Suchergebnisse

Haloarchaea produce C50 carotenoids such as bacterioruberin, which are of biotechnological in-terest. This study aimed to analyze the effect of different environmental and nutritional conditions on the cellular growth and dynamics of carotenoids accumulation in Haloferax mediterranei. The maximum production of carotenoids (40 µg·mL−1) was obtained during the stationary phase of growth, probably due to nutrient-limiting conditions (one-step culture). By seven days of culture, 1 mL culture produced 22.4 mg of dry weight biomass containing 0.18 % (w/w) of carotenoids. On the other hand, carbon-deficient cultures (low C/N ratio) were observed to be optimum for C50 bacterioruberin production by Hfx. mediterranei, but negatively affected the growth of cells. Thus, a two-steps process was evaluated for optimum carotenoids yield. In the first step, a nutri-ent-repleted culture medium enabled the haloarchaea to produce biomass, while in the second step, the biomass was incubated under osmotic stress and in a carbon-deficient medium. Under the conditions used, the obtained biomass contained 0.27% (w/w) of carotenoids after seven days, which accounts for 58.49 µg·mL−1 of carotenoids for a culture with turbidity 14.0. ; This work was funded by a research grant from MINECO Spain (RTI2018-099860-B-I00) and the University of Alicante (VIGROB-309). We are also indebted to the Andalusian Government (research project BIO-214). ZM was assisted by a pre-doctoral grant from "Plan Propio de Investigación" of the University of Huelva, Spain. MG was awarded with a pre-doctoral fellowship from the Valencian Community Government (ACIF/2019/043).

We identifiy and measure fiscal spillovers in the EU countries using a global vector autoregression (GVAR) model. We find moderate spillover effects of fiscal policy shocks originating in Germany and France and significant variation regarding magnitude of the spillovers among destination countries and country clusters. Furthermore, we find some evidence that spillovers generated by German or French fiscal spillovers are stronger for EMU than non-EMU countries in Europe.

This paper explores the implications of climate change for government expenditures. Using a rich sub-national dataset for Russia covering 1995–2009, we estimate the impacts of changes in climatic conditions through short-term variation and medium-term changes in average regional temperatures and precipitation. We show a strong and robust negative (but non-linear) relation between regional budget expenditures and population-weighted temperature. The results indicate that an increase in temperature results in a decrease in public expenditures and that the magnitude of this effect diminishes the warmer the region. Further, our results suggest that the benefits from warming accumulate and that adaptation measures could help leverage those benefits. The estimated decreases in regional government expenditure are, however, quite small. It should be noted that our results are estimated for a scenario of mild temperature increase (1–2 °C). Larger temperature increases are likely to have dramatic consequences e.g. from loss of permafrost and methane release that are impossible to predict with available historical data.

[EN] The aim of this experimental work was to study the porous structure of Ultra-High-Performance Fibre-Reinforced Concretes (UH) made with different fibre volume contents (0%, 1%, 2%) under several curing conditions (laboratory environment, 20 degrees C, 60 degrees C, 90 degrees C), comparing the results with those recorded for ordinary, high strength and very high strength concretes. Scanning electron microscopy, mercury intrusion porosimetry, thermogravimetry, water absorption and oxygen permeability tests were carried out. The results showed a low portlandite content in UH (in the order of 75% lower than in concrete C50) and a low degree of hydration, but they rise with curing temperature. These concretes have a very fine porous structure, with a high concentration of pores on the nanoscale level, below 0.05 mu m. Their porosity accessible to water is consequently around 7-fold lower than in conventional (C30), 6-fold lower than in high-strength (C50) and 4-fold lower than in very high-strength (C90) concretes. Their oxygen permeability is at least one order of magnitude lower than in C90, two orders of magnitude lower than in C50 and three orders of magnitude lower than in C30. The percentage of added steel fibre does not affect the UH porous structure ; This research was funded by Ministerio de Economia Y Competitividad (Agencia Estatal de Investigacion) of the Spanish Government, Grant number BIA2016-78460-C3-3-R ; Valcuende Payá, MO.; Lliso-Ferrando, JR.; Roig-Flores, M.; Gandía-Romero, JM. (2021). Porous Structure of Ultra-High-Performance Fibre-Reinforced Concretes. Materials. 14(7):1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14071637 ; S ; 1 ; 18 ; 14 ; 7

