1,721,764 research outputs found
Manifold Conceptions of the Internal Auditing of Risk Culture in the Financial Sector
Full text linkThis exploratory study investigates the manifold conceptions of the internal auditing (IA) of risk culture prevalent among four influential actors of the financial sector—regulators, normalizers, consultants, and implementers. By inductive analysis of 20 interviews and 295 documents, we illustrate a two-step interpretive scheme utilized by the four actors in their IA approaches of risk culture: defining broad goals and designing visibility schemes. The visibility schemes were tied to the demarcation, measurement, as well as the IA data collection techniques of risk culture. Our results indicate two dichotomous interpretations among the four actors concerning the IA of risk culture. The first interpretation, prevalent among regulators and implementers, promotes the control of risk culture primarily through verification. The second interpretation, adopted by consultants and normalizers, promotes the control of risk culture by IA along with the empowerment of employees through training programs. Our results not only contribute to understanding IA expansions, specifically to non-tangible domains such as risk culture but also enrich the literature exploring the mechanisms different stakeholders utilize to shape weakly professionalized IA practices
Antimony Selenide Based Solar Cells by Vacuum Evaporation
No full textIn the presented work, Antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) thin films with varying thickness (1000, 700 and 500 nm) were prepared by low temperature thermal evaporation method. Solar cells were fabricated in the superstrate configuration of Glass/ITO/ZnO/CdS/Sb2Se3/Cu/Au. Cu addition after the deposition of Sb2Se3, was introduced to improve the back contact and the device performance. Material characterization and the electrical characterization reveal that the preferred orientation [hk1] of the Sb2Se3 is due to the vacuum annealing at 300 0C which leads to a better device performance; while Cu addition leads to a significant increase in the Voc and the fill factor (FF). The champion solar cell showed a conversion efficiency of 3.2 % with a Voc of 332 mV and FF of 43.3%
Supplementary_data_TUB – Supplemental material for Sperm associated antigen 9 (SPAG9) a promising therapeutic target of ovarian carcinoma
No full textSupplemental material, Supplementary_data_TUB for Sperm associated antigen 9 (SPAG9) a promising therapeutic target of ovarian carcinoma by Nirmala Jagadish, Rukhsar Fatima, Aditi Sharma, Sonika Devi, Vitusha Suri, Vikash Kumar and Anil Suri in Tumor Biology</p
Figure_S1_Supplementary_tub – Supplemental material for Sperm associated antigen 9 (SPAG9) a promising therapeutic target of ovarian carcinoma
No full textSupplemental material, Figure_S1_Supplementary_tub for Sperm associated antigen 9 (SPAG9) a promising therapeutic target of ovarian carcinoma by Nirmala Jagadish, Rukhsar Fatima, Aditi Sharma, Sonika Devi, Vitusha Suri, Vikash Kumar and Anil Suri in Tumor Biology</p
Sustainability trade-offs in the circular economy: a maturity-based framework
Full text linkThe theoretical and practical understanding of sustainability implementation has been changing in depth and scope. In particular, circular economy paradigms (e.g., Cradle to Cradle or “C2C” practices) have enabled firms to rethink their resource management behavior, resulting in distinct trade-off patterns among different sustainability dimensions. Furthermore, while many established firms remain reactive and market-oriented in their sustainability implementations, sustainability-rooted firms proactively integrate sustainability practices into their core business. The prior literature on sustainability trade-offs has unduly focused more on established firms that predominantly indulge in market-oriented decisions and trade-offs between profit and sustainability, lacking insights into the approaches adopted by sustainability-rooted firms and trade-offs among the different dimensions of sustainability. We performed a mixed-methods study to address this gap and illustrated the rationale and dynamics of trade-offs among five sustainability dimensions (i.e., material health, material reutilization, renewable energy, water stewardship, and social fairness). We primarily focused on firms in the United States and the European Union since they are the leading areas in terms of circular economy adoption. We explained the pattern of sustainability trade-offs and associated them with a three-stage maturity framework, namely, low-hanging fruits, exploratory, and resource and time intensive. We contributed to the theory by depicting the influence of resource allocation and sustainability maturity level on trade-offs among the five dimensions of sustainability. Practitioners can leverage our framework to better understand their sustainability transformation and make more informed decisions for attaining higher levels of sustainability with more impact.Business Strategy and the Environmen
Analysis of the drying process for precursors of Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 layers by low cost non vacuum fabrication technique
