Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temporal Reliability of Estimates from Contingent Valuation

In 1992 the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) convened a panel of prominent social scientists to assess the reliability of natural resource damage estimates derived from contingent valuation (CV). The product of the panel's deliberations was a report that laid out a set of recommended guidelines for CV survey design, administration, and data analysis. This paper focuses on one of these guidelines -- the Panel's call for the "temporal averaging" of willingness-to-pay (WTP) responses obtained from CV surveys as one method for increasing their reliability. The panel suggested: "Time dependent measurement noise should be reduced by averaging across independently drawn samples taken at different points in time. A clear and substantial time trend in the responses would cast doubt on the 'reliability' of the finding. " The purpose of this paper is to examine the temporal reliability of CV estimates. Our findings, using a CV instrument designed to measure willingness-to-pay for a program to protect Prince William Sound, Alaska from future oil spills, like the Exxon Valdez spill, exhibited no significant sensitivity to the timing of the interviews. For two samples involving independent interviews taken over two years apart, the distribution of respondents' choices "for" and "against" the protection program did not differ.
Formal and Informal Institutions in a Transition Economy : The Case of Vietnam LIESBET STEER Overseas Development

— We examine the role of informal and formal institutions behind the growth of private sector in Vietnam since the official recognition of private enterprises in the early 1990s. We show that firms have increasingly taken on risks in their transactions in spite of weak formal institutions. Risk-taking by firms can be explained by the use of informal institutions such as relational contracts and networks along with recourse to emerging formal institutions such as written contracts. Our results suggest that informal institutions remain important as mechanisms of risk management even as the economy matures and new formal institutions gradually develop. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
UTILIZATION OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF DISTILLERS DRIED GRAINS WITH SOLUBLES (DDGS) IN LOCAL LAYING HEN DIETS

This study aimed to investigate the effect of inclusion of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) in the laying hens’ diets on productive and reproductive performance, some egg quality traits, nutrients digestibility and some blood parameters. A total number of 90 Inshas hens and nine Inshas cocks, 28 week-old were randomly distributed into three groups and fed the experimental diets contained 0.0, 10 and 20% DDGS. The results showed that DDGS inclusion in the diet insignificant impact on rate of laying and egg mass, egg weight, feed consumption and feed conversion ratio as compared to the control group during the whole experimental period (28-48 wks of age). Egg quality traits were insignificantly affected due to feeding DDGS, whereas yolk color was significantly increased by feeding 20% DDGS diet as compared to the control. Nutrients digestibility were not affected by feeding 10% DDGS in the diet. Plasma constituents including plasma protein, indices of liver and renal function, uric acid, lipid metabolites and phosphorus were not significantly affected by feeding different levels of DDGS in the diet, but plasma calcium significantly decreased when 20% DDGS was fed and this concurred with a reduction in eggshell quality (relative weight of shell and shell-thickness). In conclusion, the present results showed that the use of DDGS can be successfully fed up to 20 % in Inshas laying hen diets without any adverse effect on laying hen performance, nutrients digestibility, egg quality and plasma constituents and economical efficiency.
Assessment of morphological and nutritional attributes of two varieties of Ipomoea batatas (L.) utilized in Nigeria

