Help or Hurt? The Impact of ESG on Firm Performance in S&P 500 Non-Financial Firms

The paper aims to investigate the impact of ESG practice on firms’ financial performance in the context of U.S. market from 2018 to 2020. The paper examines a sample of 57 U.S. non-financial firms belonging to the S&P 500. The Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) estimation is employed with an instrumental variable - the political views of the states where the studied firms are located. The paper shows that having a better practice of ESG could enhance firms’ financial performance measured by ROA, ROE, and TobinQ. These findings are consistent with the stakeholder-focused theory instead of shareholder-focus perspective. In addition, the magnitude of the influence of the ESG practice on TobinQ is significantly higher than that of the ESG-ROA and ESG-ROE relations. It reveals that the ESG benefits could make the firms appear more attractive to investors, creating higher market values of the firms’ assets and then higher TobinQ ratio. Not as the TobinQ enhancement, the significant improvement in ROA and ROE would be realized in the long run rather than short term. The low managerial ownership in the U.S. market may increase the chance of ESG overinvestment by the firms’ managers, hence reducing firm value. However, under the pressure of the investors’ strong demand for socially responsible investing, the U.S. firms tend to become involved in ESG activities, obtaining a strong stakeholder commitment and thus creating additional firm value in the long run

Benchmarking Jetson Edge Devices with an End-to-end Video-based Anomaly Detection System

Innovative enhancement in embedded system platforms, specifically hardware accelerations, significantly influence the application of deep learning in real-world scenarios. These innovations translate human labor efforts into automated intelligent systems employed in various areas such as autonomous driving, robotics, Internet-of-Things (IoT), and numerous other impactful applications. NVIDIA's Jetson platform is one of the pioneers in offering optimal performance regarding energy efficiency and throughput in the execution of deep learning algorithms. Previously, most benchmarking analysis was based on 2D images with a single deep learning model for each comparison result. In this paper, we implement an end-to-end video-based crime-scene anomaly detection system inputting from surveillance videos and the system is deployed and completely operates on multiple Jetson edge devices (Nano, AGX Xavier, Orin Nano). The comparison analysis includes the integration of Torch-TensorRT as a software developer kit from NVIDIA for the model performance optimisation. The system is built based on the PySlowfast open-source project from Facebook as the coding template. The end-to-end system process comprises the videos from camera, data preprocessing pipeline, feature extractor and the anomaly detection. We provide the experience of an AI-based system deployment on various Jetson Edge devices with Docker technology. Regarding anomaly detectors, a weakly supervised video-based deep learning model called Robust Temporal Feature Magnitude Learning (RTFM) is applied in the system. The approach system reaches 47.56 frames per second (FPS) inference speed on a Jetson edge device with only 3.11 GB RAM usage total. We also discover the promising Jetson device that the AI system achieves 15% better performance than the previous version of Jetson devices while consuming 50% less energy power.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, 5 table

A thermal‐gradient approach to variable‐temperature measurements resolved in space

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155923/1/jcr2te5056.pd

Mechanistically-guided materials chemistry: synthesis of new ternary nitrides, CaZrN2_2 and CaHfN2_2

Recent computational studies have predicted many new ternary nitrides, revealing synthetic opportunities in this underexplored phase space. However, synthesizing new ternary nitrides is difficult, in part because intermediate and product phases often have high cohesive energies that inhibit diffusion. Here, we report the synthesis of two new phases, calcium zirconium nitride (CaZrN$_2$) and calcium hafnium nitride (CaHfN$_2$), by solid state metathesis reactions between Ca$_3$N$_2$ and $M$Cl$_4$ ($M$ = Zr, Hf). Although the reaction nominally proceeds to the target phases in a 1:1 ratio of the precursors via Ca$_3$N$_2$ + $M$Cl$_4$ $\rightarrow$ Ca$M$N$_2$ + 2 CaCl$_2$, reactions prepared this way result in Ca-poor materials (Ca$_xM_{2-x}$N$_2$, $x<1$). A small excess of Ca$_3$N$_2$ (ca. 20 mol\%) is needed to yield stoichiometric Ca$M$N$_2$, as confirmed by high-resolution synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction. In situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction studies reveal that nominally stoichiometric reactions produce Zr$^{3+}$ intermediates early in the reaction pathway, and the excess Ca$_3$N$_2$ is needed to reoxidize Zr$^{3+}$ intermediates back to the Zr$^{4+}$ oxidation state of CaZrN$_2$. Analysis of computationally-derived chemical potential diagrams rationalizes this synthetic approach and its contrast from the synthesis of MgZrN$_2$. These findings additionally highlight the utility of in situ diffraction studies and computational thermochemistry to provide mechanistic guidance for synthesis

Oseltamivir Is Adequately Absorbed Following Nasogastric Administration to Adult Patients with Severe H5N1 Influenza

