In this article, we examine whether Islamic banks are less likely to manage their earnings than non-Islamic banks and how Islamic banks' unique corporate governance system, especially Shari'ah Supervisory Boards, impacts earnings management behaviors within Islamic banks. Using a sample of Islamic banks and their matched non-Islamic banks in 15 countries, we find that, first, Islamic banks are less likely to conduct earnings management as measured by both earnings loss avoidance and abnormal loan loss provisions. Second, there are no significantly different earnings management behaviors between Islamic banks with and without Shari'ah Supervisory Boards. Third, several Shari'ah Supervisory Board characteristics, such as size and the presence of members from Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, are important determinants of the earnings management of Islamic banks who have Shari'ah Supervisory Boards.
Repeated fed-batch fermentation of glucose by Clostridium tyrobutyricum immobilized in a fibrous bed bioreactor (FBB) was successfully employed to produce butyric acid at a high final concentration as well as to adapt a butyric-acid-tolerant strain. At the end of the eighth fed-batch fermentation, the butyric acid concentration reached 86.9 ± 2.17 g/L, which to our knowledge is the highest butyric acid concentration ever produced in the traditional fermentation process. To understand the mechanism and factors contributing to the improved butyric acid production and enhanced acid tolerance, adapted strains were harvested from the FBB and characterized for their physiological properties, including specific growth rate, acid-forming enzymes, intracellular pH, membrane-bound ATPase and cell morphology. Compared with the original culture used to seed the bioreactor, the adapted culture showed significantly reduced inhibition effects of butyric acid on specific growth rate, cellular activities of butyric-acid-forming enzyme phosphotransbutyrylase (PTB) and ATPase, together with elevated intracellular pH, and elongated rod morphology.
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