Evaluating performance of companies by new management tools

In this article, we want to design a model for evaluating the performance of companies in the stock market by using TOPSIS and sensitivity analysis. We use financial ratios as criteria in TOPSIS algorithm. In this methodology, first we try to rank companies and then use sensitivity analysis for determining positive and negative points of the company and suggest improving performance of the company

Evaluating performance of companies by new management tools

In this article, we want to design a model for evaluating the performance of companies in the stock market by using TOPSIS and sensitivity analysis. We use financial ratios as criteria in TOPSIS algorithm. In this methodology, first we try to rank companies and then use sensitivity analysis for determining positive and negative points of the company and suggest improving performance of the company

Evaluating performance of companies by new management tools

In this article, we want to design a model for evaluating the performance of companies in the stock market by using TOPSIS and sensitivity analysis. We use financial ratios as criteria in TOPSIS algorithm. In this methodology, first we try to rank companies and then use sensitivity analysis for determining positive and negative points of the company and suggest improving performance of the company

Influence of Annealing Temperature on the Properties of ZnO Thin Films Grown by Sputtering

AbstractZinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited by RF magnetron sputtering onto ITO coated soda-lime glass substrates. The effects of annealing in temperature range of 250 to 450°C on the structural and optical properties of the ZnO films have been studied. The crystalline structure, surface topology, morphology, optical properties of the films were determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV–Visible Spectrometry, respectively. X-ray diffraction measurement showed that the annealed ZnO films were polycrystalline in nature with (002), (101) and (001) oriented crystallites of hexagonal wurtzite structure. Crystalline property and grain size of the films were found to increase after annealing. The optical band gap of ZnO films initially blue shifted (3.1–3.23eV) when annealed at 400°C and further red shifted in the range of 3.23 to 3.1eV being annealed at 250 to 450°C range. From the UV spectroscopy, the films showed transmittance over 85% in the optical bandgap spectrum. All these results indicate that post deposition annealing improves the film quality with reduced roughness and better crystalline properties that can be utilised as buffer layer in the CIGS or CdTe thin film solar cells

Fully printed and multifunctional graphene-based wearable e-textiles for personalized healthcare applications

Wearable e-textiles have gained huge tractions due to their potential for non-invasive health monitoring. However, manufacturing of multifunctional wearable e-textiles remains challenging, due to poor performance, comfortability, scalability, and cost. Here, we report a fully printed, highly conductive, flexible, and machine-washable e-textiles platform that stores energy and monitor physiological conditions including bio-signals. The approach includes highly scalable printing of graphene-based inks on a rough and flexible textile substrate, followed by a fine encapsulation to produce highly conductive machine-washable e-textiles platform. The produced e-textiles are extremely flexible, conformal, and can detect activities of various body parts. The printed in-plane supercapacitor provides an aerial capacitance of ∼3.2 mFcm−2 (stability ∼10,000 cycles). We demonstrate such e-textiles to record brain activity (an electroencephalogram, EEG) and find comparable to conventional rigid electrodes. This could potentially lead to a multifunctional garment of graphene-based e-textiles that can act as flexible and wearable sensors powered by the energy stored in graphene-based textile supercapacitors

Acute cocoa flavanol supplementation improves muscle macro- and microvascular but not anabolic responses to amino acids in older men

The anabolic effects of nutrition on skeletal muscle may depend on adequate skeletal muscle perfusion, which is impaired in older people. Cocoa flavanols have been shown to improve flow-mediated dilation, an established measure of endothelial function. However, their effect on muscle microvascular blood flow is currently unknown. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore links between the consumption of cocoa flavanols, muscle microvascular blood flow and muscle protein synthesis (MPS) in response to nutrition in older men. To achieve this objective leg blood flow (LBF), muscle microvascular blood volume (MBV) and MPS were measured under postabsorptive and postprandial (I.V glamin, dextrose to sustain glucose ~7.5 mmol·l-1) conditions in 20 older men. Ten of these men were studied with no cocoa flavanol intervention and a further 10 were studied with the addition of 350 mg of cocoa flavanols at the same time as nutrition began. Leg [femoral artery] blood flow was measured by Doppler ultrasound, muscle MBV by contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) using DefinityTM perflutren contrast agent and MPS using [1, 2-13C2] leucine tracer techniques. Our results show that although older individuals do not show an increase in LBF or MBV in response to feeding, these absent responses are apparent when cocoa flavanols are given acutely with nutrition. However this restoration in vascular responsiveness is not associated with improved MPS responses to nutrition. We conclude that acute cocoa flavanol supplementation improves muscle macro- and microvascular responses to nutrition, independently of modifying muscle protein anabolism

Non-invasive ventilation in patients with an altered level of consciousness. A clinical review and practical insights

Non-invasive ventilation has gained an increasingly pivotal role in the treatment of acute hypoxemic and/or hypercapnic respira-tory failure and offers multiple advantages over invasive mechanical ventilation. Some of these advantages include the preserva-tion of airway defense mechanisms, a reduced need for sedation, and an avoidance of complications related to endotracheal intubation.Despite its advantages, non-invasive ventilation has some contraindications that include, among them, severe encephalopathy. In this review article, the rationale, evidence, and drawbacks of the use of noninvasive ventilation in the context of hypercapnic and non-hypercapnic patients with an altered level of consciousness are analyzed

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters