Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Formation and evolution mechanism of plasmon resonance from single ring-shaped nanotube to dimer and arrays

The formation and evolution mechanisms of plasmon resonance from single Ring-shaped nanotube to dimer and arrays are studied; an attempt has been made to bridge the gap between single-tube, dimer, and array. Results show that resonant modes can be divided into three types: quadrupole, hexapole, and octupole resonance from visible to near infrared region, and each mode maintains relatively stable resonant characteristics, but the optical transmission properties including redshift and blueshift of the modes and band gap are highly tunable by adjusting the number of nanotube and intertube spacing values. The field-interference mechanism has been suggested to explain the physical origin.
The influence of coring method on the preservation of sedimentary and biogeochemical features when sampling soft‐bottom, shallow coastal environments

It is frequently assumed that taking samples of soft marine sediments using surface‐based gravity coring equipment causes minimal disruption to their sedimentological, biogeochemical, and biological condition. This assumption was evaluated by examining the potential disturbances caused when obtaining soft‐sediment samples either by SCUBA or Craib‐coring, comparing sediment oxygen microprofiles, benthic oxygen flux rates and sediment solid phase analyses (chlorophyll a (Chl a), organic carbon, and porosity) between both methods and against reference values measured in situ by benthic lander. The two sampling methodologies were tested in shallow coastal environments on the west coast of Scotland and generally the results obtained from cores collected using SCUBA exhibited values closest to those observed in situ. Oxygen penetration depth was significantly shallower in cores obtained by Craib‐corer compared with the SCUBA cores. Craib cores also produced higher oxygen uptake rates which could be caused by greater levels of sediment disturbance during sampling. In addition, more homogenous levels of Chl a in the top 1 cm of the Craib cores, compared with the SCUBA samples, may indicate either resuspension or compression during gravity coring. Using SCUBA for shallow‐water soft‐sediment sampling permits steady and controlled core‐tube insertion and extraction, and more measured retrieval of the cores to the surface; this probably accounts for the observed differences. Whereas benthic lander‐based in situ measurement would be the preferred method for analyzing sediment parameters in detail in this type of environment, SCUBA‐based sampling offers a more accurate alternative to surface‐based gravity coring.
Measurements of Aerosol Optical and Microphysical Properties in Tizi Ouzou

ABSTRACTTo characterize the optical behavior of atmospheric particles located above the region of Tizi Ouzou, a micro-LIDAR and a sun/sky-photometer have been used. The analysis of three years of observation has revealed a large variability in the optical properties of the particles present in the atmosphere of this region. The aerosol extinction optical depth (τ) at 500 nm varies from 0.03 to about 2. The Angstrom Exponent (α), in the range 440–870 nm, varies from 0 to 1.8 and is indicating a large variability in size. The combination of micro LIDAR and sun/sky photometer measurements allowed us to determine the vertical profiles of the aerosol extinction coefficient (σext). The vertical profile helps to separate local from transported particles origins. The observation site is located in the city and surrounded by high mountains (2300 m asl). The aerosol optical depth at 500 nm and the Angstrom exponent respectively having the values τ > 0.5 and α < 0.25 indicate the high presence of desert dust particles from Saharan origin. This type of particles is frequently observed for α ranging between 0.25 and 0.35. The analysis of back-trajectories helped to identify the probable origin of air masses affecting the region. Our results show that a routinely operating LIDAR / photometer observing system coupled with back-trajectories analysis is a relevant tool for aerosols monitoring. They show, for the first time, the high temporal variability of aerosols present in the atmosphere of the Tizi Ouzou region.
measures of social capital and trust

Trust and trustworthiness are important components of social capital and much attention has been devoted to the problems of their correct evaluation. Attitudinal survey questions as reported in the EVS – European Value Survey - are often regarded as inefficient indicators of trust, since they lack of behavioural underpinnings (Putnam, 1995) which one might desire when measuring trust. In this paper, we consider alternative measures of trust and trustworthiness, based on behavioural assumptions. We construct two relative behavioural measures of trust (RBM1 and RBM2), both based on the ex post measurement of trust, once individuals are informed on the level of trustworthiness of the social group to which they have been allocated during the experiment. Our main finding is that the relative behavioural measures show that trust strongly varies once the individual is informed on the on the level of trustworthiness of the social group to which he\she has been allocated during the experiment. This difference is higher the higher is the family level of income and the parental education status. As for previous findings (Glaeser et al., 2000, Lazzarini, 2005) which have found no correlation between attitudinal and behavioural measures of trust, we find that relative behavioural measures are not correlated to attitudinal measures but they are strongly correlated to groups’ trustworthiness. We also find that similar social preferences profiles (between Senders and Recipients) tend to enhance the individual level of trust, in the RBM2 context. This result seems to confirm the importance of the homogeneity of the social environment when studying the effects of policy interventions (Alesina and La Ferrara, 2002).
SUSTAINABILITY STRENGTH INDEX: AN IMPROVEMENT OF THE DPODE MODEL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY

