Can you really understand financial statements?

Financial statements are an interesting species, if I may say. In those several pages, an entire picture of an entity is painted, at least in the financial aspect. As almost everyone knows, financial statements give us an idea of a company’s performance during a particular period and condition as of a specific date. These documents are able to summarize everything that happened to a company during a 12-month period—probably more efficient than any document could. Needless to say, these documents enable its users to decide on what to do with respect to that company. Investors take a look at financial statements to evaluate if the money they put in that company is still worth keeping. Creditors use financial statements to confirm if they could extend their credit to that company. The government mainly decides on the amount of tax that the company owes it. Employees—current and prospective—may want to look at it to see if the company is still stable and would be able to support them

Long-distance rail in Europe: Comparing the forms of head-on competition across Europe

Europe is finally entering a season of liberalisation in the long-distance rail passenger market, which takes the form of on-track competition among public and private operators. The paper provides a broad-scope comparison of relevant European markets, belonging to liberalised and non-liberalised countries, aiming to point out the patterns in terms of supply, competition model and prices. The paper is based on a sample of heterogeneous 69 city-pairs, analysed in two fourteen days periods in 2019 (May/June and November). All available modes are observed, collecting info on companies, frequency of services, and cheapest price. The analysis starts from a schematisation of different business models, based on literature. Then, using the database, we study the country's supply structure, size, and level of intermodal and intra-modal competition through HHIs. Prices are analysed in two steps: the average prices and the price dispersion, searching for their main determinants, including but not limited to competition. Results show that a higher competition level is not always corresponding to low prices, which are instead determined by many other factors such as size of market, demand, socio-economic characteristics, subsidies, production costs, speed advantage, strength of the incumbent, etc. The competition level, instead, directly influences the quality, the supplied capacity, and the price dispersion

Online monitoring of acrylic acid - acrylamide copolymerization reaction kinetics

