Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The fractured state in the governance of private game farming: the case of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa

Conversion from livestock and/or crop farming to game farming has been a notable trend on privately owned land in South Africa over the last decades. The rapid growth of wildlife ranching is associated with an annual increase in the areas enclosed by game fences and high demand for wildlife which is being traded privately and at wildlife auctions. Key environmental, agricultural and land reform legislation has been passed since 1994 that impacts this sector, but this legislation does not provide a clear regulatory framework for the game farming industry. This article seeks to understand why game farming is thriving in a regulatory environment plagued with uncertainty. The focus is on one province, KwaZulu-Natal. It is clear that the state is not a homogeneous and monolithic entity applying itself to the regulation of the sector. There is no clear direction on the position of private game farming at the interface of environmental and agricultural regulations. The argument put forward is that the fractured state, in fact, provides space within which the game farmers are able to effectively manoeuvre and to maximise their advantages as private landowners. While game farmers may complain about strict wildlife regulation in the province, the benefits they gain from the combination of a divided state and the presence in this province of a strong, autonomous conservation body are considerable.
Multiple-object tracking among individuals with Down syndrome and typically developing children

Abstract We investigated differences in multiple-object tracking among individuals with Down syndrome (DS) as compared to typically developing children matched on a visual–spatial mental age of approximately 5.5 years. In order to ensure that these effects did not originate in differences in encoding or reporting the positions of targets in distracters after a delay, immediate and delayed report were measured for static items. Although their immediate and delayed report for multiple static items was comparable to that of the typically developing children, the participants with DS performed as if they were only capable of tracking a single item at a time regardless of the number of targets that needed to be tracked. This finding is surprising because the operations used in multiple-object tracking are thought to be necessary for visuospatial tasks, which are an area of relative strength among persons with DS. These results call into question the idea that abilities or deficits in multiple-object tracking predict visuospatial performance, and highlight ways that atypical development can inform our understanding of typical development.
Effects of Audit Quality on Earnings Management and Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence from China

We examine the effects of audit quality on earnings management and cost of equity capital for two groups of Chinese firms: state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-state-owned enterprises (NSOEs). The differences in the nature of the ownership, agency relations and bankruptcy risks lead SOEs to have weaker incentives than NSOEs to engage in earnings management. As a result, the effect of audit quality in reducing earnings management will be greater for NSOEs than for SOEs. In addition, investors’ pricing of information risk as reflected in the cost of equity capital will be more pronounced for NSOEs than for SOEs with high and low audit quality. We find empirical evidence consistent with these hypotheses. Our findings indicate that (1) while high-quality auditors play a governance role in China, that role is limited to a subset of firms, and (2) even under the same legal jurisdiction, the effects of audit quality (in the form of lower earnings management and cost of equity capital) vary across firms with different ownership structures. Our study extends prior research by focusing on the economic consequences of SOEs’ and NSOEs’ auditor choices and underscores the importance of controlling for ownership type when conducting audit research.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF PRODUCING ASPHALT MIXTURES WITH VARYING DEGREES OF RECYCLED ASPHALT MATERIALS

The environmental impacts of producing asphalt mixtures with different percentages of asphalt binder replacement (ABR) are assessed using the technique of life cycle assessment (LCA). In this paper, only the material production phase of the pavement life cycle is considered. To improve the quality of the LCA, a regionalized life cycle inventory (LCI) database for the Northern Illinois region is compiled for the production of various materials used in flexible pavement construction. Data from local questionnaires, published literature, and commercial LCI databases are used to validate and model unit processes with a LCA software. The environmental impacts modeled include energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from producing asphalt binder, recycled asphalt materials, and aggregates as well as from operating hot ‐ mix asphalt plants. Using the regionalized LCI database, a partial LCA is used to investigate the environmental effects of producing asphalt mixtures with increasing ABR contents. Eleven mixes containing varying percentages of recycled asphalt pavement and recycled asphalt shingles are analyzed. When compared to a mix with 0% ABR content, 25% ABR mixes show an average decrease of 6.3% in energy and 6.5% in GHGs while a 60% ABR mix shows savings of 20.9% and 21.8%, respectively. In addition, conducting the same case study using asphalt binder LCI data from different sources reveals differences of up to 135 GJ and 9.9 tonnes of CO 2 e per 3 ‐ inch ‐ lane ‐ mile in environmental savings for using the 60% ABR mix, emphasizing the importance of using the most relevant LCI data when performing environmental analyses.
Patella Resurfacing versus Nonresurfacing in Total Knee Arthroplasty: Results of a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial at a Minimum of 10 Years’ Followup

