The Effect of Application Islamic Monitoring Principle on the Performance of the Islamic Banks (Case Study: The Islamic Banks - Jordan)

This study examines the impact of the application of the principle of Islamic censorship in the Jordanian Islamic banks, and the aim of this study was to investigate the role of censorship and its impact on the work and performance of these banks. This study used descriptive statistics method as applied analytical method study of a random sample on a sample of employees of banks subject of the study and who numbered (120) employees. The questionnaire was designed to collect data was also used statistical tests that are commensurate with the nature of the subject matter to reveal the source of the relationship between the variables of the study in order to reach accurate results and clear. The study concluded that organizational communication and legal regulation and software and the timing of the regulatory process followed her statistically significant relationship to the success of the implementation of the control of Islamic banks. One of the main recommendations of this study the use of communication in the control process, and the development of regulations and laws in order to be used as criteria for judgment, and use the control as a means to discover and correct errors and to encourage the principle of self-censorship among the employees. Keywords: Islamic Banks, Islamic Monitoring Principle, the Central Bank of Jordan, computerized program

IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE GENETIC AETIOLOGY OF A RARE DISEASE KNOWN AS ORAL-FACIAL-DIGITAL SYNDROME TYPE II OR MOHR SYNDROME

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Impact of Mitochondrial Genetic Variants in ND1, ND2, ND5, and ND6 Genes on Sperm Motility and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) Outcomes

Sperm mitochondrial dysfunction causes the generation of an insufficient amount of energy needed for sperm motility. This will affect sperm fertilization capacity, and thus, most asthenozoospermic men usually require assisted reproductive techniques. The etiology of asthenozoospermia remains largely unknown. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of mitochondrial genetic variants on sperm motility and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) outcomes. A total of 150 couples from the ICSI cycle were enrolled in this study. One hundred five of the male partners were asthenozoospermic patients, and they were subdivided into three groups according to their percentage of sperm motility, while forty-five of the male partners were normozoospermic. Genetic variants were screened using direct Sanger’s sequencing in four mitochondrial genes (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide hydrogen (NADH) dehydrogenase 1 (ND1), NADH dehydrogenase 2 (ND2), NADH dehydrogenase 5 (ND5), and NADH dehydrogenase 6 (ND6)). We identified three significant variants: 13708G>A (rs28359178) in ND5, 4216T>C (rs1599988) in ND1, and a novel 12506T>A in ND5 with P values 0.006, 0.036, and 0.013, respectively. The medians of sperm motility, fertilization rate, embryo cleavage score, and embryo quality score were significantly different between men showing 4216T>C, 12506T>A, 13708G>A and wild type, Mann-Whitney P values for the differences in the medians were A, 12506T>A, and 4216 T>C variants in sperm mitochondrial DNA negatively affect sperm motility and ICSI outcomes

Analyzing verbal and pictorial Arab’s facebook posts during the Israeli attack on Gaza Strip in 2021

Arab users of social media could express their political views regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict between March and June 2021 amid the repressive policies adopted by social networking sites during that period (see e.g., Rayhan-uddin, 2021; Al-Grtly, 2021). In order to evade such policies, Arab users have used some tricks that are worth analysis from a linguistic perspective. The current study analyzes verbal and pictorial Arab’s posts circulated on Facebook during the Israeli attack on Gaza Strip in 2021, and it investigates the attitudes of Facebook Arab users regarding the Palestinian case. The data of the current study consisted of (55) written posts and (47) visual posts collected from the accounts of selected Arab caricaturists and activists. The model of analysis, which was adopted from Kress and van Leeuwen's social semiotic approach, clarifies different messages in visual posts that are categorized according to Kress and van Leeuwen’s representational process types. This study asserts that visual encoding can carry implicit messages that require analysis to uncover the hidden symbolic meanings as well as the interactions between the various signs in caricatures and their ideological and social impacts. The study highlights an ignored part of visual communication in the Arab world and presents novel implications for the domains of semiotics and discourse analysis. Furthermore, this study pursued to provide the field of semiotics with new insights through examining how signs, (e.g., in verbo-pictorial images), can participate in denoting meaning pertinent to the social and political standards of a specific community

An investigation into the effects of the use of financial and operational hedges on Australian corporate foreign currency risk exposure

