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Two-dimensional turbulent burst examination and angle ratio utilization to detect scouring/sedimentation around mid-channel bar
Get PDFyesRiver morphological dynamics are complex phenomena in natural and environmental flows. In particular,
the sediment transport around braid mid-channel bars has not gained enough understanding from previous research. The effect of submergence ratio on the turbulence behavior in the proximity of the bar has been investigated in this study. The spatial distribution of turbulent flow in the proximity of bar has been studied by plotting the depth-averaged two-dimensional contours of turbulent kinetic energy. The high value of TKE has been observed in regions just downstream from the bar. It is due to the vortex shedding occurring in that region. The interaction of sweep and ejection events have been analyzed using the parameter Dominance Function obtained from the ratio of occurrence probability of ejection events to the occurrence probability of sweep events. This outcome indicates that the depth averaged parameter Dominance Function has successfully predicted the high scouring region which makes it an ideal parameter for analyzing the scour phenomena in real-world water management projects. The high scouring zone lies in the close proximity of the bar. This shows that the scouring effect from the bar is limited to its close region. The magnitude of scouring occurring at the upstream region of the bar also increases with the
increment of submergence ratio. The relationship of quadrant event inclination angles with the sediment
transport occurring in the proximity of bar has been also studied, where an Angle Ratio parameter has been utilized for linking the bed elevation change with the inclination angle. The results indicate that the AR parameter has been successfully tested in this study to show its competence to represent the turbulent burst-induced bed sedimentation and scouring.The author has confirmed that no changes were made to the content of this proof on publication, although the paper is watermarked uncorrected proof
Propagation of online consumer-perceived negativity: Quantifying the effect of supply chain underperformance on passenger car sales
Get PDFYesThe paper presents a text analytics framework that analyses online reviews to explore how consumer-perceived negativity corresponding to the supply chain propagates over time and how it affects car sales. In particular, the framework integrates aspect-level sentiment analysis using SentiWordNet, time-series decomposition, and bias-corrected least square dummy variable (LSDVc) – a panel data estimator. The framework facilitates the business community by providing a list of consumers’ contemporary interests in the form of frequently discussed product attributes; quantifying consumer-perceived performance of supply chain (SC) partners and comparing the competitors; and a model assessing various firms’ sales performance. The proposed framework demonstrated to the automobile supply chain using a review dataset received from a renowned car-portal in India. Our findings suggest that consumer-voiced negativity is maximum for dealers and minimum for manufacturing and assembly related features. Firm age, GDP, and review volume significantly influence car sales whereas the sentiments corresponding to SC partners do not. The proposed research framework can help the manufacturers in inspecting their SC partners; realising consumer-cited critical car sales influencers; and accurately predicting the sales, which in turn can help them in better production planning, supply chain management, marketing, and consumer relationships
Legislative budgetary power and fiscal discipline in the Euro Area
Get PDFYesPurpose – The objective of this study is to understand the budgetary role of national legislatures in Euro Area (EA) countries and to analyse implications for fiscal discipline.
Design/methodology/approach – Building on the budget institutions literature, a legislative budgetary power index for all the 19 EA countries is constructed using OECD and European Commission data as well as data generated from questionnaires to national authorities. A two-way fixed effects panel data model is then used to assess the effect of legislative budgetary power on the budget balance in the EA during 2006-15.
Findings - Overall, in the EA, formal legislative powers vis-à-vis the national budgetary process are weak but there is more legislative involvement in SGP procedures and legislative budgetary organisational capacity is generally quite good. In contrast to the traditional view in the budget institutions literature, our empirical findings show that strong legislative budgetary power does not necessarily result in larger budget deficits.
Research limitations/implications – Data on legislative budgeting was available from different sources and timeseries data was very limited.
Practical implications – There is scope to improve democratic legitimacy of the national budgetary process in the EA, without necessarily jeopardising fiscal discipline.
