aims to explore the importance of usage the SMA techniques by JPIC in the future. The study is based on a questionnaire survey of JPIC. The study reveals that 12 out of 19 SMA techniques were adopted by JPIC. These techniques are ABC, COQ, VCC, SCM, EMA, benchmarking, BSC, competitor cost assessment, competitor position monitoring, CPA, customer lifetime value and valuation of customer assets. The results also provide interesting findings; whenever JPIC used the SMA technique they placed high importance of usage rate in the future. The SMA techniques that were not used by JPIC had a low importance of usage rate in the future, in exception of integrated PMS which achieved high importance of usage rate and the LCC which achieved a moderate rate. Finally, no impact of general and financial managers' characteristics was found on the adoption of SMA techniques in JPIC. Keywords: strategic management accounting, private companies, Jordan

Poverty Effects of House Holds in the Southern Region of Jordan

This study investigated the poverty effects of households in the southern region of Jordan, Madaba, Aqaba, Tafila governorates.The poverty ratio in this region exceeds 28.7%,  . Data was collected by the use of questionnaire which addressed questions related to the study. A total of 900 questionnaires were given out to all the population. Of these, 180 questionnaires were re-called from each local government. The variables of research – per capita expenditure, per capital income, age of respondent, sex (male or female head count), the age structure of the population shows a significant difference in the household saving rate. Idiosyncratic and covariate factors affect the expected per capita consumption of the overall expected poverty for this area. Not less than 80% expected poverty is synonymous with southern region according to these variables. The highest variance occurred in education head count levels which can be divided into five categories. Male-headed households have lower mean consumption than female-headed households. As the determinants of households of the southern region and structures of variables to link the results and actions, therefore the paper, extends the usual of set of explanatory variables which explained the household behavior and to capture their influential impact on household and life cycle dependency ratio admitted as explanatory due to a young, under-educated populace, which is compounded by a heavy responsibility on male-headed count per female. The paper found that the growth of the agricultural sector is slow which means that most of the southern region depends on returns of this sector beyond the dependence on civilian employement to support their household. These results provides a big support for life cycle hypothesis as well as the permanent income hypothesis.We noticed that poverty is a predominant as phenomenon as it is pervasive, with over 30% of the population falling below the poverty line in Jordan. This paper assesses the impact of poverty in the level of determinants of households. Jel elassification: 053, D21, J20, E1

The Extent of Using the Target Costing Technique by Jordanian Industrial Shareholding Companies

The current research aims at examining whether or not the Jordanian Industrial Public Corporations use the target costing technique. For this purpose the researchers distributed around 70 questionnaires, while just 52 questionnaires of them are examined. Each questionnaire encompasses 16 questions, whereas 8 of these questions are addressed to all companies; while the remaining questions are addressed to the companies those are used the target costing system. The results reveal that 35% of companies use the target costing system, whether partly 27% or totally 8% and 65% of companies don’t use this system. The study concludes that the major reasons behind not using the target costing system; are due to the lack of target costing knowledge and the management supporting is not enough in additional to the old habits in calculating value. The study recommends Jordanian companies to use the target costing, as it is deemed as an essential part of the management of total cost. Keywords: Target Costing Technique “TCT”, Shareholding Companies, Customer Satisfaction

Shape Invariant Coding of Motion Direction in Somatosensory Cortex

A subpopulation of neurons in primate somatosensory cortex signal the direction in which objects move across the skin of the fingertips

Shape Invariant Coding of Motion Direction in Somatosensory Cortex

Invariant representations of stimulus features are thought to play an important role in producing stable percepts of objects. In the present study, we assess the invariance of neural representations of tactile motion direction with respect to other stimulus properties. To this end, we record the responses evoked in individual neurons in somatosensory cortex of primates, including areas 3b, 1, and 2, by three types of motion stimuli, namely scanned bars and dot patterns, and random dot displays, presented to the fingertips of macaque monkeys. We identify a population of neurons in area 1 that is highly sensitive to the direction of stimulus motion and whose motion signals are invariant across stimulus types and conditions. The motion signals conveyed by individual neurons in area 1 can account for the ability of human observers to discriminate the direction of motion of these stimuli, as measured in paired psychophysical experiments. We conclude that area 1 contains a robust representation of motion and discuss similarities in the neural mechanisms of visual and tactile motion processing.</p

