Dividend Behaviour of Indian Companies Under Monetary Policy Restrictions

In this study we examine the dividend behaviour of Indian companies. We use GMM estimator, which is the most suitable methodology in a dynamic setting. Our results show that the Indian firms have lower target ratios and higher adjustment factors. The most significant result is that the restricted monetary policies have significant influence on the dividend behaviour of Indian firms, causing about 5-6 percent reduction in the payout ratios. The significance of macro economic policy variable suggest that monetary policy restrictions do have impact on cost of raising funds, and the information asymmetry between lenders and borrowers increases that forces companies to reduce their dividend payout.

Correlation of PID and multiparity: a case control study

Background: Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) has emerged as a silent killer that disturbs women's life. In the rural population of India, most women are usually not aware of symptoms of PID. They do not move for health care unless alarming symptoms develop. The objective of present study is to find out to find out correlation between PID & multiparity.Methods: The present study was conducted at Government Bundelkhand Medical College, Sagar. Study design:  Case control, Participants: Females attending obstetrics & gynecology department OPD, Sample size: Total 150  cases & same number (150) of controls. Statistics: Chi – square test.Results: The odds ratio (OR) was 0.69 with 95% confidence interval (CI) being 0.42-1.09 for PID with multiparity as risk factor. Of 143 cases, multiparity was seen in 63 cases (44.05). In 150 controls, it was seen in 80 (53.33%). The variation was not statistically significant (p = 0.141). The Odds Ratio with in exepertise as a risk factor for PID was 2.41 with 95% CI being 1.78-3.27. Result shows etiological fraction of 58.5% (CI 43.9-69.4%) among inexpert hands. The delivery in untrained hands was significantly higher in cases (p 0.00001).Conclusions: This study does not show multiparity to be a risk factor but delivery conducted by untrained hands was as a risk factor.

Metal oxides as buffer layers in polycrystalline CdTe thin-film solar cells

2021 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.The optical band-gap of 1.5 eV and absorption coefficient the order of 105 cm-1 makes CdTea very attractive absorber for thin-film solar cells. This dissertation explores methods to improve both the front, or emitter, part of the cell and the back contact to the CdTe-based thin-film solar cells. The choice of an n-type emitter partner for CdTe based solar cells is crucial to the overall power conversion efficiency. In comparison to the traditional CdS emitter, metal oxides such as ZnO, MgO, and the ternary alloy MgxZn1-xO have large optical band-gaps making them transparent to most of the solar spectrum and an ideal emitter layer adjacent to light-facing side of the absorber in a superstrate configuration. The optical and electrical properties of MgxZn1-xO emitters can be modulated by varying the elemental ratio of x = Mg:(Mg + Zn) in the ternary alloy. Tracing the variation of the conversion efficiency as a function of Mg fraction in MgxZn1-xO emitter, an optimal Mg fraction of x = 0.15 was found to produce highest efficiency for the CdTe-based thin-film solar cells. Photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrated the conduction band offset at the emitter/absorber interface transitions from a cliff like -0.1 eV for x = 0.00 to a spike like 0.2 eV at the optimal x = 0.15. Photoluminescence and low-temperature current-voltage measurements showed that the interface between MgZnO and the CdSeTe is well passivated for x = 0.15. Further increase in the Mg fraction however increases the band offset between the emitter/absorber leading to distortions of J-V curves under various illumination conditions. Light soaking experiments and numerical simulations show that an insufficient density of carriers in the MgZnO due to the compensating defects causes these distortions: a failure of superposition of light and dark curves referred to as cross over, and distortion from normal current voltage behavior under spectra filtered illumination. An extrinsic doping of the emitter is critical to rectify these distortions and Ga-doped MgZnO was employed to experimentally demonstrate a cure to these J-V distortions characteristic of an undoped MgZnO emitter. It paves pathway to increase the n-type carrier density in the MgZnO emitter. The group-V doping of CdTe has shown potential to improve open circuit voltage, with level of doping in absorber the order of 1016 cm-3 and lifetimes of hundreds of ns. Numerical device simulations demonstrate that doping the emitter layer is essential and a particular challenge if the doping in the absorber is high. The results find the carrier concentration in emitter should be higher than the doping in the absorber to attain high open-circuit voltage in the highly doped CdTe-absorbers possible with arsenic doping. Various back contact metals like Ag, Co, Pt and metalloids like Te, and Se with different work functions were used to make an ohmic contact with the CdTe back surface. The use of a buffer layer behind the bare CdTe surface is found to be critical to the device performance. A thin 30-nm layer of Te have become the preferred choice of back buffer layer. Metal oxides like TeOx has been introduced as back buffer between the CdTe absorber and Te back contact to study their effect in device performance. The study finds that a double CdCl2 passivation procedure before and after the deposition of oxides is critical to the performance of these solar cells. Devices with the TeOx and the Te layer as back buffer demonstrated a power conversion efficiency in excess of 17 % without the incorporation of dopant in the absorber. Such a result is significant, as extrinsic dopants in CdTe-based absorbers often introduce defects in the absorber leading to increased recombination and degradation of cell performance particularly if the absorber is doped with Cu. Spectral and time resolved photoluminescence measurements carried out with illumination from front glass side show such cells have improved minority carrier lifetimes. The rear TRPL illumination to probe a CdTe/TeOx surface measured lifetimes of few ns indicative of the TeOx as a back buffer layer to mitigate the effects of large defects on a free CdTe surface. These results demonstrate metal oxides as a promising candidates for back buffer layers, and passivating back contact for hole selectivity in the CdTe-based solar cells

