1,535 research outputs found
Beneficial Grease Hypothesis of Public Sector Corruption in Economic Development: The Nigerian Experience
The objective of the paper was to empirically investigate the validity of the beneficial grease hypothesis of public sector corruption with particular reference to Nigeria over the period 1981-2012. The study employed a multiple regression Ordinary Least Square methodology and the Johansen framework on secondary data to examine the nature of relationships between public sector corruption and five developmental explanatory variables. The empirical results confirm the existence of cointegration between public sector corruption and the identified variables. The results of causality tests indicate that public sector corruption does not Granger cause Gross Domestic Product and consequently Nigeria’s development. There is bidirectional causality from total expenditure to public sector corruption, while capital expenditure and foreign private investment Granger cause public sector corruption. The estimated regression results indicate that unemployment is positively related to public sector corruption while public sector corruption and GDP are inversely related; there is a strong inverse relationship between public sector corruption and foreign debt; capital expenditure and public sector corruption are positively related. The CUSUM and CUSUMQ results show the constancy of estimated parameters in the study period. The policy implication is that unless and until corruption is stamped out in Nigeria’s public life, promoting the country’s economic development, reducing unemployment and achieving a high standard of living among the people are not likely to be achieved. The conclusion is that the beneficial grease theory is not applicable to Nigeria and public sector corruption must be seriously addressed with the aim of eradicating it. Keywords: Cointegration, Corruption, Economic Development, Poverty, Public Sector
Using chained machine learning models for scientific articles recommendation
Recommender systems are commonly used when it comes to online multimedia service providers or worldwide retail companies. Although, regarding educational resources, scientific papers and books, or other items with extensive textual content and description, recommendation systems are only in early development. In this paper, we propose a new approach entirely based on chained machine learning model store present and rank scientific papers. The first model a word embeddings model supported on a shallow neural network - is trained using a synthesized paper unit - a composition of the title, the abstract, the publishing conference or journal, and the year - that accurately captures paper’s semantic information. Later we train pairwise learning to a rank model based on a support vector machine (SVM) using relevant and irrelevant papers. We show that our approach achieves state-of-art results and does not rely on any language dependent or domain knowledge. It only uses available on-line data and proves to be efficient in either user-dependent and user independent modeling.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio
Tourism, nightlife and planning: challenges and opportunities for community liveability in La Barceloneta
In La Barceloneta, one of the beachfront quarters of the city of Barcelona, the rapid expansion of mainly illegal short-term rental apartments for tourists and noise problems related to alcohol-fuelled nightlife consumption, are challenging community liveability and peaceful urban coexistence between different social groups. Similar to other cases worldwide, the rapid expansion of touristification on the urban and socio-economic fabric of the city has become an increasing source of dispute and residents' contestation. By taking a diachronical critical review, the first part of this paper examines the role of urban planning developed in La Barceloneta during the period 1950–2016 and how it transformed the area into a leisure-oriented and tourist-oriented quarter. The second part of the paper is based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork that was conducted to capture the range of different voices, stories and discourses produced and reproduced by different actors affected and/or involved in the recent touristification of La Barceloneta. Findings obtained confirm that current urban policy and planning are clearly insufficient to tackle and address negative community-based impacts aforementioned. Hence, the final section highlights the urgent need for the development and implementation of new, community-based urban planning with the aim of ensuring community liveability and peaceful urban coexistence between different social groups in La Barceloneta
Natural extracts from Pterospartum tridentatum at different vegetative stages: extraction yiels, phenolic content and antioxidant activity
The aerial parts of Pterospartum tridentatum, a wild growing species in Portugal used in
traditional medicine and gastronomy, were harvested at different stages (vegetative phase, flowering
phase and beginning of dormancy) in two locations in Portugal (Malcata and Gardunha mountains),
and the respective aqueous extracts have been studied. The influence of the seasonal variation in the
extraction yield, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity was evaluated. The extraction was
carried out in boiling water in consecutive steps. After each step, the aqueous extract was separated
and fresh water was added maintaining the same plant material. The procedure was repeated seven
times, within an overall time period of 180 minutes.
