Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High quality tunneling oxides for passivated contacts and heterojunctions for high efficiency silicon solar cells

We analyze the chemical passivation quality of silicon oxide-nanolayers on crystalline silicon wafers prepared by different oxidation methods with surface photo voltage and quasi-steady-state photo conductance measurements. It is shown that for wet chemical oxidation and plasma oxidation, adequate passivation of the interface defects is achieved by subsequent anneal in forming gas environment. Furthermore, we present a simple oxidation method by means of rapid thermal oxidation, which requires no complex surface pre-treatment or surface pre-conditioning after cleaning. By rapid thermal oxidation (RTO) in a gaseous mixture of argon and oxygen and subsequent anneal in forming gas, a reproducible preparation method of high-quality ultra-thin oxide-nanolayers with a nearly intrinsic energetic distribution of interface states and a defect density of states of only 1 × 1012 cm-2 eV-1 at the minimum of the distribution is demonstrated.
The health impacts of climate change and variability in developing countries

Health is a focus reflecting the combined impacts of climate change on the physical environment, ecosystems, the economic environment and society. Long-term changes in the world's climate may affect many requisites of good health - sufficient food, safe and adequate drinking water and secure dwelling. The current large-scale social and environmental changes mean that we must assign a much higher priority to population health in the policy debate on climate change. Climate change will affect human health and well-being through a variety of mechanisms. Climate change can adversely impact on the availability of fresh water supply and the efficiency of local sewerage systems. It is also likely to affect food security. Cereal yields are expected to increase at high and mid latitudes but decrease at lower latitudes. Changes in food production are likely to significantly affect health in Africa. In addition, the distribution and seasonal transmission of several vector-borne infectious diseases (such as malaria and dengue) may be affected by climate change. Altered distribution of some vector species may be among the early signals of climate change. A change in the world climate could increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. The impacts on health of natural disasters are considerable - the number of people killed, injured or made homeless from such causes is increasingly alarming. The vulnerability of people living in risk-prone areas is an important contributor to disaster casualties and damage. An increase in heatwaves (and possibly air pollution) will be a problem in urban areas, where excess mortality and morbidity is currently observed during hot weather episodes. We can assume that climate change will affect the most vulnerable in developing countries. These might be socio-economic deprived populations, people who lack access to a health care system, technology and communication, as well as immuno-compromised persons. The health community has, however, difficulties in clearly attributing changes in ranges of diseases or mortality to climatic changes. The main reasons are the gradual process of climate change, the multiple causes of diseases, the many factors that permit human population health to adapt and the lack of retrospective and prospective studies from developing countries. Adaptation is a key response strategy to minimise potential impacts of climate change. A primary objective of adaptation is the reduction, with the least cost, of death, disease, disability and human suffering. The ability to adapt to climate change impacts, and specifically of health, will depend on many factors including existing infrastructure, resources, technology, information and the level of equity in different countries and regions.
Productivity And Wage Spillovers From Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence From Turkish Micro-level Data Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirement of the PhD degree in International Development Studies at the Institute of Development Research and Development Policy, Ruhr University Bochum

Diese Studie analysiert auf Basis von turkischen Unternehmensdaten 2003 - 2010 die von auslandischen Direktinvestitionen (FDI) ausgehenden Ubertragungswirkungen auf die Produktivitat und Lohne heimischer Unternehmen. Dabei werden horizontale und vertikale Verkettungen (Vorwarts- und Ruckwartsverkettungen) zwischen lokalen und auslandischen Firmen unterschieden. Die Ubertragungswirkungen werden mit einem aus der endogenen Wachstumstheorie hergeleiteten okonometrischen Modell geschatzt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass FDI uber horizontale Verflechtungen einen negativen und uber vertikale Vor- oder Ruckwartsverkettungen einen positiven Einfluss auf die Totale Faktorproduktivitat heimischer Unternehmen haben. Diese Produktivitatsgewinne schlagen sich anschliesend auch in hoheren Lohnsummen nieder.
Rational drug design, the knowledge value chain and bioscience megacentres

This paper seeks to trace important shifts and cluster evolution in the healthcare industry. Its key aim is to examine the implications of the rise of science-based clusters for economic geography and related policies. A special focus is biosciences and the rise of 'biologics' more generally at the expense of fine chemistry in drug development. The old agglomerations of pharmacy are no longer leaders in knowledge exploration, as universities, research laboratories and medical schools take over research, they are beginning to lose prominence to dedicated biotechnology firms (DBFs) in knowledge examination, and retain their most important involvement as financiers and marketers of DBF exploitation knowledge. This has profound geographical as well as industry organisation equilibrium effects. Over-concentration of the bioscientific knowledge value chain has given rise to the new spatial policy practice of developing regional science strategies. Aspects of these are commented upon. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.
Macroeconomic forces and capital market integration A VAR analysis for Malaysia

