Dutch Disease Scare in Kazakhstan: Is it real?

In this paper we explore the evidence that would establish that Dutch disease is at work in, or poses a threat to, the Kazakh economy. Assessing the mechanism by which fluctuations in the price of oil can damage non-oil manufacturing—and thus long-term growth prospects in an economy that relies heavily on oil production—we find that non-oil manufacturing has so far been spared the perverse effects of oil price increases from 1996 to 2005. The real exchange rate in the open sector has appreciated over the last couple of years, largely due to the appreciation of the nominal exchange rate. We analyze to what extent this appreciation is linked to movements in oil prices and oil revenues. Econometric evidence from the monetary model of the exchange rate and a variety of real exchange rate models show that the rise in the price of oil and in oil revenues might be linked to an appreciation of the U.S. dollar exchange rate of the oil and non-oil sectors. But appreciation is mainly limited to the real effective exchange rate for oil sector and is statistically insignificant for non-oil manufacturing.

Demonstration of a Monolithic Micro-Spectrometer System

The starting design of a spectrometer based on a modified Czerny-Turner configuration containing five precision surfaces encapsulated in a monolithic structure is described. Since the purpose at the early stages of the development was to demonstrate the feasibility of the technology and not an attempt to address a specific sensing problem, the first substrate material chosen was optical quality polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). The final system design decision was narrowed down to two possible configurations containing five and six precision surfaces. The five surface design was chosen since it contained one less precision optical surface, yet included multiple off-axis spheres. In this particular design and material system, the mass was kept below 7 g. The wavelength range (bandpass) design goal was 1 micrometer (0.6 - 1.6 micrometers). The PMMA is particularly transparent in this wavelength region and there are interesting effects to monitor within this band. The optical system was designed and optimized using the ZEMAX optical design software program to be entirely alignment free (self aligning)

Interactivity: New Rules of Engagement for the Humanities

This journal is a result of our frustration with 21st century humanities scholarship and dissemination. The term “digital” humanities has gained a certain cache and indeed, bringing technology into humanities research was, and still is, an important hurdle to overcome. However, humanities conversations on the topic have stalled and can’t seem to move beyond defining digital humanities. We believe that much of this stagnation is due to the emphasis on a superficial understanding of technology as a mode of delivery rather than as a mode of inquiry. Digital media and tools do allow for better and faster ways of doing traditional humanities things like scholarship and education. However, the failure of the digital humanities movement to look beyond media transformation and towards new modes of inquiry, blocks the humanities from evolving. The stubborn insistence on clinging to traditional forms of humanities scholarship at the expense of innovation is holding the field back. If, as McLuhan hypothesizes, the “medium is the message,” then why is the humanities still so doggedly focused on the content? We envision this journal as a forum to generate new ideas and ways of thinking about the humanities

Monolithic micro-spectrometer for low-cost sensing in materials processing

We have developed a monolithic micro-spectrometer suitable for a variety of sensing applications including industrial process monitoring. The device consists of a solid structure with a volume less than 6 cubic centimeters. All optical components of the spectrometer including two aspheric mirrors, a diffraction grating, and entrance and exit surfaces are fabricated onto the surface of the structure. All light paths are internally contained within the structure. The result is a small, rugged spectroscopic sensor ideally suited for use as a process monitor. Due to its monolithic nature the device requires no post-fabrication alignment; nor can it be knocked out of alignment during use. Although many materials and thus wavelength regions were possible, the prototype device discussed here was produced in PMMA by precision diamond turning. However, lower cost manufacturing approaches involving injection molding are under development to produce an affordable sensor. It is expected that modified versions of this sensor designs will be required for specific applications so as to maximize the performance and resolution over the operating range. For example, the prototype device described here operates over a wavelength range of 500 nm to 1000 nm. The performance of this device as a real-time surface monitoring sensor will be discussed in detail. Our approach of using wavelength dependent scattering resulted in the reduction to practice of a miniature, monolithic, rugged, low-cost, micro-instrument in a sensor sized package. The process sensor applications community has been faced by the cost versus performance issue. Simple go/no-go sensors are typically inexpensive but they provide very limited and sometimes dubious data. Scaled down traditional instruments offer very good measured information but are typically cost prohibitive, fragile, and still relatively large. This work will bridge the gap between these two extreme sensing alternatives

“We Follow the Disinformation”: Conceptualizing and Analyzing Fact-Checking Cultures Across Countries

Democratic societies inherently depend on an informed citizenry. By shaping citizens’ voting behavior, fostering political cynicism, and reducing trust in institutions, misinformation can pose significant challenges to individuals and societies. Against this backdrop, fact-checking initiatives aimed at verifying the accuracy of publicly disseminated (mis)information have flourished worldwide. However, existing research is disproportionately oriented toward the Global North, with a focus on the United States and the most influential organizations. Equally scarce are comparative studies. To address these shortcomings, this study introduces a context-sensitive framework for analyzing fact-checking cultures and illustrates its application in a cross-national comparative design by contrasting two countries from the Global South and North: Brazil and Germany. Using a mixed-methods design, we integrate computational, qualitative, and quantitative content analysis of 11 fact-checking organizations and 13,498 fact-checking articles over 11 years (2013–2023), alongside qualitative semistructured interviews with fact-checkers ( N = 10). Our findings reveal several areas of divergence and convergence, suggesting that fact-checking cultures transcend organizational and national boundaries

