• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.246-253
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• 2019

This study was conducted to explore the optimum proportion of zeolite and zeolite-kaolin as additives to cement clinker and gypsum samples, while maintaining the strength properties of produced environmentally sustainable cements. According to the British standard method, zeolite was added to cement clinker in proportions of 5-12% and 10-12% by weight, respectively, in the preparation of samples of zeolite-containing cement and zeolite-kaolin-based cement. Kaolin was used as a second additive as 10-20% of the total weight. The compressive strength tests were performed on base cement samples according to a standard procedure given in ASTM C109 Compressive Strength of Hydraulic Cement. These values were compared with those of the reference sample and the Omani allowable limits. The results indicated that the best compressive strength values were obtained with 88% cement clinker, 5% gypsum, and 7% zeolite for the zeolite-containing cement. Quantities of 70% cement clinker, 5% gypsum, 10% zeolite, and 15% kaolin gave the best results for zeolite-kaolin-based cement, resulting in a substitution of than 25% cement clinker. The study concluded that the partial cement clinker replacement using zeolite/kaolin combination may have a great influence on the reduction of $CO_2$ emission and energy saving in cement manufacturing.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.657-665
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• 2021

The study aims to assess the acceptance of social commerce and participate in social commerce amongst Omani people. The questions of the survey Instrument were prepared in English later converted into Arabic. The survey instrument was having two parts; the first part sought the demographic information like age, gender, education, occupation etc. The second part of the instrument was related to the variables, which was in 5-point Likert scale, where 5 means strongly agree while 1 meaning strongly disagree. The data was collected using online and offline surveys, making the number of the valid responses to 478. A conceptual model was developed using the following variables. The selected variables such as "Familiarity" (F), "Trust" (T), "Perceived usefulness" (PU), "Perceived ease of use" (PEU), "Intention to Purchase" (IP). The hypothesis was tested using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that all six hypotheses were supported. The F, T and PEU, and PU was found to be positive and significant related to intention to purchase (p-value 0.003, 0.001, 0.000. & 0.007). Amongst the four, p value of F was found to be the lowest and PU was found to be the highest. This indicate F was strong indicator of IP as compared to others. PUE relates to PU, and F was related to IP.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.317-328
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• 2021

This study aims to determine the factors that affect dividends initiation by initial public offering firms in Malaysia. The ownership structure is examined from a corporate governance theoretical perspective in order to evaluate the impacts of managerial, institutional, and family ownership on the dividend's initiation decision of IPO firms. This study employs a quantitative pooled cross-section of 372 Malaysian IPO companies active during the period of 2002-2013. The number of firms that went public each year varies, thus the pooled cross-section data takes place in this case rather than the panel data. The logistic model was employed to test the proposed hypotheses. The results revealed that the presence of institutional investors in the ownership structure make it more likely for IPO firms to initiate dividends. On the contrary, the presence of a family ownership structure in IPO companies as the controlling shareholder makes these companies less probable to initiate dividends. Managerial ownership was found to have no effect on the decision of initiating dividends by IPO firms. The findings of this study suggest that the existence of institutional and family ownerships are agency cost mitigators, as these ownership types could prompt IPOs firms to initiate dividends to overcome the agency conflicts.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1121-1133
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• 2021

The paper examines the impacts of the various sustainability dimensions on the financial performance of commercial banks in three Arab countries. Three dimensions have been considered as constitutive of the term sustainable development (social, economic, and environmental). The relationship between the sustainability dimensions of companies and accounting indicators was analyzed. The main hypothesis posits that the dimensions of sustainability do not have a significant and positive effect on the financial performance of the commercial banks. The study population consisted of commercial banks operating in three Arab countries (Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Jordan); the period of the study is from 2007 to 2018. The data were collected from the financial reports and sustainability reports of each bank through the Internet. The overall results of the study showed a moderately positive relationship between all sustainability dimensions and the banks' financial performance. The main contribution of the research is to study the dimensions of sustainability reports as contained in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI-G4) and their impacts on the financial performance of commercial banks. Thus, this research will contribute to increasing the interest of the banks in sustainable development in a context where this research in Arab countries is scarce.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.7
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• pp.11-19
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• 2021

The study aims to investigate the impact of seasonality in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries' share market during the month of Ramadan. It helps in finding the opportunities for stock market investors to earn abnormal (returns) gain by investing during Ramadan in GCC stock markets. This study uses stock returns data of GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Dubai, and UAE) from January 2004 to November 2019. Stock prices indexes of GCC stock markets have been obtained from Datastream. The ARCH-GARCH model is used to study the impact of the Ramadan month on the return and volatility of the stock market in GCC countries. The results showed that the Ramadan month has a significant impact on share market prices in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. However, Ramadan has an insignificant impact on share market prices in Bahrain and Oman. The study found no evidence of serial correlational between residuals in Kuwait; meaning that stock return was not dependent on the prior stock returns in Kuwait, therefore, we cannot go for forecasting. The ARCH-LM test statistic for Qatar does not fulfill the requirement of a good regression model; therefore, we cannot go for forecasting or testing the hypothesis of Qatar.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.9
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• pp.11-22
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• 2021