Resnet-Based Approach For Detection And Classification Of Plant Leaf Diseases

Plant diseases may cause large yield losses, endangering both the stability of the economy and the supply of food. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), in particular, are deep neural networks that have shown remarkable effectiveness in completing image categorization tasks, often outperforming human ability. It has numerous applications in voice processing, picture and video processing, and natural language processing (NLP). It has also grown into a centre for research on plant protection in agriculture, including the assessment of pest ranges and the diagnosis of plant diseases. In two plant phenotyping tasks, the function of a CNN (Convolutional Neural Networks) structure based on Residual Networks (ResNet) is investigated in this study. The majority of current studies on Species Recognition (SR) and plant infection detection have used balanced datasets for accuracy and experimentation as the evaluation criteria. This study, however, made use of an unbalanced dataset with an uneven number of pictures, organised the data into several test cases and classes, conducted data augmentation to improve accuracy, and—most importantly—used multiclass classifier assessment settings that were helpful for an asymmetric class distribution. Furthermore with all these frequent issues, the paper addresses selecting the size of the data collection, classifier depth, necessary training time, and assessing the efficacy of the classifier when using various test scenarios. The Species Recognising (SR) and Identifying of Health and Infection Leaves (IHIL) tasks in this study have shown substantial improvement in performance for the ResNet 20 (V2) architecture, with Precision of 91.84% & 84.00%, Recall of 91.67% and 83.14%, and F1 scores of 91.49% & 83.19%, respectively. &nbsp

