Secondary Market Research Articles

A Recurrent Neural Network Model for Battery Capacity Fade Curve Prediction Using Early Life Data

Batteries are often considered the most performance and reliability-limiting component of any electronic and electrical assembly. Thus their degradation trend characterization through extensive testing and development of life prediction algorithms using testing data have been at the forefront of battery research. However, battery testing is also time-consuming, and it can take at least few months, even years, to test a battery for cycle life performance under normal operating conditions. Hence, there is a need to develop tools for battery life and degradation trend prediction using limited cycle data. Early life prediction tools can facilitate battery qualification, timely replacement of batteries in critical applications, and even the secondary use market. In this study, we present a recurrent neural network-linear network model to predict the entire battery capacity fade curve using less than 100 cycles of data (~ 1 month of testing). The discharge voltage-capacity curves have been used as input to the model. Our approach is also able to predict the rollover point (knee point) in the capacity fade curve of the battery, which indicates the onset of increased capacity fade rate. We use the publicly available MIT dataset to show the validity of the approach and extend the previous work from Severson et al. [1] on the end-of-life prediction to the entire capacity fade trend prediction. The recurrent neural network can capture the sequential changes in discharge voltage-capacity curves with cycles and provide flexibility in terms of the input data size.

The liquidity-augmented model of macroeconomic aggregates: A New Monetarist DSGE approach

We propose a new model of the macroeconomy which is simple and tractable, yet explicit about the foundations of liquidity. Monetary policy is implemented via swaps of money for liquid bonds in a secondary asset market. Prices are flexible, yet policy has real effects because money, bonds, and capital are imperfect substitutes, both in the short run and in the long run. The model unifies two classical channels through which the price of liquidity affects the economy (Friedman's real balance effect vs Mundell's and Tobin's asset substitution effect), and it shines light on important macroeconomic questions: the causal link between interest rates and inflation, the effects of money demand shocks, and the existence and persistence of a liquidity trap where interest rates are zero but inflation is positive.

Qualitative Analysis on Investment Decisions of Nepalese Stock Market Investors

The paper attempts to examine the experience of the Nepalese investors at the secondary market. The paper explored the investment decisions process of the Nepalese investors. The paper has adopted the grounded theory to generate the theory from the data collected from the semi-structured interview from the stock market investors having an academic background in management. The findings revealed that the investors are eager to invest in the stock market and go for a better experience from their trading at the NEPSE floor. The study exposed a mixed opinion in context to the understanding of the macroeconomic aspects and their influence on investment decisions. The investors forwarded that there is no relation between their investment decision-making process and the macroeconomic factors, while some of the investors stated that they see a connection of the economy with the stock market directly or indirectly. The study came out that the major concern of the Nepalese investors is a fundamental aspect of the listed companies while selecting for an investment. At the same time, investors stated that they go for technical analysis or follow the market trend for the short-term trading at NEPSE floor. The investors are seen at one point that the unstable political situation and insider trading have been major challenges, in context to the Nepalese stock market. Finally, the excessive flow of information related to the listed companies either with some validity or not, makes an investor’s investment decisions go wrong.

The Determinants of Capital Structure Choice: Evidence from Bangladeshi FMCG Companies

This paper offers empirical proof of Bangladesh's theories of capital markets and analyses the effects of the failure to introduce a secondary capital market in relation to Bangladesh. The findings from the cross-sectional OLS regression demonstrate that both the static deal theory and the cost theory of the organisation are applicable to the capital structure of the Bangladesh Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. The lack of a secondary market will affect the costs of an entity because shareholders unable to decommission their shares may place pressure on management to behave in their best interests. We analyse in this paper, using a sample of 5 Bangladeshi FMCG companies for the period from 2014 to 2019, the determinants of Bangladesh's Debt to Total Asset. This study reveals that Bangladesh's listed Food and Allied company's average leverage ratio is close to that of other countries in the growth of the economy. The study also shows that the Company's Profitability is strongly and positively linked to the asset structure, Size, Profitability, growth and business risks. A firm's Size has a statistically significant negative impact on Debt to Total Asset.

