Price and volatility spillovers between global equity, gold, and energy markets prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study sets out to provide fresh evidence on the dynamic interrelationships, at both return and volatility levels, between global equity, gold, and energy markets prior to and during the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. We undertake our analysis within a bivariate GARCH(p, q) framework, after orthogonalizing raw returns with respect to a rich set of relevant universal factors. Under the COVID-19 regime, we find bidirectional return spillover effects between equity and gold markets, and unidirectional mean spillovers from energy markets to the equity and gold counterparts. The results also suggest the presence of large reciprocal shock spillovers between equity and both of energy and gold markets, and cross-shock spillovers from energy to gold markets. Most probably driven by the recent oil price collapse, energy markets appear to have a substantial cross-volatility spillover impact on the others. Our results offer implications for policymakers and investors

Effect of Household Solid Waste on Initial Growth Performance of Acacia auriculiformis and Cedrela toona in Mycorrhiza Inoculated Soil

Solid waste disposal and management became one of the major environmental concerns in Bangladesh. Realising the problem, the present study has been undertaken with a view to find a sound and effective way of bio-degradable solid waste management. The study was carried out in the nursery of Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences at University of Chittagong to determine the effects of solid waste and waste inoculated with mycorrhizal soil on initial growth performance of Acacia auriculiformis and Cedrela toona. Before planting the seedlings, decomposable waste and mycorrhiza inoculated decomposable waste were placed on the planting holes. Physical growth parameters of seedlings (shoot and root length, leaf and branch number, fresh and dry weight of shoot and root and nodulation status) and the macro nutrients (N, P and K) were recorded after six months of planting. The highest performance of physical parameters was recorded in the soil treated by mycorrhiza inoculated waste. Cedrela toona was represented by maximum nutrients uptake (N-2.60%, P-0.21% and K-2.34% respectively) in the soil treated with mycorrhiza. In case of Acacia auriculiformis, N uptake was maximum (3.02%) in control while K uptake was highest (1.27%) in soil with waste and P (0.18%) uptake was highest in the soil treated with mycorrhiza inoculated waste. Highest initial growth performance was revealed by seedlings treated with mycorrhiza inoculated waste. This study suggested to use mycorrhiza and waste for plantation purposes for hygienic disposal of solid waste and to reduce cost of cultivation

Performance of Energy Regenerative Suspension System through Laboratory Testing

Conventional suspension system provides ride comfort to passengers by absorbing the vibration and dissipating it to the environment. This paper aims to investigate the enhancement of regenerative suspension system (EReSS) in order to harvest energy from the vibration of vehicle suspension system. The system has been tested and accomplished utilizing laboratory test rig. The output voltage harvested up to 32.76 V at 400 windings. In accordance to the obtained results, it is observed that the proposed system can minimize the energy wastage due to the vibration and produces effective electrical and electronic utilizations. In addition, the output voltage of the EReSS can be affected by the number of windings of the coil and diameter of the coil. The EReSS has been proven successful in harvesting energy; therefore, it can be used on hybrid and electric vehicle to improve efficiency of the vehicle and reduce fuel consumption