This paper applies cointegration and VAR modeling to evaluate the long-run relationship and dynamic interactions between the Malaysian equity market, various economic variables, and major equity markets of the US and Japan. From the analysis, we find evidence for cointegration among the variables. The variance decompositions and impulse-response functions generated from the VAR suggest the dominant influence of nominal variables, particularly the money supply on Malaysian equity prices. At the same time, variations in equity prices do contain some information on such nominal variables, as money supply and consumer prices, suggesting bidirectional causality between them. We also note from the results the significant role of international equity prices on Malaysian equity prices as well as on Malaysian economic variables. Interestingly, the nature of the long-run relationship and spillovers of disturbances in the two major markets to the Malaysian economy is different. From a policy point of view, to the extent that monetary authority can control money supply, it has to be very cautious in implementing monetary policy since it has repercussions on financial stability. Moreover, disturbances of two major financial markets need to be treated differently in the information set of policy-makers.
Characterization and Expression of HmuR, a TonB-Dependent Hemoglobin Receptor of Porphyromonas gingivalis

ABSTRACT The gram-negative pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalisrequires hemin for growth. Hemoglobin bound to haptoglobin and hemin complexed to hemopexin can be used as heme sources, indicating thatP. gingivalis must have a means to remove the hemin from these host iron-binding proteins. However, the specific mechanisms utilized by P. gingivalis for the extraction of heme from heme-binding proteins and for iron transport are poorly understood. In this study we have determined that a newly identified TonB-dependent hemoglobin-hemin receptor (HmuR) is involved in hemoglobin binding and utilization in P. gingivalis A7436. HmuR shares amino acid homology with TonB-dependent outer membrane receptors of gram-negative bacteria involved in the acquisition of iron from hemin and hemoglobin, including HemR of Yersinia enterocolitica, ShuA ofShigella dysenteriae, HpuB of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis, HmbR of N. meningitidis, HgbA of Haemophilus ducreyi, and HgpB of H. influenzae. Southern blot analysis confirmed the presence of the hmuR gene and revealed genetic variability in the carboxy terminus of hmuR in P. gingivalis strains 33277, 381, W50, and 53977. We also identified directly upstream of the hmuR gene a gene which we designated hmuY. Upstream of the hmuY start codon, a region with homology to the Fur binding consensus sequence was identified. Reverse transcription-PCR analysis revealed thathmuR and hmuY were cotranscribed and that transcription was negatively regulated by iron. Inactivation ofhmuR resulted in a decreased ability of P. gingivalis to bind hemoglobin and to grow with hemoglobin or hemin as sole iron sources. Escherichia coli cells expressing recombinant HmuR were shown to bind hemoglobin and hemin. Furthermore, purified recombinant HmuR was demonstrated to bind hemoglobin. Taken together, these results indicate that HmuR serves as the major TonB-dependent outer membrane receptor involved in the utilization of both hemin and hemoglobin in P. gingivalis.
Generative adversarial network-based postfilter for statistical parametric speech synthesis

We propose a postfilter based on a generative adversarial network (GAN) to compensate for the differences between natural speech and speech synthesized by statistical parametric speech synthesis. In particular, we focus on the differences caused by over-smoothing, which makes the sounds muffled. Over-smoothing occurs in the time and frequency directions and is highly correlated in both directions, and conventional methods based on heuristics are too limited to cover all the factors (e.g., global variance was designed only to recover the dynamic range). To solve this problem, we focus on “spectral texture”, i.e., the details of the time-frequency representation, and propose a learning-based postfilter that captures the structures directly from the data. To estimate the true distribution, we utilize a GAN composed of a generator and a discriminator. This optimizes the generator to produce samples imitating the dataset according to the adversarial discriminator. This adversarial process encourages the generator to fit the true data distribution, i.e., to generate realistic spectral texture. Objective evaluation of experimental results shows that the GAN-based postfilter can compensate for detailed spectral structures including modulation spectrum, and subjective evaluation shows that its generated speech is comparable to natural speech.
What determines the informativeness of firms' explanations for deviations from the Dutch corporate governance code?