Circular Economy Matchmaking Framework for Future Marketplace Deployment

Online marketplaces enable cooperation between potential stakeholders by supporting offer and demand identification at the secondary raw material markets. The use of marketplaces facilitates communication between supply chain actors operating within the same or different industry sectors and enables detection of ways to close the loop of their products. This research investigated which criteria to use for the circular cooperation matching of companies in the context of a marketplace. These criteria were used for the development of a circular economy (CE) matchmaking framework based on a multi-level approach and relevance scoring between the users. The multi-level approach is based on the following criteria: (i) the compliance with circular economy principles, (ii) the material flows analysis, (iii) the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport. Based on those aspects a Total Relevance Score (TRS) between the stakeholders is calculated. The Total Relevance Score indicates the possibility for successful circular cooperation between two partners who are willing to close their loops with the best possible match. The logic behind the proposed circular economy matchmaking framework is illustrated by four cases using data collected from companies. Recommendations for further deployment are proposed. The developed framework, by incorporating circular economy principles for the first time within the matching algorithm, provides the opportunity for interested stakeholders for more tailored matching and increases their possibilities of finding a perfect match on the secondary raw materials market in terms of circularity. A similar approach has not yet been reported in the literature. The circular economy matchmaking framework constitutes a theoretical basis of an online marketplace to be developed.

The effect of the efficiency of monetary policy educational tools on the financial soundness of banks A pilot study in the Iraq Stock Exchange (2007-2017)

The aim of the research is to identify the impact of the quantitative tools of monetary policy on the financial soundness of banks, and the research was based on a set of hypotheses, to determine the nature of the effect between independent and dependent variables, and for the purpose of testing research hypotheses, a number of financial ratios according to CAMEL indicators were used to analyze the historical data of banks, the research sample and the component From (7) banks for the period (2007-2017), the quantitative tools of monetary policy were used from the impact published in the Central Bank of Iraq, and a number of statistical methods were used, including time series testing, joint integration test and multiple regression test according to programs.EVIES10 has been reached through the research to a number of conclusions, the most important of which is that the CAMEL classification system is one of the effective supervisory methods for assessing the financial soundness of banks and determining the duration of the strength and durability of their financial positions and the extent of their ability to adapt to any variables related to their activities, as it ensures that the banks are moving in the direction. Correct or reverse, and the weakness of the monetary policy tools applied by the Central Bank of Iraq due to the limited Iraqi market for securities as it is still incomplete conditions as a secondary market that contributes to expanding the circulation of securities, which constitutes a burden on the use of quantitative tools of the Central Bank of Iraq, especially open market operations,As well as the weakness of the legal reserve ratio in the impact on the ability of commercial banks to grant credit, because commercial banks in Iraq enjoy high liquidity due to the high rate of inflation significantly. The research also presented a set of proposals, the most important of which is the activation of the monetary policy tools of the Central Bank of Iraq, which is currently being used to modernize, develop and increase the efficiency of the stock market in Iraq to keep pace with developments in global markets,nd developing the supervisory and supervisory role of the Central Bank of Iraq over Iraqi banks in terms of the extent of their commitment to regulations and laws and activating and activating the banking sector in a way that serves to build a banking infrastructure that keeps pace with the development of international banks. Delinquency and low capital adequacy ratio, thus hedging and beware of any problems that arise in the banking sector. Key words: monetary policy, quantitative tools of monetary policy, financial soundness, the CAMEL model, Iraq Stock Exchange Market.

Opinions of Investors on Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (NEPSE) Online Trading System

Nepal Stock Exchange Limited (NEPSE) is only a secondary market in Nepal. After almost three decades of its establishment, the NEPSE trading system turned fully automated on January 17, 2021. The new system is named NEPSE Online Trading System (NOTS), which was launched on November 6, 2018. After the breakout of the COVID-19, the NOTS users using NEPSE online Trade Management System (TMS) and Uniform Resource Locator (URL) increased due to the nation-wide lockdown as well as the compulsion from the governing body. Hence, the paper attempts to get opinions from the NOTS users about its features and performance. The paper has taken 300 NOTS users as samples for the survey purpose. The online survey was conducted for the study. A 5–points Likert scale-based questionnaire was forwarded to the potential online traders (investors) through an online platform such as messenger and email. The study has followed descriptive statistics and a one-sample t-test to interpret the collected data from the NOTS users. The study found that there is an issue of the market data display in the NOTS platform, which needs to be addressed as soon as possible. At the same time, the respondents stated that the best parts of NOTS were that it has helped them to specify and customize the securities, price, and volume that one would like to trade on a real-time basis.

