© 2020 The Author(s).In the present study, modified extraction methods using supercritical CO2 were investigated in order to obtain high-added value compounds from rapeseed oil deodorizer distillate and comparisons were done with modified Soxhlet extraction (solvent extraction + silica). For supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), the optimal extraction parameters were temperature of 40 °C, pressure of 350 bar (for phytosterols), 400 bar (for tocopherol), 5 wt% ethanol as co-solvent, and saponification pretreatment. The optimized SFE procedure led to the recovery of three main phytosterols (50 wt % β-sitosterol, 23.91 wt % Brassicasterol, and 36.25 wt % Campesterol) and only α-tocopherol. Moreover, there was no synergistic effect with saponification pretreatment + co-solvent and the efficiency and concentration of target compounds were less than supercritical CO2 + co-solvent. Also, comparative Data showed that the efficiency of phytosterols and tocopherols was approximately three times higher (p less then 0.05) in SFE relative to modified Soxhlet extraction. Furthermore, the use of ethanol (5 wt %) as co-solvent, improved phytosterols and tocopherol efficiency and purity. The SFE technique offers various advantages over the modified Soxhlet extraction technique, including increasing the solubility of tocopherols and sterols by using CO2+ co-solvent, minimized usage of toxic organic solvents and increased purity of extracted products. find more © 2020 The Authors.We report results of a survey experiment aimed at testing whether eliciting taxpayer preferences on how to allocate the collected taxes over national public goods as well as providing information about the composition of the public expenditure influence the tax rate that taxpayers consider adequate to pay. We find that information exerts no effects on the level of the adequate tax rate. However, taxpayers are willing to accept a higher tax burden when they express their preferences on how to use tax revenues to finance public goods and services. © 2020 The Authors.The study aimed at assessing the depuration potentials of endoparasite, Amplicaecum africanum on trace metals in its toad host, Amietophrynus regularis at sites of significant anthropogenic perturbations within the Lagos metropolis, in Nigeria. A total of 120 toads of both sexes, alongside 45 soil samples were collected from each of three (3) stations labeled Dumpsite, Lagoon front and Highrise, using hand nets and by hand-picking between February and October, 2018. The intestinal tissues sections of the toads were examined using a binocular dissecting microscope (American Optical Corporation, Model 570) and hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stain. Oxidative stress in toad intestine was assessed by estimating the levels of glutathione peroxidase (GPx), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and lipid peroxidation (MDA). Trace metals in the water, soil, toad liver, intestine and parasite, Amplicaecum africanum were tested using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (Philips model PU 9100). Lead (Pb), copper (Cu),ted severe glandular hyperplasia, increased connective tissue, and severely stunted villi. Consistently lower activities of biochemical biomarkers which characterize the uninfected toads compared to the infected, irrespective of the sex and stations, further corroborate drawn inferences. © 2020 The Author(s).This study aims to contribute to the existing thin body of nonlinear causality literature by applying the new hybrid nonparametric quantile causality approach. In this line, we investigate the non-linear nexus among total factor productivity, energy consumption and carbon emissions for seventeen African countries. From the results, it is remarkable that there are generally strong causalities between the variables in the middle lower, middle upper and middle quantiles. Hence, energy consumption, environmental pollution and total factor productivity are closely linked in African countries. In particular, bidirectional linkage is detected between total factor productivity and energy consumption for Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria and Tunisia. Studying the relationship between total factor productivity and emissions again at the middle quantile bidirectional causal ordering is documented almost for all the countries. Lastly and regarding the linkage between energy consumption and carbon emissions, a strong bidirectional ordering between the two variables is confirmed for Angola, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia. We can notice that an increase in economic development is critical for these countries; a number of regulatory policies for environmental problems and energy consumption are required during this development. © 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.This paper presents a new hybrid strategy which allows the dynamic identification of AC/DC microgrids (MG) by using algorithms such as Auto-Regressive with exogenous inputs (ARX) and Petri Nets (PN). The proposed strategy demonstrated in this study serves to obtain a dynamic model of the DC MG in isolated or connected modes. Given the non-linear nature of the system under study, the methodology divides the whole system in a bank of linearized models at different stable operating points, coordinated by a PN state machine. The bank of models obtained in state space, together with an adequate selection of models, can capture and reflect the non-linear dynamic properties of the AD/DC MGs and the different systems that it composes. The performance of the proposed algorithm has been tested using the Matlab/Simulink simulation platform. © 2020 The Author(s).Studies have linked oxytocin to emotional theory of mind (eToM) – the ability to recognise and understand others’ emotions. However, multiple replications have so far failed to reach a consistent result. Growing evidence suggests that oxytocin’s positive effects on social-emotional tasks such as eToM are highly dependent on trait-level individual differences. In the present study, we theorised that socioeconomic status (SES) could influence oxytocin’s impact on emotional mentalising processes. We tested our hypothesis in a double-blind between-subjects oxytocin nasal spray study on 147 Caucasian white male participants in the United Kingdom. In accordance with our hypothesis, we found that oxytocin (as compared to placebo) did boost emotional theory of mind, but only in people from low subjective SES backgrounds. Our results expand existing theory on how individual differences moderate oxytocin’s role on social behaviours. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.