A considerable number of epidemiological investigations and intervention studies have supported an association between the intake of flavanol- and proanthocyanidin-containing foods and a decreased risk of metabolic diseases. Nonetheless, less is know about the capacity of tissues to accumulate flavanols and/or their metabolites. The main objective of the present study was to determine (n 20) plasma bioavailability and disposition in the liver, muscle, brown adipose tissue (BAT) and white adipose tissues (mesenteric and perirenal) in rats after a long-term consumption of three doses of grape seed phenolic extract (5, 25 and 50 mg/kg body weight) for 21 d in order to determine whether there is a dose–response relationship. Glucuronidated conjugates (total glucuronidated conjugates: C5 mg/kg 1·9; C25 mg/kg 6·4; C50 mg/kg 27·7mmol/l plasma) followed by methyl glucuronidated conjugates (total methyl glucuronidated conjugates: C5 mg/kg 1·98; C25 mg/kg 4·48; C50 mg/kg 12·5mmol/l plasma) were the main flavanol metabolites quantified in plasma, also detecting a dimer in its free form (C25 mg/kg 0·74; C50 mg/kg 0·79mmol/l plasma). Each of the studied organs has a particular behaviour of accumulation and response to the assayed grape seed extract doses, with an exponential bioavailability–dose relationship in BAT, in which flavanols could play an important role in the reduction or prevention of obesity, modulating the functionality of that tissue. ; The present study was supported by grant no. AGL 2008- 00387/ALI and AGL2009-13517-C03-02 from the Spanish Government. It was also supported by the Catalan Government (Interdepartmental Commission for Research and Technological Innovation) through the A. Serra grant.

The article presents empirical analysis of demand of natural gas in 12 countries from European Union (EU), including Bulgaria. The ultimate goal is to assess the short-term and long-term elasticities of demand in different countries and in Europe as a whole. These elasticities have to give a plausible picture of changing consumption of natural gas by the households and to allow determination and interpretation of the key indicator of the organization of gas sector – the relative price elasticity.JEL: C23; C50; L95; R22. ; The article presents empirical analysis of demand of natural gas in 12 countries from European Union (EU), including Bulgaria. The ultimate goal is to assess the short-term and long-term elasticities of demand in different countries and in Europe as a whole. These elasticities have to give a plausible picture of changing consumption of natural gas by the households and to allow determination and interpretation of the key indicator of the organization of gas sector – the relative price elasticity.JEL: C23; C50; L95; R22.

We empirically study the effects of broadband internet diffusion on local election outcomes and on local government policies using rich data from the U.K. Our analysis suggests that the internet has displaced other media with greater news content (i.e., radio and newspapers), thereby decreasing voter turnout, most notably among less-educated and younger individuals. In turn, we find suggestive evidence that local government expenditures and taxes are lower in areas with greater broadband diffusion, particularly expenditures targeted at less-educated voters. Our findings are consistent with the idea that voters' information plays a key role in determining electoral participation, government policies and government size.

Abstract. This paper aims to analyse the Moroccan tax potential compared to a sample of countries (panel), relying on the tax effort concept, wich allows isolating the part of the government public levying. It is an international study, using a panel data (25 countries-26 years). The result of econometrics estimations shows the positive effect of the GDP per capita, the openness degree of the economy, the monetization degree and the part of industrial Added Value on the public potential while the part of agricultural Added Value had a negative impact. Analyzing the tax effort, we find that Morocco had a negative effort between 1990 and 2004. But, since 2005, the policies pursued after the reform helped reverse the trend to achieve a positive effort. It means that Morocco exploits all his fiscal resources from the standard of the sample.Keywords. Tax burden, Tax potential, Tax effort, Structural factors, Panel.JEL. E62, G28, H21, C50.

This inquiry assess es if terrorism sustains the capital flight trap and whether the relationship is affected b y varying the levels of governance and globalisation. The empirical evidence is based on interactive Generalised Method of Moments with data from 37 African countries for the period 1996-2010. The followings are established. (1) Evidence of a capital flight trap is apparent because past values of capital flight have a positive effect on future values of capital flight. (2) Terrorism sustains the positive effect of the capital flight trap on capital flight. (3) For the most part (especially with regard to political governance), terrorism sustains the addiction to capital flight in above-median governance sub-samples. Policy implications are discussed.

