Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inflation Targeting As a Monetary Policy Rule: Experience and Prospects

This paper examines the inflation targeting experience in developing countries. Based on panel data of 53 developing countries, of which 20 those have adopted inflation targeting policy by the end of 2007, the purpose is to show the effects of inflation targeting on macroeconomic performance in these economies. We use the Great Moderation approach of Petursson (2005) to analyze the relationship between inflation targeting and macroeconomic performance over the period 1980-2012. A key lesson from this experience is that this monetary policy realizes macroeconomic performance and contributes to the reduction of inflation, especially in developing countries with hyperinflation.
The use of genetic programming to develop a predictor of swash excursion on sandy beaches

Abstract. We use genetic programming (GP), a type of machine learning (ML) approach, to predict the total and infragravity swash excursion using previously published data sets that have been used extensively in swash prediction studies. Three previously published works with a range of new conditions are added to this data set to extend the range of measured swash conditions. Using this newly compiled data set we demonstrate that a ML approach can reduce the prediction errors compared to well-established parameterizations and therefore it may improve coastal hazards assessment (e.g. coastal inundation). Predictors obtained using GP can also be physically sound and replicate the functionality and dependencies of previous published formulas. Overall, we show that ML techniques are capable of both improving predictability (compared to classical regression approaches) and providing physical insight into coastal processes.
Particulate organic carbon and nitrogen export from major Arctic rivers

Northern rivers connect a land area of approximately 20.5 million km2 to the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas. These rivers account for ~10% of global river discharge and transport massive quantities of dissolved and particulate materials that reflect watershed sources and impact biogeochemical cycling in the ocean. In this paper, multiyear data sets from a coordinated sampling program are used to characterize particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate nitrogen (PN) export from the six largest rivers within the pan‐Arctic watershed (Yenisey, Lena, Ob', Mackenzie, Yukon, Kolyma). Together, these rivers export an average of 3055 × 109 g of POC and 368 × 109 g of PN each year. Scaled up to the pan‐Arctic watershed as a whole, fluvial export estimates increase to 5767 × 109 g and 695 × 109 g of POC and PN per year, respectively. POC export is substantially lower than dissolved organic carbon export by these rivers, whereas PN export is roughly equal to dissolved nitrogen export. Seasonal patterns in concentrations and source/composition indicators (C:N, δ13C, Δ14C, δ15N) are broadly similar among rivers, but distinct regional differences are also evident. For example, average radiocarbon ages of POC range from ~2000 (Ob') to ~5500 (Mackenzie) years before present. Rapid changes within the Arctic system as a consequence of global warming make it challenging to establish a contemporary baseline of fluvial export, but the results presented in this paper capture variability and quantify average conditions for nearly a decade at the beginning of the 21st century.
Defining relationships between geometry and behavior of bistable composite laminates

Bistability is exhibited by an object when it can be resting in two stable equilibrium states. Certain composite laminates exhibit bistability by having two stable curvatures of opposite sign with the two axes of curvature perpendicular to each other. These laminates can be actuated from one state to the other. The actuation from the original post-cure shape to the second shape is called as ‘snap-through’ and the reverse actuation is called as ‘snap-back’. This phenomenon can be used in applications for morphing structures, energy harvesting, and other applications where there is a conflicting requirement of a structure that is load-carrying, light, and shape-adaptable. MW Hyer first reported this phenomenon in his paper in 1981. He found that thin unsymmetric laminates do not behave according to the predictions of the Classical Lamination Theory (CLT). The CLT is a linear theory and predicts the post-cure shape of thin unsymmetric laminates to be a saddle. MW Hyer developed a non-linear method called the “Extended Classical Lamination Theory” which accurately predicted the laminate to have two cylindrical shapes. Since then, a number of researchers have tried to identify the key parameters affecting the behavior of such laminates. Geometric parameters such as stacking sequence, fibre orientation, cure cycle, boundary conditions, and force of actuation, have all been studied. The objective of this research is to define a relation between the length, width and thickness of square and rectangular laminates required to achieve bistability. Using these relations, a 36 in × 36 in bistable laminate is fabricated with a thickness of 30 CFRP layers. Also, it is proved that a laminate does not lose bistability with an increase in aspect ratio, as long as both sides of the rectangular laminate are above a certain ‘critical length’. A bistable laminate with dimensions of 2 in × 50 in is fabricated. Further, for laminates that are bistable, it is necessary to be able to predict the curvature and force required for actuation. Therefore, a method is developed which allows us to predict the curvature of both stable shapes, as well as the force of actuation of laminates for which the thickness and dimensions are known. Finite Element Analysis is used to carry out the numerical calculations, which are validated by fabricating laminates. The curvature of these laminates is measured using a profilometer and the force of actuation is recorded using a universal test set-up.
Efficacy, safety and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Lowering Ability of ACE Inhibitors, B-Blockers and Combination Antihypertensive Drug Regimes in Iraq

