E-service quality and promotion on customer loyalty: The importance of customer satisfaction

Satisfaction and loyalty are two important things that must be maintained in a business. Various factors, including service quality and promotion, can also influence these. Bank services have entered a new digital phase. Bank services have implemented e-service as part of non-personal services that can be done anywhere and anytime, especially in an effort to deal with customer financial problems. This study intends to ascertain the impact of customer satisfaction, e-service quality, and promotion on customer loyalty as well as the impact of e-service and promotion on customer satisfaction. 173 respondents made up the study's sample, which was selected using a purposive sampling technique and non-probability sampling. Smart PLS is then used to process the data that was obtained. The outcomes demonstrated a negative correlation between customer satisfaction and e-service quality and promotion. The amount of customer loyalty has also been proven to be negatively impacted by the quality and promotion of e-service. The degree of customer pleasure, which has been shown to have a favorable impact on customer loyalty, also signals varied outcomes

Graphene-Based Materials for Supercapacitor

Graphene, a one-atomic-thick film of two-dimensional nanostructure, has piqued the attention of researchers due to its superior electrical conductivity, large surface area, good chemical stability, and excellent mechanical behaviour. These extraordinary properties make graphene an appropriate contender for energy storage applications. However, the agglomeration and re-stacking of graphene layers due to the enormous interlayer van der Waals attractions have severely hampered the performance of supercapacitors. Several strategies have been introduced to overcome the limitations and established graphene as an ideal candidate for supercapacitor. The combination of conducting polymer (CP) or metal oxide (MO) with graphene as electrode material is expected to boost the performance of supercapacitors. Recent reports on various CP/graphene composites and MO/graphene composites as supercapacitor electrode materials are summarised in this chapter, with a focus on the two basic supercapacitor mechanisms (EDLCs and pseudocapacitors)

Energy efficient BS cooperation in DPS CoMP based cellular networks with hybrid power supply

Energy efficient cellular networking has recently drawn increasing attention for reducing network operation cost without sacrificing the quality of service (QoS). This paper proposes a framework for energy cooperation among base stations (BSS) in coordinated multi-point (CoMP) transmission based cellular networks, where the BSS are powered by hybrid power supplies including both the conventional grid and renewable energy sources. The considered network deploys BSS having independent energy storages, which are assumed interconnected by resistive power lines for energy sharing. The network also integrates dynamic point selection (DPS) CoMP technique for selecting the best serving BSS for an user equipment. The objective of the proposed cooperation is to maximize the usage of renewable solar energy leading to reduced on-grid power consumption. The proposed energy cooperation among BSS exploits the tempospatial diversities of both the renewable energy generation and the traffic demand. Monte Carlo based simulations are carried out for analyzing the energy efficiency (EE) performance of the proposed network. Simulation results validate the proposed inter- BS cooperation demonstrating substantial energy savings.</p

PV-Powered CoMP-Based Green Cellular Networks with a Standby Grid Supply

This paper proposes a novel framework for PV-powered cellular networks with a standby grid supply and an essential energy management technique for achieving envisaged green networks. The proposal considers an emerging cellular network architecture employing two types of coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission techniques for serving the subscribers. Under the proposed framework, each base station (BS) is powered by an individual PV solar energy module having an independent storage device. BSs are also connected to the conventional grid supply for meeting additional energy demand. We also propose a dynamic inter-BS solar energy sharing policy through a transmission line for further greening the proposed network by minimizing the consumption from the grid supply. An extensive simulation-based study in the downlink of a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) cellular system is carried out for evaluating the energy efficiency performance of the proposed framework. System performance is also investigated for identifying the impact of various system parameters including storage factor, storage capacity, solar generation capacity, transmission line loss, and different CoMP techniques.Comment: 14 pages, International Journal of Photoenergy, 6189468, 201

Antiferro quadrupolar ordering in Fe intercalated few layers graphene

The π electron cloud above and below the honeycomb structure of graphene causes each carbon atom to carry a permanent electric quadrupole moment which can attach any cation to impart interesting physical properties. We have synthesized Fe intercalated graphene structures to investigate tunable magnetic properties as a result of this chemical modification. An interesting antiferro quadrupolar ordering is observed which arises due to a coupling between magnetic dipole moment of Fe and electric quadrupole moment on graphene surface. In contrast to antiferromagnetic Neel temperature (TN), here the ordering temperature (TQ) increases from 35.5 K to 47.5 K as the magnetic field is raised upto 1 Tesla