Prediction markets - markets used to forecast future events - have been used to accurately forecast the outcome of political contests, sporting events, and, occasionally, economic outcomes. This chapter summarizes the latest research on prediction markets in order to further their utilization by economic forecasters. We show that prediction markets have a number of attractive features: they quickly incorporate new information, are largely efficient, and impervious to manipulation. Moreover, markets generally exhibit lower statistical errors than professional forecasters and polls. Finally, we show how markets can be used to both uncover the economic model behind forecasts, as well as test existing economic models.

Abstract. The study investigates the imperative of corporate governance on profitability of privatized cement industry in Nigeria. The variables studied were Rate of Returns as dependent variables and fourteen Corporate Governance proxies as independent variables. Data was collected from secondary sources, and the statistical tools employed in the Methodology were descriptive statistics and Pooled OLS regressions. The study aimed at bridging literature gap on studies that relate corporate governance and privatization policy in Nigeria. The results suggest that, no remarkable improvement of profitability post privatization due to challenges of exogenous factors such as macroeconomic environment instability and weak private sector. The industry witnessed changes in corporate governance such as adopting effective cost management and proactive business strategies, exposure to competition, withdrawal of Government subsidy and special grant post privatisation. Board Size and Workforce have positive and significant impact on Cement industry's profitability, while, State Ownership, Institutional Ownership, Minority ownership, Percentage of Executive Directors and Privatization with time have negative and significant impact on company's profitability. Conversely, Foreign Investors, Percentage of Non-Executive Directors and Percentage of Management Staff have positive and insignificant impact on the Cement industry's profitability. Thus, it will be pertinent to conclude that the result has accepted Alternative Hypothesis that corporate governance has significant impact on the Cement industry's performance (AROA), despite the challenges of microeconomic environment instability. The study recommends that, Government needs to stabilize macroeconomic environment and strengthen private sector. The Cement Industry needs to ensure right procedure of the selection of Non-Executive Directors, create incentive for foreign investor participation, ensure Payment of dividend, less government interference and accountability. Mechanisms such as efficient and independent audit committee, competent executive directors and professional management team need to be put in place to address the negative and insignificant impact of management staff on the industry.Keywords. Corporate governance, Profitability, Privatization, Cement industry.JEL. C01, C50, E10, E60, F02, F30, F41.

We present a general framework for Bayesian estimation and causality assessment in epidemiological models. The key to our approach is the use of sequential Monte Carlo methods to evaluate the likelihood of a generic epidemiological model. Once we have the likelihood, we specify priors and rely on a Markov chain Monte Carlo to sample from the posterior distribution. We show how to use the posterior simulation outputs as inputs for exercises in causality assessment. We apply our approach to Belgian data for the COVID-19 epidemic during 2020. Our estimated time-varying-parameters SIRD model captures the data dynamics very well, including the three waves of infections. We use the estimated (true) number of new cases and the time-varying effective reproduction number from the epidemiological model as information for structural vector autoregressions and local projections. We document how additional government-mandated mobility curtailments would have reduced deaths at zero cost or a very small cost in terms of output.

The aim of this paper is to investigate policy instruments by which the persistence of inequality is affected through financial development channels in 48 African countries for the period 1996 - 2014. Financial dynamic channels of depth (money supply and liquid liabilities), efficiency (at banking and financial system levels), activity (from banking and financial system perspectives) and stability are used. Political ("voice and accountability" and political stability), economic (government effectiveness and regulation quality) and institutional (rule of law and corruption-control) governance policy instruments are also involved. The empirical evidence is based on the Generalised Method of Moments (GMM). The results show that financial depth and financial stability are the best channels of reducing inequality. Moreover, the relevance of these financial channels is significantly apparent when policy instruments are exclusively governance variables. The comparative relevance of governance dynamics in the persistence of inequality is discussed. The study responds to two recent policy and scholarly challenges, notably: the persistence of inequality in Africa and the relevance of governance in addressing income inequality by means of financial access.

Public administration and local government in particular, which also includes municipalities in individual countries, is in the context of the economic crisis a very topical and widely discussed issue. The management of municipalities is subject to increasing control by the public, the state and the municipalities themselves. The aim of the presented paper is to offer a comprehensive definition of efficiency and methods which allow to measure it. As results of our analysis can be mentioned overview of TOPSIS technique application in a several studies.