Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of harvesting period and drying time on the essential oil yield of Pistacia lentiscus L. leaves

This work focuses on the influence of the harvestin g period and the drying time on the essential oil y ield extracted from leaves of Moroccan Pistacia lentiscus by hydro distillation process. The result of this study show ed that the highest yields are obtained on May. After 15 days o f leaves shade drying, the yield increased from 0.3 2% to 0.42% for the first seven days. However, further than thi s period, a decrease in yield was observed. During the same period, the moisture content of the plant material decreased fr om 53.6% to 8.2%
H-Mode and Confinement Studies in ASDEX Upgrade

H-mode operational boundaries and H-mode confinement are investigated on ASDEX Upgrade. The local edge parameter threshold for H-mode holds independent of divertor geometry and changes little with ion mass. The deviation of the H-mode power threshold at densities near the Greenwald limit can be understood as a consequence of a confinement deterioration, caused by “stiff” temperature profiles and lack of core density gradients in gas puff fuelled discharges. Ion and electron temperature profiles can be described by a lower limit of gradient length LT = T=T .
Why Can Wind Delay the Shedding of Loop Current Eddies

Abstract It is first shown that wind in the Gulf of Mexico can delay the shedding of Loop Current eddies. A time-dependent, three-dimensional numerical experiment forced by a spatially and temporally constant westward wind stress within the Gulf is analyzed and then is compared with an otherwise identical no-wind run, and the result is confirmed with reduced-gravity experiments. It is shown that the wind produces westward transports over the northern and southern shelves of the Gulf, convergence in the west, and a returned (i.e., eastward) upper-layer flow over the deep central basin toward the Loop Current. The theory from T. Pichevin and D. Nof is then used to explain that the returned flow constitutes a zonal momentum flux that delays eddy shedding. Mass-balance analysis shows that wind also forces larger Loop Current and rings (because the delayed shedding allows more mass to be accumulated in them) and produces more efficient mass exchange between the Gulf and the Caribbean Sea. It is shown that eddi.
Comparisons of Infrared Colors and Emission-line Intensities between Two types of Seyfert~2 Galaxies

We study the relation between the infrared colors, [OIII] emission lines, gaseous absorbing column density (NH),and the detectability of the polarized (hidden) broad-line region (HBLR) in a large sample of 75 Seyfert 2 galaxies (Sy2s). From the indicators of star-formation activity, f60/f100 and LFIR/LB, we find some evidence that the Sy2s without HBLR show higher star-formation activities than those with HBLR, in agreement with previous prediction. Also, we confirm that the HBLR Sy2s tend to have a larger luminosity ratio of the core to the host galaxy, suggesting that the HBLR Sy2s display more powerful AGN activity. However, the level of obscuration found in previous papers is nearly indistinguishable between the two types of Sy2s. The results support the statement that the non-HBLR Sy2s, with a weaker core component and a stronger star-formation activity component, are intrinsically different from the HBLR Sy2s, which are Sy1 systems with a hidden powerful AGN core and a low star-formation activity. The indications are that the non-HBLR Sy2s might be at an earlier evolutionary phase than the HBLR Sy2s.
Regulation after delegation: independent regulatory agencies in Europe

Three aspects of the life of independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) after delegation are examined: their independence from elected officials, their relationship with regulatees; their decision-making processes. The article suggests that IRAs enjoy considerable insulation from elected politicians in terms of party politicization and tenure. The evidence for relations between IRAs and business regulatees is more mixed: the two have been relatively separate in terms of the professional origins and destinations of senior IRA staff and, in some countries, there has been considerable legal conflict between them. However, in an important and visible field such as merger control, IRAs have undertaken little activity. The greatest changes introduced by IRAs have been in decision-making processes, which they have opened up, in contrast to closed processes before delegation.
In search of an ice core signal to differentiate between source‐driven and sink‐driven changes in atmospheric methane

[1] The concentration of atmospheric methane increased from around 360 ppbv at the last glacial maximum (∼20 ka before present) to about 700 ppbv in the pre-industrial era (∼200 years before present). The sources and/or sinks of methane must therefore have changed during this period; however, the relative sizes of the source- and sink-driven changes in methane concentration remain uncertain. We take the first “bottom-up” approach to identifying any chemical signals preserved in the ice record that could help us to determine these. Using an atmospheric chemistry-transport model, we explore the effects of source- and sink-driven changes in methane on a wide range of chemical species in the Antarctic boundary layer. Though we identify several potentially useful atmospheric signals, a simple and robust constraint on the sizes of the source- and sink-driven changes cannot be readily identified, owing to their preservation in the ice, limitations to the information they hold, and/or ambiguity surrounding their interpretation. This includes the mass-independent fractionation of oxygen isotopes in sulfates, and the concentration of formaldehyde, in which there has been considerable interest. Our exploration is confined to a domain in which NOx emissions and climate remain constant. However, given the uncertainties associated with the changes in these factors, we would anticipate that their inclusion would make it harder still to identify a robust signal. Finally, though formaldehyde cannot provide this, we propose how it might be used to synchronize the gas- and aqueous-phase Antarctic ice records and thus determine the relative phasing of glacial-interglacial changes in Southern Hemisphere CO2 and temperature.
Forecasting credit ratings using an ANN and statistical techniques

