An Empirical Investigation on the Financial Integration between Arab Countries and the European Union Using Johansen Approach

The objective of this research is to examine the extent of integration between the European Union countries and the Arab countries financial markets. There are several methods have been used to examine the existence of integration. However, the Johansen approach to integration is considered a more reliable method than other conventional integration approaches and is applicable irrespective of the order of integration of the time series. Unlike most of the conventional integration procedures, which are valid for large sample size, Johansen approach is more robust and performs well for large sample sizes. The results of the test show that when Arab market index is a dependent variable, the null hypothesis of no integration cannot be accepted. This suggests the existence of a long-run relationship between European Union markets and Arab markets. While, when European Union is the dependent variable, the null hypothesis of no cointegration can be accepted. According to the results, both markets are moving together in the same direction when Arab markets are the dependent variable while not in case of the European Union is the dependent variable. Keywords: Financial Markets Integration, Johansen Approach, Law of One Price (LOOP), Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), Market Capitalization, Arab Countries, European Union (EU)

Development, Validation and Applications of a Novel Multiplex Assay RM-Yplex Amplifying 13 Rapidly Mutating Y Chromosome Short Tandem Repeat Regions

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) multiplex assay capable of amplifying 13 rapidly mutating Y chromosome short tandem repeats (RM Y-STRs) simultaneously was developed and optimised. This multiplex assay which was termed RM-Yplex is the first to include all 13 RM Y-STRs including DYF387S1, DYF399S1, DYF403S1a/b, DYF404S1, DYS449, DYS518, DYS526a/b DYS547, DYS570, DYS576, DYS612, DYS626 and DYS627. A developmental validation was performed following the Scientific Working Group for DNA Analysis Methods (SWGDAM) revised guidelines. Robustness and limitations of the assay were demonstrated through a range of studies including reproducibility, sensitivity, specificity, stability and mixture studies. Appropriate controls were used during the studies that included a number of male and female commercial controls including, 2800M, 9948 and Taqman male controls and 9947A female control. An allelic ladder was developed for the assignment of the alleles. This was done by choosing samples with different alleles, amplifying them and then adjusting the volumes of amplified products in a mixture. The developed mixtures were used to balance the composite ladder. Multiple alleles of the various loci included in the ladder were sequenced. Reference haplotypes were developed for the 5 male samples included in the Y chromosome Standard Reference Material 2395 (SRM2395) using RM-Yplex. The International Society of Forensic Genetics (ISFG) recommendations were followed for adopting allele nomenclature. As part of developmental validation, the assay was included in an external proficiency trial which was concluded successfully. An internal validation of RM-Yplex was carried out at the Department of Forensic Sciences and Criminology Laboratory, Dubai where apart from other studies; application of the assay was demonstrated using non-probative forensic casework samples. The value of RM-Yplex was demonstrated for differentiating close male relatives in a case where a previously used Y-STR multiplex assay had shown identical haplotypes for those individuals. 1160 male individual samples were analysed in this study including UAE, other Arabian Peninsula populations as well as two South Asian populations residing in United Arab Emirates. RM-Yplex haplotypes have extremely high power of discrimination. The haplotype diversity for RM-Yplex haplotype is much more than the existing commercial Y-STR assays. Population studies have been carried out for the Arab, Indian and Pakistani populations. AMOVA was conducted for determining the apportionment of diversity and pairwise FST’s were estimated between populations. These have shown a marked homogeneity within the UAE Arab sub-populations. MDS plots of pairwise FST’s indicated that populations were not grouped significantly in accordance with the geographical locations. A network analysis showed the extent of distribution of haplotypes of various populations and their relationships. A highly sensitive and reliable RM-Yplex multiplex assay has been thus developed, which is expected to help genetic populations studies and forensic casework

A Miniature Energy Harvesting Device for Wireless Sensors in Electric Power System

A novel energy harvesting device called the energy coupler is proposed which can provide power to small wireless sensors in a power system. The energy coupler when coupled electromagnetically to a nearby current carrying conductor scavenges ac power from the conductor. The proposed energy coupler converts the harvested ac power into dc using a passive voltage multiplier circuit. The design of the energy coupler is such that the dc power obtained is adequate to charge a miniature 1.2-V rechargeable battery. It is demonstrated that the energy coupler is capable of delivering 10 mW of dc power to a 50-Ω load. An analytical model is also presented which agrees well with measurement results within a margin of error of 10%

Hydraulic Jump in Circular Open Channels with Mild Slope

A hydraulic jump is a well-known transitionalphenomenon from supercritical to subcritical flows withundulations of water-surface. In this transition, the water flowhas a high-velocity, water surface rises abruptly, surface rollersare formed, intense mixing occurs, the air is entrained, and alarge amount of energy is dissipated. In the present studycharacteristics of the hydraulic jumps in circular open channelswith a mild sloped have been discussed under a wide range ofexperimental conditions. The study aims to determine the effectof the channel’s mild slope on the characteristics of thehydraulic jumps with circular channels. A theoretical study hasbeen done and led to obtaining equations that can be used to getspecific force for the hydraulic jump that occurred in circularopen channels. A theoretical study is based on usingmomentum, and Froude’s number equations. An experimentalstudy has been investigated using Laboratory 40 experimentalruns in circular section flume for eight different dischargesranged from 3.92 to 12.07 l/sec were given with mild slopeequals 0.000833. In total, the experiments were conducted overa range of Froude numbers from 1.78 to 8.87. The experimentalworks concluded some dimensionless curves and new usefulformulas to get the length of the jump, energy dissipated andefficiency. The conjugated depth ratio is determined and plottedversus the upstream Froude number, downstream Froudenumber, head loss, and efficiency for different values of criticaldepths. The resulting graphs and equations of the present studyare readily applicable for a design for the hydraulic jumps inthe circular open channels with mild slope

Line and Continuum Variability in Active Galaxies

We compared optical spectroscopic and photometric data for 18 AGN galaxies over 2 to 3 epochs, with time intervals of typically 5 to 10 years. We used the Multi-Object Double Spectrograph (MODS) at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and compared the spectra to data taken from the SDSS database and the literature. We find variations in the forbidden oxygen lines as well as in the hydrogen recombination lines of these sources. For 4 of the sources we find that, within the calibration uncertainties, the variations in continuum and line spectra of the sources are very small. We argue that it is mainly the difference in black hole mass between the samples that is responsible for the different degree of continuum variability. In addition we find that for an otherwise constant accretion rate the total line variability (dominated by the narrow line contributions) reverberates the continuum variability with a dependency $\Delta L_{line} \propto (\Delta L_{cont.})^{\frac{3}{2}}$. Since this dependency is prominently expressed in the narrow line emission it implies that the luminosity dominating part of the narrow line region must be very compact with a size of the order of at least 10 light years. A comparison to literature data shows that these findings describe the variability characteristics of a total of 61 broad and narrow line sources.Comment: 30 pages including the appendix, 18 figures including the appendix. Accepted 2015 September 3. Received 2015 August 24; in original form 2015 July 3 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