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Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity. Economic impact is much worse in developing countries like Bangladesh, as victims are frequently male, productive, and breadwinners of the families. Objectives The objective of our study was to highlight the etiological pattern and distribution of varieties of head injuries in Bangladesh and give recommendations regarding how this problem can be solved or reduce to some extent at least. Methods From January 2017 to December 2019, a total of 14,552 patients presenting with head injury at emergency got admitted in Neurosurgery department of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and were included in this study. Results The most common age group was 21 to 30 years (36%: 5,239) with a male-to-female ratio of 2.6:1. Injury was mostly caused by road traffic accident (RTA [58.3%: 8,484]), followed by fall (25%: 3,638) and history of assault (15.3%: 2,226). The common varieties of head injury were: acute extradural hematoma (AEDH [42.30%: 1,987]), skull fracture either linear or depressed (28.86%: 1,347), acute subdural hematoma (ASDH [12.30%: 574]), brain contusion (10.2%: 476), and others (6.04%: 282). Conclusion RTA is the commonest cause of TBI, and among them motor bike accident is the severe most form of TBI. AEDH is the commonest variety of head injuries. Proper steps taken by the Government, vehicle owners, and drivers, and proper referral system and prompt management in the hospital can reduce the mortality and morbidity from TBI in Bangladesh.

Background: Stereotactic neurosurgery involves mapping the brain in a three-dimensional coordinate system. With the help of MRI and CT scans and 3D computer workstations, neurosurgeons are able to accurately target any area of the brain especially deep seated and brain stem. Objectives: Stereotactic brain biopsy is a minimally invasive procedure that uses this technology to obtain samples of brain tissue for diagnostic purpose of multiple brain disorder where start to any medication was impossible or no response to any medical management for long term. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five patients underwent stereotactic biopsy of brain lesions using“KOMAI” Stereotactic frame system and were enrolled. Results: Of the 25 cases, positive tissue biopsy was found in 20 cases. In 5 patients, biopsy showed gliotic brain tissue or normal brain tissue. There was no post-operative new deficits or mortality seen. Conclusion: Stereotaxy is minimally invasive procedure having no complication. So, before starting any medication blindly stereotactic tissue diagnosis can help a lot in many medical and surgical diseases. J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2021; 39(1): 24-35

Background: Surgical management of extradural hematoma is evacuation of extradural hematoma until otherwise. But, a number of authors have suggested that small epidural hematoma may be managed conservatively with normal outcome in selected cases. The goal of this study was to define the clinical and radiological parameters that may help in the management of the patient with small epidural hematoma where the hematoma was asymptomatic. Objective: This study was conducted to find out the factors influencing the decision making in the management of asymptomatic extradural hematoma though they have no evidence of raised intracranial pressure or any focal neurological deficit. Methods: Three hundred patients were evaluated clinically and by CT scan of head to see of hematoma, location of hematoma, midline shifting and overlying skull fractures etc. Results: All 300 patients were diagnosed within 72 hours of trauma and were tired to be managed expectantly but was not possible sometimes. All these patients were analyzed on the basis of tome since trauma, GCS score, overlying skull fracture traversing any artery, vein or any venous sinuses. Among 300 patients 225 (75%) patients underwent CT scan of head within 24 hours of trauma and 185 (61.67 %) patients had overlying skull fracture. 51 (17%) deteriorated later on and 31 (10.33%) patients among them required surgical evacuation of hematoma. Conclusion: It can be concluded that patients with small epidural hematoma with a fracture overlying major vessels or major sinuses, diagnosed within 24 hours of trauma are at risk of subsequent deterioration and may require surgical evacuation. Bang. J Neurosurgery 2020; 10(1): 20-26

The parabolic pulse (PP) generation within an optical fiber occurs in the presence of gain. The required amount of gain can be supplied either physically or virtually by suitably tapering the core radius throughout the length of the fiber. Regarding PP generation, designing a dispersion increasing fiber (DIF) is undesirable as it introduces negative gain within the fiber. In this work, we have developed a special kind of a dispersion increasing chalcogenide fiber (DICF) where the nonlinearity-induced virtual gain plays the dominant function. In spite of the role of dispersion in reducing the effective gain, an efficient PP is generated in a sufficiently shorter fiber length without supplying any physical gain due to the much more substantial contribution from the nonlinearity of the fiber.