In a liberal environment the conceptual importance of credit rating has increased significantly. The objective of this study is to explore and find out the effect of the financial performance data of a firm relative to the credit rating of a debt issue of that firm. The study also proposes to capture the relationship, if any, between financial performance data and credit rating given by experts in an appropriate model. Financial data relevant to debt issue ratings are obtained from the publications of a premier credit rating agency in India. Data analysis involved the building of a model using conventional multiple linear discriminant analysis and Artificial Neural Network Systems. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) model was found to be superior to the discriminant analysis model. The ANN model can be used to increase speed and efficiency of the rating process in practical applications. In addition, if experts provide better-input data, it can be relied upon to provide an automatic rating to a significant extent.
Evaluating Regulation within an Artificial Financial System – A Framework and Its Application to the Liquidity Coverage Ratio Regulation

We develop a general model of the financial system that allows for the evaluation of bank regulation. Our framework comprises the agents and institutions that have proved crucial in the propagation of the subprime mortgage shock in the U.S. into a global financial crisis: Commercial banks and investment banks, which can also be interpreted as shadow banks, interact on wholesale debt markets. Beside a market for short term interbank loans and long term bank bonds, other funding sources include insured customer deposits, uninsured investor deposits and repos. While credit to the real sector is the principal asset of commercial banks, investment banks specialize in trading securities, which may differ according to risk, maturity and liquidity. As a first application of the model we implement the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) regulation and analyze its impact on bank balance sheets, interest rates, the transmission of monetary policy and the stability of bank lending in the face of shocks. We find that the LCR regulation reduces the supply of loans to the real sector, increases the maturity and interest rate of long term wholesale debt, and strongly diminishes the role of the overnight interbank market as a funding source. Our simulations suggest that the transmission of changes to short term monetary policy rates is severely impaired when the LCR regulation is binding. Furthermore, we find that a strong confidence shock can lead to a protracted credit crunch under the liquidity regulation.
An empirical analysis of international stock market volatility transmission

This paper examines the interplay between stock market returns and their volatility, focus ingon the Asian and global financial crises of 1997-98 and 2008-09 for Australia, Singapore, the UK, and the US. We use a multivariate generalised autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (MGARCH) model and weekly data (January 1992-June 2009). Based on the results obtained from the mean return equations, we could not find any significant impact on returns arising from the Asian crisis and more recent global financial crises across these four markets. However, both crises significantly increased the stock return volatilities across all of the four markets. Not surprisingly, it is also found that the US stock market is the most crucial market impacting on the volatilities of smaller economies such as Australia. Our results provide evidence of own and cross ARCH and GARCH effects among all four markets, suggesting the existence of significant volatility and cross volatility spillovers across all four markets. A high degree of time-varying co-volatility among these markets indicates that it is riskier for investors to diversify their financial portfolio by acquiring stocks withinthese four countries only.
Measuring Benefits of Technology Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe

In this paper, we construct a composite indicator to estimate the potential of four Central and Eastern European countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) to benefi t from productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) in the manufacturing sector. Such transfers of technology are one of the main benefi ts of FDI for the host country, and should also be one of the main determinants of FDI incentives offered to investing multinationals by governments, but they are diffi cult to assess ex ante . For our composite index, we use six components to proxy the main channels and determinants of these spillovers. We have tried several weighting and aggregation methods, and we consider our results robust. According to the analysis of our results, between 2003 and 2007 all four countries were able to increase their potential to benefi t from such spillovers, although there are large differences between them. The Czech Republic clearly has the most potential to benefi t from productivity spillovers, while Poland has the least. The relative positions of Hungary and Slovakia depend to some extent on the exact weighting and aggregation method of the individual components of the index, but the differences are not large. These conclusions have important implications both for the investment strategies of multinationals and government FDI policies.
Laser beam coupling with capillary discharge plasma for laser wakefield acceleration applications

One of the most robust methods, demonstrated to date, of accelerating electron beams by laser-plasma sources is the utilization of plasma channels generated by the capillary discharges. Although the spatial structure of the installation is simple in principle, there may be some important effects caused by the open ends of the capillary, by the supplying channels etc., which require a detailed 3D modeling of the processes. In the present work, such simulations are performed using the code MARPLE. First, the process of capillary filling with cold hydrogen before the discharge is fired, through the side supply channels is simulated. Second, the simulation of the capillary discharge is performed with the goal to obtain a time-dependent spatial distribution of the electron density near the open ends of the capillary as well as inside the capillary. Finally, to evaluate the effectiveness of the beam coupling with the channeling plasma wave guide and of the electron acceleration, modeling of the laser-plasma int.
Piecewise truncated conical minimal surfaces and the Gauss hypergeometric functions