The comply-or-explain principle is a common feature of corporate governance codes. While prior studies investigated compliance with corporate governance codes as well as the effects of compliance on firm behaviour and performance, explanations for deviations from a corporate governance code remain largely unexamined. This paper intends to fill that gap. The paper draws on the voluntary disclosure literature and agency theory to examine the association between firm characteristics and the informativeness of explanations for deviations from the Dutch corporate governance code. Applying content analysis to corporate governance statements for a sample of Dutch listed firms for the period 2005–2009, the study finds that ownership concentration and number of analysts following the firm are positively associated with informativeness. Furthermore, there is indicative evidence that board strength and informativeness are positively associated. The study also finds a negative association between leverage and informativeness. Institutional investors, however, do not seem to affect this type of disclosure. Taken together, the findings suggest that certain firm characteristics are associated with a firm's choice to provide either generic and uninformative explanations or more firm-specific and informative explanations. On the basis of the study's findings, I argue that firms having weaker boards, firms followed by fewer analysts, firms having more dispersed ownership and firms relying more on debt finance tend to approach comply-or-explain more symbolically than substantively.
Global crisis and financial destabilization in ASEAN countries: a microstructural perspective

This article investigates whether the ongoing financial crisis has destabilized the microstructures of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) stock markets. Using daily stock market data from 2007 to 2010, we first develop a set of monthly country-level liquidity, efficiency, international integration and volatility indicators. We then analyze the impact of global market volatility shocks on those indicators, using a set of Bayesian structural vector autoregression (SVAR) models. Finally, forecast error variance decomposition analysis and impulse response function permit to identify the magnitude and the symmetry of ASEAN financial systems’ exposures to international shocks. Our results uncover significant and asymmetrical shock transmission channels. We draw implications for the design of future regional integration initiatives.
Women's Political Role and Poverty in the Educational Dimension

This paper contributes to the debate on the effects of women’s political representation. It has a threefold objective: (1) to analyse whether the gender of elected politicians is relevant to the educational achievements of residents of the Indian districts in which they were elected; (2) to test whether politicians are more sensitive to the needs of people of the same gender; (3) to explore the possible channels through which these relationships operate. By applying instrumental variable regressions to a data set obtained by merging individual data with district-level political variables, we concluded that a 10% increase in women’s political representation at district level may produce a 5.9% increase in the probability of children completing primary school. In a further analysis, we found a striking difference in the results when broken down by gender: women’s political agency affects the education of a significantly larger number of girls than boys. Finally, none of the channels we examined relating to school buildings and the coverage of the Mid-Day Meal scheme helped explain the above relationship. This is due in part to poor-quality data. In conclusion, these findings provide further evidence of the benefits of women’s political representation and should be taken into consideration in the current debate on the Women’s Reservation Bill in India.
Value Creation Through Social Strategy

Literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has tended to treat economic benefits to the firm as unintentional spillovers that result from laudable CSR behavior. Empirical studies of the relationship between CSR and corporate financial performance (CFP) have reported mixed findings. This article shifts the conceptual and empirical focus to investigate the conditions under which intentional profit-seeking through corporate social action projects can create economic value for the firm. The article uses resource-dependency theory and the resource-based view to define the firm’s external and internal environments respectively. From that perspective, the article looks at how corporate social action creates economic value through strategic social planning and strategic social positioning. A survey instrument was developed and applied to 110 large Spanish firms. In that sample, munificence and continuous innovation positively affect social positioning, while nongovernmental organization salience and social responsibility orientation positively affect social planning. Both social positioning and social planning in turn contribute to corporate ability to create value. The article concludes with a discussion of the research and managerial implications of these findings.
Career & Technical Education and School-to-Work at the End of the 20th Century: Participation and Outcomes.

We examined participation in the Career and Technical Education concentration (CTE), and School-to-Work activities at the end of the century following more than a decade of education reform in the United States. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we also explored whether school-to-work activities have extended beyond their traditional CTE curricular base and have become part of the high school experience for all youth. We explored the relationship between students’ background characteristics and curriculum concentration and key education outcomes, including course-taking patterns, high school GPA, school completion, and post-school expectations. We concluded that there are ethnic, racial and socioeconomic differences among youth in the four curriculum concentrations. CTE concentrators, more than general concentrators, appear to benefit from changes aimed at increasing the academic rigor of their high school programs, as evidenced by their enrollment in math and science courses, high school GPA, and school completion. Over a decade ago, at a time when the U. S. economy began a sustained period of economic growth, concerns were voiced about the quality of education, and in particular the contribution of the educational system to ensuring that the United States remained competitive in the emerging global economy through the adequate preparation of youth for work. Spurred by reports such as A Nation at Risk (Gardner, 1983), states and federal legislators sought to fix what was perceived to be a poorly
Low-Complexity Quaternion Adaptive Filters

