19672 research outputs found
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Board Gender Diversity and Its Risk Monitoring Role: Is It Significant
No full textIn recent years, there is an urgent call to strengthen board composition to safeguard against expropriation of shareholders’ interest and to reinforce public confidence, specifically in a weaker governance setting. Board gender diversity receives considerable attention within the issues of corporate governance. This is because female directors are found to be more active in monitoring activities, cautious in decision making, less aggressive and risk averse as compared to male directors. We support this argument with evidence from a sample of listed firms in Malaysia. In line with the literature, we show that female directors play a significant monitoring role in reducing corporate risk taking behaviour. Our results are robust to endogeneity concern. Since board gender diversity plays a significant risk monitoring role, we recommend that there should be a continuous call to appoint female directors to the boardrooms among Malaysian listed firms to diversify the ‘old boys club’ corporate boardrooms
Adaptive multivariate double sampling and variable sampling interval Hotelling's T 2 charts
No full textIn this article, two adaptive multivariate charts, which combine the double sampling (DS) and variable sampling interval (VSI) features, called the adaptive multivariate double sampling variable sampling interval T 2 (AMDSVSI T 2 ) and the adaptive multivariate double sampling variable sampling interval combined T 2 (AMDSVSIC T 2 ) charts, are proposed. The real purpose of using the proposed charts is to provide flexibility by enabling the sampling interval length of the DS T 2 chart to be varied so that the chart's sensitivity can be enhanced. The fundamental difference between the two proposed charts is that when a second sample is taken, the AMDSVSI T 2 chart uses the information of the combined sample mean vectors while the AMDSVSIC T 2 chart uses the information of the combined T 2 statistics, in deciding about the process status. This research is motivated by existing combined DS (Formula presented.) and VSI (Formula presented.) charts in the literature, which show convincing performance improvement over the standard DS (Formula presented.) chart. Consequently, it is believed that adopting this existing approach in the multivariate case will enable superior multivariate DS charts to be proposed. Numerical results show that the proposed charts outperform the existing standard T 2 and other adaptive multivariate charts, in detecting shifts in the mean vector, for the zero-state and steady-state cases. The performances of both charts when the shift sizes in the mean vector are unknown are also measured. The application of the AMDSVSI T 2 chart is illustrated with an example
Saliva Sampling of Alcoholic Participants using Three Saliva Collection Methods
No full textThe potential of using saliva as a diagnostic fluid is well documented. The aim of this study was to assess the quality and quantity of saliva DNA of alcoholic and non-alcoholic participants using three saliva collection methods; DNA-SalTM (Oasis Diagnostics, USA), Oragene-DNA (DNA Genotek Inc, Ontario, Canada) and whole saliva collection method. Saliva DNA of non-alcoholic (n=30) and alcoholic participants (n=10) age between 25 and 35 years was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively using spectrophotometry. Saliva DNA quantity was the highest for all participants when using the DNA-Sal TM saliva collection kit (p<0.05). The use of a mechanical scraper provided only in the DNA-Sal TM kit may have contributed to the highest DNA yield for all participants. The quantity of saliva DNA when assessed using spectrophotometer was found to be significantly lower (p<0.05) for the alcoholic (16±3.57 ng/μL) than non-alcoholic participants (19.92±6.18 ng/μL). To determine the integrity of the DNA samples, PCR amplification of the Alcohol Dehydrogenase gene, ADH1B was carried out and the PCR was found to be successful. For all participants, the DNA quality of the saliva collected using the three saliva collection methods was found to be in the acceptable range considered as pure DNA. The DNA quality and quantity of saliva collected from the three saliva collection methods were considered suitable for research purposes
Graphene metal nanocomposites — Recent progress in electrochemical biosensing applications
No full textThe integration of metal, metal oxides or metal alloy nanostructures with graphene increases the surface area, active sites for binding analytes, conductivity as well as mechanical strength of the biosensor. Graphene-metallic nanocomposites by their synergistic effect exhibit greater sensitivity for the detection of a variety of biomolecules. Herein, this review addresses the most recent progress on the design and fabrication of graphene metallic nano-biointerfaces in electrochemical biosensing, detection of biomolecules ranging from most common analytes to sophisticated molecules with greater sensitivity as well as good selectivity from the real-time sample in presence of common interfering substances
ELF in spoken genres in the international university: of contextual factors and non-linguistic resources
No full text[No abstract available
Creep-recovery behaviour of crumb rubber modified bitumen (CRMB) containing trans-polyoctenamer