The catenary is the curve which a hanging chain forms, that is, mathematically, the graph of the function t 7! ccosh t for a constant c > 0. The study of catenaries is applied to the design of arches and suspension bridges. The surface of revolution generated by a catenary is called a catenoid. It is well-known that a catenoid is a minimal surface and the shape which a soap lm between two parallel circles forms. In this article, we consider the approximation of a catenoid by combinations of some truncated cones keeping the minimality in a certain sense. In investigating the minimal combinations, the theory of the Gauss hypergeometric functions plays an important role.
Temporal acceleration of a turbulent channel flow

We report new laboratory experiments of a flow accelerating from an initially turbulent state following the opening of a valve, together with large eddy simulations of the experiments and extended Stokes first problem solutions for the early stages of the flow. The results show that the transient flow closely resembles an accelerating laminar flow superimposed on the original steady turbulent flow. The primary consequence of the acceleration is the temporal growth of a boundary layer from the wall, gradually leading to a strong instability causing transition. This extends the findings of previous direct numerical simulations of transient flow following a near-step increase in flow rate. In this interpretation, the initial turbulence is not the primary characteristic of the resulting transient flow, but can be regarded as noise, the evolution of which is strongly influenced by the development of the boundary layer. We observe the spontaneous appearance of turbulent spots and discontinuities in the velocity signals in time and space, revealing rich detail of the transition process, including a striking contrast between streamwise and wall-normal fluctuating velocities.
Manganese incorporation in living (stained) benthic foraminiferal shells: a bathymetric and in-sediment study in the Gulf of Lions (NW Mediterranean)

Abstract. Manganese geochemistry in deep-sea sediments is known to vary greatly over the first few centimeters, which overlaps the in-sediment depth habitats of several benthic foraminiferal species. Here we investigated manganese incorporation in benthic foraminiferal shell carbonate across a six-station depth transect in the Gulf of Lions, NW Mediterranean, to unravel the impacts of foraminiferal ecology and Mn pore water geochemistry. Over this transect water depth increases from 350 to 1987 m, while temperature (∼13 ∘C) and salinity (∼38.5) remained relatively constant. Manganese concentrations in the tests of living (rose bengal stained) benthic foraminiferal specimens of Hoeglundina elegans, Melonis barleeanus, Uvigerina mediterranea, and Uvigerina peregrina were measured using laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (laser ablation ICP-MS). Pore water manganese concentrations show a decrease from shallow to deeper waters, which corresponds to a generally decreasing organic-matter flux with water depth. Differences in organic-matter loading at the sediment–water interface affects oxygen penetration depth into the sediment and hence Mn pore water profiles. Mn ∕ Ca values for the investigated foraminiferal species reflect pore water geochemistry and species-specific microhabitat in the sediment. The observed degree of variability within a single species is in line with known ranges in depth habitat and gradients in redox conditions. Both the Mn ∕ Ca ratio and interspecific variability hence reflect past Mn cycling and related early diagenetic processes within the sediment, making this a potential tool for bottom-water oxygenation and organic-matter fluxes. Dynamics of both in-sediment foraminiferal depth habitats and Mn cycling, however, limit the application of such a proxy to settings with relatively stable environmental conditions.
Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics and Its Impact on Biodiversity Resources in the Abijata Shalla National Park, Central Rift Valley Lakes Region, Ethiopia

Land use and land cover (LULC) dynamics have been among the most important visible changes that have taken place everywhere in the Ethiopian landscape. Such changes are severely affecting ecosystem health including degradation of nature reserves and wild animal sanctuaries. One such nature reserve in Ethiopia is the Abijata-Shala National Park (ASNP). A digital LULC detection technique was applied by using multi-temporal satellite imagery interpretation in order to understand the landscape dynamics in the ASNP. In order to assess the state of the environment over time, four timelines associated with biodiversity loss were considered: 1973, 1994, 2000 and 2016. Supervised classifications in ERDAS imagine 2014 software and post-classification in Arc GIS software was performed. The image was classified into five major land use classes namely water bodies, grazing land, cultivated land, Acacia dominated wood land and bare land. It was observed that water bodies decreased in the first period (1973-1994) and increase in the second period (1994-2000) but fallen drastically afterwards in the third period (2000-2016). This is a pattern opposite to what we see in the cultivated land. The overall trend shows that grazing and cultivated land increase by 14% and 15% respectively while, the water bodies decreased by about 16%. The reduction of woodlands and water bodies means loss of habitat for large number of aquatic and terrestrial species of animals including endemic and migratory birds. Bare land trend shows that decrease by 1.02% in first period, increase by 0.56% in second period and decrease in third period by 4.17%. We conclude that in the park there is substantial change in LULC which could affect the biodiversity of the park. Keywords: Abijata Shalla Lakes National Park, Arc GIS, Biodiversity loss, ERDAS imagine, Land use/cover change Land Use/Land Cover Dynamics and Its Impact on Biodiversity Resources in the Abijata Shalla National Park, Central Rift Valley Lakes Region, Ethiopia
Bank regulation and the process of internationalisation: A study of Japanese bank entry into London

