Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Agro-economic feasibility of fertilizer use for wheat cultivation in rainfed regions of Pakistan.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) response to different levels of fertilizer was studied during 2005-06 on farmer’s field at district Karak, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan. Objectives of the study was to determine optimum and economical level of fertilizer for wheat cultivation in rainfed regions. The study comprised seven rates of NP fertilizer i.e control (T1), 25-0 kg (T2), 0-25 kg (T3), 25-25 kg (T4), 50-25 kg (T5), 75-50 kg (T6) and 100-50 kg per hectare (T7) arranged in a RCBD with four replications. The data recorded on wheat grain yield and components showed that all NP levels significantly increased the number of tillers, 1000-grain weight, straw and grain yields as against control treatment. The data further showed linear increase in different parameters of wheat with increasing fertilizer levels upto 50-25 kg NP per hectare but further increment of fertilizer inhibited the physiological growth of crop which ultimately suppressed grain yield. The highest grain yield (2450 kg/ ha) was obtained with 50-25 kg NP showing 71 percent increase over control treatment (1435 kg). The inhibiting effect of higher NP doses on yield and yield components might be attributed to the scarcity of moisture in rainfed regions. Economic analysis showed that net income from increased yield of wheat over control ranged from Rs.1407 to Rs.5686/- per hectare. Maximum net income (Rs.5686/-) with 7.01 cost benefit ratio was obtained with 50-25 kg. Thus, level of 50-25 kg NP per hectare can be recommended as an economical rate of fertilizer for growing of wheat under rainfed condition.
Behind the Success of Dominated Personal Pension Plans: Sales Force and Financial Literacy Factors

The revealed preference for dominated insurance-based personal pension plans (PPPs) in Italy is a decade-long puzzle. I surmise that a motivation from the supply side is a sales force factor deriving from the geographical distribution of financial providers, including the countrywide network of the state controlled Post Office. I provide supporting evidence using three biennial waves of the Bank of Italy's survey on household finances from 2010 to 2014. The time interval includes a public pension system reform sharply raising the statutory age retirement, legislated in December 2011 to defuse a sovereign debt crisis. I show that the salience effect on the awareness of the benefits of supplementing lower perspective public pensions with PPPs increased the explanatory power of financial strength indicators. Exploiting a module in the 2010 wave I estimate a surprising decrease in the probability of subscription to PPPs in 2014 associated with the indicator for the highest financial literacy level.
The effect of different levels of internal control over financial reporting regulation on the quality of accounting information: evidence from Korea

This study investigates the effect of different levels of internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) regulations on accounting information quality. Stricter ICFR regulation restricts the opportunistic behavior of managers, leading to better accounting information quality. Strictly regulated firms tend to report lesser discretionary accruals. The results of this study indicate that the accounting information quality of less strictly regulated firms deteriorated, while there was no significant change in the accounting information quality of strictly regulated firms. This implies that the effect of ICFR regulation depends more on the enforcement rather than the adoption of the regulations.
Comparison between experiment and calculated band structures for DyN and SmN

Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7079, USA(Dated: March 20, 2008)We investigate the electronic band structure of two of the rare-earth nitrides, DyN and SmN.Resistivity measurements imply that both materials have a semiconducting ground state, and bothshow resistivity anomalies coinciding with the magnetic transition, despite the diﬀerent magneticstates in DyN and SmN. X-ray absorption and emission measurements are in excellent agreementwith densities of states obtained from LSDA+U calculations, although for SmN the calculationspredict a zero band gap.
The potential of RFID in warehousing activities in a retail industry supply chain

The main objective of this pilot study is to improve our understanding of the potential of RFID in the context of warehousing activities in one specific supply chain in the retail industry. Empirical data was gathered from four tightly inter-related firms from three layers of the supply chain. Results indicate that RFID appears to be a disruptive technology as it supports a new business model, entails major redesign of existing processes and fosters a higher level of electronic integration between supply chain members.
Todayʼs virtual water consumption and trade under future water scarcity

