Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Economics of Climate Mitigation: Exploring the Relative Significance of the Incentives for and Barriers to Low-carbon Investment in Urban Areas

Achieving net zero emissions by 2050, as envisioned in the Paris Agreement, will require radical changes to urban form and function. Securing the necessary commitments and resources will be easier in the presence of a compelling economic case for mitigation. Focusing on Recife in Brazil, this article evaluates a wide range of low-carbon measures under different discount rates and energy prices. It finds that under less favourable conditions (high discount rates, constant energy prices), the city could reduce its emissions by 15 per cent, relative to business-as-usual (BAU) trends, through investment which would generate returns at market interest rates. Under more favourable conditions (low discount rates, increasing energy prices), the city could reduce emissions by 25 per cent with market-rate returns. That these opportunities have not been exploited indicates that barriers to low-carbon investment, including poor provision of information, transaction costs and capacity deficits may be of greater importance than the scale of direct incentives for raising climate investment. Decision makers therefore need to prioritise the dismantling of these obstacles to low-carbon investment and fostering of norms of environmental citizenship within cities.
Future prospects for the 137 Cs technique for estimating soil erosion and sedimentation rates

Over the past five years the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has sponsored the implementation of two projects dealing with the application of the 137Cs technique in soil erosion and sedimentation studies respectively. The standardisation process of the technique undertaken worldwide by 25 scientists across a wide range of environments has brought forward several new issues requiring further development. For convenience, they have been arbitrarily grouped into three main topics: a) Improvement of the 137Cs technique itself, b) Potential use of other fallout radionuclides, and c) Practical applications of the technique for agricultural and environmental purposes. The overall aim of this review paper is to provide a consistent background on the important problems and limitations encountered by users of the 137Cs technique as a means to contribute to its improvement. Furt h e rmore ways/means to take advantage or greatly benefit of the technique are described for future development. Though the scientists participating in the projects mentioned above have made significant progress towards a standardised application of the 137Cs technique, considerable scope remains to improve further the technique and to exploit additional applications. The IAEA through research networks and other mechanisms is promoting further applications of 137Cs and other fallout radionuclides in soil erosion and sedimentation.
Assessing the Intra-SADC Trade in Goods and Services

This study investigated the extent of trade within SADC member states and identified factors affecting intra-regional trade in the region. The study used the relative measure of trade intensity to measure the exports and imports shares within member states and gravity model to identify factors affecting intra-SADC trade flows. The results from relative measure of trade intensity indicated that although the intra-SADC trade remains low, but figures appear to increase compared to the previous recorded facts. The analysis indicates that the share of intra-SADC exports averaged to 31.3 percent between 2008 and 2012. More specifically, Swaziland and Zimbabwe have the highest share of their total exports, while Seychelles has the smallest share of exports to SADC member states. Meanwhile, the share of intra-SADC imports averaged to 35.0 percent between 2008 and 2012 from which Lesotho and Zimbabwe had the largest share of their total imports, while South Africa has the smallest share within the region.It was found that South Africa has a comparative advantage in trade, receiving the largest share of exports and imports from other member states within the region. Generally, findings indicated that most SADC member states appear to trade more with other countries outside the SADC region. Findings from the gravity model indicates that other factors remaining constant, trade flows within SADC region significantly depend on GDP, per capita income, the value of manufacturing, foreign direct investment, financial development, infrastructure development, stable exchange rate, and low inflation rate. These variables were found to be important factors to the intra-regional trade flows in most SADC member states. It is recommended that, SADC countries need to adopt export diversification through identifying priority products, in which each country has a comparative advantage within the SADC member states.
Give Hate a Chance: An Exploration of the Affective State of Interpersonal Hate

Interpersonal hate, the affective state of one individual experiencing hate toward another, is widely experienced. However, to date there is no experimental evidence of interpersonal hate. This phenomenon was explored, as was its place in the triad of hostile emotions. It was theorized that interpersonal hate would be differentiated from the hostile emotions (contempt, anger, and disgust) by appraisal of violation type and by behavioral response, and that the hostile emotions could be recognized by these characteristics, as well. Specifically, it was hypothesized that interpersonal hate would be incited by autonomy violations and avoidance responses; anger would be incited by autonomy violations and approach responses; disgust would be incited by divinity violations and avoidance responses; and contempt would be incited by community violations and avoidance responses. In Study 1, participants were shown scenarios that depicted violation types of autonomy, community, and divinity, combined with either approach or avoidance responses. Results indicated that participants recognized interpersonal hate when shown depictions of autonomy violations and avoidance responses. However, the expected patterns of appraisal and behavior were not so clearly supported for the hostile emotions. In Study 2, the same scenarios were used, but participants were either shown all avoidance behavior scenarios, or all approach behavior scenarios. Again, interpersonal hate was rated higher in scenarios depicting violations of autonomy and avoidance responses, but the hostile emotions did not reveal expected patterns of results. Support for the hostile emotions was mixed, and suggests that further research and theoretical development in this area is warranted. Across two studies, conducted in two different populations, interpersonal hate was identified by participants by the predicted appraisal of autonomy violation and avoidance behavior. It is concluded that interpersonal hate is an emotion, that it occurs when someone feels a violation to the self that they wish to avoid, and that it behaves in a predictable pattern, similar to other emotions. Table of
Concordance-Based Data-Driven Learning Activities and Learning English Phrasal Verbs in EFL Classrooms