Recent developments on the world economy have awakened us for the challenges of sustainability of the economies, countries and economic organizations as well. In this context, the role and responsibilities that all “actors” need to assume for a good and sustainable management is relevant. The questions of sustainability are focused in the relations established between several agents, in management and good use of resources and in the efficiency of the markets in order to guarantee its consolidation and peaceful continuity in society. According to recent studies and beyond several factors that could be enunciated as relevant in the framework of sustainability, there are some pillars that seem to be central and under which businesses management need to develop abilities to ensure the sustainability of their organizations. The “DPODE Model for Organizational Sustainability” is a recent theoretical model (2010, 2011) trying to disclose in an empirical manner the pillars that seem to be crucial for organizations to ensure their sustainability. After its presentation, publication and application to two Portuguese major organizations, the authors are trying to improve the model in terms of the information needed to evaluate with accuracy each pillar and therefore the organizations sustainability. The main objective is to disclose a set of organizational competences and dimensions to be analyzed at different levels of organizations in terms of their objectivity and scope of information, in order to define a “Sustainability Strength Index” that can be measured in each of the pillars of the model (Direction, Posture, Organization, Behavior and Evaluation) and, consequently, measure the global strength of sustainability of organizations. The used methodology includes a brief review about the model and a literature review about several aspects from organizational sustainability, using the focus group research technic as well as the results obtained with the applications already done with this model to set a group of competences and dimensions to be analyzed and the criteria to be used to evaluate sustainability strength.
Controllable Biosynthesis of Small Silver Nanoparticles Using Fungal Extract

The search for reliable and eco-friendly methods for the production of nanoscale materials is an important aspect of nanotechnology. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are of special interest because of their antimicrobial properties, especially those of small size. In this work, AgNPs were produced under different conditions of temperature and pH using the extract from the fungus Neurospora crassa as reducing agent. Mainly quasi-spherical particles were obtained at all incubation conditions. However, optimum conditions to produce small sizes in the range of 2 - 9 nm were at 4&degC and pH 3, also particles of 2 - 22 nm were obtained at 25&degC with unmodified pH (6.5) and pH 10. Nevertheless, only particles synthesized at 25&degC and pH 10 maintained the same size range after storage of 10 months. In summary, optimal incubation conditions for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles of small size range are reported. This improves the storage time of particles without losing its original size and without going into aggregation or agglomeration.
ESTIMATION OF MULTIVARIATE MEANS WITH HETEROSCEDASTIC ERRORS USING ENVELOPE MODELS

In this article, we propose envelope models that accommodate het- eroscedastic error structure in the framework of estimating multivariate means for di! erent populations. Envelope models were introduced byCook, Li, and Chiaromente(2010) as a parsimonious version of multivariate linear regression that achieves e"cient estimation of the coe"cients by linking the mean function and the covariance structure. In the original development, constant covariance structure was assumed. The heteroscedastic envelope models we propose are more flexible in allowing a more general covariance structure. Their asymptotic variances and Fisher consistency are studied. Simulations and data examples show that they are more e"cient than standard methods of estimating the multivariate means, and also more e"cient than the envelope model assuming constant covariance structure.
Metamodels and Nonpoint Pollution Policy in Agriculture

Informed debate on agricultural nonpoint pollution requires evaluation of regional water quality in relation to management practices. It is prohibitive, in terms of cost and time, to run the site-specific process models for regional policy analysis. Therefore, a simplified and robust technique--metamodeling--is suggested to evaluate regional water quality. Data from an experimentally designed simulation of complex surface water and groundwater process models, PRZM and STREAM, are used to develop statistically validated metamodels. The estimated metamodels were integrated with a regional agricultural economic decision making model to evaluate the surface water and groundwater loadings of 16 major corn and sorghum herbicides. Spatial probability distributions are derived for herbicide concentrations exceeding the toxicity-weighted benchmark from the EPA. We estimate that 1.2 percent of the regional soils will lead to groundwater detection of atrazine exceeding 0.12 ? /L, which compares well with the findings of the EPA's groundwater monitoring survey. We find no-till practices to significantly reduce the surface water concentration of atrazine and other herbicides with less impact on groundwater contamination suggesting indirect gains to soil conservation policies. But we also note that an atrazine ban could lead to increased soil erosion, even with the conservation compliance provisions fully incorporated.
A model for exploiting e-CRM in B-to-B e-commerce.

