Why Do Firms Smooth Earnings?

We explain why a firm may smooth reported earnings. Greater earnings volatility leads to a bigger informational advantage for informed investors over uninformed investors. If sufficiently many current shareholders are uninformed and may need to trade in the future for liquidity reasons, an increase in the volatility of reported earnings will magnify these shareholders' trading losses. They will, therefore, want the manager to smooth reported earnings as much as possible. Empirical implications are drawn out that link earnings smoothing to managerial compensation contracts, uncertainty about the volatility of earnings, and ownership structure.

A Short Review of Advances in the Modelling of Blood Rheology and Clot Formation

Several advances have taken place since the early 2000s in the field of blood flow modelling. These advances have been driven by the development of assist devices such as Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs), etc., and by the acceptance of in silico tests for the generation of hypotheses concerning clot formation and lysis. We give an overview of the developments in modelling of blood rheology and clot formation/lysis in the last 10 to 15 years. In blood rheology, advances are increasingly supplemented by flow simulation studies. In clot formation (or coagulation), advances have taken place in both single-scale modeling under quiescent conditions as well as in multi-scale modeling in the presence of flow. The future will possibly see more blood flow simulations in complex geometries and, simultaneously, development and simulation of multi-scale models for clot formation and lysis

Effect of Wall Flexibility on the Deformation during Flow in a Stenosed Coronary Artery

The effect of varying wall flexibility on the deformation of an artery during steady and pulsatile flow of blood is investigated. The artery geometry is recreated from patient-derived data for a stenosed left coronary artery. Blood flow in the artery is modeled using power-law fluid. The fluid-structure interaction of blood flow on artery wall is simulated using ANSYS 16.2, and the resulting wall deformation is documented. A comparison of wall deformation using flexibility models like Rigid, Linear Elastic, Neo-hookean, Mooney-Rivlin and Holzapfel are obtained for steady flow in the artery. The maximum wall deformation in coronary flow conditions predicted by the Holzapfel model is only around 50% that predicted by the Neo-Hookean model. The flow-induced deformations reported here for patient-derived stenosed coronary artery with physiologically accurate model are the first of its kind. These results help immensely in the planning of angioplasty

Optimum culture medium composition for lipopeptide production by Bacillus subtilis using response surface model-based ant colony optimization

Central composite rotatable design (CCRD) of experiments was used to obtain data for Lipopeptide and Biomass concentrations from fermentation medium containing the following five components: glucose, monosodium glutamate, yeast extract, MgSO4⋅7H2O, and K2HPO4. Data was used to develop a second order regression response surface model (RSM) which was coupled with ant colony optimization (ACO) to optimize the media compositions so as to enhance the productivity of lipopeptide. The optimized media by ACO was found to yield 1.501 g/L of lipopeptide concentration which was much higher compared to 1.387 g/L predicted by Nelder–Mead optimization (NMO). The optimum from ACO was validated experimentally. RSM-based ACO is thus shown to be an effective tool for medium optimization of biosurfactant production

Natural Windbreaks Sustain Bird Diversity in a Tea- Dominated Landscape

Windbreaks often form networks of forest habitats that improve connectivity and thus conserve biodiversity, but little is known of such effects in the tropics. We determined bird species richness and community composition in windbreaks composed of remnant native vegetation amongst tea plantations (natural windbreaks), and compared it with the surrounding primary forests. Fifty-one, ten-minute point counts were conducted in each habitat type over three days. Despite the limited sampling period, our bird inventories in both natural windbreaks and primary forests were nearly complete, as indicated by bootstrap true richness estimator. Bird species richness and abundance between primary forests and windbreaks were similar, however a difference in bird community composition was observed. Abundances of important functional groups such as frugivores and insectivores did not vary between habitat types but nectarivores were more abundant in windbreaks, potentially as a result of the use of windbreaks as traveling routes, foraging and nesting sites. This preliminary study suggests that natural windbreaks may be important habitats for the persistence of bird species in a production landscape. However, a better understanding of the required physical and compositional characteristics for windbreaks to sustain bird communities is needed for effective conservation management