No full textCu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 solar cells were fabricated by a non-vacuum solution-based spin coating technique followed by annealing in selenium atmosphere without H2S treatment. The effects of the drying time after spin coating on physical and electrical properties of the cells were investigated. Structural and morphological properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The physical properties, in terms of stoichiometry, crystal structure, morphology and orientation of the grains were shown to be influenced by the different drying times. Consequently, current-voltage characteristics show that the drying time of the precursors has a significant involvement in the device performance. The highest efficiency has been measured for 5 min drying time (with a 4.73% efficiency is obtained with Voc = 320 mV, Jsc = 28.6 mA/cm2 and FF = 52%), while samples with longer or shorter drying time have lower efficiencies. A further increase in efficiency, exceeding 5%, is obtained by inserting a contact grid on the front contact. Also accelerated stability tests (performed in a black box with one sun illumination at 80 degrees C) show different effects in light soaking, almost no degradation is observed for all the three cases. In this paper we highlight the connection of the different physical to the electrical properties generated just by the different drying times of the precursor for the CZTS absorbers
Nonparametric Bayesian models for unsupervised learning
No full textThesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-45).I introduce two nonparametric Bayesian methods for solving problems of supervised and unsupervised learning. The first method simultaneously learns causal networks and causal theories from data. For example, given synthetic co-occurrence data from a simple causal model for the medical domain, it can learn relationships like "having a flu causes coughing", while also learning that observable quantities can be usefully grouped into categories like diseases and symptoms, and that diseases tend to cause symptoms, not the other way around. The second method is an online algorithm for learning a prototype-based model for categorial concepts, and can be used to solve problems of multiclass classification with missing features. I apply it to problems of categorizing newsgroup posts and recognizing handwritten digits. These approaches were inspired by a striking capacity of human learning, which should also be a desideratum for any intelligent system: the ability to learn certain kinds of "simple" or "natural" structures very quickly, while still being able to learn arbitrary -- and arbitrarily complex - structures given enough data. In each case, I show how nonparametric Bayesian modeling and inference based on stochastic simulation give us some of the tools we need to achieve this goal.by Vikash Kumar Mansinghka.M.Eng
sj-docx-1-gut-10.1177_26345161231202957 – Supplemental material for Healthcare Utilization, Costs and Other Outcomes of Peroral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) Versus Heller Myotomy in the Inpatient Management of Achalasia in The United States: A 2016 to 2020 Nationwide Study
No full textSupplemental material, sj-docx-1-gut-10.1177_26345161231202957 for Healthcare Utilization, Costs and Other Outcomes of Peroral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) Versus Heller Myotomy in the Inpatient Management of Achalasia in The United States: A 2016 to 2020 Nationwide Study by Yassine Kilani, Mohammad Aldiabat, Maryam Mubashir, Saqr Alsakarneh, Ammar Arif Vohra, Yazan Aljabiri, Falak Hamo, Fnu Vikash, Vikash Kumar and Salih Samo in Foregut</p
Effects of CdTe selenization on the electrical properties of the absorber for the fabrication of CdSexTe1-x/CdTe based solar cells
No full textCdTe thin film solar cells are the most successful thin film photovoltaic devices in terms of production yield. In the last few years, by changing the original solar cell structure, the efficiency was increased from around 17 % up to 22 %. In particular two main innovations have been introduced: a CdSexTe1-x layer, that narrows the band gap of the absorber near the junction, and a large band gap buffer layer (i.e. MgxZn1-xO). These allow to improve the absorption in the long and in the short wavelength region, respectively. Generally, CdSexTe1-x is formed either by the deposition of a CdSe layer at the junction subsequently mixed with CdTe or by directly depositing a CdSexTe1-x compound, we have instead introduced a different method where CdSexTe1-x is formed by treating a thin CdTe layer at high temperature in selenium atmosphere. The finished device has been fabricated by substituting CdS with SnO2 and efficiencies exceeding 14 %, with current densities higher than 26 mA/cm2, are obtained by a low substrate temperature process. In this work we analyze and compare our older standard FTO/SnO2/CdS/CdTe with the novel FTO/SnO2/CdSexTe1-x/CdTe devices by capacitance voltage, drive level capacitance profiling, and admittance spectroscopy. The results highlight the effect of the selenization process in terms of carrier concentration, carrier profile, and formation of deep and shallow defects. The overall performance of the completed devices is also presented and compared
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