Hypertension is a major health problem throughout the world because of its high prevalence and its association with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. It is defined as systolic blood pressure â‰¥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure â‰¥ 90 mmHg. The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy, safety and cardiovascular disease risk lowering ability, of three antihypertensive drug regimens. A retrospective study was carried out on 66 hypertensive patients, divided in to three groups based on their antihypertensive drug regimens (ACE inhibitors, I²-blockers treated and combination antihypertensive therapy, the combination therapy consist of two or more of the following antihypertensive drugs ACE inhibitor diuretic, CCBs I²-blockers), the study also included 22 healthy individuals. Duration of treatment was 2-10 years. Blood pressure and pulse rate were measured and blood sample was collected, and the serum processed for the measurement of lipid profiles, fasting blood glucose, liver function test, kidney function test, electrolytes, and C-reactive protein. Cardiovascular disease risk lowering ability have been assessed by cardiovascular risk assessor computer program. The results shows that systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the three antihypertensive drug regimens treated group, were significantly higher than systolic and diastolic blood pressure in control healthy individuals indicating that these antihypertensive drug regimens were unable to reach hypertension treatment target, although ACE inhibitors and combination antihypertensive drugs reach minimal hypertension treatment target. ACE inhibitors regimen did not show any significant adverse effects on lipid profiles and blood glucose, while I²-blockers regimen adversely affected it. Most predominant adverse effects that appear, in ACE inhibitors treated group were dry cough and taste disturbances, in I²-blockers treated group were bradycardia and sleep disturbances while in combination therapy treated group were according to the combination used. In combination containing thiazide diuretics, disturbed lipid profiles and hyperurecemia were predominant and in combination containing calcium channel blockers constipation and peripheral edema were predominant. Coronary heart disease and stroke risk percentage in all three antihypertensive drug regimens were significantly higher compared to control healthy individuals group, and all three antihypertensive drugs regimens have the same cardiovascular risk lowering ability. In conclusion the results indicated that all three antihypertensive drug regimens used were not efficient enough to reach hypertension treatment target, the combination therapy and ACE inhibitors regimens were only capable to reach minimal hypertension treatment target which is â‰¤150/90 mm Hg. Key words: ACE inhibitors, B blockers, Hypertension.
Observed Characteristics Change of Tropical Cyclones During Rapid Intensification Over Western North Pacific Using CloudSat Data