Calcium looping for power generation with CO2 capture: The potential of sorbent storage for improved economic performance and flexibility

Abstract The aim of this work is to investigate the potential of calcium looping (CaL) CO2 capture system for power plants with sorbent storage, for flexible and low-emission power generation from coal. Two different CaL systems have been analyzed for CO2 capture from a reference pulverized coal power plant: (i) a Baseline CaL system and (ii) a FlexiCaL system with sorbent storage. The sorbent storage systems can be exploited in two ways: the primary storage system allows to decouple the carbonator and the calciner load and reduce the size of the calciner island; the secondary storage unit allows to increase/reduce the maximum/minimum power output of the plant for improved grid services. Heat and mass balances have been computed at different loads with process simulation software, considering the off-design operation of the main plant components. A simplified economic analysis has been carried out to compute the cost of electricity and estimate the economic benefits of the primary sorbent storage system for a given power generation profile. The method used in this work allowed to compute the off-design behaviour of the CaL power plant the with the highest accuracy among the literature studies and to understand the potential of the secondary solids storage to provide grid services for the first time. The part-load analysis provided insights on the design of the carbonator reactor, that should limit the heat transfer surface in the riser to avoid excessive reactor cooling at part-load. Conversely, reaction heat should preferably be extracted from the external heat exchangers, where the heat transfer rate can be controlled more easily. From the thermodynamic standpoint, the two CaL plants feature similar efficiency on weekly cycling basis. The secondary storage allows increased operativity of the FlexiCaL plant on the secondary market, thanks to +2% of maximum power and -5% of minimum power output. The primary storage system allows reducing the capital cost of the CaL system, leading to LCOE reduction by 4-5% compared to the Baseline case, in a wide range of carbon tax and plant availability.

Information-based Market Manipulation and Wealth Transfer Effect: Evidence from Insiders’ Shares Selling

Recently, a large number of cases show that information-based market manipulation has become a serious problem in China’s capital market. Information-based market manipulation involves the distribution of information as a mean of boosting stock prices. Different from traditional market manipulation, information-based market manipulation involves both listed companies and institutional investors in the secondary market. Institutional investors usually collude with executives from listed companies to disseminate information to boost share prices before dumping their holdings. Information-based market manipulation has longer-term and wider-ranging effects on the stock market, which is more likely to mislead market participants and wealth transfer.Prior research indicates that insiders time their trades strategically around voluntary disclosures to maximize their wealth. However, there is little evidence to show the association between information-based market manipulation and wealth transfer. This is the question we want to examine in this paper. Instead of treating voluntary disclosures as exogenous, we consider information disclosure as a strategic plan that allows insiders to profitably trade in their companies’ stocks. Specifically, we investigate whether managers change the timing or content of information disclosure in response to insider trading considerations.Using insider selling activities in China’s A-share market between 2008 and 2016, this paper examines the effect of information-based market manipulation and wealth transfer, including its characteristics, motivation and economic consequences. Empirical analysis shows that information-based market manipulation happens during insider selling, as shown by the distribution of good news and abnormal stock price movements. The motivation of information-based market manipulation is wealth transfer. Taking advantage of the release of misleading good news, insiders sell their shares when stock prices go up. Insider selling activities cannot be explained by liquidity improvement as insiders would buy these stocks when stock prices go down. As to economic consequences, stock prices continue to fall and the future performance get worse after information-based market manipulation. This reflects that the distribution of good news during insider selling tends to deceive investors.The contribution of this paper is threefold. Firstly, it reveals a new path that the captical market may affect the real economy. We find that managers may distort companies’ production and operation activities in order to sell their shares at a high price. Secondly, it expands the existing literature on market manipulation by studying the relationship between information-based market manipulation and wealth transfer during the period of insiders’ shares selling. This paper is the first empirical study on information-based market manipulation based on big data in China, which supplements the existing literature mainly based on case analysis or theoretical analysis. Thirdly, the results show that information disclosure arbitrage may be the root of market mispricing, which provides new evidence for the debate and reasons about the divergence between the virtual economy and the real economy. The findings of this paper also have important implications for the regulation of information-based market manipulation and insider trading.

