The supernatural characters and powers of sacred trees in the Holy Land

This article surveys the beliefs concerning the supernatural characteristics and powers of sacred trees in Israel; it is based on a field study as well as a survey of the literature and includes 118 interviews with Muslims and Druze. Both the Muslims and Druze in this study attribute supernatural dimensions to sacred trees which are directly related to ancient, deep-rooted pagan traditions. The Muslims attribute similar divine powers to sacred trees as they do to the graves of their saints; the graves and the trees are both considered to be the abode of the soul of a saint which is the source of their miraculous powers. Any violation of a sacred tree would be strictly punished while leaving the opportunity for atonement and forgiveness. The Druze, who believe in the transmigration of souls, have similar traditions concerning sacred trees but with a different religious background. In polytheistic religions the sacred grove/forest is a centre of the community's official worship; any violation of the trees is regarded as a threat to the well being of the community. Punishments may thus be collective. In the monotheistic world (including Christianity, Islam and Druze) the pagan worship of trees was converted into the worship/adoration of saints/prophets; it is not a part of the official religion but rather a personal act and the punishments are exerted only on the violating individual

Scintillation light detection in the 6-m drift-length ProtoDUNE Dual Phase liquid argon TPC

DUNE is a dual-site experiment for long-baseline neutrino oscillation studies, neutrino astrophysics and nucleon decay searches. ProtoDUNE Dual Phase (DP) is a 6  ×  6  ×  6 m 3 liquid argon time-projection-chamber (LArTPC) that recorded cosmic-muon data at the CERN Neutrino Platform in 2019-2020 as a prototype of the DUNE Far Detector. Charged particles propagating through the LArTPC produce ionization and scintillation light. The scintillation light signal in these detectors can provide the trigger for non-beam events. In addition, it adds precise timing capabilities and improves the calorimetry measurements. In ProtoDUNE-DP, scintillation and electroluminescence light produced by cosmic muons in the LArTPC is collected by photomultiplier tubes placed up to 7 m away from the ionizing track. In this paper, the ProtoDUNE-DP photon detection system performance is evaluated with a particular focus on the different wavelength shifters, such as PEN and TPB, and the use of Xe-doped LAr, considering its future use in giant LArTPCs. The scintillation light production and propagation processes are analyzed and a comparison of simulation to data is performed, improving understanding of the liquid argon properties

REITs in Australia : moving forward from the GFC

REITs in Australia (A- REITs) have been a successful property investment vehicle in Australia over the last 40 years. This chapter reviews the development of A- REITs, profiles their status and highlights key strategic issues that are impacting on the further development of A-REITs. Particular attention is given to the impact of the GFC and how A-REITs recovered from the GFC

Diversification benefit and return performance of REITs using CAPM and Fama-French: Evidence from Turkey

This paper analyzes return enhancement patterns of Turkish REITs (T-REITs) from various perspectives over the period of July 2008 and March 2015. We find that T-REITs portfolio provides a slightly lower level of risk diversification benefit than investment trusts, but higher than the banks. The evidence suggests that portfolio managers and investors may not only be able to utilize knowledge deriving from the CAPM, but also utilize information retrieved from Fama-French model due to its relatively better performance on capturing the variation in T-REITs returns. Results also disclose that T-REITs show a degree of diversity in property focus, and reveal mainly defensive, small and financially distressed characteristics. Finally, based on the multiple observations, a case can be made for a possible linkage between property focus and yield improvement/risk taking structure of T-REITs. This study provides implications for the capacity of T-REITS and improve return enhancement capacity in an efficient portfolio management. Keywords: REIT, CAPM, Fama-French model, Turkish REITs, Borsa Istanbul, JEL codes: R30, G12, G1