In spite of the highly beneficial applications of corpus linguistics in language pedagogy, it has not found its way into mainstream EFL. The major reasons seem to be the teachers’ lack of training and the unavailability of resources, especially computers in language classes. Phrasal verbs have been shown to be a problematic area of learning English as a foreign language due to their semantic opacity and structural differences between English and learners’ first languages. To examine the pedagogic potentiality of the use of corpus linguistics in the context of EFL, the present study aimed at comparing the effect of paper-based data-driven learning (DDL) activities, as a substitute for online DDL activities, with the activities designed based on dictionary entries in terms of their effect on learning phrasal verbs in both short and long run. To this end, the study adopted a quasi-experimental pretest posttest control group design. The analysis of the data collected through an immediate posttest as well as a delayed posttest showed that the DDL activities led to greater improvements by the participants. Based on the results of the study, it is argued that paper-based DDL activities can be used effectively in EFL classes to enhance learning and help learners to become more autonomous in their learning efforts.
A comparison of Siberian meimechites and kimberlites: Implications for the source of high‐Mg alkalic magmas and flood basalts

Chemical and radiogenic isotope (Sr, Nd, Hf, Os, and Pb) data are presented for a variety of mafic‐alkalic rocks from the Maymecha‐Kotuy section of the Siberian flood‐volcanic province. These data are compared to a similar data set for Siberian kimberlites that were emplaced both before and after the flood‐volcanic event in order to examine the spatial‐temporal evolution of Paleozoic magma sources in the mantle beneath this site of voluminous magmatic activity. As shown in previous studies, the high‐Mg, meimechitic composition rocks extend the range in Sr and Nd isotopic composition seen in the flood basalts in the direction of more “depleted” compositions, i.e., higher 143Nd/144Nd and lower 87Sr/86Sr, overlapping values typically observed in intraplate ocean‐island basalts. Sr, Nd, Hf, and Pb isotopic compositions show little correlation with major‐ and trace‐element compositions in the Maymecha‐Kotuy rocks. Os isotopic compositions, on the other hand, show rough correlations with a number of major‐element characteristics of the magmas. The Os data suggest that the magma sources range from peridotite for the meimechitic magmas to a mixture of peridotite and pyroxenite for the nephelinitic, melilititic, and trachybasaltic compositions. The isotopic overlap of both old and young kimberlites with the Maymecha‐Kotuy rocks is consistent with all these magmas being derived from mantle sources that were present beneath Siberia long before, and long after, the flood‐volcanic event. The isotopic characteristics of the mantle source of these magmas best match the FOZO component observed in ocean‐island basalts, which suggests that this mantle composition may be prevalent in the upper mantle outside of ocean basins. The long‐lived presence of this source beneath Siberia makes it unnecessary to appeal to a mechanism, such as a plume, to bring this type of mantle into play only during the flood‐volcanic episode.
GBW Enhancement of a Two Stage Amplifier using Dual Approach of Feed-forward and Passive Compensation

Design of a very compact two stage amplifier is proposed by merging passive frequency compensation with a feed forward compensation technique, which achieves significant improvement in gain-bandwidth product (GBW), slew rate and phase margin with lower supply voltage requirement. The mathematical analysis given in this paper justify that the proposed technique offers the advantage of locating poles and zeros at higher frequencies than with the conventional method . The workability of the proposed amplifier has been verified by using Mentor Graphics Eldo simulation tool with TSMC CMOS 0.18 µm process parameters. The simulated results show a GBW of 150 MHz and average slew rate of 98 V/µs with a power consumption of 3.2 mW.
Assessment of the Cytotoxicity of Melia azedarach L. Extracts on Human Adipose-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells

I n this study, aqueous extracts of Melia azedarach L. green fruit and leaves were obtained using two different extraction methods. The extraction yields of the green fruit and leaves were found as 24.11% and 37.98% for the infusion method; 17.76% and 27.00% for the rotating method, respectively. The total phenolic content, related to the infusion method, was ascertained for green fruit extract 173.67±10.84 mg Gallic Acid Equivalent (GAE)/g dry weight and leaf extract 312.33±9.81 mg GAE/g dry weight. In other respects, antioxidant activity related to the infusion method was determined for green fruit extract 172.51±13.23 mg Trolox/L and leaf extract 569.16±10.41 mg Trolox/L. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis was performed to identify the chemical composition of the extracts. The cytotoxicity levels of the extracts were assessed on human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hAMSCs) using commercially available XTT assay. Consequently, it has been found that the green fruit extract has more cytotoxic activity than the leaf extract on hAMSCs.
A Simple Framework for Climate-Change Policy Under Model Uncertainty

We propose a novel framework for the economic assessment of climate-change policy. Our main point of departure from existing work is the adoption of a "satisficing", as opposed to optimizing, modeling approach. Along these lines, we place primary emphasis on the extent to which different policies meet a set of goals at a specific future date instead of their performance vis-a-vis some intertemporal objective function. Consistent to the nature of climate-change policy making, our model takes explicit account of model uncertainty. To this end, the value function we propose is an analogue of the well-known success-probability criterion adapted to settings characterized by model uncertainty. We apply this decision criterion to probability distributions constructed by Drouet et al. (2015) linking carbon budgets to future consumption. The main result that emerges is the superiority of "medium" carbon budgets in line with a 3°C target (i.e., 2000-3000 GtCO2) in preventing large future consumption losses with high probability. Insights from computational geometry facilitate computations considerably, and allow for the efficient application of the model in high-dimensional settings.
Biosourced Amphiphilic Degradable Elastomers of Poly(glycerol sebacate): Synthesis and Network and Oligomer Characterization

Glycerol (G, a triol) and sebacic acid (S, an α,ω-dicarboxylic acid) were condensed in the bulk to obtain poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) cross-linked elastomers which were characterized in terms of their swelling, thermal, and mechanical properties. The soluble precursors to the elastomers were characterized in terms of their size, size distribution, and composition. In particular, G–S mixtures of five different compositions (molar G:S ratio = 2:1, 2:2, 2:3, 2:4, and 2:5) were copolymerized in the bulk at 120 °C in a three-step strategy (first step under inert gas atmosphere, followed by two steps in vacuo). When the G:S molar ratio was equal to (2:3) or close to (2:4), the stoichiometrically matched, network formation took place from the second condensation step, whereas three reaction steps were necessary for network formation far from stoichiometry, at G:S molar ratios equal to 2:2 and 2:5; at a G:S molar ratio of 2:1, no network formation was observed at all. Network composition also proved to be an im.
An Empirical Study on the Existence of Convergence for Energy per Capita

This paper focuses on energy which is a source of many serious environmental problems and examines the existence of convergence of energy per capita amongst countries in order to shed light on whether energy per capita has been growing and whether the trend is likely to change in the future. It was found that there was no evidence of convergence of energy per capita with any of the cases in the past for the world and Non-OECD countries while we found convergence of energy per capita for OECD countries. Concerning future prediction, there was no evidence of a compressed ergodic distribution of energy per capita for the world and Non-OECD countries, while a compressed distribution around the OECD average was seen for OECD countries. DOI: 10.15458/85451.61
Defining potentially preventable emergency department visits for older adults

Objective: As older adults become increasingly reliant on emergency departments (EDs) for care, there is an interest in determining what types of ED visits by this population may be preventable, or amenable to other forms of care. The aim of this project was to explore the concept of preventable ED visits by older adults. Methods: We conducted a literature search to identify definitions of “preventable” or “avoidable” ED visits. We then applied a definition of preventable ED visits to an administrative data set consisting of ED visit data extracted from four sites in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Visits for patients 65 years of age or older were eligible for inclusion. Visits were categorized using triage level and discharge diagnosis. Results: Four methods of defining preventable ED visits were identified in our literature search: 1) Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSCs) (N = 7), 2) Low Acuity/low intensity visits (N = 5), 3) New York University (NYU) (Billings) Algorithm (N = 3) and 4) hospital admission vs. non-admission (N = 1). We categorized 34,454 ED visits from our dataset using a modified definition of preventable ED visits that included ACSCs (15.3%) as well as low acuity visits that required no testing or hospital admission (9.9%). Conclusions: Our results suggest that approximately 25% of ED visits by older adults may be preventable or amenable to other forms of care. This data may be useful in the planning of care delivery appropriate for the needs of this population.
Stress effects of silica particles in a semiconductor package molding compound

The stresses induced on a silicon chip encased in an epoxy compound are considered due to absorption of moisture and the presence of silica particles in the coating. A range of different approaches are considered including a one-dimensional model for the curvature due to the absorption of water in a bi-lateral sheet, numerical simulations for the stress at the molding compound-silicon die interface and a two-dimensional model in the complex plane.
Towards a Unified Research Program for Organizational Studies

