Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sampling strategies for proper quantification of carotenoid content in cassava breeding

Rapid-cycling recurrent selection has been implemented to produce cassava varieties that deliver provitamin A carotenoids to human populations that are affected by vitamin A deficiency. Rapid-cycling selection relies on quantification in just one plant per genotype. This study was conducted to assess the reliability of single-plant evaluations and the effect of age of the plant on carotenoid content in cassava roots. Variation in aliquot quantifications from the same root was negligible indicating a reliable experimental procedure. A large source of variation for carotenoids was due to differences among genotypes. Root-to-root variation from the same plant in some cases was surprisingly high and accounted for an average of 25% of the total variation. Plant-to-plant variation was not as high and accounted for 20% of the total variance. Carotenoid content was shown to vary depending on the age of the plant. Single-plant evaluations for carotenoid content in cassava, which is a requirement for rapidcycling recurrent selection is acceptable considering that it reduces in half the time required for evaluation and selection. However, it is suggested that 2 to 3 roots per plant be combined together in a sample to represent each genotype at a standard plant age. Key words: Plant age, environmental influence, rapid cycling, genetic gains, -carotene, repeatability
The economic performance of business groups in developing countries : the role of absorptive capacity

Business groups – legally independent firms tied together in various formal and informal ways – are omnipresent in emerging economies. Research on the economic performance of business groups has so far paid only limited attention to their technological capabilities and absorptive capacity, and mostly presented studies for individual economies rather than cross-country comparative analyses. This thesis presents a cross-country empirical analysis of the economic performance of group affiliated firms, investigating in particular the importance of firm capabilities and absorptive capacity – e.g. human capital, ICT usage, access to finance, international trade, technology and innovation – for the productivity performance of firms in developing countries. The empirical analysis is based on a large dataset, the World Bank Enterprise Survey, and the econometric analysis focuses on a sample of around 30 000 manufacturing firms in 85 developing economies. The results reveal that group affiliation enhances economic performance, and that the superior performance of group-affiliated firms vis-à-vis independent enterprises is related to their greater capabilities in terms of human capital, access to finance, as well as technology and innovation.
Understanding objects in motion . An archaeological dialogue on Romanization

This essay argues that Romanization revolves around understanding objects in motion and that Roman archaeologists should therefore focus on (1) globalization theory and (2) material-culture studies as important theoretical directions for the (near) future. The present state and scope of the Romanization debate, however, seem to prevent a fruitful development in that direction. The first part of this paper therefore briefly analyses the Romanization debate and argues that large parts of ‘Anglo-Saxon Roman archaeology’ have never been really post-colonial, but in fact from the mid1990s onwards developed a theoretical position that should be characterized as anticolonial. This ideologically motivated development has resulted in several unhealthy divides within the field, as well as in an uncomfortable ending of the Romanization debate. The present consensus within English-speaking Roman archaeology ‘to do away with Romanization’ does not seem to get us at all ‘beyond Romans and Natives’, and, moreover, has effectively halted most of the discussion about how to understand and conceptualize ‘Rome’. The second part of the article presents two propositions outlining how to move forward: globalization theory and material-culture studies. Through this focus we will be able to better understand ‘Rome’ as (indicating) objects in motion and the human–thing entanglements resulting from a remarkable punctuation of connectivity. This focus is important as an alternative perspective to all existing narratives about Romanization because these remain fundamentally historical, in the sense that they reduce objects to expressions (of identity) alone. It is time for our discussions about ‘Rome’ to move ‘beyond representation’ and to become genuinely archaeological at last, by making material culture, with its agency and materiality, central to the analyses.
Effects of chemical reaction, heat and mass transfer on boundary layer flow over a porous wedge with heat radiation in the presence of suction or injection

The effect of chemical reaction, heat and mass transfer on boundary layer flow over a porous wedge with heat radiation has been studied in the presence of suction or injection. An approximate numerical solution for the steady laminar boundary-layer flow over a wall of the wedge in the presence of species concentration and mass diffusion has been obtained by solving the governing equations using numerical technique. The fluid is assumed to be viscous and incompressible. Numerical calculations are carried out for different values of dimensionless parameters and an analysis of the results obtained shows that the flow field is influenced appreciably by the chemical reaction, the buoyancy ratio between species and thermal diffusion and suction/injection at wall surface. Effects of these major parameters on the transport behaviors are investigated methodically and typical results are illustrated to reveal the tendency of the solutions. Representative results are presented for the velocity, temperature, and concentration distributions, as well as the skin friction, rate of heat transfer and mass transfer. Comparisons with previously published works are performed and excellent agreement between the results is obtained.
Cortical Motor Organization, Mirror Neurons, and Embodied Language: An Evolutionary Perspective

