Why Do Firms Smooth Earnings?

We explain why a firm may smooth reported earnings. Greater earnings volatility leads to a bigger informational advantage for informed investors over uninformed investors. If sufficiently many current shareholders are uninformed and may need to trade in the future for liquidity reasons, an increase in the volatility of reported earnings will magnify these shareholders' trading losses. They will, therefore, want the manager to smooth reported earnings as much as possible. Empirical implications are drawn out that link earnings smoothing to managerial compensation contracts, uncertainty about the volatility of earnings, and ownership structure.

A Short Review of Advances in the Modelling of Blood Rheology and Clot Formation

Several advances have taken place since the early 2000s in the field of blood flow modelling. These advances have been driven by the development of assist devices such as Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs), etc., and by the acceptance of in silico tests for the generation of hypotheses concerning clot formation and lysis. We give an overview of the developments in modelling of blood rheology and clot formation/lysis in the last 10 to 15 years. In blood rheology, advances are increasingly supplemented by flow simulation studies. In clot formation (or coagulation), advances have taken place in both single-scale modeling under quiescent conditions as well as in multi-scale modeling in the presence of flow. The future will possibly see more blood flow simulations in complex geometries and, simultaneously, development and simulation of multi-scale models for clot formation and lysis

Effect of Wall Flexibility on the Deformation during Flow in a Stenosed Coronary Artery

The effect of varying wall flexibility on the deformation of an artery during steady and pulsatile flow of blood is investigated. The artery geometry is recreated from patient-derived data for a stenosed left coronary artery. Blood flow in the artery is modeled using power-law fluid. The fluid-structure interaction of blood flow on artery wall is simulated using ANSYS 16.2, and the resulting wall deformation is documented. A comparison of wall deformation using flexibility models like Rigid, Linear Elastic, Neo-hookean, Mooney-Rivlin and Holzapfel are obtained for steady flow in the artery. The maximum wall deformation in coronary flow conditions predicted by the Holzapfel model is only around 50% that predicted by the Neo-Hookean model. The flow-induced deformations reported here for patient-derived stenosed coronary artery with physiologically accurate model are the first of its kind. These results help immensely in the planning of angioplasty

Prospective study to measure the functional outcome of tibial plateau fractures

Background: Tibial plateau fractures are complex injuries of the knee. The tibial plateau is one of the most critical load-bearing areas in the human body. Early detection and appropriate treatment of these fractures are essential in minimizing patient's disability in range of movement, stability and reducing the risk of documented complications. The aim of the present study is to study the outcome of tibial plateau fractures and their management.Methods: This is prospective study which comprises of 50 patients with displaced tibial plateau fracture and were treated between January 2018 to December 2018 with minimal invasive percutaneous plate osteosynthesis and cortico-cancellous screw fixation. Statistical analysis was done by Chi-square test and IBM SPSS software.Results: In our study we included 50 cases, treated with surgical procedure, 30 cases gave excellent result, 16 cases came out with good result, fair in 3 cases and 1 case had poor result. High velocity injuries have poor outcome than low velocity injuries. A single case of malunion was noted in study. Four cases had knee joint stiffness.Conclusions: We conclude that functional outcome is good in operatively treated patients. Early physiotherapy plays key role in preventing knee stiffness, use of bone grafts and good fixation important for successful outcome

Optimum culture medium composition for lipopeptide production by Bacillus subtilis using response surface model-based ant colony optimization

Central composite rotatable design (CCRD) of experiments was used to obtain data for Lipopeptide and Biomass concentrations from fermentation medium containing the following five components: glucose, monosodium glutamate, yeast extract, MgSO4⋅7H2O, and K2HPO4. Data was used to develop a second order regression response surface model (RSM) which was coupled with ant colony optimization (ACO) to optimize the media compositions so as to enhance the productivity of lipopeptide. The optimized media by ACO was found to yield 1.501 g/L of lipopeptide concentration which was much higher compared to 1.387 g/L predicted by Nelder–Mead optimization (NMO). The optimum from ACO was validated experimentally. RSM-based ACO is thus shown to be an effective tool for medium optimization of biosurfactant production

Modeling the growth and dissolution of clots in flowing blood

Multiple interacting mechanisms control the formation and dissolution of clots to maintain blood in a state of delicate balance. In addition to a myriad of biochemical reactions, rheological factors also play a crucial role in modulating the response of blood to external stimuli. The broad stimuli for clot formation were laid out, more than a century ago, in, what is now referred to as, VirchowâÂÂs triad. To date, a comprehensive model for clot formation and dissolution, that takes into account the biochemical, medical and rheological factors, has not been put into place, the existing models emphasizing either one or the other of the factors. In this dissertation, a model is developed for clot formation and dissolution that incorporates many of the relevant crucial factors that have a bearing on the problem. The model, though just a first step towards understanding a complex phenomenon goes further than previous models in integrating the biochemical, medical and rheological factors that come into play. The model is tested in some simple flow situations as part of an attempt to elucidate VirchowâÂÂs triad. Extensions to the model, along with detailed numerical studies, will hopefully aid in a clearer understanding of the phenomenon, and in making relevant clinical correlations