In international tourism and travel literature, importance of the business-tobusiness (B-to-B) relationships and the role of e-CRM implementations are widely ignored. However, sophisticated relationships among to wholesalers (tour operators) and retailers (travel agencies) quite deserve to further interests of the academicians. Therefore, proposed model of this research was generated to examine to B-to-B electronic commerce environment in travel sector and the roles of e-CRM features in wholesaler-retailer relationships. Structural equation modeling results indicated that satisfaction of the retailer travel agencies’ sales staff was positively and significantly effected by the website quality of the wholesaler tour operators’ extranet system. The results indicated any statistically significant relationship between customer services of the tour operator and satisfaction of the travel agencies’ sales staff.
Building new competencies for new business creation based on breakthrough technological innovations

This paper focuses on the question how companies can build new capabilities or competencies based on discontinuous technological innovations? In particular, we analyze how corporate ventures are set up to develop and commercialize these radical innovations can play a crucial role in the process of building new competencies (not only technological capabilities). New competencies are in turn the basis to create a range of new businesses. Building and deploying competencies are intrinsically related to new business development or other forms of corporate venturing and both co-evolve over time. The paper furthermore analyses what it takes to promote new business development (NBD) or corporate venturing (CV) as a trigger of corporate renewal. We argue that new competencies can only be built through a sequence of CV-initiatives and that both competence building and NBD can only fully be understood in relation to corporate strategy making. On the one hand, existing competencies and corporate strategy (vision or strategic intent) serve to direct and select these NBD-efforts through which the firm can enter new but attractive businesses and build new competencies (required to operate successfully in these businesses). A corporate vision should stretch the company beyond its existing resources and knowledge base; it leads to a fruitful misfit between what the company is and what it intends to become. On the other hand, new competence building also drives and refines the cognition of corporate strategy. New competence building and NBD based on radical innovations also demands to think differently about the organizational context and the role of top and middle managers. Finally, building competencies is not only a dynamic but also an organizational learning process: developing non-traditional businesses and new competencies is a function of a firm’s ability to organize itself into a knowledge-creating system. Management roles also play a crucial role in successfully implementing CV and new competence building.
Effects of taxation by economic functions on economic growth in the European Union

The complexity of today’s global economic environment increases importance of identifying and understanding the key factors affecting economic growth. This paper deals with effect of changes in tax burden on economic growth and provides direct empirical evidence in the European Union as financial and economic crisis has impacted also on tax systems. It is used the Eurostat´s definition to categorize tax burden by economic functions and implicit tax rates of consumption, labour and capital are investigated. The analysis is based on annual panel data of 24 EU member states in a period 1995-2010. Panel regression and Pairwise Granger Causality Tests are used as the main method of research. Results confirm, in line with the theory, statistically significant positive effect of consumption taxes and negative effect of labour taxes on GDP growth. In short-term, there is two-way causality between change of implicit tax rate of consumption and GDP growth and one-way causality between GDP growth and change of implicit tax rate of capital and implicit tax rate of labour.
DEVELOPING A TYPOLOGY OF CHANGING MULTI-FUNCTIONAL REGIONS

The classification of regions as functionally or socio-economically identifiable clusters lets us explore and describe geographies of seemingly complex and individualised change. It also improves our understanding of the varied nature of processes such as counter-urbanization and the formation of multi-functional rural regions. Using principal component analysis and subsequent cluster analysis, this study identified five types of regions in regard to characteristics of overall and newly resident communities. The study was undertaken for a broad region of Victoria, Australia that has experienced population growth and the decreasing influence of agriculture; typical conditions of counter-urbanisation. The results suggest that counter-urbanisation occurs in a variety of ways that are broadly consistent with explanations of processes such as rural gentrification, retirement mobility, exurbanisation and welfare-led migration. In addition, clustering included some areas where socio-economic change is less apparent, with a perseverance of rural characteristics.
Antioxidant Properties of Selected Spices Used in Iranian Cuisine and Their Efficacy in Preventing Lipid Peroxidation in Meat Sausages