The recent conceptual achievement that the cortical motor system plays a crucial role not only in motor control but also in higher cognitive functions has given a new perspective also on the involvement of motor cortex in language perception and production. In particular, there is evidence that the matching mechanism based on mirror neurons can be involved in both pho-nological recognition and retrieval of meaning, especially for action word categories, thus suggesting a contribution of an action–perception mechanism to the automatic comprehension of semantics. Furthermore, a compari-son of the anatomo-functional properties of the frontal motor cortex among different primates and their communicative modalities indicates that the combination of the voluntary control of the gestural communication systems and of the vocal apparatus has been the critical factor in the transition from a gestural-based communication into a predominantly speech-based system. Finally, considering that the monkey and human premotor-parietal motor system, plus the prefrontal cortex, are involved in the sequential motor organization of actions and in the hierarchical combination of motor elements, we propose that elements of such motor organization have been exploited in other domains, including some aspects of the syntactic structure of language.
Bulk Viscosity of Hot Quark Plasma from Non-Equilibrium Statistical Operator

We provide a discussion of the bulk viscosity of two-flavor quark plasma, described by the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model, within the framework of Kubo-Zubarev formalism. This discussion, which is complementary to our earlier study, contains a new, detailed derivation of the bulk viscosity in the case of multiple conserved charges. We also provide some numerical details of the computation of the bulk viscosity close to the Mott transition line, where the dissipation is dominated by decays of mesons into quarks and their inverse processes. We close with a summary of our current understanding of this quantity, which stresses the importance of loop resummation for obtaining the qualitatively correct result near the Mott line.
SDSS IV MaNGA – metallicity and nitrogen abundance gradients in local galaxies

FB and RM acknowledge funding from the United Kingdom Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). RM acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (ERC), Advanced Grant 695671 ‘QUENCH’. SFS thanks the CONACYT- 125180, DGAPA-IA100815 and DGAPA-IA101217 projects for providing him support in this study. CAT acknowledges support from National Science Foundation of the United States grant 1412287 and 1554877. This work makes use of data from SDSS-IV. Funding for SDSS has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Participating Institutions. Additional funding towards SDSS-IV has been provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. SDSS-IV acknowledges support and resources from the Centre for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah.
157 November , 28 th – P 26 Theories of Concepts and Contradiction Acceptance

The paper discusses the Heterogeneity Hypothesis about concepts (Machery, 2009) and the empirical support on which it is based. Two experiments are presented which investigate one of the main predictions of the theory, i.e., the fact that people should be willing to accept apparently contradictory sentences about the same entity.
The effect of unethical behavior on brand equity

Article history: Received January 20, 2015 Received in revised format 16 February 2015 Accepted 10 April 2015 Available online April 12 2015 This study explains the components of ethical behavior and their impacts on life insurance companies in province of Mazandaran, Iran. There were 367 insurance representatives and the study selects a sample of 187 ones based on Cochran formula and 2 questionnaires were distributed among them. The first questionnaire, unethical behavior, includes 8 items including Bribery, Cheating, Deception, Interact with colleagues, Act as social behavior, Uncommitted to firm and Irresponsibility. In addition, the questionnaire of brand equity contains three components of Awareness, Perceived quality and Loyalty. Using structural equation modeling, the study has determined that the effects of cheating and deception on unethical behaviors were not confirmed but the effects of other factors, bribery, interact with colleagues, act as social behavior, uncommitted to firm and irresponsibility on unethical behavior were confirmed. In addition, three components of Awareness, Perceived quality and Loyalty had positive relationship with brand equity. Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 5 © 201
Local Exponential Frontier Estimation