Generation of a self-similar parabolic pulse (PP) in presence of virtually gained normal dispersion tapered chalcogenide fibers is presented in this work. The variations of group velocity dispersion and mainly nonlinearity along the fiber length produce the proposed nonlinearity varying chalcogenide fibers (NVCFs) which can induce sufficient amount of virtual gain leading to obtain desired PPs at smaller optimum length. While studying the interaction among such pair of PPs, it is observed that an oscillating pulse train is created in the overlapping zone. The so generated beat frequency can be tuned in a range of 575– 832 GHz when a lengthwise variation of fiber is considered.

Meningiomas were named by Harvey Cushing in 1922 and described as common tumors that arise from arachnoid cap cells...

Textile based industrial sectors pioneer and govern the present global economy. In practice, current textile industries depend on chemical-based approaches which include following basic techniques likely desizing of fibers, fiber scouring, mercerization of fibers, bleaching with dyeing of fibers, softening of cotton, biopolishing of cotton fibers, denim washing of cotton, and stripping of color. These chemical approaches decline the quality of textile products and fascinate harmful environmental concerns. Even most of these industrial chemicals are corrosive to expensive equipment in textile industries. To this end, this current scenario switches on a paradigm shift from conventional chemical derived avenues to a comparative greener, sustainable, economically viable and environmentally benign alternative catalytic platform in textile industries. Microbial enzymes are the potential key catalytic alternatives of these chemical-based approaches in textile industries. There are two primary groups of microbial enzymes involved in textile industries i.e. hydrolases and oxidoreductases. These key groups of microbial enzymes are most promising considering higher specificities under mild conditions, lower processing time, lower energy and lower water requirements. These preferences improve textile product quality and potential bioprocess integrations. However, existing key industrial microbial enzymes do not show effective efficacies to attain textile industrial requirements (i.e. higher quality textile products) due lower substrate specificities, product inhibition, enzyme stability, lower catalytic efficiencies and lack of efficient naive enzymes time to time. Hence, diverse approaches (i.e. rational enzyme design, metabolic engineering, and systems biology) have been applied to resolve the aforementioned global issues. Therefore, the aim of this current work is to summarize novel and advanced approaches for improving the efficiencies of microbial enzymes with special emphasis on metabolic engineering.

Following the internationalisation of food production and manufacturing, a significant increase of food fraud was discovered, ranging from false label claims to the use of additives and fillers to increase profitability. The accidental or fraudulent mixing of animal products or by-products from different species is an important preoccupation for consumers with health or ethical concerns. Gelatin is widely used during food processing as well as in cosmetics, nutraceutics and medical formulations. It contains mainly type I, II and III collagen polypeptides. Gelatin speciation was performed using a well-defined proteogenomic annotation, carefully chosen surrogate tryptic peptides and analysis using a hybrid quadrupole-Orbitrap MS. Gelatin samples were dissolved in ammonium bicarbonate buffer and proteins were digested with trypsin. The samples were analysed using high-resolution MS. Chromatography was achieved using a 30-min linear gradient on a Thermo BioBasic C8 100 × 1 mm column at a flow rate of 75 μL min

The present work deals with the compensation of third-order dispersion (TOD) in view of parabolic pulse (PP) generation in standard normal dispersion-decreasing fiber (NDDF) links by using phase modulator (PM) at certain position within the link. Since the inherent TOD in the fiber leads to an asymmetric pulse shape and thus degrades the PP formation, there is a strong requirement to minimize the TOD within the fiber link. It is seen that insertion of PM at the estimated critical length reduces misfit parameter satisfactorily at the output end and an equivalent PP is regenerated. A three-stage cascaded system comprising the first section of NDDF, dispersion-shifted fiber (DSF) and a normal dispersion fiber (NDF) may also be useful to mitigate TOD by showing the equivalent performance as that obtained by employing PM in the previous case.

A number of single and two parameter variational approximations for the LP 01 mode are reported in the literature which has been used to compute the various propagation characteristic parameters, such as, propagation constant, normalised dispersion, splice loss, bending loss etc. for single mode fibers. These studies are limited to optically linear fibers. To our knowledge, these variational approximations have not been used to study the nonlinear optical processes in such fibers. In the present work, using these variational approximations, the generation of self-similar parabolic pulses in graded-index single mode normal dispersive active fibers has been studied. The optimum length L opt of the fiber, after which an input Gaussian pulse turns into a self-similar parabolic pulse, has been computed and the accuracies obtained from these variational approximations have been compared.

In this work, the RF performance comparison of lateral and vertical tunnel FETs is presented in the context of ultra low power (ULP) Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensor node circuit applications. It is demonstrated that at low drive currents $(\sim 1\mu \mathrm{A/\mu m})$ , LTFETs outperform VTFETs by an order higher cut-off frequency $(f_{\mathrm{T}})$ of 10 GHz, maximum oscillation frequency $(f_{\mathrm{MAX}})$ of 100 GHz and 50% higher intrinsic gain (Avo). The results show that the TFETs are promising as ULP devices $(V_{\mathrm{ds}}=0.5$ V or less).