Received: 19 November 2018 Revised received: 27 November 2018 Accepted: 30 November 2018 Morphological and nutritional studies were carried out on various parts of the two varieties of Ipomoea batatas (white fleshed TIS 87/0087 and orange fleshed UMUSPO/3) to determine their morphological and nutritional characteristics using standard techniques. Analysis of variance was employed for data analysis. Result revealed that the two varieties had similar qualitative morphological features but showed variation in their length, breadth, colour and girth. The result of the proximate analysis revealed that the nutrients were present in all the parts of the two varieties investigated but in varied proportions. Protein, fat and ash were highest in the leaves of both varieties when compared to other parts (12.13±0.20mg/100g, 3.92±0.14mg/100g and 2.85±0.06mg/100g of I. batatas respectively. Moisture and carbohydrate were highest in the tubers of both varieties when compared to other parts (10.73±0.22mg/100g and 81.22±3.80mg/100g) respectively while crude fiber was highest in the stem of the two varieties when compared to other parts (26.15±0.29mg/100g). Data obtained indicated that these parts of the two varieties contained appreciable amount of nutrients which could be included in diets to supplement our daily nutrient needs and animal feed. Apart from the tuber eaten by our people, other parts of the plant should also be used as food. Overall data could be a viable tool for sweet potato breeding as an improvement in sweet potato production. Morphological characteristics observed were similar indicating that the two varieties are phyllogenetically related. The data could also be used to enhance proper taxonomic characterization and identification of the species I. batatas.
Evaluation of Integrated Broomrape (Orobanche crenata) Management Packages under Effect of Varieties, Seeding Rates and Roundup Treatmet in Faba Bean under Sandy Soil Conditions

Broomrape is a determining factor for faba bean cultivation in Egypt especially under sandy soil conditions. For this reason two field experiments were conducted in naturally infested fields with broomrape under sandy soil conditions at Ismailia Agricultural Research Station, Ismailia governorate during 2014/15 and 2015/16 winter seasons to study the effect of degree interaction between three faba bean varieties namely Giza843, Misr3 and Giza 3, two seeding rates at 30 and 60kg seed/fed. and two broomrape control treatments namely Roundup twice at 75 cc/fed. and untreated check on broomrape management and faba bean productivity. A split split plot design with three replicates was used, faba bean varieties were assigned to the main plots and seeding rates were allocated in sub plots, while weed control treatments were distributed randomly in sub sub plots. Results revealed that both faba bean varieties Misr3 and Giza843 exhibited significant decrease in numbers and weight of broomrape spikes/m2 estimated by 87.0 and 91.0% & 49.2 and 53.3 % in 2014/15 winter season and by 86.1 and 90.6% & 47.9 and 54.5 % in 2015/16 winter season, respectively as compared with the susceptible variety Giza 3. Faba bean varieties Misr3 and Giza843 significantly increased faba bean yield and its components in both seasons as compared with variety Giza 3. Seed rate of 30kg/fed. significantly decreased the number and weight of broomrape spikes/m2 by 16.8 and 11.5% in 2014/15 winter season and by 15.3 and 18.0% in 2015/16 winter season, respectively as compared to seed rate of 60kg/fed. Seed rate of 30kg/fed. significantly increased faba bean yield components in both seasons except plant height and seed yield (ardab/fed.) which significantly decreased with seed rate of 30kg/fed. in both seasons as compared to seed rate of 60kg/fed. Roundup applied twice significantly decreased the number and dry weight of broomrape spikes/m2 by 75.2 and 73.1% in the first seasons and by 72.6 and 69.8% in the second season, respectively, as compared with untreated check. Roundup applied twice significantly increased faba bean yield and its components in both seasons as compared with untreated check. The increases in seed yield (ardab/fed.) were 89.1 and 86.3% in the first and second seasons, respectively, as compared with untreated check. Analysis of the role of studied broomrape control measures and their possible integration was analyzed and correlation between broomrape infestation levels with faba bean seed yield was negative. Thus, from this study the best control package for growing faba bean in sandy soil infested with broomrape is by planting Misr 3 or Giza 843 cultivars through November with 2 sprays of Roundup at 30 kg/seeding rate in infested fields with broomrape in Ismailia area.
Effects of Marketing-Manufacturing Integration on Product Innovativeness and Competitive Advantage under Uncertainty

Today, in cross-functional integration in new product development (NPD), marketing-manufacturing integration (MMI) is considered necessary for success. Adopting Swink and Song’s (2007) framework, this paper examines the influence of MMI in new product development on product innovativeness and competitive advantage. The proposed model was examined empirically on the basis of survey data collected from 138 NPD projects in Korean firms. Path analysis showed a negative relationship between MMI in the technical development stage and product innovativeness. Also, as MMI has been treated as a subsidiary factor that affects NPD, there needs to be a greater focus on MMI itself before applying it to NPD. Therefore, we added uncertainty as a moderating variable and evaluated the effectiveness of demand and supply uncertainty on the relationships between given variables in the model. Demand and supply uncertainty moderated the relationship between product innovativeness and competitive advantage.
On the possibilities to use atmospheric reanalyses to evaluate the warming structure in the Arctic

