The present study investigates the relationship between audit quality and earnings management in banks listed on the Stock Exchange of Iraq and Oman. This paper used audit firm size, auditors’ industry expertise, audit report timeliness, auditor change, and auditors’ opinions to measure audit quality. Financial statements, notes attached to financial statements, and reports of independent auditors of 28 banks listed on the Iraqi Stock Exchange and 8 banks listed on the Oman Stock Exchange during the financial period of 7 years (2015 to 2021), and hypotheses were tested using EViews software and panel data. The results of the hypothesis testing showed no significant relationship between the firm size and the auditors’ change and earnings management for both countries (Iraq and Oman). This is while the relationship between the auditor’s industry expertise, the timely presentation of the audit report, and the auditor’s opinion and earnings management for both countries (Iraq and Oman) is negative.

The research utilizes a comprehensive dataset from MENA-listed companies, capturing data from 2013 to 2022 to scrutinize the influence of capital structure (CapSt) level on corporate performance across 11 distinct countries. This study analyzed 6870 firm-year observations using a quantitative research method through static and dynamic panel data analysis. The primary analysis reveals a positive correlation between the CapSt ratio and company performance using fixed effects (FE) techniques. Hence, the preliminary results were re-examined and affirmed using a two-step system generalized method of moment (GMM) estimator to address potential endogeneity concerns. This finding aligns with most studies conducted in advanced countries, indicating a positive correlation between CapSt and corporate performance. Furthermore, it is also consistent with some research conducted in less-developed markets. This research argues that, in the MENA region, the advantages of debt, such as tax saving, may outweigh the potential financial distress cost. Furthermore, it offers insights into the monitoring role of CapSt in MENA-listed companies. We strengthen our research results by employing various methodologies and using alternative measures of accounting performance and controlling size, notably panel quantile regression analysis.

The integration of new technologies and digitalisation causing significant changes in the skills demanded, leading to skills shortages and skills gaps in digital context. Undoubtedly, the employees’ digital skills and knowledge need to be aligned with the ongoing technological changes. This study obtains inputs from the employers from professional services sector regarding the demand for digital skills and the existence of gaps in digital skill among the employees. The impact of digital skills and willingness to pay for the micro-credential on the employability was investigate. 308 responses from the employers reside in Klang Valley, Johor and Penang collected via online survey. The five areas of digital skills adopted from Digital Competence 2.0, and the pair-sample t-test in SPSS was used to identify the present of skill gaps. Besides, PLS-SEM was used to test the hypotheses with regard to impacts of digital skills and micro credential on employability. The findings indicate that problem-solving and safety skills were ranked as highly demanded digital skills in the future. The skill gaps were found in all areas of digital skills except information and data literacy. The employers agreed that digital skills did affect their decision in hiring the graduate employees and they are willing to pay for micro-credentials to address the skills gaps. Yet, willingness to pay for micro-credentials did not affect the employability directly and indirectly. This study provides insights into the demand of digital skills and the digital skills gaps. Implications of the study from theoretical and practical perspectives are discussed.

This study investigates the factors influencing student satisfaction at higher education institutions in Pathum Thani Province, Thailand. The research uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the connections among College Reputation, Student Expectation, Perception Value, and Student Satisfaction based on a sample of 660 students. The results indicate that the student population is diverse, with most students enrolled in the Faculty of Business Administration in their first year. The Pearson’s correlation matrix and structural equation modeling (SEM) findings indicate significant positive correlations between the dimensions, emphasizing the crucial influence of College Reputation on both Student Expectation and Student Satisfaction. The goodness-of-fit indices validate the model’s strength, indicating a significant correspondence between the theoretical components and the observed data. This study enhances the comprehension of how student satisfaction changes in Thai higher education and offers practical suggestions for institutional policies to improve student’s educational experiences and achievements. Higher education institutions may create a more fulfilling and effective learning environment by prioritizing reputation improvement, ensuring student expectations match reality, and providing perceived value to improve education quality and equality for Thailand.

Nowadays, our life needs more and more electricity, and our lives cannot be without electricity, which requires our power to develop more quickly. Power plants are undoubtedly the place where electricity is produced. And now most of the power plant or chemical energy can be converted into heat, and then through the heat to do power production. The boiler is the main part of the power plant. Boiler unit consists of boiler body equipment and auxiliary equipment. The main body of the boiler consists of 'pot' (soft drinks system) and 'furnace' (combustion system). Baotou thermal power plant is mainly burning gas. The gas and air are at a certain rate into the furnace burning. This can greatly reduce the pollution of the environment, but also the full use of fuel. The soda system is mainly carried out in the drum. The heat generated by the combustion system heats the water in the drum, producing steam and then pushing the steam turbine into mechanical energy and finally into electrical energy. This has a high demand for water level, water composition, and the temperature of the steam produced in the drum. The water level should have upper and lower bounds, keeping it within a certain range. Water level is too high, will affect the steam drum soda separation effect, so that the steam drum exports of saturated steam with water increased, causing damage to the turbine, will cause serious explosion. And the water level is too low, it will affect the natural circulation of the normal, serious will make the individual water pipe to form a free water, resulting in flow stagnation, resulting in local metal wall overheating and burst pipe. Water in the heating at the same time will form a lot of scale, if not the chemical treatment of water will be in the formation of scale in the drum, cleaning more difficult, so the damage to the drum. The pressure of the drum is also an important control variable, and pressure control is highly correlated with liquid level control. It is necessary to ensure the integrity of the equipment, but also to ensure safety, followed by ensuring that the process of normal operation of the drum water. This time, the design is mainly for the unit steam temperature control system design. Steam temperature is one of the important indicators of boiler operation quality. It is too high and too low will significantly affect the power plant safety and economy. If the temperature of the steam is low, it will cause the power plant to increase the heat consumption and increase the axial thrust of the turbine to cause the thrust bearing to overload, but also cause the steam turbine to increase the final steam humidity, thus reducing the efficiency of the turbine, aggravating the erosion of the blade. On the contrary, the steam temperature is too high will make the super-heater wall metal strength decreased, and even burn the high temperature of the super-heater, the steam pipe and steam turbine high-pressure part will be damaged, seriously affecting safety. The boiler temperature control system mainly includes the adjustment of the superheated steam and the reheat steam temperature. The superheated steam temperature is the highest temperature in the boiler soda system. The stability of the steam temperature is very important for the safe and economical operation of the unit. Therefore, in the boiler operation, must ensure that the steam temperature in the vicinity of the specified value, and the temperature of the super-heater tube wall does not exceed the allowable working temperature.