pinecone/core-2020-05-10-deduplication huggingface dataset:
Essays on Electricity Market Reforms: A Cross-Country Applied Approach

In the last two decades, more than half of the countries in the world have introduced a reform process in their power industries and billions of dollars have been spent on liberalizing electricity markets around the world. This thesis presents a doctoral research concerned with the cross-country empirical analysis of the electricity market reforms. The thesis is in three-paper format; that is, we present three independent but related stand-alone papers. 

The first paper focuses on the impact of power market reforms on electricity price-cost margins and industrial/residential price ratios. It investigates this issue by looking at the impact of the electricity industry reforms on residential and industrial electricity price-cost margins and their effect on industrial/residential price ratios. Using panel data from 63 developed and developing countries covering the period 1982–2009, empirical models are developed and analysed. The results suggest that each individual reform step has different impact on price-cost margins and industrial/residential price ratios for each consumer and country group. That is to say, our findings imply that similar reform steps may have different impacts in different countries, which supports the idea that reform prescription for a specific country cannot easily be transferred to another one with similar success.

The second paper explores whether the question of why some countries are able to implement more extensive reforms is closely related to the question of why some countries have better institutions than others. It analyses this question by using an empirical econometric model based on Poisson regression with cross-section data covering 51 states in US, 13 provinces in Canada and 51 other countries. The study concludes that both the background of the chairperson and the minister/governor and institutional endowments of a country are important determinants of how far reforms have gone in a country.

Considering the fact that ideological considerations, political composition of governments and educational/professional background of leaders have played and will play a crucial role throughout the reform process; the third paper attempts to discover the impact of political economic variables on the liberalization process in electricity markets. It develops and analyses empirical models using panel data from 55 developed and developing countries covering the period 1975–2010. The results suggest that a portion of the differences in the reform experiences of reforming countries in the past three decades can be explained by differences in the political structure, in the ideology of the government and in the professional and educational backgrounds of the political leaders.
Relation of ambiguity tolerance to cognitive and affective needs : A cross cultural content analysis\ud

Ten Bulgarian and ten French doctoral students in psychology rated each of the 188 items of need for closure, need for structure, need for cognition, need to evaluate, need for precision, intolerance of uncertainty, and need for affect scales. Experts were provided with a written definition of tolerance – intolerance of ambiguity and indicated whether and to what extent these items relate to ambiguity tolerance construct. The strength of items’ relation to ambiguity tolerance (weak, moderate, or strong) was compared across expert groups and across scales. Cases of cross-cultural disagreement in judgements and lack of consensus among experts were examined
Evaluating the potential for the continuous processing of pharmaceutical products—a supply network perspective

This paper presents an approach to evaluating the potential supply chain benefits of adopting continuous processing technologies for a diverse set of pharmaceutical products. The approach integrates upstream ‘continuous’ processing considerations for the production of active ingredients and final product formulation, with the downstream implications for packing and distribution. Currently, these upstream and downstream operations largely operate as decoupled operations with independent coordination and governance mechanisms, and the approach presented in this paper identifies opportunities for more case-specific integrated end-to-end supply chains enabled by continuous flow technologies. Three specific product (and corresponding processing technology) case studies are used to demonstrate the utility of the approach in assessing the supply network and system integration opportunities that emerge from the continuous processing of pharmaceutical products
Highly eccentric hip-hop solutions of the 2N

We show the existence of families of hip-hop solutions in the equal-mass 2N-body problem which are close to highly eccentric planar elliptic homographic motions of 2N bodies plus small perpendicular non-harmonic oscillations. By introducing a parameter ϵ, the homographic motion and the small amplitude oscillations can be uncoupled into a purely Keplerian homographic motion of fixed period and a vertical oscillation described by a Hill type equation. Small changes in the eccentricity induce large variations in the period of the perpendicular oscillation and give rise, via a Bolzano argument, to resonant periodic solutions of the uncoupled system in a rotating frame. For small ϵ ≠ 0, the topological transversality persists and Brouwer's fixed point theorem shows the existence of this kind of solutions in the full syste
Measurement of the W W cross section in root s=7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector and limits on anomalous gauge couplings