This study investigates the long-run relationship between the de jure economic, political, and social globalization and foreign direct investments in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to establish whether policies that foster trade and investment relations among geographical entities can help revive the GCC countries from the prevailing economic debacles of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is driven by the GCC's quest to fully overcome the economic challenges occasioned by the outbreak of the global pandemic and position itself as the most potent regional economic bloc in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The study employs the panel data of the six GCC countries of Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia from 1971 to 2017. The findings of the panel fully modified ordinary least square regression estimation show that the de jure economic and social globalization have a significant positive impact on the region's foreign direct investment inflows. The impact of the de jure political globalization on foreign direct investment is statistically significant but negatively signed. Based on the preceding findings, we offer some holistic policy recommendations to the GCC region as recipes for timely recovery from the economic impact of COVID-19 and beyond.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.50-59
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• 2020

The 21st century is witnessing a rapid growth of tall buildings in urban centers globally to create more urban space for an anticipated urban population. Tall buildings, however suffer from incessant delays and sometimes total abandonment. Consequently, this study investigated and ranked the causes of delay in tall building projects, while focusing on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Initially, 36 common delay causes investigated globally were categorized into 9 groups, and then further ranked utilizing the Relative Importance Index (RII) through a questionnaire survey. Tall building professionals in the GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar) were contacted. The respondents' categories include Consultants, Contractors, and Clients' Representatives/Facility Managers. The results reveal that the top three causes include "client's cash flow problems/delays in contractor's payment", "contractor's financial difficulties", and "poor site organization and coordination between various parties". The findings from this study could help construction professionals develop guidelines and controls for delay mitigation, as well as support them in risk-based decision making in the planning of tall building projects.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.409-418
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• 2023

A coupled algorithm is proposed which first considers the creation of porous structure of the material and then the simulations of response of mechanical components with porous structure to a variable load history. The simulations are carried out by the Prandtl operator approach in the finite element method (FEM) which enables structural simulations of mechanical components subjected to variable thermomechanical loads. Temperature-dependent material properties and multilinear kinematic hardening of the material can be taken into account by this approach. Several simulations are then performed for a tensile-compressive specimen made of a generic porous structure and mechanical properties of Aluminium alloy AlSi9Cu3. Variable mechanical load history has been applied to the specimens under constant temperature conditions. Comparison of the simulation results shows a considerable elastoplastic stress-strain response in the vicinity of pores whilst the surface of the gauge-length of the specimen remains in the elastic region of the material. Moreover, the distribution of the pore sizes seems more influential to the stress-strain field during the loading than their radial position in the gauge-length.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.670-676
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• 2006

We investigated the general composition, fatty acid composition and mineral content of ten kinds of marketed(3 domestic and 7 imported) mackerels. The moisture contents of domestic mackerels ranged from $62.9{\sim}67.8%$, and those of imported mackerels ranged from $61.1{\sim}74.7%$. Ash content was less than 2% in all mackerels. Crude protein content was greatest in Oman mackerel(24.1%) and lowest in UK mackerel(19.7%). Lipids contents ranged from 1.4%(Chile mackerel) to 19.7% (UK mackerel); mackerels with high lipid content tend to have low moisture content. Saturated fatty acids ranged from 18.2% to 31.1% of the total fatty acids content. The mackerel imported from Chile(26.8%) contained the least monoenes, while UK mackerel monoene content(48.7%) was highest. Polyenes were lowest in Tong-yeong mackerel(30.9%) and highest in Chile mackerel(50.0%). DHA content was highest in Chile mackerel(36.4%) and lowest in USA mackerel(14.6%). The mineral content of mackerels were in increasing order; K, Na, Mg, Ca, Fe, Zn and P. The K, Na, Mg and Ca content ranged from $261{\sim}420$, $261{\sim}420$, $37{\sim}176$, $34{\sim}49$ and $5{\sim}22mg/100g$, respectively.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.7343-7350
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• 2015

Genetic changes associated with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) provide very important diagnostic and prognostic information with a direct impact on patient management. Detection of chromosome abnormalities by conventional cytogenetics combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) play a very significant role in assessing risk stratification. Identification of specific chromosome abnormalities has led to the recognition of genetic subgroups based on reciprocal translocations, deletions and modal number in B or T-cell ALL. In the last twelve years 102 newly diagnosed childhood/adult ALL bone marrow samples were analysed for chromosomal abnormalities with conventional G-banding, and FISH (selected cases) using specific probes in our hospital. G-banded karyotype analysis found clonal numerical and/or structural chromosomal aberrations in 74.2% of cases. Patients with pseudodiploidy represented the most frequent group (38.7%) followed by high hyperdiploidy group (12.9%), low hyperdiploidy group (9.7%), hypodiploidy (<46) group (9.7%) and high hypertriploidy group (3.2%). The highest observed numerical chromosomal alteration was high hyperdiploidy (12.9%) with abnormal karyotypes while abnormal 12p (7.5%) was the highest observed structural abnormality followed by t(12;21)(p13.3;q22) resulting in ETV6/RUNX1 fusion (5.4%) and t(9;22)(q34.1;q11.2) resulting in BCR/ABL1 fusion (4.3%). Interestingly, we identified 16 cases with rare and complex structural aberrations. Application of the FISH technique produced major improvements in the sensitivity and accuracy of cytogenetic analysis with ALL patients. In conclusion it confirmed heterogeneity of ALL by identifying various recurrent chromosomal aberrations along with non-specific rearrangements and their association with specific immunophenotypes. This study pool is representative of paediatric/adult ALL patients in Oman.