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Concerns about underage drinking have led to calls for a UK ban on alcohol sponsorship of sport. Such a ban would have severe financial consequences for many sports, so should not be implemented without thorough consideration of its likely effectiveness. This study investigating the alcohol consumption intentions of 14 and 15 year olds showed that boys who were involved in sport were more likely both to drink alcohol and to get drunk, with awareness of sponsorship enhancing the likelihood of these behaviours. Girls involved in sport, however, showed more negative attitudes than their peers towards alcohol. It is argued that boys involved in sport are socialised into a traditional masculine alcohol and sports culture, which is reinforced by sponsorship. Evidence from studies on tobacco sponsorship suggests that health-related marketing communications and the use of low-alcohol or non-alcohol brands for sports sponsorship could be more effective than a ban in changing the culture.

Public higher education institutions (HEIs) infrastructure funding is challenging in many developing countries. Encouraging private investment in HEIs infrastructure via a developed expanded corporate social responsibility (ECSR) may improve physical facilities. ECSR is a form of infrastructure tax relief providing physical facilities for HEIs. Academic literature is scarce concerning how ECSR can improve Nigeria’s public HEIs infrastructure and achieve education infrastructure related to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4). Therefore, this study aims to proffer measures to improve public HEIs infrastructure and achieve sustainable development connected to Goal 4 focussing on infrastructure via a developed framework.

This is an expansion of an ongoing study, and data were collated via virtual interviews across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria. The analysed data were presented in a thematic pattern.

A total of 18 measures (sub-variables) emerged and were re-grouped into six variables. This includes institutionalising ECSR, HEIs infrastructure via ECSR awareness, HEIs infrastructure incentives, national and state action plans on HEIs infrastructure, a legal framework for HEIs infrastructure and key stakeholders’ participation. Also, the study used the generated six main variables to develop the improved public HEIs infrastructure via ECSR in developing countries, using Nigeria as a case study. This can enhance achieving infrastructure associated with SDG 4 (quality education) and targets.

This study intends to develop the philosophy (ECSR) with an implementable framework to encourage the private sector further to expand their CSR in the infrastructure development to the educational sector, especially in developing countries higher institutions, using Nigeria as a case study.

This paper aims to empirically examine the relationship between stock liquidity and asset pricing, using a new price impact ratio adjusted for free float as the approximation of liquidity. The free-float-adjusted ratio is free from size bias and encapsulates the impact of trading frequency. It is more comprehensive than alternative price impact ratios because it incorporates the shares available to the public for trading.

The authors are using univariate and multivariate econometric methods to test the significance of a newly created price impact ratio. The authors are using secondary data and asset pricing models in their analysis. The authors use a data sample of all US listed companies over the period of 1997–2017.

The authors provide evidence that the free-float-adjusted price impact ratio is superior to all price impact ratios used in the previous academic literature. The authors also discover that their findings are robust to the financial crises between 2007 and 2009.

This is the first comprehensive study on a newly established price impact ratio. The authors show the significance of this ratio and explain why it is superior to all previous price impact ratios, established in prior research.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of synthesis conditions on properties of TiO₂ nanoparticles to be used for photocatalysis and also producing TiO₂ using a low temperature method.

TiO₂ nanoparticles were synthesised via a sol‐gel method at low temperature and the effect of parameters such as: synthesis temperature, HNO₃ concentration, calcination temperature and synthesis time on properties of TiO₂ were studied. The effects of the physico‐chemical properties of TiO₂, its concentration and light intensity on photocatalytic properties of TiO₂ nanoparticles were investigated also.

The results showed that TiO₂ with Anatase phase were formed at 80‐100°C by using proper HNO₃ concentration, synthesis time and calcinations temperature. Calcinations programme and temperature and also the synthesis time affect the formation of TiO₂ crystalline phase (i.e. Rutile and Brookite), their surface area and crystallite size. To evaluate the photocatalytic properties of TiO₂ nanoparticles, fluorescein was used as a model molecule. Results showed that degradation of fluorescein could be described by pseudo‐first order kinetics. The effect of TiO₂ concentration and light intensity on photocatalytic activity showed that increasing concentration of TiO₂ and the light intensity would increase the degradation of fluorescein.