This Letter reports a measurement of the WW   production cross section in View the MathML sources=7 TeVpp collisions using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.02 fb−1 collected with the ATLAS detector. Using leptonic decays of oppositely charged W   bosons, the total measured cross section is View the MathML sourceσ(pp→WW)=54.4±4.0(stat.)±3.9(syst.)±2.0(lumi.) pb, consistent with the Standard Model prediction of σ(pp→WW)=44.4±2.8 pbσ(pp→WW)=44.4±2.8 pb. Limits on anomalous electroweak triple-gauge couplings are extracted from a fit to the transverse-momentum distribution of the leading charged lepton in the event.We acknowledge the support of ANPCyT, Argentina; YerPhl, Armenia; ARC, Australia; BMWF, Austria; ANAS, Azerbaijan; SSTC, Belarus; CNPq and FAPESP, Brazil; NSERC, NRC and CFI, Canada; CERN; CONICYT, Chile; CAS, MOST and NSFC, China; COLCIENCIAS, Colombia; MSMT CR, MPO CR and VSC CR, Czech Republic; DNRF, DNSRC and Lundbeck Foundation, Denmark; EPLANET and ERC, European Union; IN2P3-CNRS, CEA-DSM/IRFU, France; GNAS, Georgia; BMBF, DFG, HGF, MPG and AvH Foundation, Germany; GSRT, Greece; ISF, MINERVA, GIF, DIP and Benoziyo Center, Israel; INFN, Italy; MEXT and JSPS, Japan; CNRST, Morocco; FOM and NWO, Netherlands; RCN, Norway; MNiSW, Poland; GRICES and FCT, Portugal; MERYS (MECTS), Romania; MES of Russia and ROSATOM, Russian Federation; JINR; MSTD, Serbia; MSSR, Slovakia; ARRS and MVZT, Slovenia; DST/NRF, South Africa; MICINN, Spain; SRC and Wallenberg Foundation, Sweden; SER, SNSF and Cantons of Bern and Geneva, Switzerland; NSC, Taiwan; TAEK, Turkey; STFC, the Royal Society and Leverhulme Trust, United Kingdom; DOE and NSF, United States of America.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Distributions of geohopanoids in peat : implications for the use of hopanoid-based proxies in natural archives.

Hopanoids are pentacyclic triterpenoids produced by a wide range of bacteria. Within modern settings, hopanoids mostly occur in the biological 17β,21β(H) configuration. However, in some modern peatlands, the C31 hopane is present as the 'thermally-mature' 17α,21β(H) stereoisomer. This has traditionally been ascribed to isomerisation at the C-17 position catalysed by the acidic environment. However, recent work has argued that temperature and/or hydrology also exert a control upon hopane isomerisation. Such findings complicate the application of geohopanoids as palaeoenvironmental proxies. However, due to the small number of peats that have been studied, as well as the lack of peatland diversity sampled, the environmental controls regulating geohopanoid isomerisation remain poorly constrained. Here, we undertake a global approach to investigate the occurrence, distribution and diagenesis of geohopanoids within peat, combining previously published and newly generated data (n = 395) from peatlands with a wide temperature (-1 to 27°C) and pH (3 to 8) range. Our results indicate that peats are characterised by a wide range of geohopanoids. However, the C31 hopane and C32 hopanoic acid (and occasionally the C32 hopanol) typically dominate. C32 hopanoic acids occur as αβ- and ββ-stereoisomers, with the ββ-isomer typically dominating. In contrast, C31 hopanes occur predominantly as the αβ-stereoisomer. These two observations collectively suggest that isomerisation is not inherited from an original biological precursor (i.e. biohopanoids). Using geohopanoid ββ/(αβ+ββ) indices, we demonstrate that the abundance of αβ-hopanoids is strongly influenced by the acidic environment, and we observe a significant positive correlation between C31 hopane isomerisation and pH (n = 94, r2 = 0.64, p < 0.001). Crucially, there is no correlation between C31 hopane isomerisation and temperature. We therefore conclude that within peats, αβ-hopanoids are acid-catalysed diagenetic products and their occurrence at shallow depths indicates that this isomerisation is rapid. This shows that geohopanoid ββ/(αβ+ββ) indices can be used to reconstruct pH within modern and ancient peat-forming environments. However, we only recommend using ββ/(αβ+ββ) indices to interrogate large amplitude (> 1 pH unit) and longer-term (> 1 kyr) variation. Overall, our findings demonstrate the potential of geohopanoids to provide unique new insights into understanding depositional environments and interpreting terrestrial organic matter sources in the geological record
Population-level impact, herd immunity, and elimination after human papillomavirus vaccination: a systematic review and meta-analysis of predictions from transmission-dynamic models.

