Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles via sucrose ester micelle-mediated hydrothermal processing route

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles were synthesized via low-temperature sucrose ester micelle-mediated hydrothermal processing route using titanium isopropoxide as the precursor. X-ray diffractometer revealed that the samples possessed a mixed crystalline phases consisting of anatase and brookite in which anatase was the main phase. Upon increasing the hydrothermal reaction temperature, the degree of crystallinity of the nanoparticles improved and their morphology transformed from bundles of needles to rods and to spheres. Photocatalytic behaviour of the as-synthesized nanoparticles was investigated by photodegradation of methylene blue solution in an ultraviolet A irradiating photoreactor. The as-synthesized nanoparticles exhibited higher photocatalytic performance as compared to the commercial counterpart.
X-ray and optical properties of broad absorption line quasars in the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey

We study the X-ray and optical properties of 16 broad absorption line (BAL) quasars detected in a ≈3 deg 2 region common to the wide synoptic (W-1) component of the Canada―France― Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey (CFHTLS) and the XMM Large Scale Structure Survey (XMM-LSS). The BAL fraction is found to be 10 per cent in the full sample, 7 per cent for the optical colour-selected quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) and as high as 33 per cent if we consider QSOs selected from their infrared colours. The X-ray-detected non-BAL and BAL quasars have a mean observed X-ray-to-optical spectral slope (α ox ) of -1.47 ± 0.13 and ―1.66 ± 0.17, respectively. We also find that the BAL QSOs have α ox systematically smaller than what is expected from the relationship between optical luminosity and a ox as derived from our sample. Based on this, we show, as already reported in the literature for quasars with high optical luminosities, that our new sample of BAL QSOs has X-ray luminosity a factor of 3 smaller than what has been found for non-BAL QSOs with similar optical luminosities. Comparison of hardness ratios of the BAL and non-BAL QSOs suggests a possible soft X-ray weakness of BAL QSOs. Combining our sample, of relatively fainter QSOs, with others from the literature we show that larger balnicity index (BI) and maximum velocity (V max ) of the C IV absorption are correlated with steeper X-ray-to-optical spectral index. We argue that this is most likely a consequence of the existence of a lower envelope in the distribution of BI (or V max ) values versus optical luminosity. Our results thus show that the previously known X-ray weakness of BAL QSOs extends to lower optical luminosities as well.
Devising a marketing model for high technology products: An empirical investigation in Iran

The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive framework for marketing high technology products. This research attempts to answer the following questions: What aspects make difference between high technology and low technology products and their marketing? What sorts of marketing strategies should high technology producing companies and firms utilize? And what are the unique features of high technologies and the marketing implications of these types of technologies. The research was conducted through an Iranian research institute which consists of over 30 high technology companies mainly in the fields of nanotechnology, electric and electronic components. A sample of top or middle managers of those firms was asked by questionnaire and 103 of them were analyzed. The analysis results shows internal and environmental factors affecting marketing high technology products in five dimensions: Product technology, market environment, consumer reactions, marketing strategy and performance. Turbulent market, short life cycle, sales force roles, and interactions between research and development and marketing were recognized as some of the most influential factors in this area.
European regional convergence in a human capital augmented Solow model

In this paper, the process of productivity convergence is investigated for the enlarged European Union using regional (NUTS-2) data. The Solow model extended by human capital is employed as a workhorse. Alternative strategies are proposed to control for spatial effects. All specifications confirm the presence of convergence with an annual speed between 3 and 3.5 percent towards regional steady states. Furthermore, a geographically weighted regression approach indicates a wide variation in the speed of convergence across the regions, where a higher speed is striking in particular in France and the UK. Clusters of convergence can be identified, where regions with high convergence also have high initial income levels.
Foliar Nutrition and Post-Harvest of Onion Seed: Effects of storage temperatures, storage period and foliar nutrition

