Supply Chain Finance: Impact on Supply Chain Competency and Organizational Performance

Supply chain finance (SCF) has begun to garner some attention in the supply chain management literature, yet we find no empirical works assessing the role that SCF plays within a supply chain context and the impact it has on supply chain competency (SCC) and organizational performance (OP). This paper is an attempt to fill this literature gap in supply chain management and provide empirical evidence on the role of SCF. This study employs a structural equations model to investigate the role of SCF in the context of supply chain management on U.S. manufacturing firms. The results map SCF in the center of the supply chain management spectrum with supply chain management strategy (SCMS) and information sharing (IS) as the antecedents to, and SCC and OP as the consequences of SCF. Supply chain finance, together with supply chain competency positively impacts 51% of the variations in organizational performance.  

Bank Capital, Efficient Market Hypothesis, and Bank Borrowing During the Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008

During the Great Recession of 2007 and 2008, liquidity and credit dried up, threatening the stability of financial institutions, particularly the banking firms. Traditional source of funds from the last resort, the Discount Window of the Federal Reserve System, failed to remedy the liquidity problem. To assuage the liquidity and credit problem, the Federal Reserve System established several emergency lending facilities and provided unprecedented amount of loans to the banking industry. Using a dataset published by Bloomberg LLP in the aftermaths of the financial crisis, which contains daily loan balances from the Fed, I conduct an event study to test whether financial markets are efficient in reflecting all public, anticipated and classified information in security prices. The most important contribution of this dissertation to the finance discipline and literature is the investigation and analysis of the Fed’s unprecedented loans to the banking industry during the Great Recession and the market reaction to it. The second major contribution of this study is the empirical test of strong form efficient market hypothesis, which has not been feasible due to legal data challenges. This dissertation has other contributions to the finance discipline and banking research. First, I develop an algorithm for measuring the amount of borrowing by banks. Second, I introduce a new “loan balance” ratio to traditional list of bank financial ratios. Third, I use event study methodologies to allow for cross-correlation, heteroscedasticity and event induced-variance change in studying US banks’ performance during the Great Recession

PENERAPAN PROGRAM KTI (KARYA TULIS ILMIAH) DALAM MENINGKATKAN MINAT BACA BUKU PAI SISWA KELAS IX DI MTS ASSALAFIYYAH MLANGI YOGYAKARTA

Rendahnya minat baca kelas IX di MTs Assalafiyyah Mlangi Yogyakarta. MTs Assalafiyyah Mlangi dalam meningkatkan minat baca, menerapkam program karya tulis ilmiah. Tema-tema yang diangkat dalam karya tulis ini dari keagamaan hingga sains. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan penerapan program karya tulis ilmiah. Program tersebut sebagai upaya untuk meningkatkan minat baca buku PAI siswa kelas IX di MTs Assalafiyyah Mlangi. Penelitian ini merupakan jenis penelitian lapangan kualitatif deskriptif. Penelitian ini didasarkan kepada pengamatan objektif terhadap suatu fenomena sosial. Adapun pengumpulan datanya menggunakan metode observasi, wawancara, dokumentasi dan angket. Keabsahan data menggunakan triangulasi sumber. Analisis data diantaranya pengumpulan data, reduksi data dan penyajian data. Hasil penelitian ini adalah: 1) Minat baca khususnya buku PAI siswa kelas IX MTs Assalafiyyah Mlangi dari angket siswa dan wawancara dari 4 guru, sebelum penerapan program KTI cukup rendah. Setelah penerapan program KTI, minat baca siswa menjadi meningkat. 2) Penerapan program karya tulis kelas IX di MTs Assalafiyyah Mlangi ini melalui lima tahap, diantaranya: guru membuat buku panduan serta instrument penilaiannya, selanjutnya seminar tentang karya tulis ilmiah, pembagian kelompok, penyusunan dan bimbingan karya tulis ilmiah dan yang terakhir adalah munaqosah. 3) Program karya tulis ilmiah mampu menjadikan siswa kelas IX MTs Assalafiyyah Mlangi untuk lebih aktif dalam membaca

Isolation and characterization of antihypertensive peptides from soy bean protein