Patellar resurfacing in total knee arthroplasty remains controversial. This study evaluates the results of resurfacing and nonresurfacing the patella in a randomized controlled, clinical trial at a minimum of 10 years followup. One hundred knees (90 patients) with osteoarthritis were enrolled in a prospective randomized clinical trial using a posterior–cruciate-retaining total knee arthroplasty. Patients were randomized to receive resurfacing or retention of the patella. Evaluations were done preoperatively and yearly, up to a minimum of 10 years (range, 10.1–11.5 years) postoperatively. Disease-specific (Knee Society clinical rating score) and functional (stair climbing, flexion/extension torques, patellar examination) outcomes were measured. Patient satisfaction, anterior knee pain, and patellofemoral questionnaires were completed. Intraoperative grading of the articular cartilage was done. No patients were lost to followup; 45 patients remained alive. Nine revisions (in nine of 90 knees; 10%) were done in seven patients in the nonresurfaced group (15% of knees) and in two patients in the resurfaced group (5% of knees). No significant difference was found between the groups regarding revision rates, Knee Society clinical rating scores, and functional, patient satisfaction, anterior knee pain, patellofemoral, and radiographic outcomes. Intraoperative cartilage quality was not a predictor of outcome. This study currently is the longest followup of a randomized controlled, clinical trial that examines patellar resurfacing in total knee arthroplasty. The results showed no significant difference between the groups for all outcome measures at a minimum of 10 years of followup.
The Impact of a Sovereign Default within the Euro Zone on the Exchange Rate

We use quanto credit default swaps to analyse the impact of a credit event in the Eurozone on the Dollar-Euro exchange rate. In light of the European debt crisis, market participants are willing to pay more for protection against a sovereign credit event if it is denominated in US Dollars rather than in Euro, because they expect the Euro to depreciate in the wake of the credit event. We use this CDS price difference to calculate the implied exchange rate conditional on a credit event, i.e., the default of a member of the Euro zone. We find that the implied effect is heterogeneous across the different countries. We identify three country groups for which the implied effect on the exchange rate develops similarly over the time horizon of our data set.
The Relation of Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Social Support to Disease Outcomes Among the Elderly

Objectives: This study examined relations between social isolation, loneliness, and social support to health outcomes in a sample of New Mexico seniors. Method: We used random-digit dialing to obtain a random sample of 755 southern New Mexico seniors. Participants answered questions pertaining to demographics, social isolation and loneliness, social support, and disease diagnosis including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, liver disease, arthritis, emphysema, tuberculosis, kidney disease, cancer, asthma, and stroke. The sample allowed for comparison of Caucasian and Hispanic participants. Results: Correlational and logistic analyses indicated that belongingness support related most consistently to health outcomes. Ethnic subgroup analysis revealed similarities and differences in the pattern of associations among the predictor and outcome variables. Discussion: The results demonstrate the importance of social variables for predicting disease outcomes in the elderly and across ethnic groups.
Ursolic acid supplementation decreases markers of skeletal muscle damage during resistance training in resistance-trained men: a pilot study

Ursolic acid (UA) supplementation was previously shown to improve skeletal muscle function in resistance-trained men. This study aimed to determine, using the same experimental paradigm, whether UA also has beneficial effects on exercise-induced skeletal muscle damage markers including the levels of cortisol, B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), myoglobin, creatine kinase (CK), creatine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in resistance-trained men. Sixteen healthy participants were randomly assigned to resistance training (RT) or RT+UA groups (n=8 per group). Participants were trained according to the RT program (60~80% of 1 repetition, 6 times/week), and the UA group was additionally given UA supplementation (450 mg/day) for 8 weeks. Blood samples were obtained before and after intervention, and cortisol, BNP, myoglobin, CK, CK-MB, and LDH levels were analyzed. Subjects who underwent RT alone showed no significant change in body composition and markers of skeletal muscle damage, whereas RT+UA group showed slightly decreased body weight and body fat percentage and slightly increased lean body mass, but without statistical significance. In addition, UA supplementation significantly decreased the BNP, CK, CK-MB, and LDH levels (p<0.05). In conclusion, UA supplementation alleviates increased skeletal muscle damage markers after RT. This finding provides evidence for a potential new therapy for resistance-trained men.
A democratic university–community administrative body dedicated to expanding community-engaged research: The Tufts Community Research Center (TCRC)