The populations of most nations consume products of both domestic and foreign origin, importing together with the products the water which is expended abroad for their production (termed ‘virtual water’). Therefore, any investigation of the sustainability of present-day water consumption under future climate change needs to consider the effects of potentially reduced water availability both on domestic water resources and on the trades of virtual water. Here we use combinations of Global Climate and Global Impact Models from the ISI–MIP ensemble to derive patterns of future water availability under the RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations scenarios. We assess the effects of reduced water availability in these scenarios on national water consumptions and virtual water trades through a simple accounting scheme based on the water footprint concept. We thereby identify countries where the water footprint within the country area is reduced due to a reduced within-area water availability, most prominently in the Mediterranean and some African countries. National water consumption in countries such as Russia, which are non-water scarce by themselves, can be affected through reduced imports from water scarce countries. We find overall stronger effects of the higher GHG concentrations scenario, although the model range of climate projections for single GHG concentrations scenarios is in itself larger than the differences induced by the GHG concentrations scenarios. Our results highlight that, for both investigated GHG concentration scenarios, the current water consumption and virtual water trades cannot be sustained into the future due to the projected patterns of reduced water availability.
The socio-economic determinants of social capital and the mediating effect of history: Making Democracy Work revisited

Putnam argued that the different levels of social capital between the North and the South of Italy originated in the Middle Ages. In the North of Italy, the existence of a dense network of medieval towns gave rise to horizontal ties and collective action. Conversely, in the South of Italy, the authoritarian Norman rule generated hierarchical relationships and the absence of collective action. This article proposes an alternative explanation for the lack of social capital in the South of Italy using a comparative perspective. The analysis is undertaken in two steps: 1) testing the socio-economic determinants of social capital in 85 European regions; 2) performing a comparative historical analysis between deviant – that is, South of Italy and Wallonia – and regular – that is, North East of Italy and Flanders – cases. These cases are selected by looking at the residual of the regression model. The results suggest that medieval history does not explain the lack of social capital in the South of Italy. On the contrary, the historical legacy mitigates the negative effect of inequitable income distribution, low labour market participation and weak national cohesion on social capital.
Managers' Use of Language Across Alternative Disclosure Outlets: Earnings Press Releases Versus MD&A

We use textual-analysis software to quantify the language used in earnings press releases and the corresponding Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) for approximately 13,000 firm quarters between 1998 and 2003. Analyzing two narrative disclosures in which managers describe firm performance for the same quarter allows us to examine managers’ use of language across alternative communication outlets. Our general prediction, which relies on prior literature suggesting that there is a greater market response to information disclosed in an earnings announcement press release versus an SEC filing, is that managers disclose less pessimistic language and more optimistic language in earnings press releases relative to the corresponding MD&A disclosures. We first document that firms exhibit significantly lower levels of pessimistic language and higher levels of optimistic language in earnings press releases relative to the MD&A. We then construct a measure of the proportion of total pessimistic language reported in an earnings press release relative to the corresponding MD&A and find this proportional measure is negatively associated with the intensity of managers’ strategic reporting incentives. In additional analyses, we find a negative association between the level of pessimistic language in the MD&A and future firm performance, controlling for pessimistic language in the corresponding earnings press release. This evidence supports our assertion that managers disclose pessimistic language in the MD&A that provides information incremental to that in the corresponding earnings press release. Overall, our results are consistent with managers’ use of alternative communication outlets as part of a strategy to influence the market’s response to information disclosed.
Do the Use of Proceeds Disclosure and Bank Characteristics Affect Bank Underwriters’ Certification Roles?

This paper examines the relationship between the intended use-of-proceeds and the bank characteristics and the bank underwriters’ certification effect in Japan. We find that the bank underwriters are positively associated with the announcement return and the post-issue performance. However, if an issuer discloses that the intended use-of-proceeds is the repayment of loans, the bank underwriters are no longer associated with the announcement return and the post-issue performance. We also find that the banks’ equity holdings are negatively associated with the announcement return. We conclude that the bank certification effect differs depending on the disclosed intended use-of-proceeds and the bank characteristics.
Public Information Arrival: Price Discovery and Liquidity in Electronic Limit Order Markets

How information is translated into market prices is still an open question. This paper studies the impact of newswire messages on intraday price discovery, liquidity, and trading intensity in an electronic limit order market. We take an objective ex ante measure of the tone of a message to study the impacts of positive, negative, and neutral messages on price discovery and trading activity. As expected, we find higher adverse selection costs around the arrival of newswire messages. Negative messages are associated with higher adverse selection costs than positive or neutral messages. Liquidity increases around positive and neutral messages and decreases around negative messages. Available order book depth as well as the trading intensity increases around all news. Our results suggest that market participants possess different information gathering and processing capabilities and that negative news messages are particularly informative and induce stronger market reactions.
Valuing the Multiple Impacts of Pesticide Use in the UK: A Contingent Ranking Approach