Proteins and peptides are the most diverse biomolecules found in nature and make our interest due to their wide applications in food and pharmaceutical industry. Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) plays a major role in controlling blood pressure. The inhibition of ACE with peptides is a main target in the regulation of hypertension. The objective of the present study was to investigate the therapeutic potential of soy bean. This was accomplished by isolation of ACE inhibitory peptides using response surface methodology (RSM) and characterization of these bioactive peptides by mass spectrometry. 31 hydrolyzed fractions were isolated and evaluated for their ACE inhibition potential. Hydrolyzed fraction having highest ACE inhibitory activity was characterized by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) technique. RSM results showed maximum ACE inhibition potential (64%) by hydrolyzate was obtained at 45 ºC temperature, pH 8.0, E/S 0.2 in 2 hours hydrolysis time. Results of LC-MS analysis revealed Ser-Gly, Ser-Pro, Met-Ala, His-Ala, Lys-Pro, Phe-Thr, Met-Leu, Pro-Arg, Ala-Pro-Val, Pro-Ala-Leu, Val-Met-Gly, Pro-Leu-Val, Pro-Pro-Gln, His-Arg-Gly, Ser-Phe-Val-Leu, Ala-Val-His-Try, Arg-Thr-Val-Arg, His-His-Tyr-Leu-Val, Asp-Gly-Ala-Cys-Ser-Ala-Asn and MetVal-Thr-Gly-Pro-Gly-Cys-His bioactive peptides in hydrolyzed fraction of soy bean. Our data provide evidence that response surface methodology is a good approach for isolation of antihypertensive bioactive peptides with more potent activity as nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals. Therefore soy bean can be use for industrial production of pharmaceutical grade natural medicines for handling high blood pressure

On yield stress of compacted clays

Abstract Artificial compaction is a commonly practiced ground improvement technique around the world. Yield stress is an important parameter to quantify and analyze the strength and compressibility behavior of the artificially compacted clays; such materials are indeed of practical significance in various projects, e.g., engineered landfills, clay liners, etc. The present study aims to investigate the influence of different geotechnical characteristics of compacted clays of wide plasticity range on the compaction induced yield stress, and also to develop the correlational models to quickly predict the yield stress. Three natural clayey soil samples of different geotechnical properties were collected from different sites; 27 more samples of varying index properties were prepared by mixing bentonite with natural soil samples at varying rates. Series of one-dimensional consolidation tests were performed to determine compressibility parameters like yield stress, compression index, and coefficient of volume compressibility. Atterberg’s limits, grain size, compaction characteristics, and compressibility have a significant influence on the compaction induced yield stress. Predictive models of yield stress are also developed by using the plasticity index, optimum water content, and maximum dry unit weight as independent variables. Moreover, developed models are validated based on the independent data

HOW CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS IMPORTANT FOR ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF TEXTILE SECTOR OF PAKISTAN: MEDIATING ROLE OF HUMAN CAPITAL AND INNOVATIVE PERFORMANCE: Dr. Muhammad Zia-ur-Rehman, Dr. Khalid Latif , Dr. Ghulam Mujtaba Chaudhary, Adeel Arshad

In the present era, the Textile sector is facing a competitive and dynamic environment. Due to international competition, the textile sector is in focus to adjust their competitive positions to sustain their organizational performance (OP). The link of Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) studying in the textile sector is quite reasonable as the foreign revenue earned by Pakistan is mainly contributed by textile and apparel exports. It is witnessed that the investors and management of the Textile sector are not dynamic as they are not interested in innovations, new product development, and price comparativeness. Consequently, the revenues are continuously decreasing for the last few years. This empirical study investigates two main objectives. (1) Is there any positive relationship between CE and OP in organizations? (2) Are human capital and innovative performance play mediating roles between CE and OP in Pakistan’s textile sector? The multiple serial mediation regression methods of Hayes (2013) was used to compute the results of the surveyed data. The discussed model is entirely new in its concept so, the results and remedies were expected different from the others. The previous researches on the relationship between CE and OP were simple and our research negates this and introduced more variables which could be an essential factor for retaining innovative performance as well as higher organizational performance. The results show that the H1 is rejected. Moreover, H2 is accepted by confirming the mediating effects of HC and IP between CE and O

Bioavailability evaluation, uptake of heavy metals and potential health risks via dietary exposure in urban-industrial areas