Global burden and strength of evidence for 88 risk factors in 204 countries and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Background: Understanding the health consequences associated with exposure to risk factors is necessary to inform public health policy and practice. To systematically quantify the contributions of risk factor exposures to specific health outcomes, the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 aims to provide comprehensive estimates of exposure levels, relative health risks, and attributable burden of disease for 88 risk factors in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, from 1990 to 2021. Methods: The GBD 2021 risk factor analysis used data from 54 561 total distinct sources to produce epidemiological estimates for 88 risk factors and their associated health outcomes for a total of 631 risk–outcome pairs. Pairs were included on the basis of data-driven determination of a risk–outcome association. Age-sex-location-year-specific estimates were generated at global, regional, and national levels. Our approach followed the comparative risk assessment framework predicated on a causal web of hierarchically organised, potentially combinative, modifiable risks. Relative risks (RRs) of a given outcome occurring as a function of risk factor exposure were estimated separately for each risk–outcome pair, and summary exposure values (SEVs), representing risk-weighted exposure prevalence, and theoretical minimum risk exposure levels (TMRELs) were estimated for each risk factor. These estimates were used to calculate the population attributable fraction (PAF; ie, the proportional change in health risk that would occur if exposure to a risk factor were reduced to the TMREL). The product of PAFs and disease burden associated with a given outcome, measured in disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), yielded measures of attributable burden (ie, the proportion of total disease burden attributable to a particular risk factor or combination of risk factors). Adjustments for mediation were applied to account for relationships involving risk factors that act indirectly on outcomes via intermediate risks. Attributable burden estimates were stratified by Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintile and presented as counts, age-standardised rates, and rankings. To complement estimates of RR and attributable burden, newly developed burden of proof risk function (BPRF) methods were applied to yield supplementary, conservative interpretations of risk–outcome associations based on the consistency of underlying evidence, accounting for unexplained heterogeneity between input data from different studies. Estimates reported represent the mean value across 500 draws from the estimate's distribution, with 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs) calculated as the 2·5th and 97·5th percentile values across the draws. Findings: Among the specific risk factors analysed for this study, particulate matter air pollution was the leading contributor to the global disease burden in 2021, contributing 8·0% (95% UI 6·7–9·4) of total DALYs, followed by high systolic blood pressure (SBP; 7·8% [6·4–9·2]), smoking (5·7% [4·7–6·8]), low birthweight and short gestation (5·6% [4·8–6·3]), and high fasting plasma glucose (FPG; 5·4% [4·8–6·0]). For younger demographics (ie, those aged 0–4 years and 5–14 years), risks such as low birthweight and short gestation and unsafe water, sanitation, and handwashing (WaSH) were among the leading risk factors, while for older age groups, metabolic risks such as high SBP, high body-mass index (BMI), high FPG, and high LDL cholesterol had a greater impact. From 2000 to 2021, there was an observable shift in global health challenges, marked by a decline in the number of all-age DALYs broadly attributable to behavioural risks (decrease of 20·7% [13·9–27·7]) and environmental and occupational risks (decrease of 22·0% [15·5–28·8]), coupled with a 49·4% (42·3–56·9) increase in DALYs attributable to metabolic risks, all reflecting ageing populations and changing lifestyles on a global scale. Age-standardised global DALY rates attributable to high BMI and high FPG rose considerably (15·7% [9·9–21·7] for high BMI and 7·9% [3·3–12·9] for high FPG) over this period, with exposure to these risks increasing annually at rates of 1·8% (1·6–1·9) for high BMI and 1·3% (1·1–1·5) for high FPG. By contrast, the global risk-attributable burden and exposure to many other risk factors declined, notably for risks such as child growth failure and unsafe water source, with age-standardised attributable DALYs decreasing by 71·5% (64·4–78·8) for child growth failure and 66·3% (60·2–72·0) for unsafe water source. We separated risk factors into three groups according to trajectory over time: those with a decreasing attributable burden, due largely to declining risk exposure (eg, diet high in trans-fat and household air pollution) but also to proportionally smaller child and youth populations (eg, child and maternal malnutrition); those for which the burden increased moderately in spite of declining risk exposure, due largely to population ageing (eg, smoking); and those for which the burden increased considerably due to both increasing risk exposure and population ageing (eg, ambient particulate matter air pollution, high BMI, high FPG, and high SBP). Interpretation: Substantial progress has been made in reducing the global disease burden attributable to a range of risk factors, particularly those related to maternal and child health, WaSH, and household air pollution. Maintaining efforts to minimise the impact of these risk factors, especially in low SDI locations, is necessary to sustain progress. Successes in moderating the smoking-related burden by reducing risk exposure highlight the need to advance policies that reduce exposure to other leading risk factors such as ambient particulate matter air pollution and high SBP. Troubling increases in high FPG, high BMI, and other risk factors related to obesity and metabolic syndrome indicate an urgent need to identify and implement interventions

