Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overview of contract farming in Thailand: Lessons learned

Contract farming is a means to assist small growers in gaining market access and reducing price risk, and as such it has attracted attention from development agencies and governments in developing countries. This paper reviews literature related to contract farming in Thailand and adds updated information based on field visits in 2007. Special attention is given to roles played by government in the initial stage of contract farming development. Conclusively, it is important for the public sector to create a favorable environment and infrastructure to encourage investment in agribusiness and to coordinate the concerned parties to raise agricultural productivity. The paper also evaluates the effectiveness of contract farming as a means to stabilize farmers’ income and strategize agricultural development. The findings show that while the poorest farmers were not excluded from contract farming, special measures may be needed to encourage their full participation. In the long run, small farmers were able to accumulate production and management skills, thus improving their bargaining position. Together with improved infrastructure and a more competitive market due to farmers’ innovation, the farmers’ best choice may include non-contract production. JEL Classification: Q13, Q17, L14 ADBI Discussion Paper 112 Sriboonchitta and Wiboonpoongse
Response of the Amazon carbon balance to the 2010 drought derived with CarbonTracker South America

Two major droughts in the past decade had large impacts on carbon exchange in the Amazon. Recent analysis of vertical profile measurements of atmospheric CO2 and CO by Gatti et al. (2014) suggests that the 2010 drought turned the normally close‐to‐neutral annual Amazon carbon balance into a substantial source of nearly 0.5 PgC/yr, revealing a strong drought response. In this study, we revisit this hypothesis and interpret not only the same CO2/CO vertical profile measurements but also additional constraints on carbon exchange such as satellite observations of CO, burned area, and fire hot spots. The results from our CarbonTracker South America data assimilation system suggest that carbon uptake by vegetation was indeed reduced in 2010 but that the magnitude of the decrease strongly depends on the estimated 2010 and 2011 biomass burning emissions. We have used fire products based on burned area (Global Fire Emissions Database version 4), satellite‐observed CO columns (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer), fire radiative power (Global Fire Assimilation System version 1), and fire hot spots (Fire Inventory from NCAR version 1), and found an increase in biomass burning emissions in 2010 compared to 2011 of 0.16 to 0.24 PgC/yr. We derived a decrease of biospheric uptake ranging from 0.08 to 0.26 PgC/yr, with the range determined from a set of alternative inversions using different biomass burning estimates. Our numerical analysis of the 2010 Amazon drought results in a total reduction of carbon uptake of 0.24 to 0.50 PgC/yr and turns the balance from carbon sink to source. Our findings support the suggestion that the hydrological cycle will be an important driver of future changes in Amazonian carbon exchange.
Debris flows over sand dunes on Mars: Evidence for liquid water

[1] This study focuses on the formation and physical properties of the gullies observed over large Martian dunes, especially those of the Russell crater (54°S, 347°W). Geomorphic features like sinuosities and connections of the channels show that gullies over dunes involve flows with a significant proportion of liquid. The occurrence of levees implies that these flows are debris flows with a yield strength characteristics of Bingham plastic materials. We apply terrestrial methods to estimate viscosity and velocity of these flows from levee size and sinuosities. We obtain average velocities in the range of 1 to 7 m s−1 and apparent viscosities of 2.8 to 46,000 Pa s, with an average at 740 Pa s, compared with the 0.001 Pa s of pure water. These viscosities and velocities are in the range of terrestrial debris flows with a proportion of 10 to 40% of H2O. These properties are typical of water-holding debris flows but not of pure water surface runoff or CO2 driven flows. The debris flows over dunes are oriented on south-facing slopes like other recent gullies. Meltwater from ground ice formed during a recent period of high obliquity is the more likely explanation for the formation of such flows over dunes.
Comparative Studies of Electrospinning and Solution Blow Spinning Processes for the Production of Nanofibrous Poly(L-Lactic Acid) Materials for Biomedical Engineering

Abstract Comparative statistical analysis of the infiuence of processing parameters, for electrospinning (ES) and solution blow spinning (SBS) processes, on nanofibrous poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) material morphology and average fiber diameter was conducted in order to identify the key processing parameter for tailoring the product properties. Further, a comparative preliminary biocompatibility evaluation was performed. Based on Design of Experiment (DOE) principles, analysis of standard effects of voltage, air pressure, solution feed rate and concentration, on nanofibers average diameter was performed with the Pareto’s charts and the best fitted surface charts. Nanofibers were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The preliminary biocompatibility comparative tests were performed based on SEM microphotographs of CP5 cells cultured on materials derived from ES and SBS. Polymer solution concentration was identified as the key parameter infiuencing morphology and dimensions of nanofibrous mat produced from both techniques. In both cases, when polymer concentration increases the average fiber diameter increase. The preliminary biocompatibility test suggests that nanofibers produced by ES as well as SBS are suitable as the biomedical engineering scaffold material.
Casticin inhibits growth and enhances ionizing radiation–induced apoptosis through the suppression of STAT3 signaling cascade