Rapid intensification (RI) progress is the main challenge that precludes the improvement of tropical cyclone (TC) intensity estimates. In this paper, a composite study of the observable characteristics of 11-year TCs undergoing RI and non-RI in the Western North Pacific were conducted using CloudSat tropical cyclone (CSTC) dataset. 2B-GEOPROF, 2B-CLDCLASS, and 2B-CWC-RO products in the CSTC dataset were used to construct radar reflectivity, cloud class, and cloud water-content distributions for each category, respectively. The results show that radar echo statistics have an arc-like contour profile for all five categories, with two distinct modes of reflectivity distributions separated by the melting layer. RI has the highest frequency expanding through the whole reflectivity range along with the broadest coverage in the upper branch, and a “continuity” of reflectivity distribution from −10 to 10 dBZ at 6–11 km could be a vital indicator of TC intensification. A sharp slope can be observed in the lower branch due to heavy precipitation attenuation. Vertical distributions of cloud types show that all categories have similar cloud compositions, and deep convective clouds are apparently to play an important role in maintaining the TC intensification. Liquid water content (LWC) curve exhibits a bimodal distribution with two peaks at around 1.5 and 5 km, while ice water content (IWC) curve is much smoother and has one peak at around 9 km. It is suggested that TCs with larger LWC around freezing level or/and larger IWC at upper level tend to intensify within the next 24 hours.
Generalising Control Dependence

Weak and strong projection, properties which capture the underlying semantics of control dependence, are dened. Weak and strong commitment-closedness, generalisations of non{termination sensitive and insensitive control dependence to arbitrary nite directed graphs, are introduced and shown to satisfy these desirable semantic properties. Low polynomial{time algorithms for computing these generalised forms of control dependence are given. Our formulation is attractively simple and, because of its generality, widely applicable to both existing and future notions of control dependence. To demonstrate this, it is proved that all published forms of control dependence can be implemented using weak or strong commitment-closedness, thereby satisfying either the weak or strong semantics. A by-product of this research has, thus, been to classify all previous forms of control dependence into just two: weak and strong.
Electrical Resistivity of Iron Phosphides at High‐Pressure and High‐Temperature Conditions With Implications for Lunar Core's Thermal Conductivity

Based on cosmochemistry evidence and element partitioning experiments, phosphorus is thought to be present in the iron‐rich cores of Earth and Moon. Phosphorus has a similar effect as silicon and sulfur on the electrical and thermal transport properties of iron at core conditions. However, the magnitude of the impurity scattering caused by phosphorus, the temperature dependence of iron phosphorus compounds, and the change across melting all have not been intensively investigated. We measured the electrical resistivity of Fe3P, Fe2P, and FeP using a four‐wire method at 1.3 to 3.2 GPa and temperatures up to 1800 K. We also identify the melting temperatures of FeP, Fe2P, and Fe3P by sudden changes in resistivity upon heating. The present experimental results demonstrate that phosphorus can enhance the electrical resistivity of iron more effectively than silicon. The resistivity of iron phosphides decreases with increasing pressures and decreasing phosphorus content. The resistivity of Fe‐P alloys obeys the Matthiessen's rule, which describes the positive linear correlation between resistivity and phosphorus content. This finding is comparable to previously observed atomic order‐disorder in Fe‐Si and Fe‐C systems. Furthermore, the resistivity of liquid Fe2P and Fe3P shows a negative linear correlation with temperatures. Different from pure iron, the calculated thermal conductivity of Fe3P increases by 33% upon melting. It is speculated that the thermal conductivity of the lunar solid inner core may be much lower than that of the liquid outer core when ordered iron light element compounds (e.g., Fe3C and Fe3P) are present in the solid core.
Parallel mutation-reproduction processes in random environments

To study the evolution of populations in a random environment, there are two basic types of models. One is where the underlying dynamics is deterministic; see [6] for the case of structured populations in discrete time. For the other, the underlying dynamics is given by a branching process. The importance of a random environment on the growth of a single type population has been known for some time for both models, see for example [13]. There is a rich literature on branching processes both in theory and in application, such as [11, 4, 14, 10]. These include results about branching processes in a random environment. For multitype branching processes in a random environment, the literature has been mainly restricted to the discrete time case, i.e. to the Galton-Watson processes [1, 2, 3]. Our model will be a special continuous time multitype Markov branching process in a random environment. Parallel mutation-reproduction processes were introduced by Baake and Georgii in [5] as a simple model of the evolution of structured populations. Here we wish to consider the effect of random environments on the developments of such structured populations. First, we construct a general d-type Markov branching process in a random environment, denoted by {Z(t) = (Z(t), · · · , Z(t))}t≥0, by employing the technique used in ([9], Chap. 6.4 and Chap. 9.3). The process {Z(t)}t≥0 takes values in Z+ = {n = (n1, · · · , nd) ⊤ | ni nonnegative integer}. It is constructed as the solution of
Evaluation of quality parameters of strawberry fruits in modified atmosphere packaging during storage.