In this work, several normally dispersive highly nonlinear chalcogenide optical fibers (NDHNCFs) with a step-index profile have been designed and optimized in view of efficient parabolic pulse (PP) generation. A typical NDHNCF is selected such that the group velocity dispersion is highest among them and the corresponding nonlinearity is also very high. The input pulse parameters are optimized to find the lowest possible optimum length (Lopt) of the fiber where the linearly chirped PP is obtained. Further, it is found that for a shorter input pulse width, PP can be generated at a sufficiently smaller length of the NDHNCF with a slight compromise for its misfit parameter. A detailed analysis of the effect of pre-chirping helps to identify the suitable amount of initial chirp for different chalcogenide fibers with a choice of input pulse parameters. Although no improvement in PP generation is found for normal and initially chirped hyperbolic secant pulses, a highly efficient triangular pulse is achieved for a particular value of input pulse energy and the initial chirp parameter. Finally, the comparative study substantiates that our optimized NDHNCF is capable enough to generate quality PP at a length almost 70% shorter than a standard silica-based fiber.

Three different silica based normal dispersion fibers are designed to identify the best possible one for efficient parabolic pulse generation. Two of them resemble commonly used single core fibers and optimized in such a way that one has lower dispersion and nonlinear coefficient whereas the other possesses higher dispersion and lower nonlinearity. A silica based multi-cladded highly nonlinear fiber (ND-HNLF) is designed as well by successfully restricting its effective area to a very lower value. The comparative analysis among the three fibers suggests that the ND-HNLF would be the best choice for fiber optic manufacturers for parabolic similariton formation due to its smaller optimum length, no effect of higher order dispersion, high nonlinearity and less input power requirement. From our proposed ND-HNLF, a highly nonlinear dispersion decreasing fiber (HN-NDDF) is also designed and optimized by properly varying different fiber parameters as a function of fiber length. Our study also reveals that the HN-NDDF with a typical property of virtual gain would be beneficial for producing parabolic self-similar pulses at smaller optimum lengths with adequate spectral broadening in comparison to that of ND-HNLF.

Roadside transitory water bodies being manmade depressions have a great ecological and socio-economic importance from years. The effects of agricultural runoffs, jute retting, macro-phytes infestations and inadequate rainfall in changed climate often degrade transitory water bodies’ environment while the biodiversity have impacted severely because of population pressure, over exploitation and indiscriminate use of fine meshed fishing gears as a whole. Physico-chemical and biological analysis with fish species composition, relative abundance, diversity indices like species richness, evenness and Shannon-Wiener index were carried out for pre-, during and post-jute retting season and for year mean as a whole to assess impact of jute retting on the roadside transitory water body’s environmental health and indigenous fish diversity at Sahebnagar village in Nadia District, India. All the physico-chemical parameters barring biochemical oxygen demand and water transparency remained more or less same or marginally got little changed during those three seasons. As much as 19 native fish species with varied relative abundances and dominances were identified. Jute retting impacted lower native fish diversity indices like Shannon-Wiener index values (1.94 to 2.68) clearly indicated poor to moderate pollution status of the transitory water body in that area during monsoon in particular and throughout the year in general. So we opined there should be some control over the intense jute retting in the road side transitory water bodies for sustainable management of these manmade resources.

To identify the best possible normally dispersive optical fibers (NDF) in view of efficient triangular pulse (TP) generation, the optimization of several passive NDFs are reported in this work. The study shows that TPs, which sustain over a reasonably good fiber length, can be generated at shorter length when higher values of dispersion and nonlinearity are considered. A suitable NDF with high value of dispersion and nonlinearity is chosen and renamed as normally dispersive highly nonlinear fiber (ND-HNLF). The fiber parameters and pulse conditions are optimized here in such a way that the pulse maintains its triangular shape throughout a longer length in transient state. A detail analysis is performed on generation and stability of triangular pulses through the ND-HNLFs in absence and in presence of gain. When compared, the ND-HNLF with gain is found to be preferable due to their lower input power requirement and lesser broadening of the output triangular pulses whereas passive ND-HNLF performs better in terms of formation of TPs at shorter length and sustainability of those pulses over moderately larger fiber length. It is also shown that the suggested fibers, competent enough to generate stable TPs can be potentially applied in the area of optical signal doubling and a new fiber based approach is mentioned as well for saw-tooth pulse formation.