The contingent ranking method was used to estimate the value of the human health and biodiversity impacts associated with pesticide applications, using a “green” consumer product as a payment vehicle. Specification testing showed that the standard conditional logit model provides a representation of these data preferable to the rank‐ordered logit variant. The resulting estimates ‐ which perform well in terms of standard validity tests ‐ show that, on average, consumers are only willing to tolerate between six and eight cases of human illness to save an entire species of farmland birds.
InnovationXchange: A case study in innovation intermediation

Abstract Knowledge intermediation can create otherwise unobtainable value when potentially profitable knowledge combinations do not occur because the search costs required to discover them are too high and/or the risks and costs of opportunistic behavior prevents the knowledge disclosure required to identify and/or pursue them. Based on a case study of the Australian operation of the InnovationXchange (IXC), an innovation intermediary, this paper identifies three sets of core intermediation competences – network spanning capability, organizational memory and credibility and skills as a mediator. It describes the practices employed by IXC to develop and sustain these capabilities, enabling it to: (1) search for and match partners and facilitate knowledge sharing across geographical, industry and disciplinary boundaries at lower cost and more effectively than its clients can do on their own; and to (2) mitigate risks of opportunistic behavior, IP contamination and reputational damage that prevent agents from engaging in direct contact. The study provides new insights regarding the organizational capabilities required for successful knowledge brokering, and regarding the types of situations where knowledge intermediaries can provide value by facilitating combinations of knowledge that might otherwise go undetected. The results raise some intriguing issues for future research regarding the mechanisms at work when bridging the thought worlds of different industries, functions and disciplines lacking common cognitive schema, vocabularies and priorities.
Short Selling Behavior and Mad Money

We examine 1,234 buy recommendations from Jim Cramer’s Mad Money television show. Consistent with prior research, we report positive abnormal returns immediately after buy recommendations, followed by a reversal, indicative of an overpricing event. We also find a marked increase in short selling. Our results show a positive association between shorting and the buy recommendations even after controlling for factors shown in the literature to influence shorting. We do not find similar effects after sell recommendations. These results suggest that short sellers act to exploit short-term overpricing arising from behavioral biases of some investors.
Business strategy, human resource systems, and organizational performance in the Spanish banking industry

Although human resource (HR) systems in the form of bundles of HR practices and their impact on organizational performance have attracted considerable attention, the role that business strategy could play in this relationship remains uncertain, particularly in service industries. In order to avoid any confounding effects, this study analyzes the performance impact of adopting different HR systems in an empirical setting in which employees are vital if the company is to remain competitive, the firms belong to the same industry and the primary activities involved are the delivery of services to customers. Based on survey data from 86 banking institutions in Spain, three HR systems were identified, two of which rendered better organizational performance when matched to defender strategies, thus supporting a contingency explanation of the adoption of HR systems. Findings showed that even in an industry under strong universalistic pressures to adopt certain predictable HR practices, matching HR systems with a business strategy pays off.
Alternative site of implantation affects tumor malignancy and metastatic potential in mice: Its comparison to the flank model

MC-C fibrosarcoma and B16F0 melanoma tumors were implanted intradermally in the dorsal region of the foot of mice. Tumor progression was compared to standard implantation in the flank. Although foot tumors only reached 13% (MC-C) and 25% (B16F0) of the mean volume of flank tumors, a more malignant phenotype in terms of histology and survival rate was observed in this type of tumors. Moreover, lung metastases were only detected in hosts bearing foot tumors, in contrast to MC-C and B16F0 populations with tumors growing in the flank. In addition, cellular influx and local immune reaction were higher in the dorsal region of the foot. According to our results, the dermis of the flank allows excessive tumor growth due to its low reactivity. Thus, differences in innate and adaptive immune effectors between the evaluated tumor microenvironments would account for the differences in tumor malignancy. Due to its striking differences with the standard flank inoculation, the tumor implantation model herein introduced could be a valuable tool to study the metastatic potential of different cell lines and the microenvironment components affecting tumor growth.
INFLUENCE OF MODELS AND SCALES ON THE RANKING OF MULTIATTRIBUTE ALTERNATIVES