IIT-H Professor presents paper at 26th Biennial Congress of ISTH

His work was also published in the journal “Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena”. Anand Mohan , who co-authored the work with his student Modepalli Susree, has said “Blood coagulation and fibrinolysis are complex phenomena including hundreds of biochemical interactions, and a few biophysical processes

Dynamic response and optimal design of a lathe spindle under experimentally measured random cutting force excitations

This thesis presents the dynamic response and optimal design of a lathe spindle under experimentally measured random cutting force excitations. The optimal design is based on minimizing the maximum mean square displacement response of the workpiece under the action of random cutting forces. The stochastic partial differential equation of motion characterizing the behavior of a lathe spindle-workpiece system is formulated based on the Euler-Bernoulli equation. A finite element method using beam elements is used for free vibration analysis to compute the undamped mode shapes and the natural frequencies of the spindle-workpiece system. The workpiece support at the running center has been modelled as hinged or fixed support and the theoretical results are compared with the laboratory experiments to classify the nature of the support condition. Based on the results, the end condition at the running center is classified as hinged. The effect of varying the spindle-bearing stiffness on the natural frequencies and mode shapes are also presented. The forced vibration of the spindle-workpiece system is studied by first investigating the nonstationary random response of a workpiece subjected to a constantly varying cutting tool contact in a turning operation. The results indicate that the workpiece response at the cutting tool is not significantly influenced by the tool feed rate for normal turning operations. A modal analysis in conjunction with the finite element technique is then used to calculate the mean square displacement of the workpiece. The experimentally calculated power spectral density of the cutting forces is used as the input excitation to the mathematical model. A parametric study of the effect of bearing stiffness and damping, bearing spacing, sectional rigidity, and external damper on the mean square displacement is presented. An optimal design of a lathe spindle using a direct search optimization technique with bearing stiffness and spacing, and spindle cross-sectional diameter as design variables, has been carried out. The effect of chuck diameter and workpiece slenderness ratio on the dynamic response of an optimized spindle is also studied. Finally, the influence of a third bearing in the spindle on an optimized system and the design of an external damper are also discusse

The development of organizational agility: The role of bricolage in resource management

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

A physics-driven model for the remote laser welding and development of process capability space framework for the selection of robust process parameters

New environmental regulations and policies have transformed the manufacturing industry to develop capabilities for high uptake of structures which are lighter, stronger, and cost-effective. This transformation has expedited the development of new lightweight materials and joining technologies to support the high-volume manufacturing. The use of Aluminium alloys for lightweight manufacturing has increased in the past decades in the automotive industry from 35 kg to around 200 kg per vehicle. Welding of high-strength aluminium alloys is challenging due to high hot cracking susceptibility due to the rupture of the molten metal film at the grain boundaries during the solidification process. There are two possibilities to reduce the susceptibility to hot cracking: (i) Optimisation of process parameters to influence solidification conditions to promote generating equiaxed grain structure in the fusion zone; and (ii) Welding of dissimilar aluminium alloys and optimising the concentration of the weld. It is crucial to have shortened lead time for the rapid development and deployment of new joining processes for the new lightweight materials. Current methodologies for the selection of robust process parameters provide limited performance due to (i) a limited understanding of the interaction of the material with the advancement in joining technologies; (ii) extensive dependence on manual expertise for the selection of process parameters based on a trial and error method; (iii) time intensive high fidelity models to survey the parameters space resulting in limited industrial applicability and scalability, hence constitute a significant barrier in quick selection of robust process parameters to decrease the lead time. The proposed framework is based on three methodologies which explore Remote Laser Welding: (i) developing physics-based simulations to establish the relationship between material's behaviour with the varying process parameters; (ii) incorporating a sequential modelling approach to balance between high accuracy and computation time to survey the parameter space; and (iii) development of the process capability space for the quick selection of robust process parameters. Three physical phenomena are considered in the development of numerical modelling which are (i) heat transfer, (ii) fluid flow and (iii) diffusion to investigate the effect of process parameters on the weld thermal cycle, solidification parameters and solute intermixing layer during laser welding of high-strength aluminium alloys all of which provides a qualitative relationship to the grain morphology. The governing physical phenomena are decoupled sequentially, and process performance indicators are estimated based on the governing phenomena. At each step, the process capability space is defined over the parameters space based on the constraints specific to the current physical phenomena. The process capability space is defined by the constraints based on the process performance indicators. The process capability space is refined at each step (sequential modelling) based on the requirements of downstream processes. The numerical model is developed using COMSOL Multiphysics software which is further verified experimentally with measurements specific to each physical phenomenon. The proposed modelling framework decreases the total computation time to survey parameter space by 55% and the developed model shows good accuracy with an error of 3.1%