Diabetes Mellitus is caused due to disorders of metabolism and its one of the most common diseases in the world today, and growing. Threshold Based Clustering Algorithm (TBCA) is applied to medical data received from practitioners and presented in this paper. Medical data consist of various attributes. TBCA is formulated to effectually compute impactful attributes related to Mellitus, for further decisions. TBCAs primary focus is on computation of Threshold values, to enhance accuracy of clustering results.

The present work deals with the performances of straight and bent active normal dispersion decreasing fibers (NDDFs) to create parabolic pulses. Since these optical fibers are generally kept in the form of fiber rolls, they may suffer from unavoidable bend losses. For the NDDFs, the core radius and hence transverse field distribution inevitably change along the fiber length; thereby bend loss is no longer an invariable quantity throughout the NDDF length. The spatial variation of bend loss for a parabolic index NDDF is incorporated for the first time to investigate the effect of bend loss analytically and numerically on parabolic pulse generation. It is illustrated that suitable choice of relative refractive index difference and bend radius of curvature of the fibers would lead to parabolic pulse formation by a bent NDDF. The comparative study on the straight and bent NDDFs will be helpful for the fiber optic manufacturers to design and fabricate NDDFs with proper choice of optimized parameters and index differences so that parabolic pulses can be generated even under the influence of practically unavoidable bending.

In this paper, we report the potential of junctionless (JL) MOS transistors for ultra low power (ULP) subthreshold logic applications. It is demonstrated that double gate (DG) JL devices, which do not require source or drain extension region engineering, can perform significantly better than conventional inversion mode devices, and comparable with underlap DG MOSFETs for ULP applications. Sensitivity analysis shows that among all device parameters, JL devices exhibit least sensitivity to gate length in comparison with inversion mode and underlap MOSFETs. Results highlight the advantages and challenges of JL transistors for next-generation ULP CMOS logic devices.

Calculation of bend loss for single-mode graded-index fibers utilizes the fundamental modal field. Using some of the single and two parameter scalar variational approximations available in the literature for this mode, the bend loss has been computed. The exact results are obtained using a well known numerical method. The accuracies of the results obtained from the use of these variational fields have been compared.

This research experimentally examines the favorable/unfavorable outcomes of a firm's financial and nonfinancial performance measures on financial analysts' recommendation to divest or invest in a firm. The participants were financial analysts who made recommendations ranging from “definitely sell” to “hold” to “definitely buy.” The results show that financial and nonfinancial performance measures and their favorableness have an interactive impact on analysts' recommendations. To be precise, the recommendations were very close to the “definitely sell” anchor when the performance was unfavorable, irrespective of whether the measures presented were financial or nonfinancial. Further, favorableness of performance on nonfinancial measures appears to be irrelevant when performance on financial measures is unfavorable. However, when performance on financial measures is favorable, the effect of nonfinancial performance had a differential effect on analysts' recommendations depending on whether these measures indicated favorable or unfavorable performance. Specifically, when nonfinancial performance was unfavorable, the recommendations were closer to “hold” on average, but the recommendations were closer to “definitely buy” on average when nonfinancial performance was favorable. These results are consistent with our expectations. Overall, given that more and more firms are disclosing nonfinancial measures along with the traditional financial measures, and with an increasing number of firms reporting unfavorable financial performance, the results of this research underline the importance of considering both financial and nonfinancial measures and their outcomes—favorable and unfavorable—on analysts' recommendations. Data Availability: Please contact the authors.

Biological hydrogen production presents a possible avenue for the large scale sustainable generation of hydrogen needed to fuel a future hydrogen economy. Amongst the possible approaches that are under active investigation and that will be briefly discussed; biophotolysis, photofermentation, microbial electrolysis, and dark fermentation, dark fermentation has the additional advantages of largely relying on already developed bioprocess technology and of potentially using various waste streams as feedstock. However, the major roadblock to developing a practical process has been the low yields, typically around 25%, well below those achievable for the production of other biofuels from the same feedstocks. Moreover, low yields also lead to the generation of side products whose large scale production would generate a waste disposal problem. Here recent attempts to overcome these barriers are reviewed and recent progress in efforts to increase hydrogen yields through physiological manipulation, metabolic engineering and the use of two-stage systems are described.