Psychophysical Investigations into the Role of Low-Threshold C Fibres in Non-Painful Affective Processing and Pain Modulation

We recently showed that C low-threshold mechanoreceptors (CLTMRs) contribute to touch-evoked pain (allodynia) during experimental muscle pain. Conversely, in absence of ongoing pain, the activation of CLTMRs has been shown to correlate with a diffuse sensation of pleasant touch. In this study, we evaluated (1) the primary afferent fibre types contributing to positive (pleasant) and negative (unpleasant) affective touch and (2) the effects of tactile stimuli on tonic muscle pain by varying affective attributes and frequency parameters. Psychophysical observations were made in 10 healthy participants. Two types of test stimuli were applied: stroking stimulus using velvet or sandpaper at speeds of 0.1, 1.0 and 10.0 cm/s; focal vibrotactile stimulus at low (20 Hz) or high (200 Hz) frequency. These stimuli were applied in the normal condition (i.e. no experimental pain) and following the induction of muscle pain by infusing hypertonic saline (5%) into the tibialis anterior muscle. These observations were repeated following the conduction block of myelinated fibres by compression of sciatic nerve. In absence of muscle pain, all participants reliably linked velvet-stroking to pleasantness and sandpaper-stroking to unpleasantness (no pain). Likewise, low-frequency vibration was linked to pleasantness and high-frequency vibration to unpleasantness. During muscle pain, the application of previously pleasant stimuli resulted in overall pain relief, whereas the application of previously unpleasant stimuli resulted in overall pain intensification. These effects were significant, reproducible and persisted following the blockade of myelinated fibres. Taken together, these findings suggest the role of low-threshold C fibres in affective and pain processing. Furthermore, these observations suggest that temporal coding need not be limited to discriminative aspects of tactile processing, but may contribute to affective attributes, which in turn predispose individual responses towards excitatory or inhibitory modulation of pain

Genetic causes of hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis

Renal stone disease (nephrolithiasis) affects 3–5% of the population and is often associated with hypercalciuria. Hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis is a familial disorder in over 35% of patients and may occur as a monogenic disorder that is more likely to manifest itself in childhood. Studies of these monogenic forms of hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis in humans, e.g. Bartter syndrome, Dent’s disease, autosomal dominant hypocalcemic hypercalciuria (ADHH), hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis with hypophosphatemia, and familial hypomagnesemia with hypercalciuria have helped to identify a number of transporters, channels and receptors that are involved in regulating the renal tubular reabsorption of calcium. Thus, Bartter syndrome, an autosomal disease, is caused by mutations of the bumetanide-sensitive Na–K–Cl (NKCC2) co-transporter, the renal outer-medullary potassium (ROMK) channel, the voltage-gated chloride channel, CLC-Kb, the CLC-Kb beta subunit, barttin, or the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR). Dent’s disease, an X-linked disorder characterized by low molecular weight proteinuria, hypercalciuria and nephrolithiasis, is due to mutations of the chloride/proton antiporter 5, CLC-5; ADHH is associated with activating mutations of the CaSR, which is a G-protein-coupled receptor; hypophosphatemic hypercalciuric nephrolithiasis associated with rickets is due to mutations in the type 2c sodium–phosphate co-transporter (NPT2c); and familial hypomagnesemia with hypercalciuria is due to mutations of paracellin-1, which is a member of the claudin family of membrane proteins that form the intercellular tight junction barrier in a variety of epithelia. These studies have provided valuable insights into the renal tubular pathways that regulate calcium reabsorption and predispose to hypercalciuria and nephrolithiasis