Casticin (CTC), one of the major components of Vitex rotundifolia L. , has been reported to exert significant beneficial pharmacological activities and can function as an antiprolactin, anticancer, anti‐inflammatory, neuroprotective, analgesic, and immunomodulatory agent. This study aimed at investigating whether the proapoptotic effects of CTC may be mediated through the abrogation of signal transducers and activators of transcription‐3 (STAT3) signaling pathway in a variety of human tumor cells. We found that CTC significantly decreased cell viability in a concentration‐dependent manner and suppressed cell proliferation in 786‐O, YD‐8, and HN‐9 cells. CTC also induced programmed cell death that was found to be mediated via caspase‐3 activation and induction of poly(ADP‐ribose) polymerase cleavage. Interestingly, CTC repressed both constitutive and interleukin‐6‐induced STAT3 activation in 786‐O and YD‐8 cells but only affected constitutive STAT3 phosphorylation in HN‐9 cells. Moreover, CTC could potentiate ionizing radiation–induced apoptotic effects leading to the downregulation of STAT3 activation and thus may be used in combination with radiation against diverse malignancies.
Teaching conceptions and approaches: do qualitative results support survey data?

espanolEste estudio analiza las concepciones y enfoques de ensenanza de profesores de secundaria en formacion medidos cuantitativa y cualitativamente con el fin de constatar hasta que punto los resultados coinciden. Asimismo, se compararon los cambios en concepciones y enfoques hacia una orientacion centrada en el docente o en el estudiante al finalizar un programa de formacion pedagogica. Metodo: 25 participantes rellenaron una escala sobre enfoques de ensenanza y contestaron preguntas abiertas en cuanto a su concepcion de la ensenanza al inicio y final del programa. Resultados y conclusiones: Inconsistencias en los resultados sugieren que la investigacion sobre ensenanza y aprendizaje, particularmente aquella sobre concepciones y enfoques, debe emplear una combinacion de tecnicas para asegurar que los fenomenos se examinan con precision. EnglishThis study examined preservice teachers’ teaching conceptions and approaches measured quantitatively and qualitatively in order to identify any convergence of findings. Additionally, any changes in conceptions and approaches towards a student- or teacher-centred orientation upon completion of a training course were compared. Method: Preservice teachers completed a scale on approaches to teaching and answered open-ended questions on teaching before and after an initial teacher training programme. Results and conclusions: Inconsistencies in the results suggest that research on teaching and learning should use a combination of techniques in order to ensure that phenomena are accurately examined so that appropriate educational decisions are made.
Linking images and words: the description of specialized concepts

A crucial issue in terminology management is how specialized concepts should be represented so as to provide the user with an adequate understanding of their meaning as well as sufficient knowledge of their location within the general conceptual structure of a scientific or technical domain. Such a conceptual representation should contain information in various formats. In this regard, linguistic and graphic descriptions of specialized entities play a major role in knowledge representation, especially when both converge to highlight the multidimensional nature of concepts as well as the conceptual relations within a specialized domain. In this article, we explore the nature of the links between the linguistic and graphic description of specialized concepts. In a multimodal conceptual description, we believe that the structured information in terminographic definitions should mesh with the visual information in images for a better understanding of complex and dynamic concept systems.
Corporate Failure Prediction Modeling: Distorted by Business Groups' Internal Capital Markets?

Most models in the bankruptcy prediction literature implicitly assume companies are stand-alone entities. However, in view of the importance of business groups in Continental Europe, ignoring group ties may have a negative impact on predictive reliability. We find that models encompassing both bankruptcy variables defined at subsidiary level and at group level have a substantially better fit and classification performance. Furthermore we find that the group's support causes improved survival chances for subsidiaries, especially when these subsidiaries belong to the group's core business. Overall our results are consistent with existing theoretical and empirical findings from the internal capital markets literature.
Stochastic Implications of the Life Cycle-Permanent Income Hypothesis: Theory and Evidence

Optimization of the part of consumers is shown to imply that the marginal utility of consumption evolves according to a random walk with trend. To a reasonable approximation, consumption itself should evolve in the same way. In particular, no variable apart from current consumption should be of any value in predicting future consumption. This implication is tested with time-series data for the postwar United States. It is confirmed for real disposable income, which has no predictive power for consumption, but rejected for an index of stock prices. The paper concludes that the evidence supports a modified version of the life cycle--permanent income hypothesis.
Intercomparison of physical models and observations of the ionosphere