Replacement of fossil fuels with alternative energies is increasingly imperative in light of impending climate change and fossil fuel shortages. Biohydrogen has several potential advantages over other biofuels. Dark fermentation as a means of producing biohydrogen is attractive since a variety of readily available waste streams can be used. However, at present its practical application is prevented by the low yields obtained. Here the basic metabolisms leading to hydrogen production are outlined and current research to increase yields, either through modification of existing pathways, or by metabolic engineering to create new, higher yielding, pathways, is discussed. Inactivation of competing reactions and manipulation of culture conditions has lead to higher hydrogen yields, near those predicted by metabolic schemes. However, to be useful, hydrogen production must be increased beyond present limits. Several possibilities for surpassing those limits using metabolic engineering are presented.

The parabolic similariton pulse formation by alternate arrangements of passive and active dispersion compensating fibers (DCFs) is presented here. These combinations of passive and active DCFs with constant core radii and constant nonlinearities are suggested as equivalent profiles of a dispersion tailored fiber amplifier in normal dispersion regime. The dispersion tailored fibers, usually known as dispersion decreasing fibers (DDFs) in normal dispersion regime, are capable of producing linearly chirped parabolic self-similar pulses. The DDF is designed and optimized with proper choice of fiber parameters so that considerable variation of nonlinearity can be achieved, which in turn enhances the effective gain coefficient of the fiber. Inclusion of this nonlinear variation along the DDF amplifier length leads to obtain the simulated output pulses with very small misfit parameters with respect to perfect parabolic pulse at sufficiently reduced optimum length. At the same time to avoid the fabrication difficulties of the DDF, the alternately arranged passive and active DCFs are suggested as suitable alternatives of the DDF. The performances of the cascaded systems for generation of self-similar parabolic pulses are compared with that of the DDF amplifier as well as combined systems consisting of DCFs with equal gain. The results show that the proposed alternately arranged cascaded system with less pumping requirements, are efficient enough to produce similar parabolic pulses as compared to the previously designed DDF, even when considerable amount of splice loss at each joint is included.

Generation of self-similar parabolic pulse is analytically and numerically demonstrated by designing parabolic index normal dispersion decreasing fiber (NDDF) amplifiers. The pulse transmission is extensively studied for NDDFs in presence of physical gain as well as virtual gain induced by two different dispersion profiles corresponding to two different physical gain coefficients. Here, we introduce the virtual gain arising from the unavoidable spatial nonlinear variation, which helps to obtain the self-similar parabolic pulses at smaller optimum length in comparison to NDDF with constant nonlinearity. The output power profiles resemble with a perfect parabolic shape giving rise to self-similar pulses with very small misfit parameters. Pulse propagation in presence of spatial gain variation is also studied. To avoid fabrication difficulties, we propose equivalent staircase dispersion profiles consisting of a number of constant dispersion fibers (CDFs), which are simple to manufacture and show performances excellently close to that of the proposed NDDF.

A computational method for arbitrary crack motion through a finite element mesh, termed as the generalized cohesive element technique, is presented. In this method, an element with an internal discontinuity is replaced by two superimposed elements with a combination of original and imaginary nodes. Conventional cohesive zone modeling, limited to crack propagation along the edges of the elements, is extended to incorporate the intra-element mixed-mode crack propagation. Proposed numerical technique has been shown to be quite accurate, robust and mesh insensitive provided the cohesive zone ahead of the crack tip is resolved adequately. A series of numerical examples is presented to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the proposed method.

Dramatically rising oil prices and increasing awareness of the dire environmental consequences of fossil fuel use, including startling effects of climate change, are refocusing attention worldwide on the search for alternative fuels. Hydrogen is poised to become an important future energy carrier. Renewable hydrogen production is pivotal in making it a truly sustainable replacement for fossil fuels, and for realizing its full potential in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One attractive option is to produce hydrogen through microbial fermentation. This process would use readily available wastes as well as presently unutilized bioresources, including enormous supplies of agricultural and forestry wastes. These potential energy sources are currently not well exploited, and in addition, pose environmental problems. However, fuels are relatively low value products, placing severe constraints on any production process. Therefore, means must be sought to maximize yields and rates of hydrogen production while at the same time minimizing energy and capital inputs to the bioprocess. Here we review the various attributes of the characterized hydrogen producing bacteria as well as the preparation and properties of mixed microflora that have been shown to convert various substrates to hydrogen. Factors affecting yields and rates are highlighted and some avenues for increasing these parameters are explored. On the engineering side, we review the potential waste pre-treatment technologies and discuss the relevant bioprocess parameters, possible reactor configurations, including emerging technologies, and how engineering design-directed research might provide insight into the exploitation of the significant energy potential of biomass resources.