OPTIMIZATION OF CULTURE PARAMETERS FOR α-GLUCOSIDASE PRODUCTION FROM PROTONEMAL BIOMASS OF BRYUM CORONATUM SCHWAEGR

Objective: The purpose of the present investigation was to optimization of culture parameters for α-glucosidase production from protonemal biomass of Bryum coronatum Schwaegr.Methods: Fresh unopened, mature capsules were used as explant and the protonema that developed from the aseptic spores were cultured grown on 1/4th Murashige and Skoog basal medium. Frozen protonemal biomass was homogenized in 100 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). The supernatant was assayed for α-glucosidase activity. Various culture parameters such as incubation period, temperature, pH, agitation, carbon sources and nitrogen sources were evaluated and further Taguchi orthogonal array method was performed.Results: It was observed that both protonemal biomass and α-glucosidase production were maximum at 28 d of culture. Optimization of culture parameters such as pH, temperature and agitation speed for α-glucosidase production was found to be 6.0, 35 °C and 150 rpm, respectively. Among nutritional parameters, sucrose as carbon source and ammonium nitrate as nitrogen source found to be effective for enzyme production and maximum growth of protonemal biomass of B. coronatum. Based on Taguchi orthogonal array method, the optimal condition and their contribution on α-glucosidase production were evaluated as follows: sucrose (1.5%), ammonium nitrate (1%), pH (6.0), temperature (35 °C) and agitation (150 rpm).Conclusion: In this study, the culture of moss, B. coronatum proved to be a good source for the enzyme α-glucosidase production. Temperature 35 °C and pH 6.0 were found to be optimum for maximum α-glucosidase production with respect to protonemal biomass production. Optimization of culture medium by Taguchi method has resulted in an increase in the α-glucosidase activity from 3.84-14.39 U/ml.Â

The Impact of Religious Tourism on Nepalese Economy

Religious tourism is one of the main contributors to the Nepalese tourism industry. It has not only generated thousands of jobs but also has been one of the main media to promote Nepalese culture, lifestyle and traditions. At the same time, it has grown as a strong contributor to the Nepalese economy. The main aim of this thesis was to point out the impact of religious tourism on the Nepalese economy, to find out the main factors affecting religious tourism and to get views of people about the religious tourism. The research for this thesis was done through collecting secondary data from various sources and by collecting primary data through online questionnaire survey. A survey website was used as a tool to collect the primary data while all the respondents were approached through social media. The research pointed out the impact of the religious tourism on the Nepalese economy. Furthermore, the primary data collection results showed travelers’ view about a religious trip. The amount of money we can expect from the random religious travelers and the services they look for are some key findings

IN VITRO CULTURE OF MOSS BRYUM CORONATUM SCHWAEGR.(BRYACEAE) AND IT'S PHYTOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS

Objective: The purpose of the present investigation was to establish in vitro conditions for moss Bryum coronatum Schwaegr. And to carry out preliminary phytochemical screening of B. coronatum leaf extracts in different solvents. Methods: Fresh unopened, mature capsules were used as explant and surface sterilization of spores bearing capsule with different concentration of sodium hypochlorite (0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 8%) with different time duration. The Mu­rashige and Skoog (MS) medium that contains different concentration(full,1/2, 1/4th, 1/8th strength) with different concentration of sucrose were used for culture this moss. Phytochemical screening were carried out using ethanol, methanol and ethyl acetate leaf extract of B. coronatum to identify various constitutes using the standard procedures. Results: Surface sterilization of spores of this moss was most effective in 4% commercial bleach for 1 min sterilization. The optimum condition for germination of spores and for proper growth of gametophytes B. coronatum on MS/4 medium strength with sucrose (1.5%), at pH 5.8 and temperature 22±2ºC with 16/8h: light/dark condition. Phytochemical analyses revealed the presence of alkaloids, terpenoids and saponins in all extracts. Conclusion: Four percentage NaOCl aqueous solutions are better for surface sterilization of moss sporophytes. MS/4 medium with 1.5% sucrose found the best medium for spore germination. Solvents extracts showed presence of alkaloids, terpenoids and saponins in all extracts

Effectiveness of Various Insecticides against Spotted Bollworms (Earias Spp.) at Shahjahanpur, U.P., India

In order to evaluate the performance of cypermethrin, fenpropathrin, bifenthrin and cyhalothirn, against spotted bollworm (SBW) (Earias spp.) at A Research Farm, Shahjahanpur, U.P. and at a farmer’s field for the years 2007 and 2008, studies were carried out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The data of the spotted bollworms was taken from fruiting bodies of 25 plants selected at random. Bifenthrin and cyhalothrin registered lowest number of spotted bollworm larvae 48 hr after spray and high gain of seed cotton. The efficacy of insecticides is discussed under condition of the area of the study