A general representation of the quaternion gradients presented in the literature is proposed, and an universal update equation for QLMS-like algorithms is obtained. The general update law is used to study the convergence of widely linear (WL) algorithms. It is proved that techniques obtained with a gradient similar to the i-gradient are the fastest-converging in two situations: 1) When the correlation matrix contains elements only in 2 axis (1 and $i$, for instance), and 2) When the algorithms use a real data vector, obtained staking up the real and imaginary parts of the original quaternion input vector. The general update law is also used to study the convergence of WL-QLMS-based algorithms, and an accurate second-order model is developed for quaternion algorithms using real-data input. Based on the proposed analysis, we obtain the fastest-converging WL-QLMS algorithm with real-regressor vector, which is also less costly than the reduced-complexity WL-QLMS (RC-WL-QLMS) algorithm proposed in our previous work. It is shown that the new method corresponds to the four-channel LMS algorithm written in the quaternion domain, and that they have the same computational complexity. Simulations illustrate the performance of the new technique and the accuracy of the analysis.
Contact and context: sharing education and building relationships in a divided society

One approach to tackling problems of division in society has been to promote collaboration and engagement between schools separated on ethno-religious lines. Based on some variant of contact theory, the received wisdom is that inter-group encounters can contribute to prejudice reduction and promote more harmonious relationships. Evidence to support this analysis is convincing; however, relatively little is known about the environmental factors that impede or enhance the potential for contact in different contexts. The importance of understanding such factors is underscored in divided jurisdictions, where separate education has been linked to the perpetuation of division and hostility. This paper adopts a qualitative approach to exploring the impact of two inter-school initiatives in Northern Ireland. The projects are located in contrasting socio-political and demographic environments, and research findings point to very different contact outcomes for participants in each. Seemingly relevant factors include the degree of congruence between school and community norms and values, the opportunity to develop relationships outside the school context, the relationships developed between the schools and local communities and the historical, political and social referents used by individuals to navigate the contact experience. The paper concludes with some reflections on factors that may help foster social harmony and on potential policy implications of the findings.
ASAP, a Novel Protein Complex Involved in RNA Processing and Apoptosis

ABSTRACT Different isoforms of a protein complex termed the apoptosis- and splicing-associated protein (ASAP) were isolated from HeLa cell extract. ASAP complexes are composed of the polypeptides SAP18 and RNPS1 and different isoforms of the Acinus protein. While Acinus had previously been implicated in apoptosis and was recently identified as a component of the spliceosome, RNPS1 has been described as a general activator of RNA processing. Addition of ASAP isoforms to in vitro splicing reactions inhibits RNA processing mediated by ASF/SF2, by SC35, or by RNPS1. Additionally, microinjection of ASAP complexes into mammalian cells resulted in acceleration of cell death. Importantly, after induction of apoptosis the ASAP complex disassembles. Taken together, our results suggest an important role for the ASAP complexes in linking RNA processing and apoptosis.
Essays on Consumer Search Dynamic Competition and Regulation

textabstractThe last several decades have seen two important changes in the world around us. First, the role of information in the modern world is by far more important than in previous days. It is hard to imagine a day when one does not use products of the informational technology industry. Entire industries nowadays work with information, and the company with the highest stock value (Microsoft) in the world is an icon of the informational technology industry. These changes affected consumers as well. The product universe became much richer and consumers are each day bombarded by thousands of advertising messages from different firms. Second, the world is becoming more fast and dynamic, time and intertemporal considerations play a prominent role nowadays. A large part of recent inventions are focused on ways to use the available time more efficiently: easier ways of communication, faster transportation, easier housing equipment. This thesis touches upon certain aspects of these two phenomena. The first part of the thesis focuses on the role of information in consumer markets. Information about prices, product characteristics, etc. is costly to obtain for consumers. Therefore, consumers have to optimize the process of obtaining this information. Firms, in turn, adjust their behaviour in a particular way in order to profit form informational imperfections in the market. The first part of the thesis studies various issues of optimal customer behaviour as well as optimal behaviour of firms in the case when there are some informational frictions in the market. The second part of the thesis considers the role of time and dynamics for the functioning of different markets. In markets with free competition, intertemporal relations can be important for a firm’s decision whom to compete against in order to influence the balance of powers in the industry. In service markets with regulated prices, different processing times can play a crucial role in an agent’s decisions to accept or reject customers or be a reason for a moral hazard problem. These issues are covered in the second part of the thesis.