Although an organization’s environmental uncertainty may induce greater variability in reported earnings, managers have incentives to reduce this variability. The flexibility accorded by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) provides managers the means to accomplish this via exercising discretion in recognizing accounting accruals. Thus, we examine the relation between managers’ use of discretionary accruals and environmental uncertainty. Overall, evidence suggests managers use discretionary accruals to reduce the variability in reported earnings more when firms operate in high uncertainty.

A parabolic index dispersion decreasing fiber (DDF) has been designed and optimized to produce high capacity soliton communication system. Variation of different fiber parameters such as core radius, effective core area and GVD factor along the 25 km of DDF length has been carried out to optimize a best possible DDF which can sustain the propagation of fundamental soliton. The variation of non-linearity with length along with the conventional power and GVD factor variation has been included in the generalized non-linear Schrodinger equation (NLSE). This NLSE has been solved numerically by split step Fourier method for shorter pulse propagation, incorporating the term for third order dispersion and intrapulse Raman scattering. Stable soliton pulses in transmission system have been achieved by our simulation, when a correction factor due to Raman induced soliton mean frequency shift is incorporated to the GVD profile predicted by the fundamental soliton condition. The interaction of neighboring soliton pulse pair through the proposed fiber has also been studied.

Non-zero dispersion shifted fibers (NZ-DSFs) find extensive use in wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) system as it reduces the non-linear effects like four-wave mixing (FWM) generation. A depressed clad graded index fiber with a central dip in the refractive index profile, as well as without dip, has been modeled to perform as an NZ-DSF using the spot size optimization technique. The performance characteristics of the proposed NZ-DSF have been studied by changing different fiber parameters; such as inner core radius (a), relative refractive index differences (Δ+), normalized end position of depressed clad (C), depression parameter (ρ), etc. for a given value of Petermann-2 spot size ( W ¯ ) . By suitably adjusting the fiber parameters, the effective core areas (Aeff) as simulated here are very large (∼80 μm2) so that the effect of non-linearities upon them can be minimized. These NZ-DSFs have also been optimized for WDM transmission system. The dispersion slopes of the proposed fibers with and without dip have been estimated which are comparable with the reported results.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to first examine whether intellectual capital (IC) information is considered in firm valuation. Next, to examine two issues: financial analysts' investment recommendations when faced with different combinations of performance levels (i.e. above or below industry average) of financial and IC measures, and the role of financial and IC measures with different performance levels and holding periods (i.e. short‐term vs long‐term) for the investment on analysts' recommendations.Design/methodology/approachThe first part of the paper used secondary (both archival and survey) data. The second part was an experiment.FindingsThe findings in the first part show that, after controlling for the effect of financial performances on firm value, measures of IC are still significant explanatory variables (of firm value). The second part shows that the financial and IC measures affect financial analysts' investment recommendations differently depending on the measures' levels of performance and the time horizon for holding the investments.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of the paper are as follows: the use of secondary data from a single country limits its generalizability; and the results of the experiment are parameterized by the research design such as the amount of information provided to the financial analysts. Extending the analyses to other settings and using time‐series data represent future research opportunities.Originality/valueThe research makes three contributions to the IC literature. First, it extends the studies on the relevance of IC in capital market research by broadening its scope to include measures of IC other than R&D intensity. Next, it provides evidence of the informativeness of IC measures in market valuation of firms and analysts' recommendations, thus lending credence to the arguments of reports and researchers for more external communication of IC information. Finally, this study is one of the first to examine a broader scope of IC in the capital market context and the use of IC by sophisticated market participants. With policy‐makers and standard‐setting bodies considering proposals to enhance information on IC in financial reports, it is important to broaden the scope of IC metrics and understand their role in enhancing firm value to develop a framework for reporting IC.

This work reports the design optimization of a single-mode graded index multiclad dispersion-compensating fiber (DCF) with a central dip, for broadband wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system in the C- and L-bands of an operating wavelength zone. The index profile parameters of this fiber have been adjusted to simultaneously achieve high figure of merit (FOM) as well as considerably high value of effective core areas of the fiber to minimize the nonlinear effects like self-phase modulation or cross-phase modulation. At 1,550 nm operating wavelength, an effective core area (A eff ) of 46 μm2, which is very large compared to other reported values of DCFs, is obtained here. The average dispersion of the DCFs, in combination with conventional single-mode fiber (CSF) and small dispersion fiber (SDF), are found out to be considerably flat in the entire C- and L-band zone of operating wavelength.