The benefits and challenges of community-engaged research (CEnR) partnerships are well documented. The barriers to building sustainable university–community partnerships are many, ranging from a lack of institutional support, historical conflicts, differing time scales, and divergent philosophies to lack of infrastructure on both sides. In order to promote CEnR partnerships and provide a forum to address the challenges of community research partnerships, the Tufts Community Research Center (TCRC) was established. The work of the TCRC is guided by an interdisciplinary democratic steering committee composed of University faculty and administrators, students, and community stakeholders. This article describes the TCRC, and its efforts to promote CEnR across the University by (1) demonstrating the value of CEnR to the institution; (2) establishing opportunities for communication between the university and communities; (3) developing shared and democratic leadership; and (4) creating purposeful mechanisms to stimulate and promote collaboration, such as providing early seed funding to foster partnerships.
Workers, Wages, and Technology

This paper documents how plant-level wages, occupational mix, workforce education, and productivity vary with the adoption and use of new factory automation technologies such as programmable controllers, computer-automated design, and numerically controlled machines. Our cross-sectional results show that plants that use a large number of new technologies employ more educated workers, employ relatively more managers, professionals, and precision-craft workers, and pay higher wages. However, our longitudinal analysis shows little correlation between skill upgrading and the adoption of new technologies. It appears that plants that adopt new factory automation technologies have more skilled workforces both pre- and postadoption.
Smoothing with Liquid and Illiquid Assets

A quantitative examination of the demand for liquid assets arising from consumption smoothing motives reveals that such demand is very low. Consumers faced with income streams calibrated to match income and unemployment data and returns and transactions costs calibrated to match US Treasury Bill data almost exclusively buy and hold illiquid long term assets even though the return premium on long term assets is quite small. This is because, with standard preferences, savings are highly persistent even when risky income is not. In the calibrated model, the first order autocorrelation of savings is an order of magnitude larger than that of income.
Stock Market Returns and Inflation Forecasts

This study uses data from the Livingston survey of expectations to examine the Fisher hypothesis as a model relating expected stock returns and expected inflation. We show that the Fisher hypothesis holds much better for ex ante expectations than ex post realizations. RECENT STUDIES SUCH AS those by Nelson [15], Jaffe and Mandelker [10], Bodie [1], Fama and Schwert [3], and others have shown that the relation between stock returns and inflation is negative in the U.S. and have concluded that the Fisher hypothesis does not hold in the stock market. Gultekin [9] has expanded the above studies for a large sample of countries besides the U.S. His time series results for the whole sample also are not consistent with the Fisher Hypothesis. All of these studies use ex post realizations of stock returns and, with some exceptions, ex post inflation rates in order to test the Fisher effect. ' In contrast to earlier research, this study uses data from the Livingston survey of expectations to test the Fisher Effect in its pure form as a model relating expected stock returns to expected inflation. Our findings are remarkably different from those of previous studies which use ex post data. Expectations data from the Livingston surveys show a positive one-to-one relation between expected stock returns and expected inflation. We also find that the expected real return on stocks is not constant over time but is positively related to expected inflation, which is contrary to the relation suggested by Mundell [14]. The next section provides some theoretical considerations and a brief summary of results from earlier research. The third section describes the Livingston data and presents the empirical results. Some estimates of the expected real rate return on stocks
From Common Heritage to Divergence: Why the Transition Countries are Drifting Apart by Measures of Agricultural Performance

The twenty-two transition countries in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) embarked on their program of land reform and farm restructuring in the early 1990s from a common heritage, reflecting the Soviet model of socialist agriculture that dominated the region for decades. Socialist agriculture was notoriously inefficient, and the land reform in CEE and CIS, undertaken as part of the process of transition to a market economy, was motivated mainly by the need to increase the productivity and the efficiency of the agricultural sector. Because of common heritage, efficiency considerations suggested a fairly uniform reform agenda for agriculture in all transition countries. On the macroeconomic level, the reform agenda called for elimination of central controls, price liberalization, and introduction of hard budget constraints. On the sectoral level, it included privatization of land ownership, a shift from collective to individual agriculture, and general downsizing of farms, all in line with the established experience of market economies. Ultimately, these actions were intended to change the entire system of producer incentives, leading to a more efficient and competitive agriculture. However, inherent cultural and political differences influenced the specifics of implementation of agricultural reforms in the two groups of former socialist countries. We examine how agricultural sectors in CEE and CIS, having started from a common heritage, are following divergent paths of market reforms, gradually creating a sharp "East-West divide" between the two subre-
Cadmium removal from contaminated soil by thermally responsive elastin (ELPEC20) biopolymers