Originality/value – The constructed legislative budgetary power index covers all the 19 EA countries and has a broad scope covering various novel institutional characteristics. The empirical analysis contributes to the scarce literature on the impact of legislative budgeting on fiscal discipline
8-Port Semi-Circular Arc MIMO Antenna with an Inverted L-Strip Loaded Connected Ground for UWB Applications
Get PDFYesMultiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas with four and eight elements having connected grounds are designed for ultra-wideband applications. Careful optimization of the lines connecting the grounds leads to reduced mutual coupling amongst the radiating patches. The
proposed antenna has a modified substrate geometry and comprises a circular arc-shaped conductive
element on the top with the modified ground plane geometry. Polarization diversity and isolation are achieved by replicating the elements orthogonally forming a plus shape antenna structure. The
modified ground plane consists of an inverted L strip and semi ellipse slot over the partial ground
that helps the antenna in achieving effective wide bandwidth spanning from (117.91%) 2.84-11 GHz. Both 4/8-port antenna achieves a size of 0.61 λ × 0.61 λ mm2 (lowest frequency) where 4-port antenna is printed on FR4 substrate. The 4-port UWB MIMO antenna attains wide impedance bandwidth, Omni-directional pattern, isolation >15 dB, ECC 4.5 dB making the MIMO antenna suitable for portable UWB applications. Four element antenna structure is further extended to 8-element configuration with the connected ground where the decent value of IBW, isolation, and ECC is achieved
Patient Perspectives on Factors Affecting Direct Oral Anticoagulant Use for Stroke Prevention in Atrial Fibrillation
Get PDFYesIntroduction: Oral anticoagulant therapy choices for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) expanded in the last decade with the introduction of direct oral anticoagulants (DOAC). However, the implementation of DOACs was slow and varied across different health economies in England. There is limited evidence on the patient role in the uptake of new medicines, including DOACs, apart from considering their demographic and clinical characteristics. Hence, this study aimed to address the gap by exploring the view of patients with AF on factors affecting DOAC use.
Methods: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted in three health economies in the North of England. Adult patients (>18 years) diagnosed with non-valvular AF, prescribed an oral anticoagulant (vitamin K antagonist or DOAC), and able to give written consent were recruited. Data were collected between August 2018 and April 2019. Audio recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using the framework method.
Results: Four themes with eleven subthemes discussed identified factors affecting the use of DOACs. They were linked to limited healthcare financial and workforce resources, patient involvement in decision-making, patient knowledge about DOACs, safety concerns about oral anticoagulants, and oral anticoagulant therapy impact on patients' daily lives. Lack of a) opportunities to voice patient preferences and b) information on available therapy options resulted in some patients experiencing difficulties with the prescribed therapy. This was reported to cause negative impact on their daily lives, adherence, and overall satisfaction with the therapy.
Conclusion: Greater patient involvement in decision-making could prevent and resolve difficulties encountered by some patients and potentially improve outcomes plus increase the uptake of DOACs.Pharmacy Research UK (PRUK-2018-GA-1-KM) and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trus
Does capital market drive corporate investment efficiency? Evidence from equity lending supply
Get PDFYesThe increased equity lending supply (ELS) in the equity loan market, available for short sellers to borrow, exposes a firm to greater short selling threats. Considering short sellers’ strong incentives to uncover firm-specific information and monitor managers, we hypothesize that short selling threats, proxied by ELS, enhance corporate investment efficiency. We find that ELS significantly reduces managerial tendencies to underinvest (overinvest) especially for firms prone to underinvest (overinvest). The effect of ELS on investment efficiency is stronger for firms with higher information asymmetry and weaker corporate governance, confirming short sellers’ role in mitigating information and agency costs. However, short selling risk weakens the effect of ELS. Our evidence is robust to endogeneity checks and suggests that corporate investment can be driven by a particular capital market condition: the amount of lendable shares in the equity loan market
Applications of Biocatalysts for Sustainable Oxidation of Phenolic Pollutants: A Review