This paper presents an application of three multiple criteria methods to determining rank of residential real estate options. Methods SAW and TODIM are based on eliciting the decision maker's preferences (weights and values) directly in a quantitative form while using linear (SAW) and non-linear (TODIM) aggregation functions for alternatives' evaluation. ZAPROS seeks and uses preferences in an ordinal form as an indirect comparison of trade-offs between criteria. Advantages and disadvantages of different approaches are discussed.
gecko setae Rate-dependent frictional adhesion in natural and synthetic

publication. Citations to Advance online articles must include the digital object identifier (DOIs) and date of initial online articles are citable and establish publication priority; they are indexed by PubMed from initial publication. the paper journal (edited, typeset versions may be posted when available prior to final publication). Advance Advance online articles have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication but have not yet appeared in
The Long-Term Risks of Global Stock Markets

This research investigates the persistence of investment risk across time horizon, a crucial issue in asset allocation decisions. Previous empirical results have focused mainly on US data and suffer from limited sample size in the analysis of long-horizon returns. Investigation of a longterm sample of thirty countries provides additional empirical evidence. The results are not reassuring. There is no evidence of long-term mean reversion in the expanded data sample. Downside risk is not reduced as the horizon lengthens. On the positive side, a globally diversified portfolio would have displayed much less downside risk than any single market.
The Declining Advantages of Democracy

The authors estimate a dynamic model to assess the effects of democracy on war outcomes and how these effects vary over time. Using quantitative data drawn from interstate wars between 1816 and 1990, the authors demonstrate that the wartime advantages that accrue to democratic states are fleeting. In the short run, democracies are more likely to win than are their autocratic opponents. However, although they are at an apparent disadvantage in short wars, autocracies are far less likely to quit as time passes. This willingness to continue fighting ultimately leads to the result that after roughly 18 months have passed, the advantage passes to the autocrat. Democracies at that point become far more likely than autocratic states to quit and more willing to settle for draws or losses. The authors also find that relationships between war outcomes and a number of control variables such as military-industrial capacity and military strategy vary over time.
A Tactical Error in the Analysis of Tactical Voting: A Response to Niemi, Whitten and Franklin

In their article ‘Constituency Characteristics, Individual Characteristics and Tactical Voting in the 1987 British General Election’, Niemi, Whitten and Franklin claim that in the 1987 general election ‘about one in every six voters … had tactical considerations in mind in deciding whom to vote for’. As they point out, this figure is far higher than Heath et al.'s estimate of 6.5 per cent of major party voters having ‘a tactical motivation for their vote’. It is also far higher than estimates obtained by other analyses of the 1987 election using aggregate data. In this Note we point to methodological weaknesses in Niemi, Whitten and Franklin's article which indicate that their estimate is unlikely to be a valid measure of tactical voting, at least of the concept as customarily understood by political scientists. Indeed, when looked at carefully, the evidence they present to support their expanded estimate of tactical voting serves only to re-affirm the original claims of Heath and his colleagues and the other conservative estimates of the prevalence of tactical voting.
The revitalising effect of ISO 9001 on dissatisfied customers

This study surveyed 123 online banking users who have experienced at least once a non-routine encounter while doing their banking, to investigate whether ISO 9001 certification affects their perceptions of service recovery and consequently satisfaction, value and loyalty and if ISO 9001 enhances the relationships strength between the four constructs. In pursuit of this objective, the study proposed a model linking loyalty and its antecedents to investigate the factors that might influence customer satisfaction and loyalty as well as the possible mediating/moderating role. The overall results showed service recovery was directly and positively related to customer satisfaction and value, which in turn significantly influence loyalty. However, the mediating/moderating effect of customer satisfaction on the relationship between service recovery and customer loyalty was partially supported. Moreover, the results showed ISO 9001 certification has no influence on customers' perceptions of service recovery, satisfaction, value and loyalty. Nevertheless, companies should consider ISO 9001 certification since it was shown to encourage satisfied customers to remain loyal to the firm.
Rhetoric and reality of corporate greening: a view from the supply chain management function

The increasingly important economic role of supply chain management provides the backcloth against which this article examines what contribution the function can make to environmental protection. Theoretical perspectives on greener supply are developed and then tested against a sample of manufacturing companies. Environmental policy documents published by the sample companies seem to offer surface evidence for a proactive supply chain management role in environmental protection. Yet a more detailed examination of the three elements that constitute supply chain management - the management of the transformation of materials, the management of information flows and the management of supply chain relationships - finds a suboptimal situation for all three areas. In part this gap can be explained by limits in the technical capabilities of the supply chain. More important, however, are structural constraints that prevent the supply chain manager from actively searching for environmentally friendlier alternatives.