Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
REARING AND RELEASE TECHNOLOGY OF TWO NATURAL ENEMIES ( CRYPTOLAEMUS MONTROUZIERI AND AENASIUS BAMBAWALEI ) FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF COTTON MEALYBUG

Phenacoccus solenopsis damages field, forage and ornamental crops (Arif et al., 2012) including 154 plant species belonging to various families such as: Malvaceae, Solanaceae, Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Amaranthaceae and Cucurbitaceae. However, economical damage has been observed on cotton, brinjal, okra, tomato, sesame, sunflower and china rose (Arif et al., 2009). In addition to this, cotton mealy bug consistently damages 52 plant families. These plant families serve as a bridge or carry-over place to spread on economic crops such as cotton to infest and ultimately destroy it. Tropical and subtropical climate with summer rains and mild winters enhanced mealy bug breeding to remain present throughout the year. It has many overlapping generations damaging plant parts such as leaves, shoots, twigs, branches flowers and roots. Infestation occurs in patches that make huge loss to cotton yield. Severely damaged cotton plants suffer premature dehydration and defoliate (Mahmood et al., 2011). For the management of mealy bug the farmers in developing countries mostly rely on pesticides for their quick control (Joshi et al., 2010). These pesticides not only kill pests but also harm the beneficial fauna prevalent in the field. The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach sounds effective and environment friendly to manage this insect. The important component of IPM i.e., the biological control has not proved very effective in these regions unlike the developed countries. Therefore, little is known about biological agent of P. solenopsis in Pakistan. Biological control is known best strategy worldwide but it takes time and vast area to launch. But once it is established, becomes long-lasting and self-perpetuating. The bio-control agents such as predators, parasitoids and pathogens feeds on prey. Among predators, Chrysoperla carnea, Coccinellid beetles such as Cryptolaemus montrouzieri and Brumoides suturalis are of great economic importance and reacted numerically by consuming pest population in aggregation manner. Thus pest population is suppressed in short duration. But this bio-control system works well against both larvae and adults when it is developed before the damaging stage of pest sets in (Agarwal et al., 1988; Gautam, 1996; Ali et al., 2014). Members of Coccinellid family such as Cryptolaemus montrouzieri (known as mealybug destroyer), Brumoides suturalis, C. septumpunctata, Hippodamia variegata, ABSTRACT ARTICLE INFORMATION
Loans for Better Living: The Role of Informal Collateral

Consumers with insufficient resources can finance purchases by applying for specific purpose loans or unspecified purpose loans. I examine the default gap of these two types of loans by using a unique dataset of consumer loans from a Czech commercial bank. In line with theoretical models that perceive collateral as a screening device mitigating adverse selection, the paper confirms a negative relationship between the default rate and the presence of informal collateral. More importantly, it is not the purpose for the loan, but mainly the unobserved characteristics of the borrower that drive the default rate. The paper also provides empirical evidence that the interest rate differential between specific purpose loans and unspecified purpose loans is systematically higher than their default rate differential.
The Efficiency of Islamic Banks: Empirical Evidence from the MENA and Asian Countries Islamic Banking Sectors

The paper investigates the efficiency of the Islamic banking sectors in 16 MENA and Asian countries during the period of 2001-2006. The efficiency estimates of individual banks are evaluated using the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The results suggest that the MENA Islamic banks have exhibited higher mean technical efficiency relative to their Asian Islamic bank counterparts.with pure technical inefficiency outweighs scale inefficiency in both the MENA and Asian countries banking sectors. The empirical findings also indicate that banks from the MENA region were the most efficient banks by dominating the top part of efficiency frontier over the period. JEL Classification: G21; G28
Investigating the Relationship Between Second Language Writing Proficiency and Noun Modifications

This research investigated the relationship between second language (L2) writing proficiency and noun modifications in the context of the Program of Intensive English (PIE) at Northern Arizona University (NAU). In the research, a computer-counting program was used to check 12 noun modifiers in an index of L2 writing development in two tagged corpora that were built based on 84 PIE test essays. The two tagged corpora consist of a corpus of lower L2 writing proficiency and a corpus of higher L2 writing proficiency respectively. The results show that there are significant differences in the frequencies of some noun modifiers, especially post-noun modifiers, between the two corpora. To be more specific, students with higher L2 writing proficiency used relative clauses and prepositional phrases statistically more than students with lower L2 writing proficiency did. However, some noun modifiers were rarely used by all students, such as nonfinite clauses, infinitive clauses, and appositive noun phrases, to name a few. Consequently, English as a second language (ESL) instructors may organize writing workshops to teach different noun modifiers to students with different writing proficiencies. By doing this, it could help students effectively develop their L2 writing proficiency.
Behavioral Lateralization in Vertebrates - ReadingSample