Suda çözünen doğal ve sentetik polimerler gündelik hayatımızda geniş yer tutar. Polielektrolit denilen ve suda çözündüğünde yüklü gruplar veren polimerler de bu grubun önemli bir üyesidir. Polielektrolitler ya yüklü monomerin polimerizasyonu yada yüklü ve yüksüz monomerlerin kopolimerizasyonu ile elde edilebilir. Bu çalışmada akrilik asit (Aac) – akrilamit (Aam) kopolimerizasyonu, pH 5 ve pH 2’de gerçekleştirildi ve tüm reaksiyonlar ACOMP (Automatic Continuous Online Monitoring of Polymerizatian – Polimerizasyon Reaksiyonlarının Bilgisayarla Sürekli İzlenmesi) sistemi ile sürekli olarak izlendi. Kopolimerizasyon süresince her iki monomerin polimere giren miktarları ve monomer haldeki konsantrasyonları ultraviyole spektrofotometre (UV) dedektörü ile belirlendi. Yapılan kinetik incelemeler her iki pH’taki reaksiyonların monomere göre 1’inci dereceden sapma gösterdiğini fakat 1.25’inci ve 1.5’uncu derece kinetiğe uyduğunu gösterdi. Sürekli izleme metodunun sağladığı geniş çaplı veri alma imkanı sayesinde pH 5’te gerçekleştirilen tüm reaksiyonlarda, akrilamidin daha aktif olduğu dolayısıyla daha hızlı tükendiği ve akrilik asitin aktivitesinin ise iyonlaşma ve elektrostatik etkileşimlerden dolayı daha az olduğu belirlendi. pH 2’deki reaksiyonlarda ise tam tersine akrilamit protonlanma nedeniyle aktivitesini kaybederken akrilik asitin bu pH’da daha aktif olduğu gözlendi. Reaksiyon kinetiğindeki bu farklılaşmanın sebebi kafes etkisi açısından tartışıldı. Aynı zamanda ACOMP sisteminde yer alan dedektörlerden biri olan ışık saçılması dedektörü vasıtasıyla pH 5 ve pH 2’de yapılan tüm deneylerdeki molekül ağırlığı değişimi reaksiyon süresince izlendi. Anahtar Kelimeler: Polielektrolitler, suda çözünen polimerler, kopolimerizasyon, reaksiyon kinetiği, molekül ağırlığı, sürekli izleme.Water soluble macromolecules include a numerous class of polymers ranging from biopolymers essential to life process to synthetic resins of many commercial uses. Solution properties and behaviour of water soluble polymers depend on the structural characteristics of polymer chain solvated in the solution. Polymers having charged groups when dissolved in water are called polyelectrolytes. Most biopolymers are polyelectrolytes, and that natural and synthetic polyelectrolytes have a variety of uses in diverse industries. The monomers of polyelectrolytes are usually expensive and difficult to polymerize. Hence, polyelectrolytes are commonly used in copolymer form with cheaper non-polyelectrolytic comonomers. Acrylic acid (Aac) - acrylamide (Aam) copolymers form polyelectrolytes in water. Due to their charged nature, their properties closely depend on the ionization of the acid groups which is a function of the system pH. PKa of the acrylic acid is 4.56. In this study working pHs of the system are chosen as to be one above and one below the pKa value which are 5 and 2, respectively. Automatic Continuous Online Monitoring of Polymerization (ACOMP) technique was used to follow the copolymerization of Aam and Aac at pH 5 and pH 2. In the ACOMP application, a small amount of reactor material was continuously removed from the reactor by an isocratic pump and mixed at high pressure with a much larger volume of solvent drawn by another similar pump. The diluted reaction solution was then passed through a train of detectors comprising a multi-angle light scattering detector, a single capillary viscometer detector and an ultraviolet spectrophotometer detector. At pH 5 and at pH 2 copolymerization reactions were performed at different monomer compositions. The reaction kinetics was extensively discussed and reaction order with respect to monomers was determined at these pH values. Evolution of molecular weight (Mw) also was determined through ACOMP system. The reaction rate depends on the initiator and comonomer concentrations and the propagation, termination and initiator decomposition rate constants. Evolution of the logarithm of monomer concentration versus time indicated that the reactions showed a marked slowing down as compared to 1st order kinetics. The "slowing down" of the polymerization reaction can be due to a combination of a) decrease of the initiator concentration, b) composition drift and c) higher order effects. All three factors probably have a role. However, If the reaction is 1st order in monomer and the depletion of the initiator during the reaction is taken into account then it was seen that initiator decomposition was still inadequate by itself to account for the reaction kinetics. At pH 5 the reaction system contains Aam, Aac in sodium acrylate form and negatively charged initiator ACV. Due to the ionic nature of ACV, its decomposition rate will also depend on the amount of acidic comonomer at the reaction medium. If they play such a role through cage effect, then the reaction is no longer first order in monomer but 1.25th order according to Noyes, or 1.50th order according to Hamielec. Although it is possible to fit for both initiator life-time and reaction order from the curve of the reaction rate, such a fit procedure involves too many fit parameters and is thus not reliable. Instead, the kinetic data was fitted to 1.25th order kinetics and 1.5th order kinetics with initiator decay. It was seen that equations for 1.25th order and 1.50th order kinetics both fitted the data. The results showed that the first order kinetics failed at pH 2 as well; on the other hand both 1.25th and 1.5th order kinetics satisfactorily fitted the data. The Mw results obtained from measurements at pH 5 showed that higher Aam content led to higher molecular weight which was consistent with higher reactivity of Aam at this pH. The decrease of the molecular weight with increasing Aac content and hence with decreasing reaction rates originates from the propagation step. Also, Mw  and the reaction rate were higher at pH 2 than pH 5 for the reaction carried out at the same feed composition. This arises from the propagation step, not initiation. If initiation step were responsible, then the increase in reaction rate would result in the decrease in Mw. Keywords: Polyelectrolytes, water soluble polymers, copolymerization, reaction kinetics, molecular weight, online monitoring

DISPERSE, a trait database to assess the dispersal potential of European aquatic macroinvertebrates