Development of a non-dairy probiotic fermented product based on almond milk and inulin

A new fermented almond milk that combined the properties of both almonds and probiotics was considered to cover the current versatile health-promoting foods' demand. Almond milk fermentation with probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri and Streptococcus thermophilus was studied by using a Central Composite design with response surface methodology, and different factors (glucose, fructose, inulin and starters) were optimised to assure high probiotic survivals in the final product. The optimal formulation was physicochemically characterised throughout cold storage (28 days) and both probiotic survivals to invitro digestion and proteolysis were quantified. Results showed that a high probiotic population (>10(7) cfu/mL) was obtained in the previously optimised almond milk throughout storage time, which correspond to the addition of 0.75g of glucose/100mL, 0.75g of fructose/100mL, 2g/100mL inulin and 6mL/100mL inoculum. Glucose was used as the main nutrient and the production of mannitol by L. reuteri was detected. The fermentation process increased the viscosity values, forming a weak gel structure, whose physical properties hardly changed. Probiotic bacteria notably survived (51%) to the invitro digestion, surely related to the inulin presence, which would add value to the developed product by enhancing the potential health benefits of its consumption.This research has been carried out thanks to a funded project by the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (PAID-05-11-2740). This work was also supported by the Conselleria de Educacion of Valencia government, which granted the author N. Bernat (ACIF/2011).Bernat Pérez, N.; Cháfer Nácher, MT.; Chiralt Boix, MA.; González Martínez, MC. (2015). Development of a non-dairy probiotic fermented product based on almond milk and inulin. 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(2007). Effect of High-Pressure Homogenization, Nonfat Milk Solids, and Milkfat on the Technological Performance of a Functional Strain for the Production of Probiotic Fermented Milks. Journal of Dairy Science, 90(10), 4513-4523. doi:10.3168/jds.2007-0373Pereda, J., Ferragut, V., Quevedo, J. M., Guamis, B., & Trujillo, A. J. (2007). Effects of Ultra-High Pressure Homogenization on Microbial and Physicochemical Shelf Life of Milk. Journal of Dairy Science, 90(3), 1081-1093. doi:10.3168/jds.s0022-0302(07)71595-3Rivera-Espinoza, Y., & Gallardo-Navarro, Y. (2010). Non-dairy probiotic products. Food Microbiology, 27(1), 1-11. doi:10.1016/j.fm.2008.06.008Roberfroid, M. B. (2005). Introducing inulin-type fructans. British Journal of Nutrition, 93(S1), S13-S25. doi:10.1079/bjn20041350Roland, I. (2003). Systematic characterization of oil-in-water emulsions for formulation design. 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Functional identification of Arabidopsis ATSIP2 (At3g57520) as an alkaline α-galactosidase with a substrate specificity for raffinose and an apparent sink-specific expression patter

Arabidopsis ATSIP2 has recently been suggested to be a raffinose synthase gene. However, it has high amino acid identity to functionally characterized alkaline α-galactosidases from Cucumis melo and Zea mays. Using the Sf9 insect cell expression system, we demonstrate that recombinant ATSIP2 is a genuine alkaline α-galactosidase with a distinct substrate specificity for raffinose, and not a raffinose synthase. A β-glucuronidase reporter construct using the ATSIP2 promoter shows that ATSIP2 is strongly expressed in sink tissues of Arabidopsis, i.e. sink leaves and non-xylem parts of the root stele, suggesting a physiological function in raffinose phloem unloading

Novel photon detection based on electronically-induced stress in silicon

The feasibility of microcantilever-based optical detection is demonstrated. Specifically, the authors report here on an evaluation of laboratory prototypes that are based on commercially available microcantilevers. In this work, optical transduction techniques were used to measure microcantilever response to photons and study the electronic stress in silicon microcantilevers, and their temporal and photometric response. The photo-generation of free charge carriers (electrons, holes) in a semiconductor gives rise to photo-induced (electronic) mechanical strain. The excess charge carriers responsible for the photo-induced stress, were produced via photon irradiation from a diode laser with wavelength {lambda} = 780 nm. The authors found that for silicon, the photo-induced stress results in a contraction of the crystal lattice due to the presence of excess electron-hole-pairs. In addition, the photo-induced stress is of opposite direction and about four times larger than the stress resulting from direct thermal excitation. When charge carriers are generated in a short time, a very rapid deflection of the microcantilever is observed (response time {approximately} {micro}s)

Hardy's inequality for functions vanishing on a part of the boundary

We develop a geometric framework for Hardy's inequality on a bounded domain when the functions do vanish only on a closed portion of the boundary.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures, includes several improvements in Sections 6-8 allowing to relax the assumptions in the main results. Final version published at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11118-015-9463-