Cadmium contamination of soil is a major concern in the biosphere. Beyond the suite of available physico‐chemical treatment methods, green and more efficient technologies are desired to reduce cadmium and other heavy metal contaminants to acceptable levels. Elastin‐like polypeptides (ELP) composed of a polyhistidine domain (ELPH12) can be used as an environmentally benign chelating agent for ex situ soil washing. However, ELPH12 is relatively non‐selective. A biopolymer with metal‐binding domains that have stronger affinity, capacity, and selectivity would have distinct advantages. The aim of this work is to investigate the use of a new generation of ELP biopolymer, ELPEC20, containing synthetic phytochelatin (EC) as the metal‐binding domain for ex situ soil washing. ELPEC20 was shown to bind cadmium more effectively and selectively than ELPH12. The binding constant of ELPEC20 is an order of magnitude higher and the binding capacity is fivefold higher than ELPH12. In contrast to ELPH12, no decrease in cadmium binding was observed in the presence of other competing metal ions. The improved selectivity and binding capacity provided by ELPEC20 were directly reflected in the enhanced cadmium extraction efficiency from contaminated soil. In batch washing studies up to 62% of the bound cadmium was removed by ELPEC20 while less than 12% was removed by ELPH12. Cadmium was removed not only from the exchangeable fraction but also the oxidizable fraction. The high‐affinity binding sites of ELPEC20 also results in very rapid extraction with complete removal achieved within 1 h, suggesting that ELPEC20 could be used as part of a rapid (short retention time) technology with minimum possibility for the biodegradation of biopolymers. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2007;98: 349–355. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The association between executive stock options and corporate performance: evidence from Portugal

Stock options are theoretically adopted to better align the interests of the managers and shareholders, thereby reducing agency costs, and consequently increasing corporate performance. The critical question is whether stock options have this impact in practice. Consequently, this study investigates if stock options attribution has impact on corporate performance of Portuguese listed firms on the Euronext Lisbon. The results suggest that stock options grant is negatively related with firm's performance. Hence, this study corroborates the rent extraction hypothesis, the crowding-out hypothesis and the multi-tasking effect, which suggest that stock options may affect adversely firm's performance.
The relevance of intellectual capital disclosure: A paradox?

Many firms have started disclosing information on intellectual capital. Financial analysts, however, ask for more disclosure related to strategy and often find intellectual capital statement less relevant. Drawing on results from a study of disclosure of information on intellectual capital in Danish initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses, this commentary argues that the perceived irrelevance of intellectual capital is somewhat paradoxical since intellectual capital reports and recent prospectuses share remarkable similarities with respect to the intellectual capital indicators disclosed. Further, the commentary argues that, for intellectual capital disclosure to be perceived as relevant from a capital market perspective, the information should be disclosed as an integral part of a framework illuminating the value creation processes of the firm. The emerging practice with respect to intellectual capital offers such a framework for disclosing the business model of the knowledge‐based company.
An Empirical Investigation of the Calorie Consumption Puzzle in India

Over the past four decades, India has witnessed a paradoxical trend: average per capita calorie intake has declined even as real per capita monthly expenditure has increased over time. Since cross sectional evidence suggests a robust positive relationship between the two variables, the trend emerges as a major puzzle. The main explanations that have been offered in the literature to address the puzzle are: rural impoverishment, relative price changes, decline in calorie needs, diversification of diets, a squeeze on the food budget due to rising expenditures on non-food essentials, and decline in subsistence consumption. In this paper we construct a novel panel dataset from household-level National Sample Survey data on consumption expenditure to test the "food budget squeeze" hypothesis. Our panel consists of 74 NSS "state-regions" over six time periods (1983, 1987-88, 1993-94, 1999-00, 2004-05 and 2009-10). We demonstrate a statistically significant negative effect of a rising share of expenditures on non-food essentials (health, education, transportation and consumer services), on calorie intake. We also construct a food price index directly from household-level expenditure data and show that real food expenditure has been stagnant in India since the late 1980s.
Different patterns of neuronal activity trigger distinct responses of oligodendrocyte precursor cells in the corpus callosum

In the developing and adult brain, oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) are influenced by neuronal activity: they are involved in synaptic signaling with neurons, and their proliferation and differentiation into myelinating glia can be altered by transient changes in neuronal firing. An important question that has been unanswered is whether OPCs can discriminate different patterns of neuronal activity and respond to them in a distinct way. Here, we demonstrate in brain slices that the pattern of neuronal activity determines the functional changes triggered at synapses between axons and OPCs. Furthermore, we show that stimulation of the corpus callosum at different frequencies in vivo affects proliferation and differentiation of OPCs in a dissimilar way. Our findings suggest that neurons do not influence OPCs in “all-or-none” fashion but use their firing pattern to tune the response and behavior of these nonneuronal cells.