Dispersal is an essential process in population and community dynamics, but is difficult to measure in the field. In freshwater ecosystems, information on biological traits related to organisms’ morphology, life history and behaviour provides useful dispersal proxies, but information remains scattered or unpublished for many taxa. We compiled information on multiple dispersal-related biological traits of European aquatic macroinvertebrates in a unique resource, the DISPERSE database. DISPERSE includes nine dispersal-related traits subdivided into 39 trait categories for 480 taxa, including Annelida, Mollusca, Platyhelminthes, and Arthropoda such as Crustacea and Insecta, generally at the genus level. Information within DISPERSE can be used to address fundamental research questions in metapopulation ecology, metacommunity ecology, macroecology and evolutionary ecology. Information on dispersal proxies can be applied to improve predictions of ecological responses to global change, and to inform improvements to biomonitoring, conservation and management strategies. The diverse sources used in DISPERSE complement existing trait databases by providing new information on dispersal traits, most of which would not otherwise be accessible to the scientific community. Measurement(s): dispersal • movement quality • morphological feature • behavioral quality Technology Type(s): digital curation Factor Type(s): taxon Sample Characteristic - Organism: Arthropoda • Mollusca • Annelida Sample Characteristic - Environment: aquatic biome • freshwater biome Sample Characteristic - Location: Europe Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1314833

Simulating rewetting events in intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams: a global analysis of leached nutrients and organic matter

Climate change and human pressures are changing the global distribution and extent of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which comprise half of the global river network area. IRES are characterized by periods of flow cessation, during which channel substrates accumulate and undergo physico‐chemical changes (preconditioning), and periods of flow resumption, when these substrates are rewetted and release pulses of dissolved nutrients and organic matter (OM). However, there are no estimates of the amounts and quality of leached substances, nor is there information on the underlying environmental constraints operating at the global scale. We experimentally simulated, under standard laboratory conditions, rewetting of leaves, riverbed sediments, and epilithic biofilms collected during the dry phase across 205 IRES from five major climate zones. We determined the amounts and qualitative characteristics of the leached nutrients and OM, and estimated their areal fluxes from riverbeds. In addition, we evaluated the variance in leachate characteristics in relation to selected environmental variables and substrate characteristics. We found that sediments, due to their large quantities within riverbeds, contribute most to the overall flux of dissolved substances during rewetting events (56‐98%), and that flux rates distinctly differ among climate zones. Dissolved organic carbon, phenolics, and nitrate contributed most to the areal fluxes. The largest amounts of leached substances were found in the continental climate zone, coinciding with the lowest potential bioavailability of the leached organic matter. The opposite pattern was found in the arid zone. Environmental variables expected to be modified under climate change (i.e. potential evapotranspiration, aridity, dry period duration, land use) were correlated with the amount of leached substances, with the strongest relationship found for sediments. These results show that the role of IRES should be accounted for in global biogeochemical cycles, especially because prevalence of IRES will increase due to increasing severity of drying events

Simulating rewetting events in intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams: A global analysis of leached nutrients and organic matter

Climate change and human pressures are changing the global distribution and the ex‐ tent of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which comprise half of the global river network area. IRES are characterized by periods of flow cessation, during which channel substrates accumulate and undergo physico‐chemical changes (precon‐ ditioning), and periods of flow resumption, when these substrates are rewetted and release pulses of dissolved nutrients and organic matter (OM). However, there are no estimates of the amounts and quality of leached substances, nor is there information on the underlying environmental constraints operating at the global scale. We experi‐ mentally simulated, under standard laboratory conditions, rewetting of leaves, river‐ bed sediments, and epilithic biofilms collected during the dry phase across 205 IRES from five major climate zones. We determined the amounts and qualitative character‐ istics of the leached nutrients and OM, and estimated their areal fluxes from riverbeds. In addition, we evaluated the variance in leachate characteristics in relation to selected environmental variables and substrate characteristics. We found that sediments, due to their large quantities within riverbeds, contribute most to the overall flux of dis‐ solved substances during rewetting events (56%–98%), and that flux rates distinctly differ among climate zones. Dissolved organic carbon, phenolics, and nitrate contrib‐ uted most to the areal fluxes. The largest amounts of leached substances were found in the continental climate zone, coinciding with the lowest potential bioavailability of the leached OM. The opposite pattern was found in the arid zone. Environmental vari‐ ables expected to be modified under climate change (i.e. potential evapotranspiration, aridity, dry period duration, land use) were correlated with the amount of leached sub‐ stances, with the strongest relationship found for sediments. These results show that the role of IRES should be accounted for in global biogeochemical cycles, especially because prevalence of IRES will increase due to increasing severity of drying event