Modelling studies have been widely used to inform human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination policy decisions; however, many models exist and it is not known whether they produce consistent predictions of population-level effectiveness and herd effects. We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of model predictions of the long-term population-level effectiveness of vaccination against HPV 16, 18, 6, and 11 infection in women and men, to examine the variability in predicted herd effects, incremental benefit of vaccinating boys, and potential for HPV-vaccine-type elimination
Homotopy perturbation method for a conservative x^1/3 force nonlinear oscillator

The homotopy perturbation method is used to obtain the periodic solutions of a conservative nonlinear oscillator for which the elastic force term is proportional to x^1/3. We find this method works very well for the whole range of initial amplitudes. Excellent agreement of the approximate frequencies with the exact ones has been demonstrated and discussed. Only one iteration leads to high accuracy of the solutions with a maximal relative error for the approximate frequency of less than 0.60% for small and large values of oscillation amplitude, while this relative error is as low as 0.050% for the second iteration. Comparison of the results obtained using this method with those obtained by different harmonic balance methods reveals that the former is more effective and convenient for these types of nonlinear oscillators.This work was supported by the "Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación" (Spain) under project FIS2008-05856-C02-02
Equivariant K-theory of GKM bundles

Given a fiber bundle of GKM spaces, π: M → B, we analyze the structure of the equivariant K-ring of M as a module over the equivariant K-ring of B by translating the fiber bundle, π, into a fiber bundle of GKM graphs and constructing, by combinatorial techniques, a basis of this module consisting of K-classes which are invariant under the natural holonomy action on the K-ring of M of the fundamental group of the GKM graph of B. We also discuss the implications of this result for fiber bundles π: M → B where M and B are generalized partial flag varieties and show how our GKM description of the equivariant K-ring of a homogeneous GKM space is related to the Kostant–Kumar description of this ring.Original manuscript March 5, 201
Transcription factor Sp1 is essential for early embryonic development but dispensable for cell growth and differentiation.

Transcription factor Sp1 has been implicated in the expression of many genes. Moreover, it has been suggested that Sp1 is linked to the maintenance of methylation-free CpG islands, the cell cycle, and the formation of active chromatin structures. We have inactivated the mouse Sp1 gene. Sp1-/- embryos are retarded in development, show a broad range of abnormalities, and die around day 11 of gestation. In Sp1-/- embryos, the expression of many putative target genes, including cell cycle-regulated genes, is not affected, CpG islands remain methylation free, and active chromatin is formed at the globin loci. However, the expression of the methyl-CpG-binding protein MeCP2 is greatly reduced in Sp1-/- embryos. MeCP2 is thought to be required for the maintenance of differentiated cells. We suggest that Sp1 is an important regulator of this process
A joint geochemical–geophysical record of time-dependent mantle convection south of Iceland

The North Atlantic V-Shaped Ridges (VSRs) provide a spatially extensive and clear record of unsteady mantle convective circulation over >40 My>40 My. VSRs are diachronous ridges of thick crust formed with a periodicity of ∼5 My∼5 My along the Mid Atlantic Ridge, south of Iceland. We present data from a set of dredged basalt samples that shows chemical variation associated with two complete VSR crustal thickness cycles where they intersect the Mid Atlantic Ridge. The new dataset also records chemical variation associated with a VSR crustal thickness cycle along a plate spreading flow-line. Inverse correlations between crustal thickness and both incompatible trace element concentrations and incompatible element ratios such as Nb/Y and La/Sm are observed. Geochemical and crustal thickness observations can be matched using a time-dependent mid-ocean ridge melting model with a basal boundary condition of sinusoidally varying potential temperature. Our observations and models suggest that VSRs are generated when hot patches are carried up the plume stem beneath SE Iceland and spread radially outward within the asthenosphere. These patches are then drawn upward into the melting region when passing beneath the Mid Atlantic Ridge. The geometry of the VSRs and the size of the dynamically supported swell suggest that the Iceland Plume is the strongest plume in the Earth at present, with a volume flux of View the MathML source49±14 km3yr−1
Observation of the suppressed ADS modes B±→[π±K∓π+π−]DK± and B±→[π±K∓π+π−]Dπ±

