The objectives of this study are to identify the significant determinants of capital structure of the listed manufacturing companies in Bangladesh and to test the relevant capital structure theories. This study used a panel dataset including 74 manufacturing companies listed under 8 industries in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) for the period of 2002-2011. The Unit Root tests suggested that all series were stationary. Using Panel Corrected Standard Error Regression Model and Random Effects Tobit Regression Model, all selected variables were found significant. Managerial ownership positively and Growth rate, Profitability, Debt service coverage ratio, Non-debt tax shield, Financial costs, Free cash flow to firm, Agency costs and Dividend payment negatively affect the capital structure. Tangibility and Liquidity ratio have positive relationship with Long term debt and negative relationship with Short term debt and Total debt. It was also found that Pecking-order theory and Static Trade-off theory are the most dominant capital structure theories in Bangladesh. The policy implication is that the financial managers should consider these determinants as yardsticks before taking the leverage decisions in order to choose the most favorable capital structure for the company so that it maximizes the shareholders' value.

The newly identified SARS-CoV-2 has now been reported from around 183 countries with more than a million confirmed human cases including more than 68000 deaths. The genomes of SARS-COV-2 strains isolated from different parts of the world are now available and the unique features of constituent genes and proteins have gotten substantial attention recently.Spike glycoprotein is widely considered as a possible target to be explored because of its role during the entry of coronaviruses into host cells. We analyzed 320 whole-genome sequences and 320 spike protein sequences of SARS-CoV-2 using multiple sequence alignment tools. In this study, 483 unique variations have been identified among the genomes including 25 nonsynonymous mutations and one deletion in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Among the 26 variations detected, 12 variations were located at the N-terminal domain and 6 variations at the receptor-binding domain (RBD) which might alter the interaction with receptor molecules. In addition, 22 amino acid insertions were identified in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 in comparison with that of SARS-CoV. Phylogenetic analyses of spike protein revealed that Bat coronavirus have a close evolutionary relationship with circulating SARS-CoV-2. The genetic variation analysis data presented in this study can help a better understanding of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis. Based on our findings, potential inhibitors can be designed and tested targeting these proposed sites of variation.

This paper aims at investigating the effects of capital structure and managerial ownership on the profitability of the Bangladeshi companies based on a strongly balanced panel data of 81 manufacturing companies listed under 10 industries in Dhaka Stock Exchange for 2002-2014. The results of Panel Corrected Standard Error (PCSE) regression model suggest that capital structure variables negatively affect ROA but positively affect ROE of the firms. Furthermore, Short term debt influences profitability of the firms more severely compared to Long term debt. On the contrary, managerial ownership positively affects profitability conforming to the Agency cost theory. It was also found that Bangladeshi firms followed aggressive financing strategies that led to an increase in their financial & bankruptcy risks to a great extent. That the financial managers should employ less leverage in the capital structure and minimize agency cost of equity in order to maximize the profitability of firms is the policy implication of this paper.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 is a type of coronavirus shows bizarre features with fatality rates at 34.4%. The clinical and non-clinical features of COVID-19 might be causative factors for more rapid community spreading compared to MERS and SARS-CoV-1. Objectives: To study the efficacy of RT-PCR based detection of SARS-CoV-2 patients. Besides, the patients' pre and post-infection health conditions depending on selective clinical and nonclinical parameters were analyzed. Materials and Methods:  Clinical and non- clinical data were collected from 205 randomly selected COVID-19 patients, identified through RT-PCR from different areas of Bangladesh. The data were analyzed using statistical and analytical tools to illustrate the impact of the pandemic situation on the sufferers.  Results: Molecular identification of the patients through RT-PCR has been observed as the most efficient option for detecting SARS-CoV-2 patients. Patients with the smoking habit have been reported to be more prone to the COVID-19 infection; surprisingly the non-smoker female was the worse suffers. The patients aged 60-69 years were the worst sufferers with every adverse health conditions mentioned. Professionally, 28% self-employed male and 8.19% female were infected. The most infected individuals were house wife (32.029%), as next to the health care workers (22.1%). With the increased age group, a decreased number of smokers were found.               Nebulization of 5% home and 12% hospital treated patients were provided, with Oxygen for 26% of hospitalized patients. After recovery, combined physical and psychological complications were observed in 19% of male and 11% female. The socioeconomic, environmental and geographical annotations exposed a clear relationship with the rate of infection as revealed from the nonclinical data analysis. Conclusion: RT-PCR proved its specialty in COVID-19 detection. In addition, impacts of different clinical and nonclinical factors on the physical conditions of the nCoV patients were found significant in the research.

No abstract