The effects of social responsibility on company value: a real options perspective of Taiwan companies

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a subject that has garnered considerable attention in recent years. This study conducts the empirical study by using a real options perspective to examine whether a company’s CSR commitment tends to increase its market value. According to Taiwan’s CommonWealth Magazine, this study distinguishes CSR and non-CSR companies. The paper estimates and compares the real options values of CSR and non-CSR companies and shows that high percentage of the company value is attributed to real options. This study finds that a company’s commitment to fulfilling its social responsibility increases its real options value and that the higher the number of CSR Awards won by a company, the higher its real options value. Compared with 10 years ago, investors now pay more attention to companies’ CSR performance. In addition, the higher a company’s size, systematic risk, fixed asset ratio, debt ratio, or skewness in stock returns, the higher a real options value is likely to be

Application of Spatial Bayesian Hierarchical Models to fMRI Data

Bayesian modelling has attracted great interest in cognitive science and offered a flexible and interpretable way to study cognitive processes using functional magnetic resonance imaging data. In this chapter, a spatial Bayesian hierarchical model is applied to an event-related fMRI study of cognitive control using the Simon test. We consider a sparse spatial generalized linear mixed-effects model to capture the spatial dependence among activated voxels and temporal parameters and to benefit computationally by reducing dimensionality. We demonstrate that the proposed model has the capability of identification of the brain areas related to cognitive tasks. Moreover, the reduction in the false positive rate is observed in the simulation study, and the relevant brain regions involved in processing cognitive control are clearly detected in a real-life fMRI example

Optimum dynamic characteristic control approach for building mass damper design

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142538/1/eqe2995.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142538/2/eqe2995_am.pd

The correlation between the capacity fade of LiFePO4 batteries and cycle life

A new model is developed by fitting the capacity of LiFePO$_4$ batteries, which can be used to investigate the relationship between capacity fade, state of health (SoH), electrochemical reactions and the number of cycles. The equation for the proposed model based on modified Thevenin circuit, Butler-Volmer kinetics and regression analysis consists of a constant term, a sine-exponential term and an exponential term. The constant term represents the rated capacity of a battery, while the sine-exponential term represents the variation in capacity in the active status and the exponential term represents the variation in capacity in the stable status. The model is divided into two parts. The first part is represented by the sine-exponential term, responsive to the activation of electrolyte and electrodes in the first 180 cycles; the second part can be described by the exponential term, estimating the capacity from cycle 180 to cycle 2000. In addition, the comparison between the model and mean absolute percentage error (mape) is able to predict the serious decay of capacity. The MAPE is only 0.47% for the tested battery. The proposed model also successfully estimates the capacity of a tested battery where the number of cycles is 2000 with the error of 0.90%. The results mean that the model is able to closely describe the correlation between capacity and the cycle numbers. References M. Zhao, G. Huang, W. Zhang, H. Zhang and X. Song, Electrochemical behaviors of limn1-xfexpo4$/$c cathode materials in an aqueous electrolyte with/without dissolved oxygen, Energy and Fuels 27 (2013), 2:1162-1167. doi:10.1021/ef301893b Y.-C. Wang, F.-M. Ni and T.-L. Lee, Hybrid modulation of bidirectional three-phase dual-active-bridge dc converters for electric vehicles, Energies 9 (2016), no. 7, 492. doi:10.3390/en9070492 A. H. N. Galapitage and P. Pudney, Scheduling electric vehicles with shared charging stations, ANZIAM Journal 57 (2016), 208. doi:10.21914/anziamj.v57i0.10443 T. Zhu, H. T. Min, Y. B. Yu, Z. M. Zhao, T. Xu, Y. Chen, X. Y. Li and C. Zhang, An optimized energy management strategy for preheating vehicle-mounted li-ion batteries at subzero temperatures, Energies 10 (2017), no. 2. doi:24310.3390/en10020243 K. M. Tsang and W. L. Chan, State of health detection for lithium ion batteries in photovoltaic system, Energ Convers Manage 65 (2013), 7-12. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2012.07.006 Z. Rao, S. Wang, M. Wu, Z. Lin and F. Li, Experimental investigation on thermal management of electric vehicle battery with heat pipe, Energ Convers Manage 65 (2013), 92-97. doi:0.1016/j.enconman.2012.08.014 A. Nikolian, Y. Firouz, R. Gopalakrishnan, J.-M. Timmermans, N. Omar, P. van den Bossche and J. van Mierlo, Lithium ion batteries-development of advanced electrical equivalent circuit models for nickel manganese cobalt lithium-ion, Energies 9 (2016), no. 5, 360. doi:10.3390/en9050360 Z. Gao, C. Chin, W. Woo and J. Jia, Integrated equivalent circuit and thermal model for simulation of temperature-dependent lifepo_4 battery in actual embedded application, Energies 10 (2017), no. 1, 85. doi:10.3390/en10010085 S.-Y. Lee, W.-L. Chiu, Y.-S. Liao, K.-Y. Lee, J.-H. Chen, H.-J. Lin and K. Li, Modified empirical fitting of the discharge behavior of lifepo_4 batteries under various conditions, ANZIAM Journal textbf55 (2014), 368. doi:10.21914/anziamj.v55i0.8182 C.-Y. Chung, K.-Y. Lee, T.-J. Kuo, Z.-Y. Lin, S.-D. Wu, C. Fu, Mathematical fitting for the variation in capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries corresponding to cycles, ANZIAM Journal 57 (2016), 291. doi:10.21914/anziamj.v57i0.10436 T. Zahid and W. Li, A comparative study based on the least square parameter identification method for state of charge estimation of a lifepo_4 battery pack using three model-based algorithms for electric vehicles, Energies 9 (2016), no. 9, 720. doi:10.3390/en9090720 T. Sasaki, Y. Ukyo and P. Novak, Memory effect in a lithium-ion battery, Nat Mater 12 (2013), no. 6, 569-575. doi:10.1038/nmat3623 B. R. Tiwari and M. M. Ghangrekar, Enhancing electrogenesis by pretreatment of mixed anaerobic sludge to be used as inoculum in microbial fuel cells, Energy $and$ Fuels 29 (2015), no. 5, 3518-3524. doi:10.1021/ef5028197 P. Bai and M. Z. Bazant, Charge transfer kinetics at the solid-solid interface in porous electrodes, Nat Commun 5 (2014), 3585. doi:10.1021/ef990039t A. Eddahech, O. Briat and J.-M. Vinassa, Determination of lithium-ion battery state-of-health based on constant-voltage charge phase, Journal of Power Sources 258 (2014), 218-227. doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2014.02.020 R. Castaing, Y. Reynier, N. Dupre, D. Schleich, S. J. S. Larbi, D. Guyomard and P. Moreau Degradation diagnosis of aged li4ti5012-lifepo_4 batteries, Journal of Power Sources 267 (2014), 744-752. doi:10.1016/jpowsour.2014.06.002 H. Bulter, F. Peters, J. Schwenzel and G. Wittstock, In situ quantification of the swelling of graphite composite electrodes by scanning electrochemical microscopy, J Electrochem Soc 163 (2016), no. 2, A27-A34. doi:10.1149/2.1061514je