The aim of onion bulb storage is to meet consumer demand for extended availability of onions whilst maintaining product quality. The principal biological factors leading to onion bulb deterioration are respiration, resumption of growth and pathogen attack. In onion bulbs a dormant period, when sprouting and rooting cannot be induced, is followed by a period of internal changes that prepare the bulb for breaking of dormancy and subsequent growth. Out of storage, the bulb then proceeds towards flowering and seed production. Two successive winter seasons of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 were conducted under sandy soil conditions to study the effect of spraying with 12 commercial compounds on yield and yield components of onion seeds and storage The seed yield of each commercial compounds plot from previous experiment was divided into two groups, storage under room temperature and 5°C. Seeds transferred immediately after drying to Increasing Export Competition of Some Vegetable Crops Project Laboratory located in Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University. The effects of storage temperature, storage period and foliar with some commercial compounds on onion seed quality were considered. Storage in 5°C had the higher germination percentage than storage in room temperature. Results indicated that as storage period increased the germination percent decreased. The treatment with boron or amica in the first season had the highest germination percentage. While, the treatment with union Zn, union feer, union Mn, boron, elga 600, caboron, amica, hummer or amino X had the highest germination percentage in the second season. Storage in 5°C resulted in higher moisture content than storage in room temperature. Regarding the effect of storage period on moisture content, the water content was significantly increased with prolongation of storage period. The lowest values of water content were recorded for treatments with union feer, shams K or boron in the first season, and union feer, shams K, boron, magnesium, shetocare or hummer in the second one. Catalase activity was significantly decreased as storage period increased. The treatment with shams K, boron, shetocare or amino X had the highest catalase activity in both seasons. Peroxidase activity was significantly decreased as storage period increased. Foliar application with boron had the highest peroxidase activity in both seasons. Seed stored in room temperature had the higher malondialdehyde content than those stored in 5°C in the second season. The malondialdehyde content increased as storage period increased. The treatment with magnesium, caboron and the control in the first season, and the treatment with magnesium and the control in the second season had the highest malondialdehyde content.
UV-C irradiation of tomato and its effects on color and pigments.

The effect of hormic dose (UV-3.7 kJ m) of ultraviolet radiation in delaying the senescence of tomato was investigated. Mature-green tomato fruits (var. Capello) were irradiated with doses of ultraviolet light (UVC, 254 nm) corresponding to 0 (control), UV-3.7 kJ m (hormic dose) and UV-24.4 kJ m (hyper dose) and were stored at 16°C, under high relative humidity for a period of 28-35 days. Attributes of senescence such as color, pigments (chlorophyll, lycopene, total carotenoids) and total protein were monitored periodically throughout the storage period. The development of color and lycopene as well as the decline in chlorophyll were significantly (p#0.001), retarded during storage in response to the treatment with both the hormic and hyper doses. However the hyper dose impaired ripening and caused abnormal browning, manifested as sunscalding of the fruit’s surface. One possible mode of UV action is attributable to the significantly higher levels of total carotenoids found in irradiated fruits compared to controls indicative of a phytochemical antioxidant defense mechanism.
Differences in the association of subjective wellbeing measures with health, socioeconomic status, and social conditions among residents of an eastern cape township

Objective: The use of variably self-reported measures of wellbeing may produce differing outcomes. This study examined the differences in association with health, socioeconomic status, and social conditions (marital status, social capital) of two widely used cognitive subjective wellbeing measurements: Cantril's ladder and Diener's five-item Satisfaction with Life Scale. Methods: A stratified sampling design was used to collect data from representative households in the 20 neighborhoods of Rhini, a deprived suburb of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Correlation and stepwise multiple regression analyses investigated differences in the associations between wellbeing and health, demographics, socioeconomic status, and social conditions determined by the three measurements. Results: We found that the multiple-item satisfaction with life scale elicited more discriminating responses that took into account a broader range of life domains. This scale reported more significant relationships between subjective wellbeing and health, socioeconomic status, and social conditions. Cantril's ladder produced a narrower range of career-like comparisons. The direction of association between measures of wellbeing and socioeconomic characteristics never changed according to the measures used. Conclusions: Policy-makers, researchers, and practitioners using these instruments should be aware of the differences between single- and multiple-item wellbeing measures, and recognize that the choice of instrument will affect the life domains found to be associated with wellbeing.
IPOs, Growth, and the Impact of Relaxing Listing Requirements

We investigate the impact of relaxing listing requirements on firms’ growth around initial public offerings (IPOs). Japan experienced several deregulations of listing requirements in the late 1990s. We use a dataset that covers both public and private firms for more than 30years, which enables us to compare the firms’ operating growth around IPOs as well as to compare the growth under both strict and relaxed listing requirements. When comparing the matched firms, we find that IPO firms’ excess growth in profitability and productivity diminished after their IPOs, while their excess growth in terms of size (measured by sales and number of employees) still increased in the post-IPO period. This finding indicates that relaxing listing requirements enables high-growth firms to go public but does not lead to subsequent growth in productivity and profitability, although it does enable firms to be larger more after going public.
Effect of different nitrogenous fertilizers on Fruit Quality and Yield of apricot ( Prunus armeniaca L . )