The paper provides a theoretical insight into bank regulation and the process of internationalisation by examining the concepts of regulatory push and market pull within the context of Japanese bank entry into London during the 1980s. Rugman and Verbeke's [(1998). Corporate strategy and international environmental policy. Journal of International Business Studies, 29(4), 819–833] Consistency of Home and Host Government Goals model is utilised to structure the discussion, which centres on a situation where there is a conflict of goals between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the home government but goal alignment between MNEs and the host government. As such the paper examines a relatively under-researched aspect of internationalisation and concludes that in certain circumstances internationalisation can occur despite great ‘psychic distance’. The paper also argues that although bank regulation can lead to a conflict situation it can also be conducive to the development of a strong home base and the development of firm specific advantages.
The Indian Automotive Industry and the ASEAN Supply Chain Relations

The topic of automotive supply chains has been increasingly studied as it raises questions of economic development, especially from the perspectives of simultaneous globalisation and regionalisation, and trade. While ASEAN is a prime example of intraregional production networks, supply chains that connect ASEAN and India have not been studied indepth. Therefore, this paper investigates the Indian automotive industry, which is composed of automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and parts and components producers, and other supply chain connections to the neighbouring ASEAN region. This study is structured as follows. First, we will take a look at the historic development of the automotive industry in India, as it provides the context for the development of companies and their capabilities that are crucial determinants for their ability to join supply chains. The investigation will not be limited to Indian firms because as case studies of the ASEAN region forcefully demonstrate, foreign OEMs and parts suppliers may use developing and emerging markets as specialised production bases of their global and regional supply chains. Second, against the historic background, the current condition of the automotive industry in India will be analysed by discussing industry data. Third, we will conduct case studies of automotive companies from India, Japan, and South Korea to investigate how India and ASEAN are connected through supply chains and determine which chains integrate Indian companies. We will analyse to which extent industrial and trade policies promote or hinder the extension of ASEAN supply chains to India and vice versa. As a final step, policy recommendations will be formulated based on the findings in order to improve the automotive trade between India and ASEAN.
Deciding under Doubt: A Theory of Risk Aversion, Time Discounting Preferences, and Educational Decision-making

We develop a rational choice model of educational decision-making in which the utility of educational choices depends on students' risk aversion and their time discounting preferences. We argue for the role of risk aversion and time discounting preferences in the choice of different tracks in secondary education and in mediating the impact of socioeconomic background on such choices. Enrolment decisions in Danish secondary education provide our empirical example, and the results are generally in line with the proposed theory in that (i) risk aversion deters students from choosing the academically challenging but economically rewarding academic track in secondary education, (ii) students with a low time discount rate are particularly likely to enter the academic track, and (iii) students from advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds are not affected by risk aversion when making educational decisions.
Biology of the Hairy Mangrove Crab, Sersema Huzardii (Decapoda: Graspidae) from a Tropical Estuarine Lagoon.

The size composition, growth pattern, food habits, reproductive biology and feedstuff preferences of the mangrove crab, Sesarma huzardii in a tropical estuarine lagoon were investigated. The carapace length ranged from 1.5cm to 4.7cm and weight from 4.5g to 27.8g. The crab exhibited negative allometric growth. The condition factor ranged between 3.6 and 13.5 and decreased with size. The crabs fed mainly on diatoms, algae, higher plants and insect parts. The sex ratio was 1: 0.6 (male/female) which was significantly different from the expected 1:1 ratio. The fecundity ranged between 1.2 and 3.5 million eggs. The average fecundity was 2.5million eggs. Egg diameter ranged from 0.21 to 0.33mm with a mean diameter of 0.24mm. The crab had the highest gain in weight when fed with white mangrove leaves and least with animal food. (Aderonke Omolara Lawal-Are* and Hilary Nwankwo; Biology of the Hairy Mangrove Crab, Sersema Huzardii (Decapoda: Graspidae) from a Tropical Estuarine Lagoon.Journal of American Science 2011;7(7):402-408). (ISSN: 1545-1003). http://www.americanscience. org.