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the effects of the use of financial and operational hedging on foreign exchange rate exposure among Australian multinational corporations. Since the flotation of the Australian dollar at the end of 1983, Australian firms have become increasingly exposed to foreign exchange rate risk. To eliminate this risk, Australian firms have undertaken substantial corporate hedging programs, which are both financial and operational in nature. It is notable that there has been an increase in financial hedging techniques such as derivatives and foreign-currency denominated debt, and operational hedging such as diversifying and spreading subsidiaries across foreign countries. Despite the substantial involvement in corporate hedging strategies, there is a paucity of Australian research studies examining the relationship between the use of financial and operational hedging by firms and their levels of foreign exchange rate exposure. A two-stage market model was used to investigate the main research problem using a sample of 62 Australian multinational corporations. The first-stage model - Jorion’s (1991) model – was adopted, to test the first hypothesis of whether there exists a relationship between stock returns and changes in exchange rates, by estimating the exposure coefficients to foreign currency risk during the period from January 2000 to December 2004. Next, the second-stage model utilised cross-sectional regression models to examine the effects of the use of financial hedging, separately and/or in combination with, operational hedging on foreign exchange risk exposure. This second-stage model was estimated for the 2004 financial year data to test seven hypotheses. These seven hypotheses were related to whether the use of financial separately, or in combination with, operational hedging effectively reduced exposure. Therefore, eight main research hypotheses were tested in the study. Findings of the study were that there is only weak evidence to support the hypothesis that stock returns were sensitive to changes in value of the Australian dollar. It was found that the use of foreign currency derivatives was significantly related to exposure reduction. The use of foreign debt was also found to be significantly related to exposure reduction, indicating that foreign debt is used for hedging purposes. Furthermore, the combined use of these two financial hedging strategies was found to be significantly associated with the exposure reduction. By the same token, these two financial hedging strategies were found to be substitutive to each other in reducing exposure. Operational hedging proxies were also significantly associated with the exposure reduction. This latter finding indicates that, for the purposes of hedging, firms diversify and disperse foreign operations and subsidiaries across countries and geographical regions. In addition, the combined use of financial and operational hedging was found to be negatively associated with exposure. Finally, the use of financial hedging was found to complement operational hedging in reducing exposure. The models used in this study could be applied to further research into the relationship between the use of financial and operational hedging and exposure. This could be achieved by using different time spans, different markets (countries) data, and larger samples, together with other measures. As Australian firms are greatly exposed to foreign exchange rate risk and consequently are heavily involved with financial and operational hedging activities, the results of this study could be beneficial to corporate managers, individual and corporate investors, researchers, derivatives designers and regulators

Information needs and behaviour of humanities scholars in an ict-enriched environment in Jordan / Mohammad Khaled Issa Al Shboul

This study investigates information needs and behaviour of humanities scholars in an ICT-enriched environment in Jordan. The study was conducted at Yarmouk University, Jordan, one of the developing nations in the Middle East. Previous researches show that humanities scholars have a significant negative relation with ICT use although they demonstrate significantly higher use of library facilities compared to other academicians. There is also a lack of up-to-date research on information behaviour of humanities scholars that considers the recent rapid increase of ICT infrastructure and the emerging digital environment. Hence, the objectives of this study are to (a) understand the information needs and behaviour of humanities scholars in an ICT-enriched environment, (b) ascertain their information needs and information tasks, (c) identify the barriers they encountered, and (d) investigate the relationship between demographics information and information-seeking processes. The ultimate objective is to produce a model of information behaviour applicable to humanities scholars in the Arab nation. The conceptual model is based on integration of five models of information-seeking behaviour - Ellis, Kuhlthau, Wilson, Niedźwiedzka and Foster, with additional attributes representing the information context such as languages, decision to seek and format of information resources. The mixed-method approach was used where the qualitative approach involves face-to-face interviews with 26 scholars. A “factious, specific, concrete representations of target users”, known as Persona was used as the analysis method. For the quantitative approach, 280 humanities scholars were sampled in questionnaires survey where the descriptive, t-tests and chi-square statistics were used for analysis. The finding indicated that the humanities scholars have passive seeking behaviour which was triggered by information events. They also had different level of awareness regarding the availability of information sources and services in their areas of interest. In addition, the scholars had different motivations to iv seek information that could be determined by the use of appropriate format and understandable language. The junior scholars made an increasing use of digital resources while the senior scholars preferred printed materials and informal resources but give attention to digital resources. On the active information-seeking behavior, the humanities scholars had variant decision of information-seeking depending on their computer literacy, types and format of information needs. Furthermore, while they had different priority list on exploring, accessing, categorizing and purifying of information, their satisfaction was the same in all cases. The findings also showed barriers of library resources, university environment and personality had influenced their informationseeking and they reacted accordingly based on their experience and computer literacy. Simultaneously, while they were satisfied with the university library resources and services, they were not satisfied with the Centre of Excellence. Lastly, demographic data such as age, academic position, academic qualification and years of experience that differentiated between the senior and junior scholars showed significant correlation with types of information need and format. This study has provided a clear picture about the reality of humanities scholars’ information needs and behavior. This information is pertinent in providing excellent resources and services to reduce the barriers in information-seeking and to optimize the satisfaction level of the library users especially the electronic resources

Translation exposure and firm value, evidence from Australian multinational corporations

The purpose of this study is to analyse the economic effect of foreign currency translation adjustments and to investigate the relationship between these adjustments and firm value, for a sample of 181 Australian multinational\ud corporations, with foreign subsidiaries concentrated in three specific geographical regions (Asia, Europe and NAFTA). The study is based on collected data for the five-year period from 2000 to 2004, and uses a two-stage market model methodology, resulting in the implementation of a cross-sectional time series model to test for the affect of translation differences on computed excess returns. The study finds that translation adjustments in income statements and in shareholders' equity are significantly related to excess returns. These results are consistent with accounting exposure being contributory to firm value

Did real economic uncertainty drive risk connectedness in the oil–stock nexus during the COVID-19 outbreak? A partial wavelet coherence analysis

Abstract This study explores the impact of real economic policy (business condition risk) on the oil–stock nexus risk connectedness during the COVID-19 pandemic. It uses multivariate wavelet coherency and partial wavelet coherency methods to isolate the effects of global risk indices, such as the US economic uncertainty index, the crude oil volatility index, and the geopolitical risk index, on risk connectedness. The study is based on daily data from January 2018 to December 2020 and finds a strong impact of real economic uncertainty indices on risk connectedness, with time-varying and frequency-sensitive patterns. The results also show that during the COVID-19 crisis, higher coherencies between oil and equity volatilities exist at lower frequencies. This research provides useful insights for regulators and portfolio diversifiers