Interdigitated capacitors containing the field-tunable ferroelectric Ba0.75Sr0.25TiO3, polycrystalline alumina substrates, and copper metallization have been fabricated. Dielectric layers were prepared by magnetron sputtering, while the Cu metallization was evaporated. The dielectric tunability of the Ba0.75Sr0.25TiO3 was 40% at an applied electric field of 12 V/μm. This corresponds to a 3-μm electrode gap width and a 35 V dc bias. Low-frequency (1 MHz) loss tangent measurements indicate a dielectric Q (quality factor) of ∼100 while microwave measurements reveal a zero bias device Q of ∼30 at 26 GHz. These values are comparable or superior to numerous reports of barium strontium titanate interdigitated capacitors prepared using single crystalline substrates and noble metallization. As such, this technology is significantly less expensive and more amenable to large-volume manufacturing.

SUMMARY This article describes Sariling Gawa Youth Council as a case study of youth leadership development in Hawai'i. Since 1980, thousands of young people-primarily Filipino youth-have participated in Sariling Gawa activities which have developed their leadership skills. Many of them have continued to lead the organization and utilize what they learned with numerous local organizations and state agencies. The authors examine Sariling Gawa's growth, structure, and other factors that contribute to its longevity. The model includes (1) youth empowerment through building their leadership skills, (2) fostering and strengthening peer social support and social networks, (3) promotion of positive ethnic identity, and (4) community capacity building by involving youth in civic and community affairs.

A segmented core central step index dispersion compensating fiber (DCF) has been modeled by using spot size optimization technique. We have designed and optimized the DCF by suitably adjusting different fiber parameters, i.e. inner core radius (a), central relative refractive index difference (Δ), normalized outer core position (p), width (b) and height (h) at different values of given Petermann-II spot sizes ( W ¯ ) . The studies on the propagation behavior as well as bendloss and other losses of the DCF have been presented here. The proposed design of the DCF can possess improved bend performances over single core DCFs. At the same time higher negative dispersion coefficient in the single mode region as well as considerably high value of figure of merit (FOM) for optimized fiber parameters can be achieved for smaller spot sizes ( W ¯ ) of the DCF. Further, inclusion of length independent splice loss modified this conventional FOM to a slightly lesser value of modified FOM.

In this letter, we demonstrate the usefulness of ultralow-power (ULP) junctionless (JL) MOSFETs in achieving improved analog/RF metrics as compared to nonunderlap and underlap MOSFETs. At a drain current (Ids) of 10 μA/μm, JL devices achieve two times higher values of cutoff frequency (fT) and maximum oscillation frequency (fMAX) along with 65% improvement in voltage gain (AVO) in comparison to conventional nonunderlap MOSFETs. ULP JL devices, which do not require source/drain (S/D) profile optimization, can perform comparably to underlap devices, thereby relaxing the stringent process constraints associated with S/D profile optimization in nanoscale devices. The results highlight new opportunities for realizing future ULP analog/RF design with JL transistors.

A future hydrogen economy requires the sustainable production of renewable hydrogen. One method to produce hydrogen from stored renewable energy could be through reformation of bioethanol. However, chemically catalyzed reformation processes, although well studied, still present a number of significant technical challenges. Here, bioreformation of ethanol to hydrogen by photofermentation with the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris is described. Cultures were shown to tolerate up to 2% ethanol. An RSM (response surface methodology) was carried out in which three key factors, light intensity, and ethanol and glutamate concentrations were varied. The results showed that nearly 2mol of H2 could be obtained from one mole of ethanol, 33% of that theoretically possible.

A comparative analysis of ULP analog/RF performance metrics have been presented. TFETs will be useful in high-gain ULP circuits with limited bandwidth requirement. Underlap INV and JL devices, achieving a balance between gain and bandwidth, are most suitable for ULP analog/RF applications. JL MOSFETs do not suffer from any significant degradation in metrics despite higher channel doping.

Generation of insect-resistant, transgenic crop plants by expression of the insecticidal crystal protein (ICP) gene of Bacillus thuringiensis ( Bt ) is a standard crop improvement approach. In such cases, adequate expression of the most appropriate ICP against the target insect pest of the crop species is desirable. It is also considered advantageous to generate Bt -transgenics with multiple toxin systems to control rapid development of pest resistance to the ICP. Larvae of yellow stem borer (YSB), Scirpophaga incertulas , a major lepidopteran insect pest of rice, cause massive losses of rice yield. Studies on insect feeding and on the binding properties of ICP to brush border membrane receptors in the midgut of YSB larvae revealed that cryIAb and cryIAc are two individually suitable candidate genes for developing YSB-resistant rice. Programs were undertaken to develop Bt -transgenic rice with these ICP genes independently in a single cultivar. A cryIAc gene was reconstructed and placed under control of the maize ubiquitin 1 promoter, along with the first intron of the maize ubiquitin 1 gene, and the nos terminator. The gene construct was delivered to embryogenic calli of IR64, an elite indica rice cultivar, using the particle bombardment method. Six highly expressive independent transgenic ICP lines were identified. Molecular analyses and insect-feeding assays of two such lines revealed that the transferred synthetic cryIAc gene was expressed stably in the T 2 generation of these lines and that the transgenic rice plants were highly toxic to YSB larvae and lessened the damage caused by their feeding.