Cheapest-to-Deliver Pricing, Optimal MBS Securitization, and Market Quality

We study optimal securitization and its impact on market quality when the secondary market structure leads to cheapest-to-deliver pricing in the context of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS). A majority of MBS are traded in the to-be-announced (TBA) market, which concentrates trading of heterogeneous MBS into a few liquid TBA contracts but induces adverse selection. We find that lenders segregate loans of like values into separate pools and tend to trade low-value MBS in the TBA market and high-value MBS outside the TBA market. We then present a model of optimal securitization for agency MBS. Lenders do not internalize the negative impact of such pooling and trading strategies on TBA market quality and thus create too many high-value MBS, which leads to more heterogeneity in MBS values, more adverse selection, and lower TBA liquidity. Lastly, we provide empirical evidence consistent with model predictions on how MBS pooling changes with trading costs and underlying loan value dispersion and how pooling practices affect MBS heterogeneity and TBA market adverse selection.

Credit Funds Regulation in the EU and the Debate on NPLs and AMCs

In the current EU legislative framework for investment funds - UCITS Directive and AIFMD - credit funds have rightly been singled out as something quite unique. In fact, they stand at the crossroads of capital markets’ and credit institutions’ regulations, playing a role of both an investor in a particular asset class, and of a credit facility provider. They may also effectively perform other functions, such as those of securitization vehicles, or comparable to Asset Management Companies (“AMCs”) for the management and processing of non-performing loans. They are, therefore, hybrid creatures, difficult to regulate and, sometimes, to understand. This is due not only to the absence of any specific product regulation in the context of the AIFMD, but also to the uncertainties surrounding the notion of “credit” and “credit granting” in EU law. Within the EU, legislation on credit funds developed, until now, in a haphazard manner. Absent a clear reference scheme, the result is unsatisfactory, and far from being able to integrate EU Markets in this respect. Further, more robust harmonization is therefore needed in this area, now more than ever in the context of the debate on the effects of the pandemic and the management of NPLs. The paper aims to provide sufficient evidence to support these assumptions, also taking into account the lively debate on the role of Asset Management Companies and the development of an efficient secondary market for loans in the EU.

АУКЦІОННА ТОРГІВЛЯ ДЕРЖАВНИМ І КОРПОРАТИВНИМ БОРГОМ В УМОВАХ КРИЗИ

Анотація. Аукціонна торгівля борговими зобов’язаннями найчастіше використовується в умовах розгортання кризових явищ. Ринок облігацій, державний борг і борг приватних структур виступають як об’єкти емпіричних і науково-прикладних досліджень. Метою нашої наукової роботи є визначення особливостей аукціонної торгівлі і державної боргової політики в умовах кризових ситуацій на основі узагальнення закордонного і вітчизняного досвіду, дослідження процесів вибору форматів аукціонної торгівлі борговими зобов’язаннями на вторинному ринку цінних паперів (ЦП) та управління факторами для усунення викривленості такої торгівлі на фінансових ринках, що сприятиме економічному зростанню. Визначено, що в певному інституційному середовищі розвитку вторинного ринку ЦП, де потенційними покупцями боргових ЦП є інвестиційні організації і банки, у т. ч. іноземні, сучасна практика аукціонної торгівлі і нові формати її проведення супроводжуються встановленням нових правил торгів, зростаючим значенням приватної цінності об’єкта й інформаційного супроводу аукціону. В умовах цифровізації економіки і формалізації взаємопов’язаних процесів і трансакцій на фінансових ринках адекватним має бути механізм аукціонної торгівлі. Доведено, що механізм удосконалення практики аукціонної торгівлі і розширення масштабів упровадження нових форматів її проведення неможливі без узгодження інтересів інвесторів, емітентів і різних зацікавлених сторін для усунення викривленості аукціонних торгів борговими зобов’язаннями на фінансових ринках. Виявлено значні відхилення в темпах росту ВВП і державних боргів, зокрема в Польщі, Японії і в Україні, що пояснюються рівнем довіри до держави і спеціалізованих інституцій з управління боргами, цільовою орієнтацією довгострокової економічної стратегії і монетарної політики в умовах кризових ситуацій, зокрема у країнах ЄС і в Україні. Визначено напрями подальших науково-прикладних досліджень для цілей підвищення гнучкості системи аукціонних торгів борговими зобов’язаннями в умовах кризи і посилення їхнього позитивного впливу на економічне зростання. Ключові слова: аукціонна торгівля, криза економіки, боргові цінні папери, державний борг, вторинний ринок, інвестор, фінансовий ринок, економічне зростання Формул: 0; рис.: 5; табл.: 0; бібл.: 28.

