This study assesses the short-term and long-term interactions between firm performance, financial education and political instability in the case of Malaysia Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The simultaneous insertion of financial education and political instability within the study is done intentionally to inspect the effect of these two elements in one equation for the Malaysian economy. Using the bound testing methodology for cointegration and error correction models, advanced within an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework, we examine whether a long-run equilibrium connection survives between firm performance and the above mentioned independent variables. Using this method, we uncover evidence of a positive long-term link between firm performance and financial education, as well as a negative long-term relationship between firm performance and political instability. It has been suggested that SME owners enhance financial literacy and to be cautious about political indicators of the country
The increase in population resulted in an increase in the consumption of water. The present work investigates the performance of a recycling solar- powered greywater treatment system for the purposes of irrigation, used to reduce the amount of waste grey water and reduce electricity consumption and reduce the costs of constructing large scale water treatment plants. The system consumes about 3814W per hour and provides water treatment about 1.4 m3 per day. The proposed system is designed to residential, office and governmental buildings application. Tests are conducted in an office building at the Ministry of Science and Technology site in Baghdad. Laboratorial water samples testing analyses are co
... Show MoreThis study presented an endeavour to integrate the value chain activities with the Balanced Scorecard for a comprehensive evaluation of an organization’s strategic performance. It also demonstrated the connection and the integration of the activities of the value chain with the Balanced Scorecard. The financial measurement was linked with non-financial measurement by integrating these techniques to achieve an appropriate performance that supports all aspects of the organizational performance. Consequently, the research problem in this study emerged, which is due to the concentration of many organizations on the measurement of financial performance. Notably, the latter caused the decline of some organizations from the competitive market. T
... Show MoreThis work analyzes the impact of MgO nanoparticles on the properties of an epoxy resin solution with uniform structure and particular degree of cure synthesized by the reaction of epoxy resin and pyromellitic dianhydride. Various concentrations of epoxy/MgO nanocomposites were fabricated by mechanical mixing, ultrasonication-based dispersion and casting processes. FTIR results have shown clear differences in the vibrations of C-H, epoxide rings, and main amine N-H groups. This confirms the interaction between MgO particles and the epoxy polymer matrix. X-ray diffraction analysis detected prominent peak at 18.35 degrees, along with additional ones at 43.44 degrees and 62.56 degrees, associated with the (200) and (220) planes of MgO crystal,
... Show MoreThe global rise in temperature and the desert climatic conditions prevalent in Middle Eastern countries have exacerbated rutting distress in heavily trafficked highways. Conventional asphalt binders with a high-temperature performance grade (PG 70) have proven inadequate under such extreme conditions, necessitating the development of modified binders with enhanced high-temperature performance. While polymer modification using styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS), an elastomeric polymer, and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), a plastomeric polymer, has been widely studied, limited research provides a direct comparison of their effectiveness at both the binder and mixture levels under extremely high-temperature conditions. This study addresses this gap
... Show MoreNowadays, energy demand continuously rises while energy stocks are dwindling. Using current resources more effectively is crucial for the world. A wide method to effectively utilize energy is to generate electricity using thermal gas turbines (GT). One of the most important problems that gas turbines suffer from is high ambient air temperature especially in summer. The current paper details the effects of ambient conditions on the performance of a gas turbine through energy audits taking into account the influence of ambient conditions on the specific heat capacity ( , isentropic exponent ( ) as well as the gas constant of air . A computer program was developed to examine the operation of a power plant at various ambient temperature
... Show MoreThe current study performed in order to detect and quantify epicatechin in two tea samples of Camellia sinensis (black and green tea) by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Extraction of epicatechin from black and green tea was done by using two different methods: maceration (cold extraction method) and decoction (hot extraction method). Qualitative and quantitative determinations of epicatechin in two tea samples were investigated. Epicatechin identification was made by utilizing preliminary chemical tests and TLC. This identification was also boosted by HPLC and then quantified epicatechin in all ethyl acetate fractions of two tea samples. This research revealed the existence of epica
... Show MoreWhen the number of confirmed coronavirus disease cases rose in Iraq in the middle of February 2021, the Iraqi government performed a closure approach to constrain mobility and factory operations and enforce social distancing. In this research, the concentrations of air components (PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3)), which represent herein the degree of air quality index, were recorded, drawn and evaluated over central (Baghdad, the capital), northern (Kirkuk Province) and southern (Basra Province) Iraq before and during the closure. The experimental duration of this research was 6 months (from 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2021), which
... Show MorePlasma electrolytic oxidation and dip chemical coating as fabrication techniques are performed in ambient temperature and pressure, giving a competitive-edge in the commercial applicability. Thus, we proposed new compositions of flower-like hybrid materials, MgO-TiO2-HQ(8-hydroxyquinoline), MgOTiO2-HQ-APY(2-aminopyridine) and MgO-TiO2-HQ-APH(2-aminophenol), as photocatalysis with high corrosion resistance via a combination of plasma electrolytic oxidation and dip chemical coating in which 8-HQ, 2-APY, and 2-APH were used as the organic components. TiO2-HQ-APY and MgO-TiO2-HQ-APH exhibited improved simultaneous electrochemical and photocatalytic performance on photodecomposition of methylene blue (MB) in an aqueous solution in the presence o
... Show MoreThe Electric Discharge (EDM) method is a novel thermoelectric manufacturing technique in which materials are removed by a controlled spark erosion process between two electrodes immersed in a dielectric medium. Because of the difficulties of EDM, determining the optimum cutting parameters to improve cutting performance is extremely tough. As a result, optimizing operating parameters is a critical processing step, particularly for non-traditional machining process like EDM. Adequate selection of processing parameters for the EDM process does not provide ideal conditions, due to the unpredictable processing time required for a given function. Models of Multiple Regression and Genetic Algorithm are considered as effective methods for determ
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