No full textThe main objective of this study is to analyse the creep-recovery behaviour of crumb rubber modified bitumen (CRMB) and crumb rubber modified bitumen containing Trans-polyoctenamer (CRMB-TOR). Moreover, the effect of different stress levels to creep parameters, namely, non-recoverable compliance (Jnr) and per cent recoveries (% R) are also studied. The Multiple Stress Creep Recovery (MSCR) test performed by Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) was executed at 1 s creep loading with 9 s recovery over the multiple stress levels ranged from 25 to 25,600 Pa. In this study, CRMB was prepared with different percentages of crumb rubber namely 4%, 8% and 12%. The CRMB-TOR was prepared by adding 4.5% of TOR (by weight of crumb rubber) to each CRMB blend. Adding crumb rubber in the bitumen shows desirable change in creep-recovery behaviour. Moreover, application of TOR to the CRMB seems to further improve the creep parameters. An increase in creep-recovery parameters (low Jnr and high % R) can significantly improve the properties of bituminous mixtures. Thus, pavement constructed with good creep-recovery parameters would increase the service life with better rutting resistance
Unionized Acetate Degradation at 45ºC Anaerobic Digestion: Kinetics and Inhibition
No full textThis study demonstrated the degradation of unionized acetate in anaerobic digestion at 45ºC through the identification of kinetics and inhibition parameters. The kinetic parameters, Ks and rmax, were determined using Monod-based model for three different conditions, namely uninhibited, inhibited, and systems with high substrate condition. The Ks values for uninhibited condition were in the range of 0.124 to 0.191 mg/L as unionized HAc. Ks value of inhibited condition were at 0.027 mg/L as unionized HAc. Ks values for systems with high substrate condition were found to be in the range of 0.237 to 0.279 mg/L as unionized HAc. As for rmax, a 35ºC anaerobic digestion system showed the highest value at 0.166 mg/L/day – greater than the values of all 45ºC systems under all experimental conditions. Additionally, the inhibition parameter KI was also determined using the Michaelis-Menten model. The parameter was determined for inhibitory conditions resulting from high free NH3 content. The inhibition type was uncompetitive with KI value of 0.072 mg/L as unionized HAc. The outcomes suggested that the methanogens responsible for the digestion process at 45ºC were thermo-tolerant acetate-utilizing methanogens of Methanosarcinaceae species, and the system will be totally inhibited with the presence of high free NH3 content. © 2019, HARD Publishing Company. All rights reserved
Shedding light on lipase stability in natural deep eutectic solvents
No full textThis study presents the potential role of natural deep eutectic solvents (NADESs) in a lipase-catalyzed hydrolysis reaction as both a co-solvent in an aqueous solution and as a main solvent. Ammonium salts such as choline chloride (ChCl) were paired with different hydrogen bond donors such as glycerol and malonic acid and sugars (glucose, fructose and sucrose). The hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl palmitate by six different lipases: lipase from porcine pancreas (PR), lipase from Candida rugosa (CR), Amano lipase PS, from Burkholderia cepacia (AM), lipase from Rhizopus niveus (RN), lipase acrylic resin from Candida antartica (ARC), lipase B Candida antartica immobilized on Immobead 150, recombinant from Aspergillus oryzae (CALB), were tested in five NADESs. The results showed that NADES3 prepared from ChCl/sucrose was the most promising solvent as it enhanced the activities of both CALB and lipase from porcine pancreas to 355 % and 345 %. The kinetics investigation confirmed the higher catalytic efficiency (kcat/Km) of lipases in the 40 % of (NADES3) and compared with the aqueous form. The trend achieved by NADES may be a promising approach for applications and further perspectives as genuinely green industrial solvents
Broadband optical frequency comb generator based on driving N-cascaded modulators by Gaussian-shaped waveform
No full textA new approach for realizing a wideband optical frequency comb (OFC) generator based on driving cascaded modulators by a Gaussian-shaped waveform, is proposed and numerically demonstrated. The setup includes N-cascaded MZMs, a single Gaussian-shaped waveform generator, and N-1 electrical time delayer. The first MZM is driven directly by a Gaussian-shaped waveform, while delayed replicas of the Gaussian-shaped waveform drive the other MZMs. An analytical model that describes the proposed OFC generator is provided to study the effect of number and chirp factor of cascaded MZM as well as pulse width on output spectrum. Optical frequency combs at frequency spacing of 1 GHz are generated by applying Gaussian-shaped waveform at pulse widths ranging from 200 to 400 ps. Our results reveal that, the number of comb lines is inversely proportional to the pulse width and directly proportional to both number and chirp factor of cascaded MZMs. At pulse width of 200 ps and chirp factor of 4, 67 frequency lines can be measured at output spectrum of two-cascaded MZMs setup. Whereas, increasing the number of cascaded stages to 3, 4, and 5, the optical spectra counts 89, 109 and 123 frequency lines; respectively. When the delay time is optimized, 61 comb lines can be achieved with power fluctuations of less than 1 dB for five-cascaded MZMs setup
Multiplied optical delay based on few mode fiber and few-mode fiber Bragg gratings
Get PDFOptical delay line is one of the approaches in solving the contention in optical communication network. Basically, the optical data stream is launched into a long optical fiber to achieve a time delay until it is ready to be accepted for processing. The time delay is linearly proportional to the length of the optical fiber. In this work, we proposed an optical delay system based on a segment of few-mode fiber and two few-mode fiber Bragg gratings (FMFBG) which serve as selective mode convertors. The data stream is first launched into the LP01 mode in the FMF. Then the beam is reflected between the two FMFBGs and the signal is changing between LP01 and LP11 modes. The data stream exits the optical delay system in the form of LP01 mode after traveling back and forth in the FMF for two times. The accumulated propagation length is approximately 4 times the length of the FMF. Such system is useful for optical buffering in the optical communication system