A verity of human activities i.e. urbanization and industrialization have been resulted serious environmental contaminations by heavy metals in all over the world. The settlement of populations in urban and nearby industrial areas for economic development has significant share in their exposure to these metallic contaminants. Depending on the nature and type of the pollutants, targeted urban-industrial environments can have harmful and chronic health risk impacts on exposed local inhabitants and may require detoxification, healing and remedial therapy. Consequently, environmental monitoring as well as human health risk assessments of urban environments under industrial influence are key dominant features. We believe this work will provide new insights into the studies of metals exposure and associated health risks in emerging industrials cities of developing countries. Present study aimed to study the bioavailability of metals, quantify the changeability in soil and vegetable metal concentrations and estimation of human health risks via dietary exposure, focusing on urban-industrial environment. Soil and vegetable samples were collected in six random sites within the urban, periurban and industrial areas and analyzed for metal concentrations. In addition, risk assessment model proposed by US-EPA was employed to estimate the potential health risk of heavy metals via dietary intake. Results indicated that the heavy metal concentrations were noteworthy in periurban and urban-industrial areas. However, contamination levels varied with the type of vegetable, and the point source pollution such as traffic, urban wastes and industrial effluent. According to the estimated THQ and HI values for non-carcinogenic risk, little or no negative impact of heavy metals was observed on local inhabitants. However, the concentrations of Cr, Cd, Pb and Ni were nearly closed to the permissible limits described by US-EPA in urban-industrial areas. Conclusively, some efficient remedial strategies should be focus to overcome the increasing levels of Cr, Cd, Pb and Ni in this study area to protect the health of local inhabitants

Effect of Acidic and Basic Conditions on the Plasmon Band of Colloidal Silver

Preparation of colloidal silver nanoparticles has been carried out by salt reduction method and confirmed by the appearance of plasmon band in the visible region. The prepared nanoparticles were subjected to acidic and basic environments. The plasmon band was studied as a function of time under the described conditions and hence used as a stability check of silver nanoparticles in different media. The mechanism of plasmon band disappearance of silver colloids was found to depend strongly on the pH of the medium. Graphical abstract Research highlights ► Plasmon band of silver nanoparticles formed by citrate reduction method is strongly affected by the acidic and basic environments demonstrating effect of pH on the structure and stability of citrate caped silver nanoparticles. ► In acidic condition, an accelerated particle growth results only limited by the buffer action of citrate in solution. ► In the case of base Ag+ ions formation take place which ultimately deposit on the walls of test tube forming a silver mirror

Investigating the Potential Climatic Effects of Atmospheric Pollution across China under the National Clean Air Action Plan

To reduce air pollution, China adopted rigorous control mechanisms and announced the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) in 2013. Here, using OMI satellite, the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Application Center (SEDAC), and Fifth ECMWF (ERA5) data at a 0.25° × 0.25° resolution, we explored changes in NO2, PM, SO2, and O3 and climatology over China in response to the Action Plan between 2004 and 2021. This study attempts to investigate the long term trend analysis of air pollution and climatic variations during two scenarios before (2004–2013) and after (2013–2021) APPCAP. We investigated the climatic effects of air pollution in China before and after APPCAP adoption using geographically weighted regression (GWR) and differential models to assess the contribution of air pollution. The spatial representation analysis demonstrated how air pollution affected climatic factors before and after the APPCAP. Several important findings were derived: (1) the APPCAP significantly influenced air pollution reduction in China post-scenario (2013–2021); (2) the Mann Kendall test investigated that all pollutants showed an increasing trend pre-APPCAP, while they showed a decreasing trend, except for O3, post-APPCAP; (3) for climatic factors, the MK test showed an increasing trend of precipitation and mean minimum air temperature tmin post-APPCAP; (4) innovative trend analysis (ITA) showed a reduction in NO2, SO2, and PM, although O3 showed no trend post-APPCAP; and (5) pre-scenario, NO2 contributed to an increase in the mean maximum air temperature (tmax) by 0.62 °C, PM contributed to raising tmin by 0.41 °C, while O3 reduced the tmax(tmin) by 0.15 °C (0.05 °C). PM increased tmax and precipitation with a magnitude 0.38 °C (7.38 mm), and NO2 contributed to increasing tmin by (0.35 °C), respectively, post-scenario. In particular, post-scenario led to an increase in tmin and precipitation across China. The results and discussion presented in this study can be beneficial for policymakers in China to establish long-term management plans for air pollution and climatological changes