Higher extraction yields were achieved with plant stems collected at the vegetative phases, either from
Malcata or Gardunha regions. The total phenolic content of the extracts from Malcata plants ranged
from 273 mg to 400 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry matter, which was quite similar to that determined
for extracts from Gardunha (245 to 394 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry matter). The antioxidant activity
was determined by the radical scavenging activity method using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical
(DPPH). The greatest radical scavenging activity was observed in the flowers extracts, even though all
extracts produced presented a good antioxidant activity. Furthermore, the antioxidant activity was not
affected by the exposure of the plant material at 100ºC for long periods of time (180 min).
The results show that Pterospartum tridentatum has a great potential to be used as a new source of
natural antioxidants for the food industry
Atividade antioxidante e antimicrobiana de extratos de plantas de Pterospartum tridentatum (L.) Willk. in vitro e silvestres
Atividade antioxidante e antimicrobiana de extratos de plantas de Pterospartum tridentatum (L.) Willk. in vitro e silvestres.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Identificação de compostos bioativos em plantas silvestres e plantas in vitro de Pterospartum tridentatum (L.) Willk.
Identificação de compostos bioativos em plantas silvestres e plantas in vitro de Pterospartum tridentatum (L.) Willk.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Development of ternary diagrams for estimating water retention properties using geostatistical approaches
Most pedotransfer functions (PTFs) have adopted soil texture information as the main predictor to estimate
soil hydraulic properties, whether inputs are defined in terms of the relative proportion of different grain size
particles or texture-based classifications. The objective of this studywas to develop ternary diagrams for estimating
soil water retention (θ) at−33 and−1500 kPa matric potentials, corresponding to the field capacity and wilting
point, respectively, from particle size distribution using two geostatistical approaches. The texture triangle was
divided into a 1% grid of soil texture composition resulting in 4332 different soil textures. Measured soil water
retention values determined in 742 soil horizons/layers located in Portugal were then used to develop and
validate the hydraulic ternary diagrams. The development subset included two-thirds of the data, and the
validation subset the remaining samples. The measured soil water content values were displayed in the ternary
diagram according to the coordinates given by the particles size distribution determined in the same soil
samples. The volumetric water content values were then predicted for the entire ternary diagram using two
different geostatistical interpolation algorithms (ordinary kriging and the empirical best linear unbiased
predictor). Uncertainty analysis resulted in a root mean square error below 0.040 and 0.034 cm3 cm−3 when
comparing the interpolated water contents at −33 and −1500 kPa matric potential values, respectively, with
the measured ones included in the validation dataset. The estimation variance calculated with both methods
was also considered to access the uncertainty of the predictions. The available water content of Portuguese
soils was then derived from θ−33 kPa and θ−1500 kPa ternary diagrams developed with both approaches. The
hydraulic ternary diagrams may thus serve as simplified tools for estimating water retention properties from
particle size distribution and eventually serve as an alternative to the traditional statistical regression and data
mining techniques used to derive PTFsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
A Visual {DSL} for the certification of open source software
Quality assessment of open source software is becoming an important and active research area. One of the reasons for this recent interest is the consequence of Internet popularity. Nowadays, programming also involves looking for the large set of open source libraries and tools that may be reused when developing our software applications. In order to reuse such open source software artifacts, programmers not only need the guarantee that the reused artifact is certified, but also that independently developed artifacts can be easily combined into a coherent piece of software. In this paper we improve over previous works and describe a visual language that allows programmers to graphically describe how software artifacts can be combined into powerful software certification processes. This paper introduces the visual language and describes how its elements are available to the user through an intuitive interface.(undefined
Effect of sodium and nitrogen on yield function of irrigated maize in Southern Portugal
Salinization and nitrate leaching are two of the leading threats to the environment of the European Mediterranean regions. Inefficient use of water and fertilizers has led to a nitrate increase in the aquifers and reduction in crop yields caused by salts. In this study, a triple emitter source irrigation system delivers water, salt (Na+), and fertilizer (N) applications to maize (Zea mays L.). The objective of the study was to evaluate the combined effect of saline water and nitrogen application on crop yields in two different textured soils of Alentejo (Portugal) and to assess if increasing salinity levels of the irrigation water can be compensated by application of nitrogen while still obtaining acceptable crop yield. Maximum yield was obtained from both soils with an application of 13 g m−2 of nitrogen. Yield response to Na+ application was different in the two studied soils and depended on the total amount of Na+ or irrigation water applied. No significant interaction was found between nitrogen and sodium, but a positive effect on maize yield was observed in the medium textured soil for amounts of Na+ less than 905 g m−2 when applied in the irrigation water
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