Effect of Process Parameters of CNT Containing Friction Powder on Flexural Properties and Friction Performance of Organic Brake Friction Materials

This research is to investigate the influences of carbon nanotube (CNT) containing friction powder prepared through different process parameters on flexural properties and friction performance of organic brake friction materials. Experimental results indicate significant influence on flexural property and friction performance of organic brake friction materials when the modified CNT/friction powders are adopted. Particularly for the specimens adopted the modified CNT/friction powders prepared through 2.0 M concentration of catalyst and 30% C2H2 show the highest flexural strength, better ductility and toughness, most stable friction coefficient, and lowest weight loss. However, too many amorphous carbon clusters and CNTs aggregation derived from higher concentration of catalyst and ratio of C2H2/N2 would cause poor formation of specimens and reduction of reinforcement effectiveness

Risk factors and clinical significance of bacteremia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistant only to carbapenems

Background/purposeCarbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections have been a challenge and issue in hospital settings. However, the clinical impact of P. aeruginosa blood isolates resistant only to carbapenems has never been discussed previously.MethodsTo assess the risk factors and clinical significance of bacteremia caused by carbapenem resistance only P. aeruginosa (CROPA), a 6-year retrospective case–control study was conducted. The CROPA strains were defined as isolates susceptible to ciprofloxacin, antipseudomonal penicillins and cephalosporins, and aminoglycosides but resistant to one antipseudomonal carbapenem (imipenem or meropenem) or both. The controls were selected among patients with bacteremia due to P. aeruginosa susceptible to all above classes of antipseudomonal antibiotics, which was defined as all-susceptible P. aeruginosa.ResultsTwenty-five patients had at least one blood culture positive for CROPA, and 50 controls had all-susceptible P. aeruginosa bacteremia. CROPA bacteremia had a high 30-day mortality rate (72.0%), as compared to 26.0% for the controls (p < 0.001). Through multivariate analysis, carbapenem exposure was the only risk factor for developing CROPA bacteremia (p = 0.002). A comparison between the surviving and deceased patients with CROPA bacteremia showed that nine (50%) of those who died, but none of the survivors, received carbapenems as the initial empirical therapy (p = 0.027).ConclusionCarbapenem exposure was associated with emergence of CROPA infections. Repeated carbapenem use in such patients might increase rates of inappropriate initial empirical treatment and mortality. Prudent carbapenem use is important to reduce the emergence of CROPA