Five physical models of the ionosphere were compared with each other and with data obtained at the Millstone Hill Observatory. Two of the models were self-consistent ionosphere- thermosphere models, while for the other ionospheric models the thermospheric parameters were provided by empirical inputs. The comparisons were restricted to midlatitudes and low geomagnetic activity, but four geophysical cases were considered that covered both the summer and winter solstices at solar maximum and minimum. The original motivation of the study was to determine why several physical models consistently underestimated the F region peak electron density, by up to a factor of 2, in the midlatitude, daytime ionosphere at solar maximum. This problem was resolved, but the resolution did not identify a lack of physics in any of the models. Instead, various chemical reaction rates, photoionization processes, and diffusion coefficients had to be adjusted, with the main one being the adoption of the Burnside factor of 1.7 for the diffusion coefficients. The subsequent comparisons of the models and data were for "standard" simulations in which uncertain inputs or processes were not adjusted to get better agreement with the data. For these comparisons, the five models displayed diurnal variations that, in general, agreed with the measurements. However, each one of the five models exhibited a clear deficiency in at least one of the four geophysical cases that was not common to the other models. Therefore, contrary to expectations, the coupled ionosphere-thermosphere models were not found to be superior to the uncoupled ionospheric models for the cases considered. The spread in NmF 2 calculated by the five models was typically less than a factor of 2 during the day but was as large as a factor of 10 at certain local times during the night. The latter problem was traced to insufficient nocturnal maintenance processes in two of the uncoupled ionospheric models. The general findings of this study have important implications for the National Space Weather Program.
Modelling the impact of agroforestry on hydrology of Mara River Basin in East Africa

Land‐use change is one of the main drivers of watershed hydrology change. The effect of forestry related land‐use changes (e.g. afforestation, deforestation, agroforestry) on water fluxes depends on climate, watershed characteristics and spatial scale. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was calibrated, validated and used to simulate the impact of agroforestry on the water balance in the Mara River Basin (MRB) in East Africa. Model performance was assessed by Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and Kling–Gupta Efficiency (KGE). The NSE (and KGE) values for calibration and validation were: 0.77 (0.88) and 0.74 (0.85) for the Nyangores sub‐watershed, and 0.78 (0.89) and 0.79 (0.63) for the entire MRB. It was found that agroforestry in the watershed would generally reduce surface runoff, mainly because of enhanced infiltration. However, it would also increase evapotranspiration and consequently reduce baseflow and overall water yield, which was attributed to increased water use by trees. Spatial scale was found to have a significant effect on water balance; the impact of agroforestry was higher at the smaller headwater catchment (Nyangores) than for the larger watershed (entire MRB). However, the rate of change in water yield with an increase in area under agroforestry was different for the two and could be attributed to the spatial variability of climate within the MRB. Our results suggest that direct extrapolation of the findings from a small sub‐catchment to a larger watershed may not always be accurate. These findings could guide watershed managers on the level of trade‐offs that might occur between reduced water yields and other benefits (e.g. soil erosion control, improved soil productivity) offered by agroforestry. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Provision of Management Incentives in Bankrupt Firms

This paper examines the use of key employee retention and incentive plans (KERPs) in bankrupt firms. We find that firms in Chapter 11 are more likely to offer KERPs when firms are located in thicker employment markets, when creditors have strong control, and when bankrupt firms have complex operations and claim structures. Newly hired turnaround specialists are more likely to be covered by KERPs than incumbent CEOs. Objectives set by incentive plans are strongly linked to the probability of emergence. Our results suggest that KERPs are an efficient contracting solution to the problem of retaining and incentivizing key employees in bankruptcy.
What can we lean about GPDs from light meson leptoproduction experiments

On the basis of the handbag approach we study cross sections and spin asymmetries for leptoproduction of various vector and pseudoscalar mesons. Our results are in good agrement with high energy experiments. We analyse what information about Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) can be obtained from these reactions.
Learning Networks in Innovation Systems at Sector / Regional Level in Argentina: Winery and Dairy Industries

This work studies how the set of relationships that gives place to the learning processes is established in the food industry in Argentina. A theoretical ad hoc approach is adopted, conjugating the concepts of innovation systems at sector / regional level with some context considerations like the innovative behaviour of the global and local food industry and a description of the public and private S&T in Argentina. The study is focused in two cases: the wine industry, at the Mendoza province, and the dairy products industry at the centre of the Santa Fe province, both in Argentina. While the winery industry at the province of Mendoza exports differentiated products the dairy industry, at the central basin of the province of Santa Fe, exports commodities leaving differentiated (functional) products for the domestic market. These facts determine different dynamics between them, despite of what the established set of relationships is very complex and knowledge intensive in both cases. Also, in both cases the preponderant contribution of the public institutions of science and technology as knowledge and technology source is flagged.
The Biology, Development, and Host Distribution of Epifoliar Fungi in the Mangrove Ferns (Acrostichum aureum) of Mo'orea, French Polynesia