The influence of environmental complexity on the development of brain lateralization during ontogeny was investigated using the rainbowfish, Melanotaenia duboulayi. Male and female fish reared in enriched and impoverished environments were swum in a flume where they schooled with their mirror image on the leftor right-hand side. Interestingly, rearing conditions influenced the development of laterality in each sex differently. Males were more strongly lateralized when reared in enriched conditions compared with those reared in impoverished conditions. In contrast, females tended to show the opposite pattern. This difference in response to enrichment was likely due to variation in life-history priorities between sexes that can provide alterative fitness benefits. Males and females respond to stimuli differently as male are motivated by agonistic interactions with one another and courting females, whereas females are motivated by foraging. These varying motivating factors likely interact with habitat complexity in different ways during development resulting in different developmental trajectories with respect to laterality. When we examined turning preferences of females in a radial maze, we found no differences between fish reared in different habitats with respect to the turn biases. However, we did find that the activity rates of enriched females tended to be higher across all time periods, whereas impoverished fish increased activity levels as they became familiar with the apparatus. In general, our results suggest that male fish laterality may be more responsive to changes in rearing conditions than females. A. -L. Bibost E. Kydd C. Brown (&) Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney 2109, Australia e-mail: culum.brown@mq.edu. au D. Csermely and L. Regolin (eds.), Behavioral Lateralization in Vertebrates, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-30203-9_2, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 9
Evaluation of nutritional status of preschool Sudanese children in Wad Medani great locality , Gezira State , Sudan

Background: Malnutrition is the one of the greatest problems among Sudanese children. This condition resulting from faulty nutrition, it weakens the immune system and causes significant growth delay. Growth assessment is the measurement that best defines the health and nutritional status of children. Methods: A cross-sectional community study, in which we explored nutritional status of 300 preschool Sudanese children with the help of ______________________________ Corresponding author Sitana E Abdelrahman Email: sitanaalhaj@gmail.com structured interviewed questionnaire and anthropometric measurements, from July 2014 to February 2015 in Wad Medani Great Locality, Gezira State, Sudan. Results: The results showed that, the prevalence of stunting, underweight, wasting, overweight and obesity were 18.0%, 10.6%, 4.0%, 13.6% and 3.3% respectively. The children were classified according to the body mass index as 44% as severe thinner, 24.6% moderate thinner and 21% mild thinner. Meat consumption has positive effect on body mass index. Conclusion: This study indicated high prevalence of stunting among preschool Sudanese children. The distribution of weight
The Impact of International Trade on Environmental Quality in Transition Countries: Evidence from Time Series Data during 1991-2013

This research presents first empirical time series evidence of the impact of international trade on environmental quality in the case of transition countries. The linkages between international trade and environmental quality are well established both theoretically and empirically in the literature. However, the empirical evidence relating to transition countries is non-existent as far as this study is concerned. Thus, our research aims at filling this gap. To this extent, fifteen transition countries are selected in order to test the impact of international trade on environmental quality. An econometric model between carbon emissions, energy use, income and trade openness is formed. The econometric model was estimated via ARDL approach to cointegration and GMM procedures. The econometric results from both econometric techniques support the existence of the EKC hypothesis only in three transition countries: Estonia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. As for the impact of trade on environmental quality, the econometric results from both techniques vary in different transition countries. To this extent, the displacement hypothesis is validated in the case of Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. The paper also discusses policy implications of the empirical results as well as offering policy recommendations.
Transmission of High Frequency Vibrations in Rotating Systems. Application to Cavitation Detection in Hydraulic Turbines