The purpose of this paper is to argue the epistemic peculiarity of organizational studies, which have an object of study, research methodology and theory developed, and the peculiarity of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity that characterize when it comes to know, understand and participate in the organization, which is the object of study. Leagues and complementarities arise with management science and other social sciences; hence the need to provide epistemic identity to organizational studies is considered, through its philosophical, methodological and theoretical peculiarities, by creating a research program from the perspective of Imre Lakatos.
A Study of Quarterly Trend of Infectious Tuberculosis and Evaluation of Tuberculosis Control Program in Post Conflict Sierra Leone, 2002-2005

This study aimed to measure the impact of directly observed treatment short-course (DOTS) coverage on notification of infectious tuberculosis (TB) and treatment cure rate in the post conflict period of 2002 to 2005 in Sierra Leone. The study was a population based retrospective study on implementation of DOTS expansion by the National Leprosy TB Control Program (NLTCP). Data recorded in district TB registers and TB annual reports were analysed for trend of infectious TB registered quarterly, treatment cure rates and number DOTS centres opened per annum. A trend analysis of proportion of infectious TB (sputum smear positive) to all TB cases reported to the central program each quarter during the periods 2002 to 2005 was plotted. However, this did not appear to show any discernable pattern but the following observations were made. In 2003 the lowest proportion of infectious TB cases was reported. Furthermore, there appeared to be a decline in proportion of infectious TB cases reported in the third quarter of each year, corresponding to the peak of the rainy season. An evaluation of DOTS expansion based on Donabedian’s triad showed that 76% of the target set for 2005 was achieved; that is, 53 of the targeted 70 DOTS centres were opened by the end of 2005. A correlation-regression analysis gave a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.22 which suggests a weak relationship between treatment cure rate and district population DOTS coverage. The implementation of DOTS expansion by the NLTCP considerably improved DOTS coverage and treatment cure rates in the immediate post conflict period of 2002 to 2005. However, there was a weak association between district DOTS coverage and treatment cure rates, and its impact on trend of infectious TB notification was limited during this period.
Increasing the color quality of the 7000K conformal packaging MCW-LEDs by varied red-emitting K2SiF6:Mn4+ conversion phosphor’s size

Abstract Phosphor-converted white light-emitting diodes (pc-WLEDs) are energy efficient and environmentally friendly light sources with a long lifetime, applicable in both display backlights and general lighting. In this research, we investigated the influence of the red-emitting K2SiF6:Mn4+ conversion phosphor on the color quality of the 7000K conformal packaging multi-chip white LEDs (MCW-LEDs). The effect of the red-emitting Ba2Si5N8Eu2+ convention phosphor is demonstrated based on Mie Theory by Mat Lab and Light Tools software. The research results indicated that the color quality of MCW-LEDs was crucially affected by the red-emitting K2SiF6:Mn4+ conversion phosphor’s size. This research demonstrated a significant recommendation for selecting and developing the phosphor materials for MCW-LEDs manufacturing.
Public Goods and the Dissolution of States

We present a simple model of the dissolution of states. We combine elements of the literature on the break-up and integration of states based on models in the scal federalism tradition, with elements of the literature that explains the determination of a state’s political institutions as a means to credibly promise redistributions in the face of costly, perhaps violent, redistributive conict. We are able to characterize when the equilibrium involves the dissolution of a country, and when it involves continued unity. We are also able to explore some aspects of the linkages between political institutions and the determination of national boundaries.
Twin deficit hypothesis: evidence from the Turkish economy

The Turkish economy has functioned according to the outward-oriented growth model since 24 January 1980, when structural changes and transformation decisions were agreed upon. However, chronic external deficit problems have been encountered since the adoption of the outward-oriented growth model. The purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis of twin deficits for period 1980-2009 in Turkish economy. In this context, the relationship between budget deficits and current account deficits have been examined theoretically. And the direction of this relationship has been analyzed empirically by means of the VAR Granger causality test and regression analysis. The findings reveal that there is in fact a causality relationship from the budget deficits towards current account deficits.
The Estimation of the Econometric Model of Milk Yield per Cow: A Support Vector Machine Regression Approach

In this paper we give an overview of the basic ideas underlying Support Vector (SV) machines for regression and function estimation. A summary of currently used algorithms for training SV machines will be presented. Application of SVM regression for estimating parameters of econometric model of milk yield per cow in Estonian farms will be considered and possibilities of application of SVM regression in rural areas are discussed. Studies on implementation of SVM regression methods (algorithms) and software packages in agricultural research and business must be extended.