The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt

Owing to a long history of anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to biodiversity loss. Mitigation measures, including wastewater treatment and hydromorphological restoration, have aimed to improve environmental quality and foster the recovery of freshwater biodiversity. Here, using 1,816 time series of freshwater invertebrate communities collected across 22 European countries between 1968 and 2020, we quantified temporal trends in taxonomic and functional diversity and their responses to environmental pressures and gradients. We observed overall increases in taxon richness (0.73% per year), functional richness (2.4% per year) and abundance (1.17% per year). However, these increases primarily occurred before the 2010s, and have since plateaued. Freshwater communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery. Communities at sites with faster rates of warming had fewer gains in taxon richness, functional richness and abundance. Although biodiversity gains in the 1990s and 2000s probably reflect the effectiveness of water-quality improvements and restoration projects, the decelerating trajectory in the 2010s suggests that the current measures offer diminishing returns. Given new and persistent pressures on freshwater ecosystems, including emerging pollutants, climate change and the spread of invasive species, we call for additional mitigation to revive the recovery of freshwater biodiversity

The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt

Owing to a long history of anthropogenic pressures, freshwater ecosystems are among the most vulnerable to biodiversity loss1. Mitigation measures, including wastewater treatment and hydromorphological restoration, have aimed to improve environmental quality and foster the recovery of freshwater biodiversity2. Here, using 1,816 time series of freshwater invertebrate communities collected across 22 European countries between 1968 and 2020, we quantified temporal trends in taxonomic and functional diversity and their responses to environmental pressures and gradients. We observed overall increases in taxon richness (0.73% per year), functional richness (2.4% per year) and abundance (1.17% per year). However, these increases primarily occurred before the 2010s, and have since plateaued. Freshwater communities downstream of dams, urban areas and cropland were less likely to experience recovery. Communities at sites with faster rates of warming had fewer gains in taxon richness, functional richness and abundance. Although biodiversity gains in the 1990s and 2000s probably reflect the effectiveness of water-quality improvements and restoration projects, the decelerating trajectory in the 2010s suggests that the current measures offer diminishing returns. Given new and persistent pressures on freshwater ecosystems, including emerging pollutants, climate change and the spread of invasive species, we call for additional mitigation to revive the recovery of freshwater biodiversity.N. Kaffenberger helped with initial data compilation. Funding for authors and data collection and processing was provided by the EU Horizon 2020 project eLTER PLUS (grant agreement no. 871128); the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; 033W034A); the German Research Foundation (DFG FZT 118, 202548816); Czech Republic project no. P505-20-17305S; the Leibniz Competition (J45/2018, P74/2018); the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad—Agencia Estatal de Investigación and the European Regional Development Fund (MECODISPER project CTM 2017-89295-P); Ramón y Cajal contracts and the project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC2019-027446-I, RYC2020-029829-I, PID2020-115830GB-100); the Danish Environment Agency; the Norwegian Environment Agency; SOMINCOR—Lundin mining & FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal; the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant PP00P3_179089); the EU LIFE programme (DIVAQUA project, LIFE18 NAT/ES/000121); the UK Natural Environment Research Council (GLiTRS project NE/V006886/1 and NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme); the Autonomous Province of Bolzano (Italy); and the Estonian Research Council (grant no. PRG1266), Estonian National Program ‘Humanitarian and natural science collections’. The Environment Agency of England, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Wales provided publicly available data. We acknowledge the members of the Flanders Environment Agency for providing data. This article is a contribution of the Alliance for Freshwater Life (www.allianceforfreshwaterlife.org).Peer reviewe

Novel composites and modified glass-ionomer cements for dental applications

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo