Factors contributing to the fluctuations in residential construction in Iran

Residential construction is one of the most important pillars of Iran’s economy. Although this sector had an increasing trend over the past two decades, however, the growth rate of residential construction was very volatile. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate those factors contributing to this fluctuation over the 1991:Q2-2008:Q4. By applying cointegration approach, the empirical results show that housing prices, construction costs, GDP and gold prices are important factors to explain swings in residential construction in Iran. &nbsp

Factors Contributing to the Fluctuation in Residential Construction in Iran

Residential construction is one of the most important pillars of Iran‟s economy. Although this sector had an increasing trend over the past two decades, the growth rate of residential construction has been very volatile. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate those factors contributing to this fluctuation over the 1991:Q2-2008:Q4. By applying cointegration approach, the empirical results show that housing prices, construction costs, GDP and gold prices are important factors to predict changes in the level of residential construction in Iran

Cultural Attitude Towards Print Media Advertising Of Controversial Products Among Female Consumers In Penang

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenalpasti perbezaan dikalnagan tiga etnik pengguna wanita di Malaysia (Melayu, Cina dan India), umur, pendidikan, dan taraf perkahwinan pengguna dengan sikap terhadap pengiklanan pakaian dalam wanita dan program mengurus kan badan. The present study is trying to identify the differences among female consumers of three ethnic (Malay, Chinese,and Indian), age groups, education level, and marital status with respect to attitude towards advertising of female underwear and slimming program

Fair Play for Fair Pay: Fighting Digital Piracy through Revenue Sharing

Considering a setting where a content provider (CP) sells their content to customers over a network owned by an ISP, we examine whether the CP can use monetary incentives to encourage the ISP to fight digital piracy without any intervention by the policymaker. In our model, the CP sets a fraction of its revenue that is shared with the ISP and the price of its content, the ISP determines its anti-piracy enforcement level, and users decide whether to purchase, copy, or not use the content. We find that voluntarily sharing its revenue with the ISP can lead to increased profits for the CP, non-decreasing profits for the ISP, and reduced piracy. More importantly, we find that although being characterized by low data usage raises the chance of achieving a revenue sharing contract, it also exposes the CP to higher levels of digital piracy

Quantum Transport and Electric-Field Effects in Layered Topological Semimetals and Magnetic Materials

This dissertation describes transport experiments on quantum devices in layered Dirac nodal line topological semimetals and antiferromagnetic materials down to a few layers. We used gate-induced effects to alter the transport properties of these materials. First, we introduced current annealing in topological semimetals to achieve high-quality devices. We demonstrate current annealing to substantially improve the electronic transport properties of 2D topological semimetal flakes. Contact resistance and resistivity were improved by factors up to 2,000,000 and 20,000, respectively, in devices based on exfoliated flakes of two topological semimetals, ZrSiSe and BaMnSb2. Using this method, carrier mobility in ZrSiSe improved by a factor of 3800, resulting in the observation of record-high mobility for exfoliated ZrSiSe. Quantum oscillations in annealed ZrSiSe appeared at magnetic fields as low as 5 T, and magnetoresistance increased by 10,000. We argue that a thermal process underlies this improvement. Finally, Raman spectroscopy and analysis of quantum oscillations in ZrSiSe indicate that the phonon modes and Fermi surface area are unchanged by current annealing. Through current annealing, we had access to suitable device quality, hence could investigate topological semimetals extensively. We studied Shubnikov de Haas oscillations focused on the unexpected frequency of 140 T that is unrelated to any known surface (450 T) or bulk (220 T) Fermi surface. We show that this frequency has a 2D nature by providing angle dependence and thickness dependence of quantum oscillations. Angle dependence of 140 T follows 1/cos(θ), in contrast to bulk frequency, 220 T, which shows no change with angle. In addition, thickness dependence shows that the relative amplitude of 140 T to 220 T exponentially increases by decreasing the thickness. In addition, we provide a comparison of phase analysis of 140 T with 220 T that shows the different origins of these frequencies. We speculate this 140 T frequency can be of Weyl orbit oscillations and extracted a Fermi arc with a length of 0.08 1/ ̊A within this picture. Third, we studied the gate-induced electrostatic field effect on ZrSiSe using ZrSiSe/hBN/- graphene heterostructure. We observed that the electrostatic field increases the resistivity away from charge neutrality point Vg = 0.8 V at magnetic fields below 2 T. In contrast, the electrostatic field reduces resistivity at fields above 2 T. In addition, we observed that gate voltage reduces the curvature of magnetoresistance. In addition, the amplitude of quantum oscillations reduces with an increase in gate voltage. The bulk frequency of quantum oscillations, 220 T, does not change with gate voltage, but the Weyl orbit frequency, 140 T, shows a quadratic red shift with the gate voltage. In addition to topological semimetals in few-layer limits that excited many physicists in the last decade, the interplay of magnetism and superconductivity as well as electrostatic field control of magnetic phase in 2D limit enchanted many physicists, including us. The interplay between magnetic materials and superconductors provides an exciting playground due to opposing requirements for electron spin alignment between superconductivity and magnetic order. In the fourth chapter, we studied NiPS3, an antiferromagnetic layered material with in-plane antiferromagnetic order, and FeSe, a layered superconductor, by fabricating superconduc- tor/antiferromagnet/superconductor (FeSe/NiPS3/FeSe) Josephson Junction. In addition, we fabricated a controlled Josephson Junction using graphite and a similar thickness of NiPS3, graphite/NiPS3/graphite, to have a fair comparison with the superconductor Josephson Junction. We showed that our devices were in a direct tunneling regime at temperatures lower than 20 K and 10 K for graphite-JJ and FeSe-JJ, respectively. It has been shown that NiPS3 undergoes a spin-flop transition in magnetic fields parallel to the ab plane and larger than 6 T. Although we failed to observe this spin-flop transition for fields parallel to the ab plane, we observed signatures of possible transition in magnetic fields parallel to the c axis for the similar magnetic field in our controlled graphite device. However, this observation is ambiguous because such a spin-flop transition was not observed in bulk measurements. Further, we observed steps in the temperature dependence of resistivity for FeSe-JJ; these steps do not exist in a graphite-JJ control device; hence we attribute them to FeSe-JJ. The steps in the temperature dependence of resistivity happen at 50 K and 10 K; this coincides with the transition temperature of FeSe to a superconductor. In addition, we observed anisotropic and unconventional magnetoresistance in temperatures between 50 K and 10 K. This anisotropic magnetoresistance dies at temperatures lower than 10 K when FeSe becomes superconducting. Finally, in the fifth chapter, we attempted to induce a magnetic phase transition in MnPSe3, FePS3, and VPS3 by adjusting the carrier density in these materials using an electrostatic field. Due to the spin filtering effect, such magnetic phase transition should accompany higher conductivity or even semimetallic behavior, but our devices failed to show such behavior. We fabricated devices using various contact metals, geometry, and gating techniques but achieving the long-sought after magnetic phase transition remained elusive in these materials. However, we successfully doped these materials using electrostatic field-induced effects