In this paper we propose a local exponential estimator for a multiplicative nonparametric frontiermodel rst introduced by Martins-Filho & Yao (2007). We improve their estimation procedure by adoptinga variant of the local exponential smoothing introduced in Ziegelmann (2002). Our estimator is shown to beconsistent and asymptotically normal under mild regularity conditions. In addition, due to local exponentialsmoothing, potential negativity of conditional variance functions that may hinder the use of Martins-Filhoand Yao's estimator is avoided. A Monte Carlo study is performed to shed light on the nite sample proper-ties of the estimator and to contrast its performance with that of the estimator proposed in Martins-Filho &Yao (2007). We also conduct an empirical exercise in which a production function and associated ecienciesfor branches of nancial institutions in the United States are estimated.
An experimental study on thermal conductivity of ceramsite cellular concrete

In this paper, a new type of foam concrete (FC) incorporating ceramsite as a lightweight coarse aggregate was prepared, i.e. ceramsite cellular concrete (CCC). An experimental research was conducted on its thermal properties to clarify the correlation between thermal conductivity and density, compressive strength, thermal storage coefficient and to discuss the influence of ceramsite volume proportion on CCC. Results showed that predictable polynomial models between thermal conductivity and density, compressive strength, and a good linear dependence of thermal storage coefficient on the thermal conductivity can be attained. In addition, it was corroborated that, for the CCC with the design density of 600 kg/m3, the appropriate volume proportion of ceramsite was 45% to present the better influence on thermal conductivity and compressive strength.
Governance Matters IV: Governance Indicators for 1996-2004

The authors present the latest update of their aggregate governance indicators, together with new analysis of several issues related to the use of these measures. The governance indicators measure the following six dimensions of governance: (1) voice and accountability; (2) political instability and violence; (3) government effectiveness; (4) regulatory quality; (5) rule of law, and (6) control of corruption. They cover 209 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 organizations. The authors present estimates of the six dimensions of governance for each period, as well as margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. In fact, the authors give examples of how individual objective measures provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. The authors also analyze in detail changes over time in their estimates of governance; provide a framework for assessing the statistical significance of changes in governance; and suggest a simple rule of thumb for identifying statistically significant changes in country governance over time. The ability to identify significant changes in governance over time is much higher for aggregate indicators than for any individual indicator. While the authors find that the quality of governance in a number of countries has changed significantly (in both directions), they also provide evidence suggesting that there are no trends, for better or worse, in global averages of governance. Finally, they interpret the strong observed correlation between income and governance, and argue against recent efforts to apply a discount to governance performance in low-income countries.
Haplotype characterization of a stranded Common Minke Whale calf (Balaenoptera acutorostrata Lacépède, 1804): is the Mediterranean Sea a potential calving or nursery ground for the species?

The stranding of a suckling calf of Common Minke Whale ( Balaenoptera acutorostrata ) on the coast near Salerno (Campania, Southern Italy) is reported. The molecular analysis of a partial sequence of the mitochondrial DNA control region shows that the animal bore a haplotype identical to haplotype Ba169 considered as typical of individuals from North Atlantic population. Historical data and our results suggest the possibility that the Mediterranean Sea might be a potential calving or nursery ground for this species.
Regional Single Currency Effects on Bilateral Trade with the European Union

This paper empirically examines the regional effects of sharing a single currency on bilateral trade with other European Union partners. It takes advantage of a gravity specification of bilateral trade between 17 Spanish regions and 13 European countries over the period 1997-2004, which in turn allows accounting for two distinct definitions of a single currency depending on its temporal set up. That is, the “exchange rate volatility effect” (from exchange rate fixing in 1999) is distinguished from the so-called “common currency effect” (resulting from the issuing of a new currency in 2002). Findings are suggestive of a regional concentration of currency union effects in a few regions, namely those relatively more open to trade. Such effects on regional trade within Europe are found to fade away over time. Trade enhancing effects are found to vary range from 45% to 16%. When the “exchange rate volatility effect” was significant, the pure currency union effect was found to be almost negligible.
Boards of directors and organizational ambidexterity in knowledge-intensive firms

Abstract We examine the relation between boards of directors’ knowledge heterogeneity and organizational ambidexterity (OA) (i.e. simultaneous exploration and exploitation) in knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs). Although the literature on OA has started to emphasize its antecedents, the role of the board remains unaddressed. This is an important omission, as boards have become increasingly involved in strategy-making. In turn, studies on boards have looked at their influence on either exploration- or exploitation-type strategies. Yet, KIFs particularly need to balance both exploration and exploitation to renew their knowledge base. We draw on knowledge-based perspectives to disentangle the benefits and costs of board knowledge heterogeneity for driving OA in KIFs. Our empirical analysis based on a longitudinal panel of UK pharmaceutical firms provides support for our hypothesized U-shaped relation. Our findings suggest that the benefits of knowledge heterogeneity only outweigh the costs beyond a particular threshold. Overall, our theoretical approach and allied findings advance the literature by introducing boundary conditions to the resource provision role of boards in KIFs. We discuss contributions for organizational learning, strategic leadership, and human resource management. We conclude with implications for theory and practice, as well as key opportunities for future research.
Commemorating dead ‘men’: gendering the past and present in post-conflict Northern Ireland

War is instrumental in shaping and negotiating gender identities. But what role does peace play in dispelling or affirming the gender order in post-conflict contexts? Building on a burgeoning international literature on representative landscapes and based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Northern Ireland between 2003 and 2006, this article explores the peacetime commemoration of the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ in order to explore the nuances of gender. Tellingly, the memorial landscapes cultivated since the inception of the paramilitary ceasefires in 1994 privilege male interpretations of the past (and, therefore, present). Gender parity, despite being enshrined within the 1998 Belfast Agreement which sought to draw a line under almost three decades of ethno-nationalist violence, remains an elusive utopia, as memorials continue to propagate specific roles for men and women in the ‘national project’. As the masculine ideologies of Irish Nationalism/Republicanism and British Unionism/Loyalism inscribe their respective disputant pasts into the streetscape, the narratives of women have been blurred and disrupted, begging the question: what role can they play in the future?
A heuristic to minimize the total weighted tardiness with sequence-dependent setups

We propose a three-phase heuristic for the problem of minimizing the total weighted tardiness on a single machine in the presence of sequence-dependent setup times. In the first phase a number of parameters characterizing the problem instance at hand are calculated. In the second phase we develop a schedule by using a new priority rule whose parameters are calculated based on the results of the first phase. Computational experiments show that this rule significantly outperforms the only other rule so far developed in the literature. The third phase consists of a local improvement procedure to improve the schedule obtained in the second phase. The procedure we suggest has been successfully implemented in an industrial scheduling system.
Political Parties, Motivated Reasoning, and Public Opinion Formation

A key characteristic of democratic politics is competition between groups, first of all political parties. Yet, the unavoidably partisan nature of political conflict has had too little influence on scholarship on political psychology. Despite more than 50 years of research on political parties and citizens, we continue to lack a systematic understanding of when and how political parties influence public opinion. We suggest that alternative approaches to political parties and public opinion can be best reconciled and examined through a richer theoretical perspective grounded in motivated reasoning theory. Clearly, parties shape citizens' opinions by mobilizing, influencing, and structuring choices among political alternatives. But the answer to when and how parties influence citizens' reasoning and political opinions depends on an interaction between citizens' motivations, effort, and information generated from the political environment (particularly through competition between parties). The contribution of motivated reasoning, as we describe it, is to provide a coherent theoretical framework for understanding partisan influence on citizens' political opinions. We review recent empirical work consistent with this framework. We also point out puzzles ripe for future research and discuss how partisan-motivated reasoning provides a useful point of departure for such work.
Determination of levels of damage caused by different densities of Tuta absoluta populations (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) under greenhouse conditions

In order to determine the effect of infestations with Tuta absoluta on the growth and development of tomato plants under greenhouse conditions, six densities of the pest were evaluated (0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 females/plant). A completely random design with three replicates per treatment was employed. The percentage of leaf area and number of fruits damaged were estimated and those variables were used to construct a damage curve. The plants exposed at infestation levels between 6 and 10 females presented the highest percentages of leaf area consumed (between 27 and 43%), damage on fruits (between 45 and 100%), and loss of apical leaves in comparison with the treatments with two and four females/plants. The height, number of internodes, number of leaves and leaflets, number and biomass of fruits were differentially affected by the densities of T. absoluta infestation ( P ≤ 0.05). The leaf area and the biomass of stems and leaves did not vary with the infestation levels evaluated. On the damage curve, we observed that with more than two females per plant, the variables biomass, quality and number of fruits, result affected in an important way.