Early age autogenous shrinkage and long-term drying shrinkage of fibre reinforced concrete.

The role of fibres against cracking in concrete because of volumetric deformations has become popular over the years. Various researchers have reported the crack-control benefits of fibres in both fresh and hardened concrete. The volumetric changes of concrete are broadly divided into early-age and long-term deformations. The volume change in concrete begins with the hydration reactions when water is mixed with cement. Contrary to the long-term shrinkage deformations, the early-age deformations are usually ignored in design of concrete structures because of lesser magnitude. In autogenous conditions, capillary pressure in pores result in significant deformation, thus creating potential for cracking. Especially in concretes with low water-to-cement ratio, capillary pressure can cause significant autogenous shrinkage deformations. In the absence of moisture evaporation, hydration reactions cause noteworthy thermal heating, followed by cooling in fresh concrete. Moreover, thermal deformations manifest in the form of expansion and contraction in fresh concrete, which produce internal stresses that increase the vulnerability of cracking. The aim of this thesis was to study the effects of different types of fibres on the early-age autogenous and long-term drying shrinkage deformations of concrete. A test setup called Schleibinger Bending-drain was used to record early-age (2days) autogenous deformations of fresh concrete immediately after mixing. The test results were used to study the physical processes controlling different stages of the early-age autogenous deformation in relation to the effect of fibres and concrete composition. The early-age autogenous deformations in Plus and SR cement concrete were significantly reduced by the use of 0.38% by volume of steel and plastic fibres as compared to plain concrete. However, 0.38% by volume of plastic and glass fibres used in White cement concrete had a small effect on the early-age autogenous deformations. Other than fibres, the factors affecting the early-age autogenous deformations were different cement types (hydration heat) and the shrinkage-reducing admixture. The lesser amount of bleed-water in White cement concrete resulted in large magnitude early-age autogenous deformation. The use of fibres at 0.38% by volume did not have a prominent effect on the 56 days unrestrained drying shrinkage deformation. The general opinion that fibres allow more moisture escape by bridging the pores could not be established as similar average water loss (kg/m3) was recorded for both the plain and fibre reinforced concrete mixtures. Moreover, the magnitude of early-age autogenous deformations was approximately 19%, 22% and 51% of the total combined deformations (early-age and long-term) for Plus, SR and White cement concretes, respectively

Globalisation, governance, accountability and the natural resource ‘curse’: Implications for socio-economic growth of oil-rich developing countries

Motivated by recent inconclusive debates on the natural resource ‘curse’ phenomenon, this paper reviews studies that have explored the causes and implications of natural resource endowments ‘curse’ within oil-rich developing countries (ODCs). Most of these studies find corruption, transparency, accountability, weak institutions and poor governance as causes of developing countries’ natural resource ‘curse’. However, recent studies identify a strong association between oil and gas multinational corporations (MNCs) as agents of globalisation and the resource-curse. First, we consider the international dimensions of this relationship and how MNCs have an influence on the resources of ODCs. Second, we link the impact of MNCs and their natural resource nexus to broaden debates on strategic organisational practices. We show that globalisation creates the platform for the natural resource ‘curse’ phenomenon. Our findings offer new insights into the natural resource ‘curse’ debates. We expand knowledge on the traditional focus of the resource-curse literature to include globalisation and how ethical practices of MNCs could avert the ‘curse’ or allow ODCs to experience the advantages of their natural resource wealth

RF energy harvesters for wireless sensors, state of the art, future prospects and challenges: a review

The power consumption of portable gadgets, implantable medical devices (IMDs) and wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) has reduced significantly with the ongoing progression in low-power electronics and the swift advancement in nano and microfabrication. Energy harvesting techniques that extract and convert ambient energy into electrical power have been favored to operate such low-power devices as an alternative to batteries. Due to the expanded availability of radio frequency (RF) energy residue in the surroundings, radio frequency energy harvesters (RFEHs) for low-power devices have garnered notable attention in recent times. This work establishes a review study of RFEHs developed for the utilization of low-power devices. From the modest single band to the complex multiband circuitry, the work reviews state of the art of required circuitry for RFEH that contains a receiving antenna, impedance matching circuit, and an AC-DC rectifier. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages associated with various circuit architectures are comprehensively discussed. Moreover, the reported receiving antenna, impedance matching circuit, and an AC-DC rectifier are also compared to draw conclusions towards their implementations in RFEHs for sensors and biomedical devices applications

