Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DOES TRADE STIMULATE INNOVATION? EVIDENCE FROM FIRM-PRODUCT DATA

This paper investigates whether increased import competition leads firms to engage in incremental innovation reflected in product quality upgrading. The econometric analysis relies on a rich dataset of Chilean manufacturing firms and their products. Product quality is measured with unit values (prices) and imports’ transport costs are used as an exogenous proxy for import competition. The estimates show a negative effect of transport costs on product quality. The paper provides explicit evidence that estimated increases in unit values capture product quality upgrading, and that competition effects of imports explain our results. Easier access to intermediate inputs also fosters quality upgrading. Cet article examine si le fait d’etre en competition avec des produits d’importation affecte la decision des entreprises de s’engager dans l’innovation incrementale, qui se reflete dans une amelioration de la qualite des produits. Les resultats econometriques sont fondes sur de riches donnees chiliennes d’entreprises et de leurs produits. La qualite des produits est mesuree par leur valeur unitaire (leur prix) et le cout de transport des importations est utilise comme une mesure exogene du degre de competition des importations. Les estimations montrent un effet negatif du cout de transport sur la qualite des produits. L’article demontre que les increments dans la valeur unitaire refletent les increments dans la qualite des produits et que la competition explique nos resultats. Un acces plus aise aux produits intermediaires participe egalement a une amelioration de la qualite des produits.
Vulnerability of copepod eggs in salinity and temperature gradients of the Marmara and Black Seas

Mass density, sinking speed and hatching success of eggs in Calanus euxinus, Acartia clausi and A. tonsa have been examined in response to salinity and temperature of the Marmara and Black Seas. Eggs of C. euxinus from the Marmara and Black Sea populations (mean mass density of 1.036 to 1.040 g cm -3 ) laid in brackish (18 to 22 psu) upper layers of the Marmara Sea could sink to high-saline (~38.5 psu) deep layers during embryonic development. Gradual salinity increase from 22 to 38.5 psu in laboratory experiments reduced egg hatching success in C. euxinus from the Marmara Sea from 97 ± 4 to 47 ± 11% (means ± SD) while all eggs of the Black Sea C. euxinus did not hatch. Mean mass density of eggs in A. tonsa and A. clausi amounted to 1.062 and 1.044 g cm -3 , respectively. Eggs of A. tonsa with higher mass density and longer development time than those of A. clausi could descend to high salinity strata in the Marmara Sea, or to a cold intermediate layer in the Black Sea. On the contrary, sinking depth of eggs of A. clausi should not exceed 30 m both in the Black and Marmara Seas, as this increases predator pressure. Hatching success in A. tonsa eggs laid at 18 psu decreased from 77.7 ± 18.5% at 20°C to 46.7 ± 21.5% at 7°C, and reduced to 10.2 ± 4.7% at 7°C and 39 psu. Egg hatching success in A. clausi from the Black Sea did not depend upon temperature, whilst it decreased dramatically from 80 to 90% to 3.3 to 10% after salinity increase from 18 to 38 psu.
An investigation of Chinese university EFL learner's foreign language reading anxiety, reading strategy use and reading comprehension performance

The present study explored the interrelations between foreign language (FL) reading anxiety, FL reading strategy use and their interactive effect on FL reading comprehension performance at the tertiary level in China. Analyses of the survey data collected from 1702 university students yielded the following results: (a) Both Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) and Foreign Language Reading Strategy Use Scale (FLRSUS) had important subcomponents, (b) more than half of the students generally did not feel anxious when reading English, and were confident in and satisfied with their English reading proficiency. Meanwhile, (c) more than half of them moderately used different types of reading strategies such as planning, checking and confirming, predicting and assessing, when reading English, (d) compared with their female peers, male students felt significantly more anxious when facing reading activities, less satisfied with their English reading proficiency, and used specific analyzing and planning strategies significantly less often during a reading activity, (e) FLRAS was significantly inversely related to FLRSUS, and both were significantly correlated with the students’ FL reading comprehension performance, and (f) FLRAS (overall FL reading anxiety), FLRAS1 (general anxiety about FL reading), and FLRSUS2 (predicting strategies) were good predictors of FL reading comprehension performance. Based on the findings, some implications are discussed.
Effect of foaming temperature on morphology and compressive properties of Ethylene propylene diena monomer rubber (EPDM) foam