Abstract. There has been growing interest in the vertical structure of the recent Arctic warming. We investigated temperatures at the surface, 925, 700, 500 and 300 hPa levels in the Arctic (north of 70° N) using observations and four reanalyses: ERA-Interim, CFSR, MERRA and NCEP II. For the period 1979–2011, the layers at 500 hPa and below show a warming trend in all seasons in all the chosen reanalyses and observations. Restricting the analysis to the 1998–2011 period, however, all the reanalyses show a cooling trend in the Arctic-mean 500 hPa temperature in autumn, and this also applies to both observations and the reanalyses when restricting the analysis to the locations with available IGRA radiosoundings. During this period, the surface observations mainly representing land areas surrounding the Arctic Ocean reveal no summertime trend, in contrast with the reanalyses whether restricted to the locations of the available surface observations or not. In evaluating the reanalyses with observations, we find that the reanalyses agree better with each other at the available IGRA sounding locations than for the Arctic average, perhaps because the sounding observations were assimilated into reanalyses. Conversely, using the reanalysis data only from locations matching available surface (air) temperature observations does not improve the agreement between the reanalyses. At 925 hPa, CFSR deviates from the other three reanalyses, especially in summer after 2000, and it also deviates more from the IGRA radiosoundings than the other reanalyses do. The CFSR error in summer T925 is due mainly to underestimations in the Canadian-Atlantic sector between 120° W and 0°. The other reanalyses also have negative biases in this longitude band.
Technical Efficiency of Islamic and Commercial Banks: Evidence from Pakistan Using DEA Model (2007-2011)

This study investigates the technical efficiency of two different banking systems (Islamic vs. Conventional banks) operating in Pakistan and gives a comparative analysis between them over a recent unstudied period, using DEA (Data Envelope Analysis) model. As banking systems render as an important factor towards the economic development of a country. Calculating Technical efficiency can help us determine which banking system is more technically efficient and can facilitate in the economic development and stability of a developing nation such as Pakistan. In this study, a sample of 34 different banks is taken which includes Islamic, conventional and foreign banks working in Pakistan. By taking Investments and Advances as outputs and number of employees, operating fixed asset and deposits as inputs in DEA analysis, the technical efficiencies of the banks are found and compared and then Tobit regression is use to determine the internal and external factor's impact on bank's efficiency.
Mutual Fund Governance and Performance: A Quantile Regression Analysis of Morningstar's Stewardship Grade

Manuscript Tytpe: Empirical Research Question/Issue: We study the relation between mutual fund performance and Morningstar's fiduciary grades using quantile regression models. This research is important because we shed new light on the principal-agent issue in the mutual fund industry, and investors and professional managers often use Morningstar's rating system to guide their investment decisions. Quantile regressions allow us to examine the differential impact of mutual fund governance variables such as manager incentives and board quality on fund performance across the entire performance distribution. Research Findings/Insights: Quantile regressions find a strong contemporaneous association between Stewardship Grade and Sharpe Ratio. Manager incentives, though not significant in the OLS regression, are positively related to the fund performance for better performing funds, and negatively correlated with portfolio turnover. However, manager incentives are shown to have little predictive power for funds' future performance. In contrast, board quality, which is in the center stage of the proposed SEC mutual fund regulation, bears little relationship with contemporaneous fund performance, yet is strongly related to funds' future performance. Theoretical/Academic Implications: Our analyses and results have two important implications for the principal-agent theory. Our finding that board quality has a more profound impact on fund performance than manager incentives suggests that incentive alignment through compensation contracts is less effective in mitigating agency problems than quality board monitoring. Our quantile regression results also provide new insights to the analysis of corporate governance research. The major advantage of using quantile regression is that it reveals the whole spectrum of heterogeneous mutual fund performance responses to their governance efforts, especially the behavior of funds at the tails of the distribution; hence better corporate governance policies can be drawn up and instituted. This methodology is useful for other governance research as well and entails meaningful regulatory implications when firms/industries are heterogeneous and the conditional means of traditional regression analysis does not provide much information and guidance for corporate decision making. Practitioner/Policy Implications: This study shows that fund performance is associated with manager incentives contemporaneously, while board quality predicts fund performance in the long haul. This finding has important regulatory implications, as the efficacy of SEC's proposal on board and chairman independence is under great debate. Our results also provide useful information for investors who use Morningstar's Stewardship grades to guide their investments.
Freezability of Cattle and Buffalo Semen and Association of Fresh and Frozen-Thawed Sperm Quality Parameters

ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 12 (2017) pp. 1445-1454 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com This study was carried out on semen of three mature Gir cattle and three Surti buffalo bulls. The semen ejaculates (9/bull, total 54) collected in AV were evaluated for sperm motility, viability, morphology, acrosomal integrity, plasma membrane integrity (HOST) and enzyme GOT-GPT leakage preand post-freezing in TFYG diluent including post-thaw longevity till 3 h of incubation and their interrelationships. Most of the sperm parameters studied at initial, pre-freeze (PF) and post-thaw (PT) stages were highly significantly and positively interrelated in both the species (0.67 to 0.99). In Gir bulls, significant (P<0.01) correlations were observed for sperm concentration with PF and PT GOT (0.59, 0.57) as well as GPT (0.48, 0.48), and with PT HOS reactive sperm (-0.43); individual sperm motility in fresh semen with PF sperm motility and live sperm (0.94, 0.49) as well as PT motility at 0 and 60 min (0.46, 0.45) of incubation; initial HOS reactive sperm with PT abnormal sperm (-0.58); initial live sperm with PT motility and longevity (0.55, 0.54); pre-freeze motility with PF & PT live sperm (0.54, 0.55) and PT motility at 0 and 60 min (0.48, 0.45); pre-freeze HOS reactive sperm with PF abnormal sperm (-0.56); pre-freeze live sperm with PF intact acrosome (0.51); pre-freeze GOT with PT HOS reactive sperm (-0.45); post-thaw motility with PT live sperm (0.44) and longevity after 60 and 120 min of incubation (0.90, 0.81); post-thaw HOS reactive sperm with PT GOT (-0.47) and incubation motility (0.43); and post-thaw live sperm with PT intact acrosome (0.44). In Surti bulls, the initial sperm motility had significant (P<0.01) correlations with PF HOS reactive sperm (0.58) as well as PF & PT intact acrosome (0.55, 0.51) and GOT (0.39, 0.44); initial HOS reactive sperm with initial and PF live sperm (0.48, 0.42) and GOT (-0.42, -0.41); initial live sperm with HOS reactive sperm (-0.44); initial intact acrosome with PF motility (0.43) and live sperm (0.51); initial GOT with initial, PF and PT GPT (0.72, 0.53, 0.54) and with PT incubation motility (0.38); pre-freeze sperm motility with PF HOS reactive sperm and intact acrosome (0.64, 0.56) and with PT intact acrosome (0.46); pre-freeze HOS reactive sperm with PF & PT live sperm (0.57, 0.69) and intact acrosome (0.54, 0.66); pre-freeze live sperm with PF & PT intact acrosome (0.69, 0.70); pre-freeze intact acrosome with PT live sperm (0.46); pre-freeze GOT with PT motility (0.39); post-thaw motility with PT GOT (0.43) and PT longevity after 60 and 120 min (0.91, 0.65); post-thaw live sperm with PT intact acrosome (0.62) and incubation motility (0.54); and post-freeze GOT with PT GPT (0.60) and PT longevity of sperm (0.47). K e y w o r d s Gir cattle, Surti buffalo, Sperm parameters, Fresh and Frozen-thawed semen, Correlations. Accepted: 12 October 2017 Available Online: 10 December 2017 Article Info Int.J.Curr.Microbiol. App.Sci (2017) 6(12): 1445-1454
Does Permeability Promote Social Cohesion