The objective of the present study is to evaluate the effect of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) during storage on some quality parameters of strawberries. Strawberries (cv. Camarosa) were harvested when mature, forced air cooled and divided into two groups as fruits in MAP and control. After packaging, fruits were stored at 0°C, 90 - 95% RH for 10 days plus 1 day at 20°C and 50 - 55% RH for the evaluation of shelf life. Changes in fruit quality, mass loss, decay, color, firmness, total soluble solids (TSS), acidity, glucose, fructose, saccharose and color were investigated. The mass loss and decay were lower in MAP than observed in the control whereas firmness, TSS, acidity and color did not change during storage and shelf life. The results suggested that MAP can be beneficial for reducing mass loss and decay after 10 days storage plus one day shelf life under these conditions in Camarosa strawberry variety.
Price Stickiness in Emerging Economies: Empirical Evidence for Four Latin-American Countries

In spite of vast theoretical developments on the issue of price stickiness in the context of macroeconomic models, papers assessing the empirical validity of such hypothesis using micro-data are scarce. Most of these few attempts have been done for developed economies. The few papers that focus on developing countries, in particular, on Latin America utilize different methodologies and data sets, making it difficult to compare and generalize the results. Thus, in an effort to fill this gap, the aim of this paper is to study price stickiness using more homogenous methodologies and data by estimating the duration of prices (and the frequency of price adjustments) and the price setting rule that is most relevant for four emerging Latin American economies: Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. The results reveal that Chile and Colombia exhibit a greater degree of nominal rigidity and that there is a substantial amount of heterogeneity in the duration of prices across the different product categories comprising the CPI basket. Furthermore, it was found that state-dependent price setting rules tend to better explain the behavior of the data in the case of all four countries analyzed.
The nature of separator current layers in MHS equilibria I. Current parallel to the separator

Separators, which are in many ways the three-dimensional equivalent to two-dimensional nulls, are important sites for magnetic reconnection. Magnetic reconnection occurs in strong current layers which have very short length scales. The aim of this work is to explore the nature of current layers around separators. A separator is a special field line which lies along the intersection of two separatrix surfaces and forms the boundary between four topologically distinct flux domains. In particular, here the current layer about a separator that joins two 3D nulls and lies along the intersection of their separatrix surfaces is investigated. A magnetic configuration containing a single separator embedded in a uniform plasma with a uniform electric current parallel to the separator is considered. This initial magnetic setup, which is not in equilibrium, relaxes in a non-resistive manner to form an equilibrium. The relaxation is achieved using the 3D MHD code, Lare3d, with resistivity set to zero. A series of experiments with varying initial current are run to investigate the characteristics of the resulting current layers present in the final (quasi-) equilibrium states. In each experiment, the separator collapses and a current layer forms along it. The dimensions and strength of the current layer increase with initial current. It is found that separator current layers formed from current parallel to the separator are twisted. Also the collapse of the separator is a process that evolves like an infinite-time singularity where the length, width and peak current in the layer grow slowly whilst the depth of the current layer decreases.
Characterization of Particulate-Phase High Molecular Weight Mono-Carbonyls (C# > 5) and Dicarbonyls in Urban Atmosphere of Xi’an, China