One of the main causes of damage in hydraulic turbines is cavitation. While not all cavitation appearing in a turbine is of a destructive type, erosive cavitation can severely affect the structure, thus increasing maintenance costs and reducing the remaining useful life of the machine. Of all types of cavitation, the maximum erosion occurs when clouds of bubbles collapse on the runner surface (cloud cavitation). When this occurs it is associated with a substantial increase in noise, and vibrations that are propagated everywhere throughout the machine. The generation of these cavitation clouds may occur naturally or it may be the response to a periodic pressure fluctuation, like the rotor/stator interaction in a hydraulic turbine. Erosive bubble cavitation generates high-frequency vibrations that are modulated by the shedding frequency. Therefore, the methods for the detection of erosive cavitation in hydraulic turbines are based on the measurement and demodulation of high-frequency vibrations. In this paper, the feasibility of detecting erosive cavitation in hydraulic turbines is investigated experimentally in a rotating disk system, which represents a simplified hydraulic turbine structure. The test rig used consists of a rotating disk submerged in a tank of water and confined with nearby axial and radial rigid surfaces. The excitation patterns produced by cloud cavitation are reproduced with a PZT (piezoelectric patch) located on the disk. These patterns include pseudo-random excitations of different frequency bands modulated by one low carrier frequency, which model the erosive cavitation characteristics. Different types of sensors have been placed in the stationary and in the rotating parts (accelerometers, acoustic emission (AE), and a microphone) in order to detect the excitation pattern. The results obtained for all the sensors tested have been compared in detail for the different excitation patterns applied to the disk. With this information, the best location and type of sensor to detect the different excitations have been identified. This study permits improving the actual technique of detecting erosive cavitation in hydraulic turbines and, therefore, to avoid operation under these circumstances.
Workplace Design, Complementarities among Work Practices, and the Formation of Key Competencies: Evidence from Italian Employees

The author analyzes the extent to which High Performance Workplace Practices (HPWP) act as a mediating variable between High Performance Work Organization (HPWO) and the economic outcomes of firms in developing workers' key competencies, which include higher order cognition, problem-solving, and self-reflexivity. Using a large survey of Italian employees drawn from a government-constructed database, the author finds that HPWPs that comprise greater worker discretion, participation in improvement groups, inclusion in workplace improvement schemes, and involvement in performance evaluation help employees develop such competencies, thus enabling firms to thrive and grow. He also shows that these organizational work practices result in more efficient production when simultaneously adopted as a bundle, which confirms the importance of complementarities or synergies among such practices.
COMPARATIVE HISTO-ANATOMICAL RESEARCHES ON THE VEGETATIVE ORGANS AND ASSESSMENT OF ANTIOXIDANT CAPACITY OF TWO SPECIES FROM EQUISETUM GENUS

This paper presents a series of researches conducted on two species belonging to the Equisetum genus, Equisetum arvense L. and Equisetum telmateia Ehrh. , by establishing the amount of flavonoids, phenolic acids, antioxidant capacity and histo-anatomical characters. In the Romanian Pharmacopoeia 10 edition and in the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur. 7) only Equisetum arvense L. is mentioned as a source for Equiseti herba. The investigations showed differences regarding the histo-anatomical structures and the level of substances with antioxidant capacity which could be considered as a criterion for identifying possible substitutions.
Investigation of Genetic Variations among Crested Wheatgrass Species Base of Agronomical Traits and Total Leaf Protein

Genetic variations within the species of Agropyron desertorum and 2 varieties of A. cristatum subsp. pectinatum var. imbricatum and A. cristatum subsp. pectinatum var. pectinatum were studied using morphological traits and total protein profiles (with sodium dodecylsulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis). An experiment was conducted in Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands (2012-2013) using a completely randomized block design with three replications. Means comparison of different agronomical traits among different wild populations of three taxa showed that A. desertorum had higher plant crown, plant height, panicle length, number of stems and plant dry matter weight; however, var. pectinatum had higher panicle length, grain yield and 1000-grain weight and got into the pollination and full flowering phases in a shorter period. The results of total protein profiles revealed that the genetic diversity of var. imbricatum samples was considerably higher than var. pectinatum and/or A. desertorum. Classification analysis of different populations of taxa using both markers showed that populations of var. pectinatum were closer to A. desertorum than var. imbricatum. The results demonstrated that the study of genetic diversity and the relationships among the crested wheatgrass species using agronomical traits and total protein profiles provides important information for the collection, genetic conservation and planning of future breeding programs.
Top executive pay in Spanish banking system

Abstract This study examines consistency between compensation systems and corporate performance. The main purpose is to analyse how the performance has affected the short-term executive pay in Spanish banking system during the period 2004–2008. The main results reveal that pay-performance sensitivity is asymmetrical regarding the sign of the variation of the performance, since the pay-performance sensitivity is greater when the variation of the results is positive than when the variation of the results is negative. This finding is consistent with the managerial power theory and calls into question the role of the pay-performance incentives to align interest of executives and shareholders.
Interactions between Learning and Emotions in Prospective Primary Teachers towards an Active Practice of Biology