The method used in this work to prepare TiO₂ nanoparticles is an economic method for low temperature synthesis of TiO₂ nanoparticles with high photocatalytic activity, which could find numerous applications in coating technology.

The minimum wage has been regarded as an important element of public policy for reducing poverty and inequality. Increasing the minimum wage is supposed to raise earnings for millions of low-wage workers and therefore lower earnings inequality. However, there is no consensus in the existing literature from industrialized countries regarding whether increasing the minimum wage has helped lower earnings inequality. China has recently exhibited rapid economic growth and widening earnings inequality. Since China promulgated new minimum wage regulations in 2004, the magnitude and frequency of changes in the minimum wage have been substantial, both over time and across jurisdictions. The growing importance of research on the relationship between the minimum wage and earnings inequality and its controversial nature have sparked heated debate in China, highlighting the importance of rigorous research to inform evidence-based policy making. We investigate the contribution of the minimum wage to the well-documented rise in earnings inequality in China from 2004 to 2009 by using city-level minimum wage panel data and a representative Chinese household survey, and we find that increasing the minimum wage reduces inequality – by decreasing the earnings gap between the median and the bottom decile – over the analysis period.

Robots are used in assembly lines because of their higher flexibility and lower costs. The purpose of this paper is to develop mathematical models and simulated annealing algorithms to solve the robotic assembly line balancing (RALB-II) to minimize the cycle time.

Four mixed-integer linear programming models are developed and encoded in CPLEX solver to find optimal solutions for small-sized problem instances. Two simulated annealing algorithms, original simulated annealing algorithm and restarted simulated annealing (RSA) algorithm, are proposed to tackle large-sized problems. The restart mechanism in the RSA methodology replaces the incumbent temperature with a new temperature. In addition, the proposed methods use iterative mechanisms for updating cycle time and a new objective to select the solution with fewer critical workstations.

The comparative study among the tested algorithms and other methods adapted verifies the effectiveness of the proposed methods. The results obtained by these algorithms on the benchmark instances show that 23 new upper bounds out of 32 tested cases are achieved. The RSA algorithm ranks first among the algorithms in the number of updated upper bounds.

Four models are developed for RALBP-II and their performance is evaluated for the first time. An RSA algorithm is developed to solve RALBP-II, where the restart mechanism is developed to replace the incumbent temperature with a new temperature. The proposed methods also use iterative mechanisms and a new objective to select the solution with fewer critical workstations.

About 30 years have passed since the initial work in the field of polyurethane compounds was begun. This work has resulted in a wide choice of materials for use in surface coatings. The commercial development of aliphatic urethane prepolymers during the past few years has made possible the formulation of exterior coatings with good weathering properties.

Nanoparticles of TiO₂ and ZnO were chemically synthesized by different routes and were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These particles were applied to cotton fabric using 1-10 wt% acrylic binder and cured. The photocatalytic activity of the finished fabric was investigated and a comparison was drawn between the synthesized and commercially available TiO₂ (Degussa P25) sample. Experiments were carried out by exposing the coffee stained samples to solar light. The self-cleaning leading to stain discolouration was quantified from the residual concentration of stain to assess the photoactivity of TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles. An attempt was also made to study the effect of concentration of nanoparticles (0.5-1.0 wt% on weight of fabric (owf) and acrylic binder concentration (1, 2, 10 wt% owf) on the self cleaning action. TiO₂ particles with smaller particle size of <10 nm was able to show significantly better activity than the commercial sample. At the same time, finish with nano ZnO though showed a bit lower activity; the self cleaning effect was significant and similar to the commercial TiO₂.