Funding liquidity and market liquidity in government bonds

Using a comprehensive dataset of orders and trades in the Indian government bond market, this study presents new evidence on the effect of funding liquidity on market liquidity. We find no evidence that lower short-term interest rates – the key instruments of monetary policy – boost market liquidity. However, consistent with models that stress the role of intermediary capital, we find that market liquidity measures have a strong, positive association with short-term borrowing by primary dealers. We provide additional evidence linking these firms’ borrowing to their balance sheet strength and secondary market participation. The results suggest that localized funding conditions specific to marginal suppliers of intermediation services are more important for market liquidity than the broader economy-wide funding environment.

The Interaction of Bankers’ Asset and Liability Management with Liquidity Concerns

This paper develops a dynamic general equilibrium model on the interaction of bankers’ asset and liability management with liquidity concerns. Bankers screen real production projects and issue deposit contracts. Liquidity concerns stem from endogenized early withdrawals of deposits. To fulfill early withdrawals, bankers sell assets in a secondary market. The paper argues that ex post asymmetric information in the secondary market distorts bankers’ incentive to screen ex ante, as bad assets are easier to sell and generate liquidity benefits. Moreover, the general equilibrium feature of the model implies that exogenous aggregate productivity shocks are amplified and that booms may lead to busts.

Pengaruh Good Corporate Governance, Reputasi Underwriter Dan Roa Terhadap Underpricing Tahun 2016-2019

One of the phenomena that occur in Indonesia capital market is underpricing. The underpricing phenomenon occurs when IPO shares are priced lower in the primary market than the closing price on the secondary market. The high level of underpricing can be detrimental to the company because the additional capital obtained through the IPO is not optimal, while the beneficiaries are investors because they get the initial return. This study purpose was to examine the influence of the components of Good Corporate Governance which include the board of commissioners, the independent board of commissioners, the board of directors and ownership concentration, non-financial variables, namely underwriter reputation and financial variables, namely Return On Assets (ROA) on underpricing. Samples were taken using the purposive sampling method. The number of samples finally used was 123 companies from all company sectors that conducted IPOs on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the 2016-2019 period and experienced underpricing. This study used secondary data obtained from the prospectus, annual report, e-bursa and IDX Factbook in 2016-2019. The results of the multiple linear regression test show that variables including the board of commissioners, independent board of commissioners, board of directors and ROA have a significant negative effect on underpricing which means the larger/higher these variables can minimize underpricing. While the concentration of ownership and underwriter’s reputation did not influence underpricing.

The Information Externality of Public Firms’ Financial Information in the State‐Bond Secondary Market

ABSTRACTThis study provides evidence on the role of public firms’ financial reports in the state‐bond secondary market. I investigate the informational role of corporate earnings announcements and find that public firms’ monthly earnings signals aggregated to the state level are positively associated with contemporaneous state‐bond returns. Further analyses reveal that public firms’ earnings announcements predict traditional economic indicators and contain incremental information that is independent of the traditional economic indicators. In cross‐sectional analyses, I show that the earnings–returns relation is especially pronounced when bondholders face longer investment horizons and higher credit risks. Taken together, the evidence indicates a positive externality of corporate financial reports in alleviating the opacity in the municipal bond secondary market.

Barrick Gold Corporation: A New Source of Instability for the Secondary Market Liability Regime?