Epifoliar fungi are understudied, despite high prevalence across plant tissue. In this study, conducted on the island of Mo’orea, French Polynesia, an epifoliar fungus found on a high diversity of native leaves was identified and characterized. The rate of development was tracked and the characteristics of colonization were determined on mangrove ferns. Environmental conditions did not affect distribution, but did affect the growth rate of the fungal fruiting body. Host distribution was also surveyed and the fungi primarily occurred on naturalized plants. The potential use of this fungus as a bioindicator of plant and habitat health will be discussed.
Consumer driven supply chains: the case of Dutch organic tomato

Supply chain management refers to the efficient integration of various processes involved in turning resources into consumer products. Effectiveness of the supply chain is more easily understood in terms of Value Chain Management, and the integration of processes that turn resources into consumer value. The current paper reports two studies into the value chain of organic produce in The Netherlands. The paper combines two different research approaches to study which consumer motives and values are the main drivers of organic consumption. In a qualitative laddering (N=72) study, three distinct groups of motives were identified. These motives are centred around hedonic, benevolent, and universalist values. In a quantitative survey (N=1453), the importance of naturalness and environmental friendliness as primary driver for organic was confirmed. The study reconfirms earlier findings that health and taste are important motives driving organic food consumption, and that next to this environmental friendliness and naturalness are important drivers. More fundamentally, the consumption value of organic food is strongly related to social and ethical principles and beliefs. By committing itself to superior ethical performance the organic supply chain could create a competitive advantage that is not easily copied by competing products.
Individual Ownership and Ex-Dividend Day Price Drop Ratio: Lessons from the US Tax Act 2003

This study examines the reaction of share prices to firm ownership structure on the ex-dividend day for listed firms in the United States (US) from 2002 to 2010. This period includes the implementation of the US Tax Act 2003, which equalised individual investor tax rates on dividend and capital gains. Using a cross-sectional methodology and market-adjusted model, evidence shows that the average ex-day price drop ratio increases after the US Tax Act 2003. This study also finds evidence that ex-dividend day pricing forms a negative concave function of firms’ individual ownership. This evidence strongly supports the tax-induced dynamic trading theory and is consistent with both tax clientele and short-selling hypotheses. This evidence also reveals that dividend capturing may occur around ex-day, where firms are partially owned by personal shareholders. These findings may be relevant to the Malaysian stocks under the single-tier tax system in Malaysia.Keywords: Ex-Dividend Day Pricing, Individual Ownership, Price Drop Ratio, US Tax Act 2003JEL Classification: G10, G35
Influence of Small Amounts of Additives on Gas Hold-Up, Bubble Size, and Interfacial Area

The gas−liquid interfacial area, which is determined by the gas hold-up and the Sauter mean bubble diameter, determines the production rate in many industrial processes. The effect of additives on this interfacial area is, especially in multiphase systems (gas−liquid−solid, gas−liquid−liquid), often not understood. The addition of a third phase can cause the gas−liquid system to become completely opaque, which means that conventional techniques to study the interfacial area cannot be used. For this reason ultrasonic spectroscopy was used in this work to study the interfacial area and the bubble size distribution in these systems. The influence of different additives on the interfacial area was studied in a stirred vessel and in a bubble column under coalescing and noncoalescing conditions. It was found that the addition of toluene to a noncoalescing electrolyte system decreased the interfacial area to a large extent by turning it into a coalescing system, due to the interaction between gas bubbles and liquid organic droplets. Furthermore, around the toluene solubility concentration, both the gas hold-up (measured using an electric conductivity technique) and the interfacial area increased to values similar to those observed in noncoalescing systems. The cause of this remarkable phenomenon lies probably in the presence of a small toluene layer around the gas bubbles, which can be formed beyond the solubility point. This layer is absent at concentrations below the solubility limit and a large surface tension gradient exists between those two situations, which can be responsible for the sharp change in coalescence behavior.
Dissipative phenomena in extended-body interactions - I. Methods: Dwarf galaxies of the Local Group and their synthetic CMDs

Aims. Dissipative phenomena occurring during the orbital evolution of a dwarf satellite galaxy around a host galaxy may leave signatures in the star formation activity and signatures in the colour-magnitude diagram of the galaxy stellar content. Our goal is to reach a simple and qualitative description of these complicated phenomena. Methods. We develop an analytical and numerical technique able to study the ram pressure, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, RayleighTaylor, and tidal forces acting on the star formation processes in molecular clouds. We consider it with synthetic colour-magnitude diagram techniques. Results. We developed a method of investigating the connections between gas consumption processes and star formation processes in the context of the two extended-body interactions, paying special attention to the dwarf galaxies dynamical regime.