Get PDFYesPhenol and its derivatives are hazardous, teratogenic and mutagenic, and have gained significant attention in recent years due to their high toxicity even at low concentrations. Phenolic compounds appear in petroleum refinery wastewater from several sources, such as the neutralized spent caustic waste streams, the tank water drain, the desalter effluent and the production unit. Therefore, effective treatments of such wastewaters are crucial. Conventional techniques used to treat these wastewaters pose several drawbacks, such as incomplete or low efficient removal of phenols. Recently, biocatalysts have attracted much attention for the sustainable and effective removal of toxic chemicals like phenols from wastewaters. The advantages of biocatalytic processes over the conventional treatment methods are their ability to operate over a wide range of operating conditions, low consumption of oxidants, simpler process control, and no delays or shock loading effects associated with the start-up/shutdown of the plant. Among different biocatalysts, oxidoreductases (i.e., tyrosinase, laccase and horseradish peroxidase) are known as green catalysts with massive potentialities to sustainably tackle phenolic contaminants of high concerns. Such enzymes mainly catalyze the o-hydroxylation of a broad spectrum of environmentally related contaminants into their corresponding o-diphenols. This review covers the latest advancement regarding the exploitation of these enzymes for sustainable oxidation of phenolic compounds in wastewater, and suggests a way forward
Care after death in children’s hospices: recommendations for moving and handling, and for managing physiological deterioration
Get PDFYesChildren's hospices provide a range of services for babies, children and young people who have life-shortening conditions, including care after death in specialist 'cool bedrooms'. Caring for children after death is a challenging area of hospice care, with variation seen within, and between organisations. The study aims to identify current practices and to produce guidelines that promote safe practice in moving and handling and managing physiological deterioration of children after death.
An electronic questionnaire was sent to all 54 British children's hospices; 33 responded (=62% of hospices). Variation in the way in which children's hospices delivered care after death was identified, in terms of the length of stay, care provision and equipment used, owing to demands of individual families and the experience and confidence of practitioners. Internal
variation in practice can lead to practitioner anxiety, and risk-taking when providing care, particularly in the presence of family members. Practice recommendations have been made that reflect the practical demands of caring for a child's body after death; these have been split into two parts: moving and handling considerations and managing physiological deterioration.
These recommendations should be used to support the development of policy and practice, allowing organisations to standardise staff expectations and to support practitioners when caring for children after death
Why do firm fundamentals predict returns? Evidence from short selling activity
Get PDFYesThis study uses short selling activity to test whether the relation between fundamentals and future returns is due to rational pricing or mispricing. We find that short sellers target firms with fundamental performance below market expectations. We also show that short selling activity reduces the return predictability of fundamentals by speeding up the price adjustments to negative fundamental signals. To further investigate whether the returns earned by short sellers reflect rational risk premia or mispricing, we exploit a natural experiment, namely Regulation of SHO, which creates exogenous shocks to short selling by temporarily relaxing short-sale constraints. Evidence from the experiment confirms that the superior returns to short sellers result from exploiting overpricing. Overall, our study suggests that the return predictability of fundamentals reflects mispricing rather than rational risk premia
Living with dementia under COVID-19 restrictions Coping and support needs among people with dementia and carers from the IDEAL cohort
Get PDFYesStringent social restrictions imposed during 2020 to counter the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic could significantly affect the wellbeing and quality of life of people with dementia living in the community and their family carers. We explored the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on people with dementia and family carers in England and considered how negative effects might be mitigated. We conducted semi-structured telephone interviews with 11 people with dementia and 11 family carers who were ongoing participants in the IDEAL cohort during the initial ‘lockdown’ period in May and June 2020, and follow-up interviews with five people with dementia and two carers as restrictions were eased in July. We analysed interview data and triangulated the findings with issues raised in dementia-specific online forums. Findings showed some people with dementia were coping well, but others experienced a range of negative impacts, with varying degrees of improvement as restrictions were eased. The need for clear personalised information relating to COVID-19 and the value of support in the form of regular ‘just checking’ phone calls was emphasised. This exceptional situation provides a natural demonstration of how social and psychological resources shape the potential to ‘live well’ with dementia. While some support is recommended for all, a personalised approach to determine needs and coping ability would ensure that further practical and emotional support is targeted effectively.National Institute for Health Research (NIHR