The morphology and compressive properties of EPDM foam were investigated against foaming temperatures (i.e 140, 150 and 160 o C). The blowing agent used in this study was sodium bicarbonate. The rubber compositions were expanded and cured using conventional compression moulding technique via heat transfer foaming process. The morphology of EPDM foam was characterized with respect to the cell size, relative foam density and crosslink density. Meanwhile the compressive properties were characterized using compression load-deflection and compression set testing. Increase in foaming temperature resulted in larger cell size. The crosslink densities in EPDM foam were determined using Flory-Rhener equation and results indicated that the crosslink density has slightly decreased with increasing foaming temperature. The relative foam density also showed decreasing when the foaming temperature was increased. For mechanical properties, the highest foam density has resulted in the highest compressive stress. Compression stress at 50 % strain decreased with increasing foaming temperature. It was also found that the compression set decreased with increasing foaming temperature. The results showed that the morphology and compressive properties of the EPDM foam can be controlled closely by the foaming temperature.
AN AERIAL LOTTERY: THE PHYSICS OF BALLOONING IN A CHAOTIC ATMOSPHERE

The annual recolonization of many agroecosystems by spiders is accomplished more by aerial deposition of ballooning spiders than by cursorial invasion from refugia such as forests and fence lines. The resulting spider communities can have major direct impacts on prey populations and can there- fore strongly influence crop productivity. In this paper I first review what we know about ballooning in the broad sense, and then explore the influence of localized atmospheric structure on the physics and dynamics of ballooning. I used relatively high frequency measurements of air movement (speed and inclination) to develop a statistical characterization of the aerial microclimate at the top of the canopy in a field dominated by goldenrod (Solidago sp.), and analyzed the known physics of ballooning in the context of that statistical characterization. The major findings are (1) that the spider's perception of the current state of its microclimate, at least with respect to air direction and speed, has almost no predictive value and can only contribute to the spider's decision-making in a statistical sense, and (2) that the size distribution of the population of aeronauts is well explained by constraints imposed by aerodynamics and the probabilistic structure of the turbulent atmosphere. The colonization of agricultural ecosystems by arthropod herbivores and their predators has attracted the attention of researchers (Southwood 1962; Bunce & Howard 1990; Wissinger 1997) in part because of the im- pressive economic impact that uncontrolled outbreaks of pests can cause (e.g., Andow 1991). A growing proportion of the coloni- zation literature now concerns the sources of immigrants and the utility of manipulating the vegetational structure of agroecosystems to foster immigration of the natural enemies of herbivores (Mansour et al. 1983; Kemp &
The efficiency of local public service production: the impact of size and institutions

Bigger and more centralized municipal entities have been the trend in Europe for the past few decades. Expenditure reductions and efficiency gains are often expected to follow from municipal mergers, but evidence from the economic literature in this regard is far from unambiguous. Therefore, we analyze the effect of municipal size and institutional structure at the local level on efficiency in public goods production. An exceptionally detailed data set on the municipalities in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt allows us to identify the impact of different institutional settings. In contrast to previous studies, we choose the aggregate budget of municipal associations as the object of our analysis since important competences are settled at the joint administrative level. We perform a non-parametric efficiency analysis (DEA) and provide bias-corrected efficiency scores. Furthermore, we test for economies of scale and the impact of environmental variables using the bootstrap approach suggested by Simar and Wilson (2007). To our knowledge, this is the first study to use these techniques in studying this issue. The findings reveal a technology with variable returns to scale; a substantial number of observations operate under decreasing returns to scale. A centralized institutional setting is shown to reduce efficiency.
Identification of accelerated evolution in the metalloproteinase domain of snake venom metalloproteinase sequences (SVMPs) through comparative analysis