Students experience a great diversity of emotions in academic settings: there is virtually no major human emotion not experienced in a classroom. These emotions are expected to have important effects on students’ learning outcomes since control their attention, influence their motivation to learn and modify their learning strategies. Due to affective domain and cognition are integrated in the brain in critical areas for regulating the flow of information between regions, academic emotions and science learning are reciprocally conditioned. Therefore it is important to simultaneously look into affective and cognitive aspects in teaching-learning processes. This is particularly important in future Primary teachers, since the interplay between emotions and learning can determine their future professional performance. To deepen these interactions, in this contribution we analyse the relationships between the emotions experienced by a sample of 159 students of the Degree in Primary Education (University of Extremadura), before and after the implementation of an active practical intervention of Biology (based on guided research); and their level of Biology knowledge, both previous and acquired with the performed intervention. Emotions are assessed using a simple and quantitative self-report test which was validated in a previous research through factor analysis. This questionnaire measure ten academic emotions (5 positive emotions and 5 negative emotions), rated on a Likert scale from 1 “not experienced” to 5 “intensely experienced”. Meanwhile Biology fundamental concepts are assessed through multiple-choice questions about common misconceptions in Secondary school as well questions extracted from TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), which is designed to estimate science achievement in Secondary Education. Results reveal positive associations between the intensity of joy, enthusiasm, satisfaction and fun experienced during the practice and learning outcomes, as well as negative associations between them and the intensities of frustration and worry. Likewise, results indicate that low levels of previous Biology knowledge of Secondary Education are predictors of high intensities of boredom, frustration and worry, as well as that the previous intensity of enthusiasm can have predictive value in relation to learning.
Mechanical disturbance impacts on soil properties and lodgepole pine growth in British Columbia’s central interior

Blouin, V. M. , Schmidt, M. G. , Bulmer, C. E. and Krzic, M. 2005. Mechanical disturbance impacts on soil properties and lodgepole pine growth in British Columbia’s central interior. Can. J. Soil Sci. 85: 681‐691. Forest landings are areas located adjacent to haul roads where harvested trees that were skidded from the cutblock are processed and loaded onto trucks. Soils on landings are often excessively compacted by heavy timber harvesting machinery and may take many years to recover from such disturbance. This study examined soil properties and tree growth on unrehabilitated landings (with and without natural regeneration) and adjacent naturally regenerated clearcuts in the central interior of British Columbia (BC), 23 yr after landing construction. Landings (both with and without natural regeneration) had less favorable conditions for tree growth than did clearcuts, including significantly greater surface soil bulk density and mechanical resistance (on some dates) and lower total porosity and concentrations of C and N. Landings without natural regeneration had the least favorable soil conditions, which may account for the lack of natural regeneration. Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud. var. latifolia Engelm.) growing on portions of the landings did not differ in height from those growing in adjacent clearcuts. Site index, as estimated using the growth intercept method, did not differ between naturally regenerated landings (21.7 m) and clearcuts (22.0 m), suggesting that the soils may be equally capable of supporting productive forests.
Influence of stocking density on body conformation in broilers

In this experiment the influence of stocking density on the body conformation of broiler carcasses was investigated. One hundred and twenty broiler chickens were divided into three groups; each group comprised 40 chickens. At the end of the first week of the fattening period 20 chickens in each group were marked by random sampling. The first testing group (P1) represented the one with a lower stocking density (12 chickens per square meter); the second one (P2) with a higher stocking density (18 chickens per square meter), while the control group (K) was set in accordance with the technological recommendations (15 chickens per square meter). Breast circumference, drumstick circumference, keel length (crista sterni), breast depth and breast angle were monitored and measured on a weekly basis. Body conformation measures were determined on the carcasses in a horizontal position with their backs placed on the table. The appropriate instruments such as millimetre tape, caliper and ZP-3 protractor were used. In addition, a weekly live weight and feed consumption were measured. Production results (live weight, gain, feed-to-gain ratio and European Production Index (EPI) were calculated. Carcass grades were calculated based on the mass ratio of the cooled carcass and the live body weight before slaughtering. The research findings have confirmed that overcrowding in production facilities is always risky in regard to the expected production results. In contrast, by fully conforming to the production technology requirements, it is possible to achieve better production results.