In this work, we report on the doping dependence of RF performance metrics of junctionless transistors and compare the same with conventional undoped inversion mode MOSFETs. It is demonstrated that at low drive currents (~ 25 μA/μm), JL transistors outperform inversion mode MOSFETs as 20% to 40% higher values of cut-off frequency is obtained for all doping concentrations (1019 cm3 to 3×1019 cm3). It is shown that the junctionless device architecture is advantageous for ultra low power RF applications as parasitic capacitances are significantly reduced. Scaling trends for cut-off frequency (at lower drain currents) with respect to gate length highlights the potential of junctionless architecture for ultra low power applications.

In this work, we analyze the dependence of steep subthreshold (S-slope) on device and bias parameters of Junctionless (JL) MOSFETs. It is observed that for certain parameters and bias conditions, the JL transistor cannot be turned OFF resulting in a single transistor latch. This phenomenon is an extreme case of impact ionization in JL MOSFETs. It is shown that thicker values of silicon film thickness and gate oxide along with higher drain bias can drive the JL MOSFET in to the latch state.

The present work reports on the substantial benefits of underlap Source/Drain (S/D) design in moderately inverted nanoscale MOSFETs to significantly enhance key analog/RF performance metrics. It is demonstrated that underlap S/D design alleviates the inherent trade-offs between bandwidth, gain and linearity for low power RF CMOS nanodevices. Optimal underlap region parameters are identified and design trade-offs examined. The results are significant for RFICs with nanoscale MOSFETs in emerging technologies.

This study examines the relations among management control systems (MCS), environmental uncertainty (EU), and organizational slack (OS). Given a firm's EU, managing OS requires the support of an appropriately designed MCS. Thus, for different levels of OS and EU, we examine two forms of MCS: budgetary control and performance measurement system encompassing both financial and nonfinancial measures. EU and OS were determined using archival data, and MCS data was obtained via a survey questionnaire to chief executive officers (CEOs). As hypothesized, the results show that, given firms’ EU, the two forms of control play distinct but different roles in managing OS.

This paper describes experimental data on a polycrystalline nickel subjected to compressive loads induced in a split Hopkinson pressure bar test. A perpendicular bias magnetic field with respect to the loading direction is used to orient the domains and a pick-up coil measures the magnetic response of the sample during loading. Utilizing this experimental configuration, this study investigated the coupled effects of the magnetic and mechanical fields on domain wall motion in a polycrystalline magnetostrictive material (Ni) during the high-rate elastic loading. The experimental measurements reveal that the magnitude of the stress-induced magnetization change is dependent upon bias magnetic field.

Bioethanol was seen as a promising clean renewable biofuel, principally as a fuel additive which could improve engine performance and reduce air pollution, and was the first biofuel produced on a large scale. US production of ethanol from corn, a first-generation biofuel, reached 50.3 billion litres in 2010 and is projected to rise to 54.3 billion litres in 2011. Thus, the USA has become by far the world’s leading bioethanol producer, far surpassing Brazil, which produced 25.3 billion litres from sugarcane in 2010, and is now importing ethanol from the USA.

Although recent research has identified attitudes towards ambiguity and risk to be important determinants of choice behavior [8] [18], no prior work jointly assessed the roles of both attitudes. We conducted a laboratory experiment using a real decision scenario and conducted exploratory analyses of the relationship between attitudes towards risk and ambiguity and the decision taken by the subjects. The results support the prediction that attitudes towards both risk and ambiguity affect choice behavior. Our exploratory analyses indicate interesting avenues for future research, including an examination of the decision process itself.

The evolution of self-similar parabolic pulses is demonstrated by designing a parabolic index dispersion decreasing fiber amplifier with normal dispersion (ND-DDF amplifier), with inclusion of the variation of nonlinear factor (gamma) with distance. The pulse transmission is extensively studied for the proposed ND-DDF in presence of external gain as well as virtual gain induced by its dispersion profile. The output power resembles with a perfect parabolic shape giving rise to self-similar pulses with minimum misfit les 0.003. In view of practical aspects of fabrication we also obtain several equivalent staircase profiles, whose performances are shown to be very close to that of the proposed ND-DDF.