Understanding environmental conditions of neighbourhoods can play a critical role in maintaining social interactions among residents. This research is carried out to assess the effect of street permeability on the degree of social cohesion among residents in a residential neighbourhood in Penang, Malaysia. A total of 250 households participated in the study. The findings indicate that permeability can account for a significant proportion of the variance in residents’ social cohesion. Residents living in less permeable streets are more likely to have a high social cohesion with their neighbours. The results further support the defensible space concept which advocates closed streets. Keywords: Permeability; social cohesion; road type; residential neighbourhood eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
Limited attention and investor disagreement: a nowcasting approach

When disagreement in economic models occurs due to different interpretations of public signals, the level of “marketwide disagreement” not necessarily decreases upon the arrival of a public signal. We propose an empirical assessment of this phenomenon. By using a measure of attention based on Google Trends, we show that an increase in the attention allocated by the market to a company is associated to a significant increase in disagreement about it.
Structural change, productivity growth and trade policy in Brazil

T hroughout the course of only a few decades in the postwar period, the Brazilian economy experienced an intense and fast process of industrialization, which went hand in hand with a major increase in labor productivity and periods of annual growth rates above 10 percent. The rapid growth of the industrial sector was not unintentional. It was driven by a set of policies introduced in the 1950s to protect domestic industries from foreign competition. However, by the early 1980s, these isolationist policies had turned into a curse, with the economy hobbled by high inflation rates and unremarkable economic growth rates. In the late 1980s, with a return to civilian rule, Brazil started to revive, thanks to a major opening up of the economy to foreign competition that continued in the 1990s. Then in the 2000s, Brazil experienced phenomenal economic growth, mostly induced by the rise in commodity prices, which helped to sharply reduce poverty and catapult Brazil into middle-income status— now the world’s seventh wealthiest economy. Yet despite these achievements, income inequality remains unacceptably high in the country, and the quality of education leaves a lot to be desired. The nature of Brazil’s economic transformation—characterized by bursts of progress interrupted by little or no progress—underscores the importance of understanding the key factors that induce economic growth. As there is no consensus on what those factors are, growth-enhancing policies in developing countries have varied substantially over time and across nations. What can be inferred from the Brazilian experience is that “one-size-fits-all” policies cannot work for all countries and in all periods uniformly. In fact, some of the policies designed to foster economic growth are likely to be effective only under specific circumstances. To learn more about Brazil’s experience, this chapter investigates how much of the growth in labor productivity—a key component of economic growth— reflected growth within sectors versus movements between sectors (known as structural change). We start with an overview of Brazil’s institutional Chapter 7
Parents Perception About the Correlation of Emotional Inteligence Trait and Empirical Scales of Emotional and Behavior Problems Scales of Children 10-12 Years Old

Aim: To explore the parent perception about the correlation of emotional inteligence trait and empirical scales of emotional and behavior problems scales of children 10-12 years old. It was hypothesized that there will be poitive relationship between scales. Methods: We used two questionnaires for collecting the data, the TEIQueChild Form questionnaire for the emotional intelligence and CBCL (6-18 years) the 2001 edition (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). Pearson correlation was used to explore the correlation between scales. The sample included 185 children (98 or 53% boys and 87 or 47 % girls), with a mean age of 11 years (SD .83). 62 of them (33.5%) were 10 years old; 57 of them (30.8%) were 11 years old and 66 or 35.7 % from the total number of children were 12 years old. From 185 parents participated in the study, 92 of them or 49.7 % were mothers, while 93 of them or 50.03 % were fathers. The chi-square test, reported no important differences neither for children nor for parents. Results: Correlation analysis mostly indicated low and negative but non-significant relationship between EI and EB empirical scales, for all children and by gender and age. There was low positive correlation only between empirical scales themselves.