The present study entitled “Evaluation of different nitrogenous fertilizers on soil properties, yield and quality of apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.)” was conducted at research farm of the Department of Soil Science and Water Management, Nauni Solan during 2015 and 2016 with 11 treatments. Half dose of nitrogen was applied during spring before flowering and remaining half dose was applied one month after first application. From the foregoing results it may be concluded that treatment T7 (urea 100%+lime 708 g/tree) was found to be best treatment for TSS, fruit size, fruit set and yield. Whereas, fruit quality in terms of fruit length, fruit breadth and fruit weight improved under T1 treatment (urea 0%+Ca (NO3)2 100%). From the present investigation, it may be concluded that urea and lime application in treatment T7 (urea100%+lime708g/tree) helped in obtaining, fruit set, fruit quality and yield during both the years of experimentation.
Does CPAP Use in the First 15 Days Predict its Use after 4 Months? A Prospective French Cohort Study

Objective: Early prediction of which patients with obstructive sleep apnea will not adhere with CPAP can trigger physicians to correct possible causes or offer alternative therapies. This study aims to determine the ability of early CPAP use to predict long-term adherence with CPAP independent from its definition and to test previously described predictors of adherence. Method: This is a prospective, observational cohort study that was performed in nine sleep disorder centers in France. Patients were newly diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and a CPAP was prescribed for the first time. We collected socioeconomic, medical, sleep, and psychological variables to be associated with adherence with CPAP. The patients were evaluated 15 days after CPAP set up and monthly for 4 months until they were adherent. We assessed potential predictors of CPAP adherence at 4 months with emphasis on CPAP use at 15 days. CPAP adherence was defined as an average daily use of at least 3, 4, 5, and 6 hours. Results: We enrolled 420 patients. Early CPAP use and CPAP use at 4 months were similar. At 4 months, 94% of patients used a CPAP ≥3 hours and 49% of patients used it ≥6 hours. The area under the ROC curve for early CPAP use predicting adherence at 4 months was ≥0.85 for all adherence definitions. The optimal threshold for early CPAP use to predict adherence increased from 3.2 to 6.4 hours as the definition of CPAP adherence increased from 3 to 6 hours. CPAP use at 4 months was higher in older patients. Conclusions: Early CPAP use was the single best predictor of CPAP adherence and was independent of how adherence was defined. Physicians must assess CPAP use no later than 2 weeks to address its causes or prescribe an alternative therapy.
Mechano-sorptive creep of Portuguese pinewood chemically modified

Summary The effect of chemical modification on mechano-sorptive creep in bending was studied by experimental work. Stakes with 20 × 20 × 400 mm RTL of Portuguese wood species (Pinus pinaster Aiton) modified with 1,3-dimethylol-4,5- dihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU), m-methylated melamine resin (MMF), tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and amid wax (WA) were measured under asymmetric moistening conditions over a period of 42 days (app. 1000 hours) with stress level (SL) of 12 MPa, according to ENV 1156. The cell wall treatments (DMDHEU and MMF resins) had shown significant reduction of creep (creep factors, kc) when compared to untreated wood under similar conditions. Both types of resins and levels of treatments (different WPG) did not shown significant effects. In the lumen fill treatments, deposit material of TEOS did not affected the creep behaviour (kc); Wax treatment was shown a particular compliance of creep due to avoid exchange moisture (by the hydrophobic effect of wax). The anti-creep efficiency (ACE) correlated better than other mechanical or physical properties imparted by the modification process
Forward-Looking Monetary Policy and Anticipated Shocks to Inflation

This paper extends a standard New Keynesian model to describe the effects of anticipated shocks to inflation and forward-looking monetary policy. Using the data generated from this modified model suggests that overlooking these two factors in the standard Cholesky structural vector autoregressive identification scheme will generate a price puzzle. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates that failing to account for these two factors may result in significant estimates of two other explanations of the price puzzle—the cost channel of transmission of monetary policy and indeterminacy due to violation of the Taylor principle—even though neither features in the data generating process.
Selling Off the "Family Silver": The Politics of Privatization