In the absence of a parenteral drug, oral oseltamivir is currently recommended by the WHO for treating H5N1 influenza. Whether oseltamivir absorption is adequate in severe influenza is unknown. We measured the steady state, plasma concentrations of nasogastrically administered oseltamivir 150 mg bid and its active metabolite, oseltamivir carboxylate (OC), in three, mechanically ventilated patients with severe H5N1 (male, 30 yrs; pregnant female, 22 yrs) and severe H3N2 (female, 76 yrs). Treatments were started 6, 7 and 8 days after illness onset, respectively. Both females were sampled while on continuous venovenous haemofiltration. Admission and follow up specimens (trachea, nose, throat, rectum, blood) were tested for RNA viral load by reverse transcriptase PCR. In vitro virus susceptibility to OC was measured by a neuraminidase inhibition assay. Admission creatinine clearances were 66 (male, H5N1), 82 (female, H5N1) and 6 (H3N2) ml/min. Corresponding AUC0–12 values (5932, 10,951 and 34,670 ng.h/ml) and trough OC concentrations (376, 575 and 2730 ng/ml) were higher than previously reported in healthy volunteers; the latter exceeded 545 to 3956 fold the H5N1 IC50 (0.69 ng/ml) isolated from the H5N1 infected female. Two patients with follow-up respiratory specimens cleared their viruses after 5 (H5N1 male) and 5 (H3N2 female) days of oseltamivir. Both female patients died of respiratory failure; the male survived. 150 mg bid of oseltamivir was well absorbed and converted extensively to OC. Virus was cleared in two patients but two patients died, suggesting viral efficacy but poor clinical efficacy

Smart Home System

This project involves the design and implementation of a Smart Home system using IoT solutions. Three types of sensors, namely an occupancy sensor, a light sensor and a temperature sensor, along with a security camera are used and incorporated with a microcontroller in a master/slave architecture via Zigbee, a short-range network communication. The data collected from these sensors is transmitted to a cloud-based platform through Wi-Fi for analyzing and downloading to personal smartphones via a designated user interface. The entire system can be controlled both by users’ smartphones and by personal computers

Exclusive waterpipe smoking and the risk of nasopharynx cancer in Vietnamese men, a prospective cohort study

Abstract Tobacco smoking is carcinogenic to humans. Besides cigarettes, the most common form of tobacco smoking, there was sparse evidence of waterpipe’s carcinogenicity-induced nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC). This study investigated the association between waterpipe smoking and NPC mortality. Our study followed up with 20,144 eligible man participants from nine northern Vietnam communes between 2007 and 2019. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to gather data on exclusive waterpipe and cigarette smoking and dietary intake using structured semi-quantitative food frequency and lifestyle questionnaires. Nasopharyngeal cancer was determined by accessing the medical records at the state health facilities. We estimated the Cox proportional hazard ratio and 95% confidence intervals, HR (95% CI). The proportion of never smokers, exclusive waterpipe, exclusive cigarette, and dual waterpipe and cigarette smokers was 55.8%, 14.5%, 16.6%, and 13.1%, respectively. Exclusively waterpipe smokers increased the risk of NPC death compared to exclusively cigarette smokers, HR (95% CI): 4.51 (1.25, 16.31), p = 0.022. A dose-dependent positive relationship between NPC and exclusive waterpipe smoking was significantly seen for higher intensity HR (95% CI): 1.35 (1.07, 1.71), earlier age of smoking initiation HR (95% CI): 1.26 (1.06, 1.50), longer duration HR (95% CI): 1.31 (1.04, 1.66), and the cumulative number of a smoke lifetime HR (95% CI): 1.37 (1.08, 1.74). We observed a significant positive association between exclusive waterpipe smoking and NPC in men. The findings suggested that waterpipe smoking is likely more harmful than cigarettes in developing this cancer. A firm tobacco control against waterpipe smoking is highly recommended

Urban staycation attraction factors: a case study of Ho Chi Minh city

The attractiveness of a city is an issue that has received much attention from scholars, regulators and authorities. In terms of a built environment, many attempts have been made to build an attractive city with its own identity through pattern language and form language; however, these languages are developed based on the language of geometry and on how human beings interact with their surrounding environment. Meanwhile, multiple studies on the factors that create motivation to attract visitors to a certain place (e.g. motivation theory) also identified the factors that makes a city attractive, but such studies are still general, incomplete, and only focus on the perspective of tourists. This research builds a system of factors that contributes to urban attractiveness from the perspective of both visitors and residents, through qualitative research methods such as Group Focused Discussion, In-depth Interview and Capture Evaluation Method Survey. The research findings discovered many more factors that affect urban attractiveness and then built nine Conceptual categories of Urban staycation Attraction Factors with 141 factors. The nine main categories are (1) Architectural and Built Environment, (2) Natural, (3) Works of Art and Humanity, (4) Folklore, (5) Community Civilization, (6) Green & Blue Infrastructure, (7) Sense of Place, (8) Services, and (9) Other. Moreover, the research also determined 134 factors that contribute to the attractiveness of Ho Chi Minh City and proposed an additional six important groups of factors that need to be developed to improve urban quality. These findings play an important role in supporting regulators, authorities, urban planners, designers, and tourism and cultural managers to enhance quality of urban life, then create an attractive urban environment for both tourists and local residents

Scalable, low-cost, and versatile system design for air pollution and traffic density monitoring and analysis

Vietnam requires a sustainable urbanization, for which city sensing is used in planning and de-cision-making. Large cities need portable, scalable, and inexpensive digital technology for this purpose. End-to-end air quality monitoring companies such as AirVisual and Plume Air have shown their reliability with portable devices outfitted with superior air sensors. They are pricey, yet homeowners use them to get local air data without evaluating the causal effect. Our air quality inspection system is scalable, reasonably priced, and flexible. Minicomputer of the sys-tem remotely monitors PMS7003 and BME280 sensor data through a microcontroller processor. The 5-megapixel camera module enables researchers to infer the causal relationship between traffic intensity and dust concentration. The design enables inexpensive, commercial-grade hardware, with Azure Blob storing air pollution data and surrounding-area imagery and pre-venting the system from physically expanding. In addition, by including an air channel that re-plenishes and distributes temperature, the design improves ventilation and safeguards electrical components. The gadget allows for the analysis of the correlation between traffic and air quali-ty data, which might aid in the establishment of sustainable urban development plans and poli-cies