ABSTRACTAn analytical method to quantify particulate-phase high molecular weight mono-carbonyls (C# > 5) and di-carbonyls has been developed by adopting 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) derivatization followed by high performance liquid chromatography/ultra-violet (HPLC/UV) detection. Satisfactory reproducibility and precision of the measurements were achieved. This method was applied to measure the carbonyls in PM2.5 collected on quartz-fiber filters, sampled in Xi’an, China, from 2008 to 2009. Nonanaldehyde was the most abundant compound, followed by octanaldehyde, hexanaldehyde and heptaldehyde, accounting for 40%, 20%, 12% and 11% in the total quantified carbonyls. For dicarbonyls, the concentration of methylglyoxal was much higher than that of glyoxal. The seasonal variations of the particulate-phase mono-carbonyls and dicarbonyls were similar to those in the gas-phase, namely winter > autumn > spring > summer (except octanaldehyde). A strong correlation among those carbonyls was observed in winter, resulting from low temperature partitioning, weaker photochemical reaction, and more primary emission sources. In contrast, in summer, vehicle emissions, cooking emissions and photochemical reactions are the major pollution source in Xi’an.
VARIABILITY OF RHOTICS IN PUNJABI-ENGLISH BILINGUALS

This paper examines variation of /r/pronunciation as a function of social identification in Punjabi-English bilinguals. This is clearly different from previous studies of linguistic stratification based upon geography, gender age or social network [1], [2]. The study presented here examines group affiliation of second generation Punjabi speakers (whose habitual home language is Punjabi) from south east Britain. The subject selection for the study partitions British-Asian speakers of English (from the Indian Subcontinent) on the basis of self-identification as either ‘British Asian’ or as ‘Asian’. The main research question was whether ‘British Asian’ speakers of English with particular social affiliations acquire the local (south east British) pattern of /r/-pronunciation (excluding postvocalic realisations) or whether they retained features of Punjabi rhotic realisations and postvocalic /r/.
The Dilemma of Female Labour Force Particip ation (FLFP) and Fertility rate in Asian - 6 Countries: A Panel Cointegration Approach

The principal objective of this paper is to investigate the dilemma between the female labour force participation rate and total fertility rate for the Asian - 6 countries from the period 1995 to 2013 using panel cointegration and long - run structural estimation. The cointegration results confirm that the female labour force participation rate and to tal fertility rate are cointegrated for the panel of Asian - 6 countries. Whereas, long - run Granger causality authenticate the causality run from the total fertility rate to the female labour force participation rate. Moreover, the results show that 1percent increase in the total fertility rate cause in a 0.44 percent decrease in the female labour force participation rate for the Asian - 6 countries. The TFR highest negative effect observed in Indonesia and smallest observed in Thailand. The results of fully mo dify ordinary least square confirm the long run panel relationship between female labour force and total fertility rate. (Nor Aznin Abu Bakar, Muhammad Haseeb, Nira Hariyatie Hartani. The Dilemma of Female Labour Force Participation (FLFP) and Fertility r atio in Asian - 6 Countries: A Panel Cointegration Approach. Life Sci J 2014;11( 8s ):58 4 - 5 90 ) (ISSN:1097 - 8135). http://www.lifesciencesite. com . 120
The impact of good governance on environmental pollution in South West Asian Countries

Over the past few decades, good governance has become an important issue in public administration. One key reason behind this reality is the paramount role of government in promoting sustainable development and protecting the environment. Therefore, evaluating the impact of good governance on the quality of the environment could be taken into consideration by both economic researchers and policy makers. This paper deals with the impact of good governance on the environmental pollution in Iran and its competitors of 2025 vision document (i.e., South West Asian Countries, SWAC) over the period of 2002-2015. The results maintain that government effectiveness, quality of law, rule of law and control of corruption (as representative indicators of good governance) have significant effect on pollution. The degree of the economic openness and economic growth do indicate negative and significant relation with environment pollution as well. Therefore, improving good governance indices in selected countries including Iran could potentially reduce the pollution over there.