Evaluation of the coat protein of the Tombusviridae as HR elicitor in Nicotiana section

Plants are able to recognize and respond to virus infection with a hypersensitive response, a plant defense response that triggers a cell death pathway and limits the viral infection to the infected leaf. We have previously shown that the coat protein of Tomato bushy stunt virus (TBSV) and Tobacco necrosis virus strain DH (TNV-D[superscript H]) trigger HR in several species of Nicotiana, including Nicotiana langsdorffii. To identify structural features in the coat protein recognized by the host, we tested the capacity of eight coat proteins of the Tombusviridae to trigger a HR in N. langsdorffii. These eight coat proteins represented six genera of the Tombusviridae. We found that the coat proteins of TBSV, Cucumber Necrosis Virus, Cymbidium ringspot virus, Red Clover necrotic mosaic virus and TNV-D[superscript H] triggered HR, whereas the coat proteins of Turnip crinkle virus, Maize chlorotic mottle virus and Panicum mosaic virus did not. A comparison of the amino acid sequences of all eight coat proteins revealed that only two amino acids (Asp155 and Arg161) were conserved amongst the coat proteins that triggered HR and distinguished them from the coat proteins that did not trigger HR. Computer modeling of the coat protein structure allowed for placement of these two amino acids within the three dimensional structure of the coat protein and suggested how mutations might affect the overall structure. Site directed mutagenesis of these two amino acids in the TNV-D[superscript H] coat protein abolished HR, demonstrating that they have an essential role in recognition and elicitation of plant defenses against this virus

Study on Adaptive Harmonic Extraction Approaches in Active Power Filter Applications

Active power filter (APF) has now become a mature technology for harmonic and reactive power compensations in two-wire (single phase), three-wire (three phase without neutral), and four-wire (three phase with neutral) ac power networks with nonlinear loads. This paper presents a study on three different adaptive algorithms for active power filtering applications. These algorithms are adaptive linear combiner (ADALINE), least mean square adaptive notch filter (ANF-LMS), and recursive least square adaptive notch filter (ANF-RLS). In this paper, these approaches are employed for extracting load harmonic currents. The important issues associated with adaptive methods are accuracy and prediction speed. These issues will be addressed in the paper. Simulations using MATLAB/Simulink are presented to clarify the algorithms

Natural resource export revenues and construction activities in OPEC countries

The purpose of this study is to analyse the interrelationship between natural resource export revenues and construction activities for a set of the OPEC countries over the period of 1980- 2013. By applying panel cointegration and panel causality tests, our results show that the Natural resources rents percentage of GDP (as a measure for natural resource export revenues) increases the GDP from construction industry (as a measure for construction activities) in the short-run but not in the long-run

IoT and Man-in-the-Middle Attacks

This paper provides an overview of the Internet of Things (IoT) and its significance. It discusses the concept of Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks in detail, including their causes, potential solutions, and challenges in detecting and preventing such attacks. The paper also addresses the current issues related to IoT security and explores future methods and facilities for improving detection and prevention mechanisms against MitM