1,575 research outputs found

    Public Law: State and Local Taxation

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    Impact of ASX corporate governance guidelines on sustainability reporting

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    © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: This paper aims to examine the impact of the Australian Securities Exchange Corporate Governance recommendations on the breadth (amount of items covered) of (environmental and social) sustainability reporting by the firms in the Top 100, around the change from G3.1 to G4 disclosure regimes. Design/methodology/approach: This paper undertakes comparisons of means and regression models to investigate the changes between disclosure scores of 98 listed entities from the 2013 G3.1 to the 2015 G4 disclosure regimes. Findings: This paper finds that average disclosure levels did not change. Nonetheless, disclosure practices did vary by entity size and performance. Analysis of 2015 disclosures contingent on 2013 disclosure practice indicates that disclosure changes are consistent with a pattern of mean reversion. Practical implications: Evidence that low disclosers increased disclosure and high disclosers reduced disclosers is consistent with the idea that sustainability disclosure is not so much driven by any ethical considerations, but rather by a desire to not be a disclosure outlier. Reliance on voluntary disclosure to achieve a socially desired level of disclosure is unlikely to bear fruit. Originality/value: This paper contributes to the literature on sustainability by examining firm responses to change in disclosure regimes, and concluding that size and peer relativities drive the disclosure process

    Forensic Pavement Evaluation for US 31 W, Jefferson County, Kentucky Using Ground Penetrating Radar

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    The Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) utilized ground penetrating radar technology to provide a forensic evaluation of the existing pavement structure for the US31W pavement rehabilitation Project in Jefferson County, KY. Processed ground penetrating radar data indicated that the integrity of the underlying concrete pavement beneath the asphalt pavement appears to be competent and structurally sound. The clay soil beneath the concrete pavement appears relatively dry and well compacted. The analyzed GPR data also indicated that the average asphalt layer varied by lane throughout the project from 4.89 to 7.59 inches +/- ½ inch and that the underlying concrete layer average varied by lane throughout the project from 6.59 to 8.12 inches +/- ½ inch. This information was shared with design engineers in efforts to select the most appropriate pavement rehabilitation repair

    Surface disinfection challenges for Candida auris: an in-vitro study

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    The emerging pathogenic multidrug-resistant yeast Candida auris is an important source of healthcare-associated infections and of growing global clinical concern. The ability of this organism to survive on surfaces and withstand environmental stressors creates a challenge for eradicating it from hospitals. A panel of C. auris clinical isolates was evaluated on different surface environments against the standard disinfectant sodium hypochlorite and high-level disinfectant peracetic acid. C. auris was shown to selectively tolerate clinically relevant concentrations of sodium hypochlorite and peracetic acid in a surface-dependent manner, which may explain its ability to successfully persist within the hospital environment

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    Contains research objectives and reports on four research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 TO1 HD00111-08)National Institute of Mental Health (Grant 2 P01 MH13390-06

    Near-infrared free carrier absorption in heavily doped silicon

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    Free carrier absorption in heavily doped silicon can have a significant impact on devices operating in the infrared. In the near infrared, the free carrier absorption process can compete with band to band absorption processes, thereby reducing the number of available photons to optoelectronic devices such as solar cells. In this work, we fabricate 18 heavily doped regions by phosphorus and boron diffusion into planar polished silicon wafers; the simple sample structure facilitates accurate and precise measurement of the free carrier absorptance. We measure and model reflectance and transmittance dispersion to arrive at a parameterisation for the free carrier absorption coefficient that applies in the wavelength range between 1000 and 1500 nm, and the range of dopant densities between ∼10¹⁸ and 3 × 10²⁰ cm⁻³. Our measurements indicate that previously published parameterisations underestimate the free carrier absorptance in phosphorus diffusions. On the other hand, published parameterisations are generally consistent with our measurements and model for boron diffusions. Our new model is the first to be assigned uncertainty and is well-suited to routine device analysis

    Runout model evaluation based on back-calculation of building damage

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    We evaluated the ability of three debris-flow runout models (RAMMS, FLO2D and D-Claw) to predict the number of damaged buildings in simulations of the 9 January 2019 Montecito, California, debrisflow event. Observations of building damage after the event were combined with OpenStreetMap building footprints to construct a database of all potentially impacted buildings. At the estimated event volume, all models overpredict the number of damaged buildings by a factor of 1.5–3
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