Automatic Memory Management Policies For Low Power, Memory Limited, And Delay Intolerant Devices

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are energy and memory limited, and implement graphical user interfaces that are intolerant of computational delays. Mobile device platforms supporting apps implemented in languages that require automatic memory man- agement, such as the Dalvik (Java) virtual machine within Google\u27s Android, have become dominant. It is essential that automatic memory management avoid causing unacceptable interface delays while responsibly managing energy and memory resource usage. Dalvik\u27s automatic memory management policies for heap growth and garbage collection scheduling utilize heuristics tuned to minimize memory footprint. These policies result in only marginally acceptable response times and garbage collection signicantly contributes to apps\u27 CPU time and therefore energy consumption. The primary contributions of this research include a characterization of Dalvik\u27s \base- line automatic memory management policy, the development of a new \adaptive policy, and an investigation of the performance of this policy. The investigation indicates that this adaptive policy consumes less CPU time and improves interactive performance at the cost of increasing memory footprint size by an acceptable amount

Energy cooperation among BS with hybrid power supply for DPS CoMP based cellular networks

Green cellular networking has drawn intensive attention recently for cellular operators in order to reduce the network operation cost and carbon footprints. In this paper, we consider base stations (BSS) powered by hybrid power supplies including both the conventional grid and the renewable solar energy. We propose a model for energy cooperation among BSS having individual energy storages which are connected through resistive power lines for energy sharing. Furthermore, dynamic point selection (DPS) CoMP technique is applied for selecting the best serving BS for users equipment (UE). Our goal is to maximize the green energy utilization leading to higher energy efficiency. Tempo-spatial variations of both the renewable energy generation and the traffic demand are exploited for the proposed BS cooperation. Extensive simulations are carried out for evaluating energy efficiency (EE) performance of the proposed cellular network in conjunction with DPS CoMP technique and energy sharing scheme. From simulation results we investigate the benefits of energy cooperation and effectiveness of CoMP technique in this regime.</p

Institutional factors and CSR reporting in a developing country: Evidence from the neo-institutional perspective

AbstractThis research aims to investigate how institutional pressures, such as legal, cultural, and normative factors, affect CSR reporting (CSRR) in the context of a developing nation. Based on the purposive sample method, 272 DSE-listed companies from 2017–18 to 2020–21 were identified, and 1088 observations were investigated in this research. The study also employed a content analysis approach to preparing the CSRR index, considering 40 items. The proposed hypotheses were then investigated using the OLS regression model. Applying the neo-institutional theory and the regression analysis results revealed that CSR reporting is positively and significantly associated with the country’s institutional environment. Specifically, the presence of CSR reporting guidelines, the reforming of the corporate governance code, firms auditing with big audit firms, the company’s multinational operations, and firm GRI registration positively impact CSR reporting. As opposed to that, firms’ membership in CSR-related associations was found to have a negative and insignificant impact on CSR reporting. This study pays rigorous attention to policy-level and managerial implications. Mainly, the study provides the regulatory bodies with a valuable insight into applying institutional factors to enhance firm CSR reporting. The study’s findings added to the body of knowledge on CSR reporting by presenting new data on the influence of institutional elements on CSR reporting in the setting of a developing nation like Bangladesh