Investigating the Impact of Target Firm Members’ Trust Antecedents on the Perofrmance of Cross-border Acquisition (CBA)

Cross-border acquisitions (CBAs), as organisational entities which are formed and controlled by foreign firms, are one of the most effective methods of expansion available to international firms. Cross-border acquisition is a highly complex and multi-faceted business model which presents several challenges for management. Over the past several years, CBA has become a more frequent target for research in business, and has received significant attention from academia and practitioners alike. The aim of this research is to investigate the factors that impact interorganizational trust and as an outcome, the performance of CBAs in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According Fadol and Sandhu, (2013), Abosag and Lee, (2012), there are few studies that focused on alliances in Middle Eastern countries and more studies on these areas are required. The empirical study is preceded by a review of the existing literature that led to the development of a conceptual framework for this research. The target population samples for this research were collected from four target firm’s employees in Iraq and the UAE, where those firms were identified as having acquired by firms from Western Europe and Asia. The research tool used to collect the necessary data was a survey questionnaire, and the data analysis was undertaken using SPSS and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings of this study identify that relationship history, inter-firm distance, and integration approach factors have a positive impact on the level of target firm members’ trust; while factors such as collaboration history, complementarity, and autonomy preservation were not found to have a positive and significantly related to the trust. Moreover, Country risk was found to have a negative and significant relationship with the trust. Religion was not found to be positive and significantly related to the trust. Furthermore, positive relationship between trust and performance and between commitment and performance were found. The results of this study offer a framework that identifies the key factors in the development of trust within CBAs and demonstrates that this trust and it’s antecedents have a significant impact on firm performance in Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq and UAE. The findings of this study offer us implications for meaningful managerial practice in selecting cross-border competitors as target firms

Microbial biotransformation of beclomethasone dipropionate by Aspergillus niger

In the present research, the steroidal anti-asthmatic drug beclomethasone dipropionate was subjected to microbial biotransformation by Aspergillus niger. Beclomethasone dipropionate was transformed into various metabolites first time from microbial transformation. New drug metabolites produced can act as new potential drug molecules and can replace the old drugs in terms of safety, efficacy, and least resistance. They were purified by preparative thin layer chromatography technique, and their structures were elucidated using modern spectroscopic techniques, such as 13C NMR, 1H NMR, HMQC, HMQC, COSY, and NOESY, and mass spectrometry, such as EI-MS. Four metabolites were purified: (i) beclomethasone 17-monopropionate, (ii) beclomethasone 21-monopropionate, (iii) beclomethasone, and (iv) 9beta,11beta-epoxy-17,21-dihydroxy-16beta-methylpregna-1,4-diene-3,20-dione 21-propionate

Microseismic Full Waveform Modeling in Anisotropic Media with Moment Tensor Implementation

Seismic anisotropy which is common in shale and fractured rocks will cause travel-time and amplitude discrepancy in different propagation directions. For microseismic monitoring which is often implemented in shale or fractured rocks, seismic anisotropy needs to be carefully accounted for in source location and mechanism determination. We have developed an efficient finite-difference full waveform modeling tool with an arbitrary moment tensor source. The modeling tool is suitable for simulating wave propagation in anisotropic media for microseismic monitoring. As both dislocation and non-double-couple source are often observed in microseismic monitoring, an arbitrary moment tensor source is implemented in our forward modeling tool. The increments of shear stress are equally distributed on the staggered grid to implement an accurate and symmetric moment tensor source. Our modeling tool provides an efficient way to obtain the Green’s function in anisotropic media, which is the key of anisotropic moment tensor inversion and source mechanism characterization in microseismic monitoring. In our research, wavefields in anisotropic media have been carefully simulated and analyzed in both surface array and downhole array. The variation characteristics of travel-time and amplitude of direct P- and S-wave in vertical transverse isotropic media and horizontal transverse isotropic media are distinct, thus providing a feasible way to distinguish and identify the anisotropic type of the subsurface. Analyzing the travel-times and amplitudes of the microseismic data is a feasible way to estimate the orientation and density of the induced cracks in hydraulic fracturing. Our anisotropic modeling tool can be used to generate and analyze microseismic full wavefield with full moment tensor source in anisotropic media, which can help promote the anisotropic interpretation and inversion of field data

Antimicrobial activity of Streptomyces sp. isolated from the gulf of Aqaba-Jordan and screening for NRPS, PKS-I, and PKS-II genes

Forty-nine Streptomyces isolates were recovered from sediment samples in the gulf of Aqaba/Jordan. All isolates were tested for antimicrobial activity against Gram positive bacteria, Gram negative bacteria, and yeast. Twenty eight Streptomyces isolates were active against at least one of the tested strains. The majority of the isolates showed activity against Gram positive bacteria: Streptomyces aureus (89%), Streptomyces epidermidis (64%) and Bacillus Subtilis (50 %). Lower activity was observed toward Gram negative bacteria with only 25% active against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, whereas only 17% were active against the yeast Candida albicans. Isolate S34 showed best activity. It produced heat stable antimicrobial activity at both acidic and alkaline pH (5 to 5.5 and 8 to 9.5). S34 was found to be related to Streptomyces rochei. Forty-nine Streptomyces isolates were screened for genes encoding non ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) and polyketides synthases (PKS; types I and II). NRPS sequences were widely distributed and detected in 81% of Streptomyces isolates. PKS types I and II were detected in 63.2 and 65.3% of isolates, respectively. Additionally, the relationship between the occurrences of biosynthetic gene sequences (NPRS and PKS sequences) and the production of antimicrobial activities was determined. The above results reveal that the marine Streptomycetes are a promising source of novel and unique products.Keywords: Marine Streptomyces, antimicrobial activity, non ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS), polyketides synthases (PKS), enzymes, gulf of Aqaba, JordanAfrican Journal of Biotechnology, Vol 13(31) 3505-351

Penetration rate of proteus organism through egg shell membranes at different temperatures

Penetration of proteus through shell membranes and egg contents were studied at different temperatures of 4 and 25°C and under a limited humidity level of 85-88%. Proteus cells survived on egg shell for 24 days and reached the yolk within six days and within twenty-four days at 4°C. The significance of these findings in egg spoilage and storing conditions have been discussed

Study of Power and Field Distributions in Induction Heating system by Finite element method

*Baghdad college of economic sciences university, Baghdad To solve the electromagnetic problems of induction heating, there are two main types of solutions. Analytical solution which is limited to one dimensional problems of axially symmetric shapes, and numerical methods which are associated with the advent of digital computers and they can be developed in two dimensions. The finite element method FEM is one numerical methods to give an accurate solution to the given problem. The objective IJSER of paper is to present a normalized solution to reduce the complex calculations efforts with acceptable accuracy and present the results in a general form to be a suitable for more than one particular configuration