Analyzing the Impact of Globalization on Economic Growth

Globalization is a buzz word that catches significant importance as a reform agenda post 1980. The current study is an attempt to analyze the impact of globalization on economic growth of Pakistan. The sample period for this study ranges from 1980-2009. For empirical analysis of the study, Autoregressive Distributive Lag model is employed while for data analysis Augmented Dicky Fuller test is applied. It is found that all the variables are stationary at first difference. The empirical findings of the study suggest that economic globalization in long phase of time increase growth in case of Pakistan economy, social globalization has negative impacts on growth and political globalization is insignificant which mean that it will not increase or decrease the growth of Pakistan economy. While in short run economic globalization at lag 1 and social globalization decrease the pace of growth. It is suggested to the government that as overall globalization helps in increasing the growth of economy therefore government should formulate such a policy that helps the economy to be globalized.&nbsp

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND EARNINGS MANAGEMENT: THE ROLE OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTOR

This study investigates the association between earnings management and corporate governance characteristics in the Chinese context. Chinese corporate governance system is improved in past two decades after deciding to move away from planned economy to market-oriented one. The data is collected from the Chinese A-listed firms for the period of 2008 to 2016 to investigate the impact of Board characteristics on Earnings management. Additionally, this study demonstrates if earnings management is still an issue in the Non-SOE or not?. This study finds that board size mitigates the earnings management, and board independence is not playing there due role in monitoring the top management. The board meetings are not so effective and therefore not contributing to mitigating the earnings management. CEO duality is not a big issue just like in developed countries. Furthermore, When segrgating the sample on the basis of ownership type, we find that, a board meeting is affective in SOE as compare to Non-SOE.Furthermore, board size substitutes the weak external governance mechanism and constrains Earnings management. Board meeting plays a complementary effect when external governance mechanism is strong. The findings of this study are significant for all stakeholders to analyze and to improve the board effectiveness and the financial reporting quality before making any decision

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND EARNINGS MANAGEMENT: THE ROLE OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTOR

This study investigates the association between earnings management and corporate governance characteristics in the Chinese context. Chinese corporate governance system is improved in past two decades after deciding to move away from planned economy to market-oriented one. The data is collected from the Chinese A-listed firms for the period of 2008 to 2016 to investigate the impact of Board characteristics on Earnings management. Additionally, this study demonstrates if earnings management is still an issue in the Non-SOE or not?. This study finds that board size mitigates the earnings management, and board independence is not playing there due role in monitoring the top management. The board meetings are not so effective and therefore not contributing to mitigating the earnings management. CEO duality is not a big issue just like in developed countries. Furthermore, When segrgating the sample on the basis of ownership type, we find that, a board meeting is affective in SOE as compare to Non-SOE.Furthermore, board size substitutes the weak external governance mechanism and constrains Earnings management. Board meeting plays a complementary effect when external governance mechanism is strong. The findings of this study are significant for all stakeholders to analyze and to improve the board effectiveness and the financial reporting quality before making any decision

Assessment of key determinants for economic growth in Pakistan

This study actually attempts to investigate economic growth determinants in case of Pakistan for the period of 1980 to 2009. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and error correction model (ECM) have employed to investigate the long run and short run parameters between economic growth and its major determinants. Prior the stated approaches has confirmed through ADF test that all of the variables are integrated first order i.e. I (1). The results from ARDL show that there is co-integration between economic growth and explanatory variables that are real domestic investment, foreign investment, export, remittances and literacy rate. The estimated long run elasticities of economic growth with respect to domestic investment, foreign investment, exports, remittances and literacy rate were found as, 0.121, 0.026, 0.020, 0.065 and 0.224. Further, results depict that the error coefficient term is -0.67 and significant, suggest 67 percent adjustment in a year