This study involved analyzing antioxidant properties of spices, namely clove ( Syzygium aromaticum Linn.), cinnamon ( Cinnamomum verum , syn C. zeylanicum Blume ) and sumac (Rhus coriaria L. ) and exploring their efficacy in a food system. In the first part of the study, the antioxidant activity of water extract of spices treated at different temperatures were measured by three different methods namely, DPPH, reducing power and phosphomolybdenum complex assay and the results were compared to control unheated sample. In the second part, these three spices were incorporated in home-made sausages separately and stored for a month under refrigeration during which Free Fatty Acids (FFA) and Peroxide Value (PV) were measured every 10th day. The results were compared with control sample (without spices). Results showed that, extracts of heat treated spices had higher antioxidant activity in comparison with the control sample and sausages with added spices showed lower levels of FFA and PV in comparison with control samples. It can be concluded that spices possessed antioxidant properties and heat treatment had a positive effect on antioxidant activity and they were effective in delaying oxidation in sausages, hence they can be used as sources of natural antioxidants.
A Theory of coalition Bargaining

When voting takes place in democratic institutions, we find (either explicitly or implicitly) that there is an agenda setter or a formateur. Such players are uniquely able to make substantive proposals for given topics. Their statuses remain intact even after rejection of proposals, but they must revise rejected proposals constructively (e.g. towards a compromise). We model this in a general environment, show that the equilibrium outcome is generically unique, and characterize it explicitely. The equilibrium outcome is robust to (partially) binding communication between the formateur and the voters. As illustrations, we consider majority bargaining about a cake (leaned on Baron and Ferejohn,1989),where the formateur ends up being a perfect dictator, and a model of legislative voting (leaned on Jackson and Moselle,2002), where he is a dictator if his ideological position is within the quartiles of the parliament. In these cases, our model implements (reversed) McKelvey majority path. Depending on the valuations, the formateur´s power may be weakened when parliamentary decisions can be revised, as this may faciliate tacit collusion amongst the voters.
Analyses of Dynamics in Dairy Products and Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria Population by Molecular Methods

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) with different ecological niches are widely seen in fermented meat, vegetables, dairy products and cereals as well as in fermented beverages. Lactic acid bacteria are the most important group of bacteria in dairy industry due to their probiotic characteristics and fermentation agents as starter culture. In the taxonomy of the lactic acid bacteria; by means of rep-PCR, which is the analysis of repetitive sequences that are based on 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequence, it is possible to conduct structural microbial community analyses such as Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of DNA fragments of different sizes cut with enzymes, Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) polymorphic DNA amplified randomly at low temperatures and Amplified Fragment-Length Polymorphism (AFLP)-PCR of cut genomic DNA. Besides, in the recent years, non-culture-based molecular methods such as Pulse Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE), Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE), Thermal Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (TGGE), and Fluorescence In-situ Hybridization (FISH) have replaced classical methods once used for the identification of LAB. Identification of lactic acid bacteria culture independent regardless of the method will be one of the most important methods used in the future pyrosequencing as a Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques. This paper reviews molecular-method based studies conducted on the identification of LAB species in dairy products.
Associations between Polymorphisms and Haplotypes in the UDPGlucuronosylTransferase 1A Gene Family with Lung Cancer Risk

Title: Associations between polymorphisms and haplotypes in the UDP-Glucuronosyl transferase 1A gene family with lung cancer risk. Background: Over 5,000 compounds have been identified in cigarette smoke, of which 73 are considered carcinogenic to either laboratory animals or humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The UDPglucuronsyl transferases (UGTs) are Phase II drug-metabolizing enzymes that catalyze the metabolism of several cigarette smoke carcinogens for excretion. There are hundreds of genetic variants that span the nine genes in the UGT1A gene cluster, but the effect of UGT1A polymorphisms on lung cancer risk has not been studied in American Caucasians. This study hypothesized that UGT1A variants, either individually or as a haplotype, would be associated with lung cancer risk in American Caucasians. Methods and Findings: To examine the effect of genetic variation in the nine UGT1A genes on lung cancer risk, a comprehensive association and haplotype study was conducted using American Caucasian lung cancer cases and matched healthy controls on ninety-six tagSNPs. Known lung cancer risk factors including age, sex, smoking status, and pack-years of smoking were controlled for in all analyses. Multiple SNPs in the UGT1A gene cluster were associated with lung cancer risk in various stratified analyses before a multiple testing correction was applied. A significant association was found between two haplotypes in the UGT1A haplotype block 2 (rs7569014, rs7421795, rs1817154) and small cell carcinoma risk in American Caucasians. Multiple SNPs were found to affect lung cancer risk that did not remain significant following multiple testing correction. The UGT1A haplotype block 2 may be associated with small cell lung carcinoma. However, single SNP association studies did not yield significant results after multiple testing correction. Conclusions: UGT1A variants may play only a minor role in other lung cancer risk in American Caucasians; however, this needs to be confirmed in larger studies.