An analysis of B±→DK±B±→DK± and B±→Dπ±B±→Dπ± decays is presented where the D meson is reconstructed in the four-body final state K±π∓π+π−K±π∓π+π−. Using LHCb data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0fb−1, first observations are made of the suppressed ADS modes B±→[π±K∓π+π−]DK±B±→[π±K∓π+π−]DK± and B±→[π±K∓π+π−]Dπ±B±→[π±K∓π+π−]Dπ± with a significance of 5.1σ and greater than 10σ, respectively. Measurements of CP asymmetries and CP-conserving ratios of partial widths from this family of decays are also performed. The magnitude of the ratio between the suppressed and favoured B±→DK±B±→DK± amplitudes is determined to be rBK=0.097±0.011
Ionization in atmospheres of brown dwarfs and extrasolar planets III. Breakdown conditions for mineral clouds

Electric discharges were detected directly in the cloudy atmospheres of Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, are debatable for Venus, and indirectly inferred for Neptune and Uranus in our solar system. Sprites (and other types of transient luminous events) have been detected only on Earth, and are theoretically predicted for Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus. Cloud formation is a common phenomenon in ultra-cool atmospheres such as in brown dwarf and extrasolar planetary atmospheres. Cloud particles can be expected to carry considerable charges which may trigger discharge events via small-scale processes between individual cloud particles (intra-cloud discharges) or large-scale processes between clouds (inter-cloud discharges). We investigate electrostatic breakdown characteristics, like critical field strengths and critical charge densities per surface, to demonstrate under which conditions mineral clouds undergo electric discharge events which may trigger or be responsible for sporadic X-ray emission. We apply results from our kinetic dust cloud formation model that is part of the Drift-Phoenix model atmosphere simulations. We present a first investigation of the dependence of the breakdown conditions in brown dwarf and giant gas exoplanets on the local gas-phase chemistry, the effective temperature, and primordial gas-phase metallicity. Our results suggest that different intra-cloud discharge processes dominate at different heights inside mineral clouds: local coronal (point discharges) and small-scale sparks at the bottom region of the cloud where the gas density is high, and flow discharges and large-scale sparks near, and maybe above, the cloud top. The comparison of the thermal degree of ionization and the number density of cloud particles allows us to suggest the efficiency with which discharges will occur in planetary atmospheres.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Schizophrenic Neutrinos and $\nu$-less Double Beta Decay

We point out a novel possibility for neutrinos where all neutrino flavors can
be part Dirac and part Majorana. Our primary motivation for this model comes
from an attempt to use supersymmetric see-saw models to tie inflation, baryon
asymmetry of the Universe and dark matter to the neutrino sector. The idea
however could stand on its own, with or without supersymmetry. We present a
realization of this possibility within an $S_3$ family symmetry for neutrino
masses, where we obtain tri-bi-maximal mixing for neutrinos to the leading
order. The model predicts that for the case of inverted hierarchy, the lower
limit on the neutrino mass measured in neutrinoless double beta decay
experiments is about a factor of two larger than the usual case.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Extended discussion on the pseudo-Dirac mass
  splitting due to loop correction
QCD corrections to longitudinal spin asymmetries in $W^\pm$-boson
  production at RHIC

The polarized antiquark distributions in the proton can be measured by
studying spin asymmetries in vector boson production in longitudinally
polarized proton-proton collisions. The STAR and PHENIX experiments at BNL RHIC
have reported first observations of single spin asymmetries in
$W^\pm$-production most recently. We compute the QCD corrections to single and
double spin asymmetries, taking account of the leptonic decay of the $W^\pm$
boson and of restrictions on the kinematical acceptance of the detectors. The
QCD corrections have only a small impact on the asymmetries, such that a
reliable extraction of the polarized antiquark distributions can be envisaged
once more precise measurements are made.Comment: LaTeX, 12 pages, typos corrected, references adde
Normal form backward induction for decision trees with coherent lower
  previsions

