Regioselective nitration of phenols using Sr(NO3)2 or benzyltriphenylphosphonium nitrate in the presence of H2SO4-silica had been realized under solvent free conditions. The reaction proceeds through the formation of nitronium ion, which attack the phenol ring preferential at ortho position in presence of Sr(NO3)2, forming mono nitrophenol. Para-orientation relative to hydroxyl group and mononitration of phenolic compounds was observed in the case of benzyltriphenylphosphonium nitrate. Some of the major advantages of this method are mild reaction conditions, high efficiency and regioselectivity of nitration and complementarity with other reported methods. In addition, benzyltriphenylphosphonium nitrate as nitrating reagent can be easily recycled.

This paper discusses Islamic financial reporting system as practiced in many Islamic states for economic development. The issue of Islamic accounting among scholars provided evidence of economic benefits among the countries that have Islamic financial institutions (IFIs). The IFIs have been reported to be the fastest-growing sector in the world with a greater contribution of the global total bank assets. Although the Muslim population in Nigeria is large, the contribution or participation of Muslim towards IFIs is low compared to other countries like Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Syria. Furthermore, the accounting reporting in Nigeria is based on the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for all listed firms in Nigeria, which includes IFIs, even though, IFIs apply dual reporting. Therefore, the need for the mandatory adoption of Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) standards is significant in Nigerian for IFIs to function better. Several countries have made it mandatory for IFIs to adopt AAOIFI instead of IFRS. The need for IFIs firms to report on their accounting system as an alternative to the conventional, will not only enhance transparency, improve reporting disclosures, greater Muslim investors, but will also improve Nigerian stock market. Policy makers, governments, and the regulator should make it mandatory for all IFIs to adopt AAOIFI for financial reporting.

An Eddy current damper uses magnets to suppress vibrations due to external excitations. These dampers also called electromagnetic dampers, have advantages of no mechanical contact, high reliability and stability, but require a relatively large volume and mass to attain a given amount of damping. The magnets respond to an external excitation field. Along with the construction of the damper, COMSOL software is used for analysis of the eddy current damper and got various results like magnetic flux density, eddy current intensity, velocity and acceleration of the moving magnet. For this a standard dimension of an automotive vehicle damper is used so that the prototype could be tested on a damper testing machine. The standard dimension is chosen to increase the adaptability, compatibility and to ease of testing the damper. After this task the response of damper under various loads is observed. Different materials of housing tube are taken to observe the effects of various parameters like flux density, current intensity and, of course, the damping capability of the prototype damper.

Copper oxide nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by mechanochemical reaction, which is a green, low cost, solvent free, rapid method and followed by calcining treatment. Copper acetate monohydrate and urea were used as reagents and the resulted precursor was calcined at 500 ?C for 2h in air. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed the formation of nanoparticles with an average size of about 86 nm. The Fourier transform infrared (FT–IR) spectrum and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) pattern of the product confirmed all of reflections can be indexed to pure phase of CuO with a monoclinic crystal system. The diffuse reflectance spectrum (DRS) showed a band gap of 1.7 eV.

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is one of the most popular methods used for measuring the relative efficiency of similar units by considering various input/output parameters. This paper implements DEA models to estimate the relative efficiency of selected banks in the United States. The proposed study uses two inputs, total assets and number of employees, and one output, net revenue for measuring the relative efficiency of selected banks. The relative efficiencies of different banks are analyzed. The preliminary results indicate that Santander Bank is the most efficient banks operating in the United States followed by SunTrust Bank and HSBC. Other banks preserve lower efficiency compared with these three banks.

An efficient one-pot synthesis of pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazoles via four-component reaction of phenyl hydrazine, ethyl acetoacetate, malononitrile and aromatic aldehydes, catalyzed by poly(4-vinylpyridine) is reported. This method provides many advantages such as, atom-economy, easy work up, clean procedure, short reaction times and high yields of products.

This study sought to determine whether farm categories influence the key agro business supply chain metric of crop yield. The investigated farm categories are the communal farms, A1 farms, A2 farms, and commercial farms that reflect the agricultural structure that emerged from the post-fast-track land reform programme in Zimbabwe. Secondary data for crop yield was collected from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board publications of a five-year period spanning from 2014-2018. Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board is the regulatory authority of the Zimbabwean tobacco industry. The study used One-way ANOVA to test the specified hypotheses. A post hoc test was conducted using the Bonferroni procedure. The results indicated that crop yield is a function of the farm category. Communal farms had low crop yield, while A1 farm models proved to be very productive as evidenced by higher crop yield than any other farm category. A2 farms and commercial farms had unexpectedly low crop yield. The study recommended consolidation and transformation of communal areas into small-to-medium plots for the purposes of improving their agricultural viability, while at the same time downsizing the redundant A2 and commercial farms into small scale plots for the purposes of improving their efficiency. The study also recommended entering into resource-providing contract farming with A2 farmers whose current low yield might be due to lack of adequate input resources.

In the present world stiffeners are widely used to fulfill the requirement of high stiffness. Stiffened plates are used in most of the mechanical structures. In this paper free vibration analysis of eccentric and concentric stiffened isotropic plate with central stiffener and double stiffener has been studied and effect of various parameters such as boundary conditions, aspect ratio on non-dimensional frequency parameter of plate are investigated. Comparison of non-dimensional frequency parameter for eccentric and concentric isotropic stiffened plate with effect of number of stiffener at different mode shapes, aspect ratios and boundary conditions is studied using ANSYS parametric design language (APDL) code. A ten nodded element (SOLID 187) from ANSYS element library is used for the discretization of proposed stiffened isotropic plate. Convergence study of developed model with respect to the number of modes has been done and results are compared from the related available published literature. Non dimensional frequencies are higher for fully clamped boundary condition for eccentric and concentric stiffened isotropic plate in comparison to other boundary condition. It is also seen that non dimensional frequencies are increases in a moderate value for eccentric and concentric isotopic plate with double stiffener in comparison to the central stiffener.

The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of crumb rubber and Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) on rutting potential of porous asphalt mixtures. Optimal binder content of control mix, 5% SBS, and mixtures containing 10%, 15%, and 20% of crumb rubber were determined using Cantabro Loss test. Dynamic creep, wheel tracking, draindown, and falling-head permeability tests were then carried out on specimens to examine rutting resistance, resistant to draindown, and permeability. SBS modified and 10% rubberized asphalt satisfied all the requirements of porous asphalt design criteria. They also have similar rutting performance, permeability. Except for rutting performance, 10% rubberized asphalt has the best performance. Instead, asphalt mixture containing 20% crumb rubber was the most mixture against rutting resistance.

In the past decades, a number of researchers have made their significant contributions to develop different approaches for solving a very challenging problem of commercial off-the shelf (COTS) selection. The development of software with high quality and minimum development time has always been a difficult job for the software developers. Therefore, in today’s scenario, software developers move towards the implementation of component based software engineering that relies on the integration of small pieces of code namely (COTS). In this study, we present a comprehensive descriptive explanation of the various COTS evaluation and selection approaches developed by various researchers in the past to understand the concept of COTS selection. The advantages and disadvantages of each COTS selection approach are also provided, which will give a better prospect to the readers to understand the various existing COTS evaluation and selection approaches.