The impact of phenotype, ethnicity and genotype on progression of Type 2 diabetes mellitus

Aim: To conduct a comprehensive review of studies of glycaemic deterioration in type 2 diabetes and identify the major factors influencing progression.Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search with terms linked to type 2 diabetes progression. All the included studies were summarized based upon the factors associated with diabetes progression and how the diabetes progression was defined.Results: Our search yielded 2785 articles; based on title, abstract and full‐text review, we included 61 studies in the review. We identified seven criteria for diabetes progression: ‘Initiation of insulin’, ‘Initiation of oral antidiabetic drug’, ‘treatment intensification’, ‘antidiabetic therapy failure’, ‘glycaemic deterioration’, ‘decline in beta‐cell function’ and ‘change in insulin dose’. The determinants of diabetes progression were grouped into phenotypic, ethnicity and genotypic factors. Younger age, poorer glycaemia and higher body mass index at diabetes diagnosis were the main phenotypic factors associated with rapid progression. The effect of genotypic factors on progression was assessed using polygenic risk scores (PRS); a PRS constructed from the genetic variants linked to insulin resistance was associated with rapid glycaemic deterioration. The evidence of impact of ethnicity on progression was inconclusive due to the small number of multi‐ethnic studies.Conclusion: We have identified the major determinants of diabetes progression—younger age, higher BMI, higher HbA1c and genetic insulin resistance. The impact of ethnicity is uncertain; there is a clear need for more large‐scale studies of diabetes progression in different ethnic groups

Comparative Study on Effect of Bio-Fertilizers and Chemical Fertilizers on Growth, Development and Yield of Paddy Crop (Oryza sativa)

In response to rapidly increasing global human population from 6.1 billion in 2000 to 8 billion in 2022, global demand of food and food security is multiplying by folds every year. Factors like deforestation, land pollution, rapid urbanization etc. also leads to the availability of land available for agriculture. To cope with the increasing demand of food products, agricultural end products i.e pulses, grains, fruits, vegetables, oil seeds etc. farmers are dependent on synthetic/chemical fertilizers, these chemicals provide the plants with nutrients which boosts their growth and yield. These nutrients are naturally available in the soil but with time and when crops are grown on same patch of land again and again without following practices like crop rotation, these nutrients get depleted. These synthetic fertilizers, pesticides & herbicides have adverse  effect on physiological properties of the soil i.e reduced soil fertility, soil pH imbalance, depletion of beneficial microorganisms etc. Rain, flooding of fields often washes away the applied agrochemicals into the fresh water bodies causing water pollution.  There is no doubt in the fact that these chemical fertilizers do increase the growth and development of the crops but at the cost of environment. Compared to these agrochemicals biofertilizers are better alternative, Biofertilizers are living or dormant microbes that promote the growth, development and yield of the crops when applied in the soil and do not have any harmful effects like that of agrochemicals. They do boost the growth and development of the crops by use of mechanisms like nitrogen fixation, siderophore production, potassium solubilization, phytohormone production, phosphate solubilization etc. Biofertilizers are also capable of inducing plant growth promoting activities even under the biotic and abiotic stresses, they also provide resistance against many diseases by producing antibiotics. This research compares the effect of biofertilizers and chemical fertilizers on growth, development, yield of crops and also conc. Of nutrients and micronutrients of the obtained end product i.e fruit, grain

Chiral-symmetry restoration in the linear sigma model at nonzero temperature and baryon density

We study the chiral phase transition in the linear sigma model with 2 quark flavors and $N_c$ colors. One-loop calculations predict a first-order phase transition at both $\mu=0$ and $\mu\neq 0$. We also discuss the phase diagram and make a comparison with a thermal parametrization of existing heavy-ion experimental data.Comment: 12 pages, 6 ps-figures, LaTe