The secondary market statutory liability regime was integrated over fifteen years ago in Canadian securities legislation after a long a winding road that can be traced back to the 1980s. The statutory liability regime has proved elusive. From a doctrinal perspective, the arcane drafting of the provisions governing the regime have raised a host of questions with respect to its procedural and substantive dimensions. Further compounding the interpretative challenges, case law concerning the statutory regime has essentially resulted from decisions at the leave stage.From a policy perspective, the effectiveness of the regime remains debated in light of the low volume of cases filed over the last fifteen years, as well as the conservative stances taken by courts in their interpretation of the regime. Against this backdrop, the recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Drywall Acoustic Lathing and Insulation, Local 675 Pension Fund v. Barrick Gold Corporation deserves particular attention. The decision is significant as it proposes a novel interpretation of the conditions to establish a cause of action under the regime that does away with the public correction requirement. As this comment argues, the Court of Appeal’s position does not accord with the statutory scheme and is susceptible of raising new difficulties at the leave stage. Also noteworthy in the decision is the Court of Appeal’s approach for assessing the existence of a public correction. This comment questions the criteria proposed to conduct the analysis – and used by prior case law – which departs from the concept of materiality as defined by the Supreme Court Canada in Sharbern Holding.

Trading costs of private debt

We use institutional trade and dealer quote data to estimate transaction costs in the over-the-counter leveraged loan market. In the time series, we find an asymmetric response of transaction costs to loan market returns: negative market returns increase costs much more than positive returns decrease them. In the cross-section, our results support the inventory holding costs and adverse selection paradigms of price formation. As expected for a market without the governance role of securities laws and any regulatory oversight, the level of informed trading is high. Finally, liquidity is marginally priced in secondary market loan spreads, as predicted by classic asset pricing theory.

Underpricing Process of IPOs in Tunis Stock Exchange: An Agent-Based Modelling Approach

The fundamental problematic treated in our study was an attempt to explain an anomaly in the issuance of new stocks in IPOs process. The objective of this research is to analyze the effect of certain variables on the level of undervaluation by presenting certain econometric models issued from Agent-based modelling approach. Certain variables can be predictive of the phenomenon of undervaluation such as: the Stock equity distributed to institutional investors, liquidity in the secondary market measured by the price range and the type of investor who can be insiders or outsiders, in addition to these variables we have introduced some control variables which in turn help explain the level of underpricing and which are the age of the company, its size and dimension, the volume of trade and the volatility. Empirically and based on a sample of 16 companies, we were able to respond to our problematic. In fact, according to the hypotheses tests, the prices of the newly introduced stocks on the stock exchange are mostly undervalued which were aligned with our study. Thereby, the methodology adopted based to Dynamic linear models (DLM) that allows offering a very generic framework to analyse time series data. The results of this research were, in part, consistent with work done in developed countries (especially in USA and Europe). Indeed, the undervaluation is in a positive relationship with certain explanatory variables such as the Institutional ownership (INST), Insiders ownership (INSID), Price range (FOUR), etc. On the other hand, we were able to identify significant negative relationships between the initial undervaluation and the basic variable Outsiders ownership (OUTSID), the size of companies listed on the Tunis Stock exchange (BVMT) and the volume of issued stocks.

State Support of Mortgage Lending as a Condition for Ensuring Stable Development of the National Economy

The issues of state support of mortgage lending in Ukraine as a tool to stimulate the housing market, expand the opportunities of a wide range of citizens to meet housing needs and ensure the stable development of the national economy are considered. The fragmentation of the state housing policy and various instruments of state support for housing market participants are noted. Emphasis is placed on the significant unrealized potential of the construction sector, whose contribution to the domestic economy is three times smaller than the European average. The state and dynamics of the housing stock of Ukraine, the development of which remains highly sensitive to changes in the economy, are analysed. The problem of inaccessibility of mortgage lending for the general population is emphasized, which is mitigated both by market decisions of banks to reduce real mortgage rates and government initiatives to introduce and improve programs for affordable loans and housing. The practice of state programs in the housing market is analysed and the preservation of problems of their effective implementation is noted, including limited and instability of financing, the ambiguity of participation conditions, narrow target orientation, the inconsistency of responsibility of program participants. The peculiarities of the current mortgage lending are determined, among which the increase of new mortgage loans, the dominance of agreements on the secondary market, the limited number of mortgage lending banks, the provision of mortgage loans for a short period. New government initiatives to stimulate mortgage lending are considered, among the positive aspects of which is the priority of reducing the % of loan servicing, harmonization of relevant regulations, clarification of the procedure for participation. It is proposed to apply a systematic approach to the development of state support programs, which will be based on priorities by stimulating the growth of incomes and solvency of broad sections of citizens and the involvement of innovative developers in programs.