We examine normal form solutions of decision trees under typical choice
functions induced by lower previsions. For large trees, finding such solutions
is hard as very many strategies must be considered. In an earlier paper, we
extended backward induction to arbitrary choice functions, yielding far more
efficient solutions, and we identified simple necessary and sufficient
conditions for this to work. In this paper, we show that backward induction
works for maximality and E-admissibility, but not for interval dominance and
Gamma-maximin. We also show that, in some situations, a computationally cheap
approximation of a choice function can be used, even if the approximation
violates the conditions for backward induction; for instance, interval
dominance with backward induction will yield at least all maximal normal form
solutions.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures; v1: added doi and arxiv link
Langevin approach to generate synthetic turbulence

We present an analytical scheme, easily implemented numerically, to generate
synthetic Gaussian turbulent flows by using a linear Langevin equation, where
the noise term acts as a stochastic stirring force. The characteristic
parameters of the velocity field are well introduced, in particular the
kinematic viscosity and the spectrum of energy. As an application, the
diffusion of a passive scalar is studied for two different energy spectra.
Numerical results are compared favorably with analytical calculations.Comment: 7 pages, REVTEX, 6 figures. To appear in Physics of Fluids (April
  1997
Comment on evidence for new interference phenomena in the decay D+ -> K-
  pi+ mu+ nu

The experimental determination of low energy pi K scattering phase shifts
would assist in determining scattering lengths as well as low energy constants
of chiral perturbation theory for which sum rules have been constructed. The
FOCUS collaboration has presented evidence for interference pheomena from their
analysis of D_l4 decays based on decay amplitudes suitable for a cascade decay
D -> K* -> K pi. We point out that if the well-known full five body kinematics
are taken into account, pi K scattering phases may be extracted. We also point
out that other distributions considered in the context of K_l4 decays can be
applied to charm meson decays to provide constraints on violation of |Delta
I|=1/2 rule and T-violation.Comment: 9 pages, plain latex; version with minor changes compared to v1 on
  lepton masses effects, sign error eliminated, clarifying remarks added, one
  additional ref.; version to appear in Phys. Lett.
Higgs inflation from new K\"ahler potential

We introduce a new class of models of Higgs inflation using the
superconformal approach to supergravity by modifying the K$\ddot{a}$hler
geometry. Using such a mechanism, we construct a phenomenological functional
form of a new K$\ddot{a}$hler potential. From this we construct various types
of models which are characterized by a superconformal symmetry breaking
parameter $\chi$, and depending on the numerical values of $\chi$ we classify
all of the proposed models into three categories. Models with minimal coupling
are identified by $\chi=\pm\frac{2}{3}$ branch which are made up of shift
symmetry preserving flat directions. We also propose various other models by
introducing a non-minimal coupling of the inflaton field to gravity described
by $\chi\neq\frac{2}{3}$ branch. We employ all these proposed models to study
the inflationary paradigm by estimating the major cosmological observables and
confront them with recent observational data from WMAP9 along with other
complementary data sets, as well as independently with PLANCK. We also mention
an allowed range of non-minimal couplings and the {\it Yukawa} type of
couplings appearing in the proposed models used for cosmological parameter
estimation.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, version to appear in Nuclear Physics
Quaternion Fourier Transform on Quaternion Fields and Generalizations

We treat the quaternionic Fourier transform (QFT) applied to quaternion
fields and investigate QFT properties useful for applications. Different forms
of the QFT lead us to different Plancherel theorems. We relate the QFT
computation for quaternion fields to the QFT of real signals. We research the
general linear ($GL$) transformation behavior of the QFT with matrices,
Clifford geometric algebra and with examples. We finally arrive at wide-ranging
non-commutative multivector FT generalizations of the QFT. Examples given are
new volume-time and spacetime algebra Fourier transformations.Comment: 21 page