Computational protein sequence analysis is one of the most important tools used for understanding the evolution of closely related proteins sequences including snake venom metalloproteinase sequences (SVMPs) which give valuable information regarding genetic variations. The fundamental objective of the present study is to screen the evolution distributed in metalloproteinase domain regions of protein sequences among different SVMPs in snake species which are involved in a range of pathological disorders such as arthritis, atherosclerosis, liver fibrosis, cardiovascular, cancer, liver and neurodegenerative disorders. In fact, SVMPS are responsible for hemorrhage and may also interfere with the hemostatic system. A comparative characterization of the metalloproteinase sequences has been carried out to analyze their multiple sequence alignment, phylogenic tree, homology, physicochemical, secondary structural and functional properties. DNAMAN software was used for multiple sequence alignment, phylogenic tree and homology and Expasy’s Prot-param server was used for amino acid composition, physico-chemical and functional characterization of these SVMPs sequences. Studies of secondary structure of these SVMPs were carried out by computational program. Based on the observed patterns of occurrence of atypical features, we hypothesize that amino acids of metalloproteinase domain region (66.63% identity) of protein sequences are highly changeable; whereas, signal peptide region (93.98% identity) is the lowest changeable protein sequence and the remaining other three domains such as propeptide region (87.36% identity), desintegrin domain region (78.63% identity) and cysteine-rich domain region (75.70% identity) show moderate changeable protein sequence. SVMPs might be an accelerated evolution, which is a key player in causing diseases. From the data, it can be suggested that over -changed metalloproteinase domain regions in snake venom metalloproteinase might be responsible for the generation of functional variation of proteins expressed, which in turn may lead to different disorders in humans after snake bite. The results of this study would be an effective tool for the study of mutation, drugs resistance mechanisms and development of new drugs for different diseases. Key words : SVMPs, evolution, multiple sequence alignment, phylogenic tree, secondary structure, homology.
Genotype by environment interaction on yield stability of desi type chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) at major chickpea producing areas of Ethiopia

This study was conducted to determine the interaction between chickpea genotypes with the environment (GxE) on the yield stability and adaptability of desi type chickpea genotypes (Cicer arietinum L.). Seventeen chickpea genotypes were evaluated for two cropping years (2012/2013 – 2013/2014) at four locations i.e., eight environments (locations x years combination). Chickpea grain yield was significantly (p<0.01) affected by genotypes, the environments and GxE interaction, indicating that the varieties and the test environments were diverse. GxE was further partitioned by principal component axes. The first two principal components cumulatively explained 53.1% of the total variation, of which 32.7% and 20.4% were contributed by IPCA1 and IPCA2, respectively. This implies that the interaction of 17 chickpea genotypes with eight environments was predicted by the first two principal components. AMMI1 biplot analysis showed five adaptive categories of genotypes based on similarities in their performance across environments. The AMMI2 biplot generated using genotypes and environmental scores for the first two IPCAs revealed positioning of the five genotype groups (GC) into four sectors of the biplot. Among them, two genotypes in GC 5 (G5 and G11) exhibited high yields across environments, low IPCA1 scores, low AMMI stability value (ASV) and yield stability index (YSI). G5 was released as a new variety, ‘Dimtu’ and registered in the Official Varieties Catalogue of Ethiopia, 2016.
Study of the Hydrogen Potentiality from Supercritical Water Gasification of Different Biomasses: Thermodynamic Analysis and Comparison with Experimental Data

Awareness of climate changes and large usage of fossil fuels have attracted more attention on the other sources of energy. Hydrogen is considered nowadays as an energy carrier of great interest. It is also used as chemical in different industrial sectors. Similarly, biomass has been taken into consideration with great interest for both energy and chemical productions, as an alternative to fossil sources: this is still a challenging topic, which industries and researchers are facing with. Several technologies have been studied for the hydrogen production from biomass. Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) is a reaction of potential interest for biomass processing, particularly for biomass characterized by a high moisture content (typically more than 50 % by weight). This technology allows to obtain a rich hydrogen gas stream, with a low CO content. The reaction takes place above the water critical point, where chemical and physical properties of water are subjected to significant changes, which affect the reactivity of the system. Different authors have studied the SCWG reaction applied to different biomass materials. In this paper an analysis of the reaction performances with different models and real biomasses is presented, comparing the results with the ones found in literature (obtained by modelling and experimental). The hydrogen potential is studied using the Gibbs free energy minimization tool available in commercial process simulators, showing a good agreement between predictions and experimental results.
Biosorption of cadmium (ii) ion from aqueous solution by Afzelia africana

The batch adsorption of cadmium (II) ion from aqueous solution using low-cost adsorbent of biological origin, Afzelia africana shell under different experimental conditions was investigated in this study. The influences of initial Cd (II) ion concentration, initial pH, contact times and temperature were reported. Adsorption of Cd (II) was found to be pH dependent and the results indicate that the optimum pH for its removal from aqueous solution was 5. No marginal effect on the biosorption of cadmium was detected for temperatures between 298 and 313K as observed from their Langmuir isotherm constants (q max ) at different temperatures. q max values obtained at the different temperatures of 298, 303 and 313K were 13.59, 14.04 and 14.27 mg g -1 , respectively. The adsorption equilibrium shows that the process followed both Freundlich and Langmuir models with Freundlich giving a better fit for the adsorption data in comparison to the Langmuir model. The fit of the adsorption data into Freundlich model shows that the adsorption process was predominantly a physisorption. The results reveal that cadmium (ll) was considerably adsorbed on the A. africana shell and could serve as an economical method for the removal of cadmium from aqueous solutions. Keywords : Adsorption isotherms, adsorption kinetics, Afzelia africana , biosorbent, biosorption. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(32), pp. 5060-5068
Future Arctic Ocean primary productivity from CMIP5 simulations: Uncertain outcome, but consistent mechanisms

Net Arctic Ocean primary production (PP) is expected to increase over this century, due to less perennial sea ice and more available light, but could decrease depending on changes in nitrate (NO3) supply. Here Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 simulations performed with 11 Earth System Models are analyzed in terms of PP, surface NO3, and sea ice coverage over 1900–2100. Whereas the mean model simulates reasonably well Arctic‐integrated PP (511 TgC/yr, 1998–2005) and projects a mild 58 TgC/yr increase by 2080–2099 for the strongest climate change scenario, models do not agree on the sign of future PP change. However, similar mechanisms operate in all models. The perennial ice loss‐driven increase in PP is in most models NO3‐limited. The Arctic surface NO3 is decreasing over the 21st century (−2.3 ± 1 mmol/m3), associated with shoaling mixed layer and with decreasing NO3 in the nearby North Atlantic and Pacific waters. However, the intermodel spread in the degree of NO3 limitation is initially high, resulting from >1000 year spin‐up simulations. This initial NO3 spread, combined with the trend, causes a large variation in the timing of oligotrophy onset—which directly controls the sign of future PP change. Virtually all models agree in the open ocean zones on more spatially integrated PP and less PP per unit area. The source of model uncertainty is located in the sea ice zone, where a subtle balance between light and nutrient limitations determines the PP change. Hence, it is argued that reducing uncertainty on present Arctic NO3 in the sea ice zone would render Arctic PP projections much more consistent.
Back to the Agriculture - the Development of the Comparative Advantage of Sudan’s Commodities

In recent years, the Dutch disease created by losing the oil revenues has encouraged countries to diversify the comparative advantage in other products and services, and for many countries including Sudan agricultural products are at the top of the exports. Hence, this paper analyzed the comparative advantages of Sudan’s agricultural products and to show the extent to which products that Sudan should specialize in to regain some of missed comparative advantages. In order to figure out this, data were extracted from the International Trade Centre (ITC)’s Trade map, the UNCTAD COMTRADE database and Central Bank of Sudan. In this study, we used the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) method to analyze the direction of changes of Sudanese comparative advantages for the recent period from 2000 to 2013. The study found that Sudan has opportunity to regain it is missed comparative advantages for products that have recently specialized and experienced in. The Cotton, animal resources and Gum Arabic products are found most products that Sudan has a comparative advantage in.
One plausible reason for the change in ENSO characteristics in the 2000s

Abstract. It is well known that El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) causes floods, droughts in different regions of the Earth and the collapse of fisheries in the tropical Pacific, therefore forecasting of ENSO is an important task in climate researches. Variations in the equatorial warm water volume of the tropical Pacific and wind variability in the western equatorial Pacific has been considered to be a good ENSO predictor. However, in the 2000s, the interrelationship between these two characteristics and ENSO onsets became weak. This article attempts to find some plausible explanation for this. The results presented here demonstrate a possible link between the variability of atmospheric conditions over the Southern Ocean and their impact on the ocean circulation leading to the amplifying of ENSO events. It is shown that the variability of the atmospheric conditions upstream of Drake Passage can strongly influence ENSO events. The interrelationship between ENSO and variability in the equatorial warm water volume of the equatorial Pacific, together with wind variability in the western equatorial Pacific has recently weakened. It can be explained by the fact that the process occurred in the Southern Ocean recently became a major contributor amplifying ENSO events (in comparison with the processes of interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean in the tropics of the Pacific). Likely it is due to a warmer ocean state observed from the end of the 1990s that led to smaller atmospheric variability in the tropics and insignificant their changes in the Southern Ocean.
Processing nonnative consonant clusters in the classroom: Perception and production of phonetic detail

Recent research has shown that speakers are sensitive to non-contrastive phonetic detail present in nonnative speech (e.g. Escudero et al. 2012; Wilson et al. 2014). Difficulties in interpreting and implementing unfamiliar phonetic variation can lead nonnative speakers to modify second language forms by vowel epenthesis and other changes. These difficulties may be exacerbated in the classroom, as previous studies have found that classroom acoustics have a detrimental effect on listeners’ ability to identify nonnative sounds and words (e.g. Takata and Nábělek, 1990). Here we compare the effects of two acoustic environments – a sound booth and a classroom – on English speakers’ ability to process and produce unfamiliar consonant sequences in an immediate shadowing task. A number of acoustic–phonetic properties were manipulated to create variants of word-initial obstruent–obstruent and obstruent–nasal clusters. The acoustic manipulations significantly affected English speakers’ correct productions and detailed error patterns in both the sound booth and the classroom, suggesting that the relevant acoustic detail is not substantially degraded by classroom acoustics. However, differences in the response patterns in the two environments indicate that the classroom setting does affect how speakers interpret nonnative phonetic detail for the purpose of determining their production targets.
Facial Expression Recognition from Video Sequences Based on Spatial-Temporal Motion Local Binary Pattern and Gabor Multiorientation Fusion Histogram

This paper proposes novel framework for facial expressions analysis using dynamic and static information in video sequences. First, based on incremental formulation, discriminative deformable face alignment method is adapted to locate facial points to correct in-plane head rotation and break up facial region from background. Then, spatial-temporal motion local binary pattern (LBP) feature is extracted and integrated with Gabor multiorientation fusion histogram to give descriptors, which reflect static and dynamic texture information of facial expressions. Finally, a one-versus-one strategy based multiclass support vector machine (SVM) classifier is applied to classify facial expressions. Experiments on Cohn-Kanade (CK)