The 1990's have witnessed unprecedented attempts at privatizing state owned enterprises in virtually all OECD democracies. This contribution analyzes the differences in the privatization proceeds raised by EU- and OECD-countries between 1990 and 2000. It turns out that privatizations are part of a policy of economic liberalisation in previously highly regulated economies as well as a reaction to the fiscal policy challenges imposed by European integration and the globalisation of financial markets. In addition, institutional pluralism exerts significant and negative effects on privatization proceeds. Partisan differences only emerge if economic problems are moderate, while intense economic, particularly fiscal problems foreclose differing partisan strategies.
The transient distributions of nuclear weapon-generated tritium and its decay product 3 He in the Mediterranean Sea, 1952–2011, and their oceanographic potential

Abstract. We present a comprehensive account of tritium and 3He in the Mediterranean Sea since the appearance of the tritium generated by the atmospheric nuclear-weapon testing in the 1950s and early 1960s, based on essentially all available observations. Tritium in surface waters rose to 20–30 TU in 1964 (TU = 1018 × [3H]/H]), a factor of about 100 above the natural level, and thereafter declined 30-fold up to 2011. The decline was largely due to radioactive tritium decay, which produced significant amounts of its stable daughter 3He. We present the scheme by which we separate the tritiugenic part of 3He and the part due to release from the sea floor (terrigenic part). We show that the tritiugenic component can be quantified throughout the Mediterranean waters, typically to a ± 0.15 TU equivalent, mostly because the terrigenic part is low in 3He. This fact makes the Mediterranean unique in offering a potential for the use of tritiugenic 3He as a tracer. The transient distributions of the two tracers are illustrated by a number of sections spanning the entire sea and relevant features of their distributions are noted. By 2011, the 3He concentrations in the top few hundred metres had become low, in response to the decreasing tritium concentrations combined with a flushing out by the general westward drift of these waters. Tritium-3He ages in Levantine Intermediate Water (LIW) were obtained repeated in time at different locations, defining transit times from the LIW source region east of Rhodes. The ages show an upward trend with the time elapsed since the surface-water tritium maximum, which arises because the repeated observations represent increasingly slower moving parts of the full transit time spectrum of LIW. The transit time dispersion revealed by this new application of tritium-3He dating is considerable. We find mean transit times of 12 ± 2 yr up to the Strait of Sicily, 18 ± 3 yr up to the Tyrrhenian Sea, and 22 ± 4 yr up into the Western Mediterranean. Furthermore, we present full Eastern Mediterranean sections of terrigenic 3He and tritium-3He age in 1987, the latter one similarly showing an effect of the transit time dispersion. We conclude that the available tritium and 3He data, particularly if combined with other tracer data, are useful for constraining the subsurface circulation and mixing of the Mediterranean Sea.
A Bayesian Method for Incorporating Self‐Similarity Into Earthquake Slip Inversions

Distributions of coseismic slip help illuminate many properties of earthquakes, including fault geometry, stress changes, frictional properties, and potential future hazard. Slip inversions take observations and calculate slip at depth, but there are a number of commonly adopted assumptions such as minimizing the second spatial derivative of slip (the Laplacian) that have little physical basis and potentially bias the result. In light of growing evidence that fault slip shows fractal properties, we suggest that this information should be incorporated into slip inversions as a form of regularization, instead of Laplacian smoothing. We have developed a Bayesian approach to efficiently solve for slip incorporating von Karman regularization. In synthetic tests, our approach retrieves fractal slip better than Laplacian regularization, as expected, but even performs comparably, or better, when the input slip is not fractal. We apply this to the 2014 Mw 6.0 Napa Valley earthquake on a two‐segment fault using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and Global Positioning System (GPS) data. We find the von Karman and Laplacian inversions give similar slip magnitude but in different locations, and the von Karman solution has much tighter confidence bounds on slip than the Laplacian solution. Differences in earthquake slip due to the regularization technique could have important implications for the interpretation and modeling of stress changes on the causative and neighboring faults. We therefore recommend that choice of regularization method should be routinely made explicit and justified and that von Karman regularization is a better default than Laplacian.
The Trade-off between Customer and Technology Orientations: Impact on Innovation Capabilities and Export Performance

Technological exporters are constantly challenged by the trade-off between two types of strategic orientations: customer and technology. Nonetheless, research directly addressing this topic is scarce, and few recommendations exist about the best orientation to emphasize. Using two respondents in the same firm, the export manager and the research-and-development manager, the authors find that customer orientation is as important as technological orientation in the development of exploratory innovation capabilities. However, when past performance is poor, customer orientation has a greater role. Exporters with poor past performance may achieve higher export performance levels by focusing more on customers than on technology. Conversely, firms performing well may risk export performance if they ignore technology orientation. These firms also need to maintain high levels of customer orientation.