Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The onset of lactation in the Merino ewe and its modification by nutritional factors.

The results of five series of observations on the type of udder content's and rate of milk secretion in the Merino ewe at about the time of parturition are presented. In general the type of secretion underwent a sequence of changes from a slowly secreted, very viscous material to the rapidly secreted "normal colostrum" and normal milk. It is suggested that the very viscous material should not be described as "colostrum" even when it appears at parturition, and that "colostrum" is a mixture of normal milk with the pre-existing mammary secretions. In ewes fed to gain weight during pregnancy the viscous material had usually been replaced by later-appearing types at parturition; copious lactation usually commenced at parturition or some hours earlier. In ewes fed to lose weight during the last 2-6 weeks of pregnancy, the changes were delayed; prior to parturition the incidence of expressible secretion was lower than in well-fed ewes; the viscous material, or no secretion at all, was often present at parturition, and copious lactation was often not apparent until up to 12 hr after parturition. The delay in onset was not associated with the shorter gestation period of the poorly fed ewes. After the onset of copious lactation, the rate of secretion by poorly fed ewes was about half that of ewes fed to gain or maintain weight during pregnancy. That the Merino is a relatively poor producer of milk even when well fed is indicated by comparison with published data for other breeds. It is concluded that the delayed onset of lactation and reduced rate of production of milk by poorly fed ewes would substantially reduce the chance of survival of lambs in early life.
Linking Policy to Outcomes: A Simple Framework for Debt Maturity Management

We characterize the long-run stable maturity distribution induced by a fixed issuance policy, defined as the maturity mix of new issues, thereby providing a method to link issuance policies with their long-run consequences. We derive closed-form expressions for a new class of forward-looking stable metrics, including per-period refinancing need, debt service cost, and average maturity — an indicator of the supply of long-term bonds. We use these metrics to provide a normative analysis of the classical debt-management tradeoff between refinancing risk and debt service cost. Our results indicate that the US Treasury could move closer to the “efficient frontier” by tilting its issuance towards notes.
Relative Basis and Expected Returns in Commodity Futures Markets

The commodity futures basis—the difference between the first and second futures prices—is known to forecast commodity futures returns, arguably through its relation with the convenience yield. We propose a refined measure of the basis, dubbed the relative basis, which is the difference between the traditional basis and a similarly defined longer-term basis. We argue that the relative basis is more informative about expected commodity futures returns than the basis, because it excludes components in the traditional basis that are closely related to storage costs and financing costs. In our empirical analyses, we show that a) the relative basis exhibits much more time variation than the traditional basis, and b) subsumes the traditional basis in forecasting commodity futures returns.
Shill Bidding, Reserve Price and Seller’s Revenue

Starting with a low reserve price has been shown in some empirical literature to be surprisingly effective in online auctions, in that it generates greater expected revenue than a high reserve price which is consistent with theory. However, literature has also pointed out that sellers who practice shill bidding also start with a low reserve price. This raises the question of whether this empirical result is only an illusion mainly caused by shill bidding. Using data from eBay Motors, this paper empirically re-investigates the effect of reserve price on the seller’s sale rate, transaction price and expected revenue, taking into account the impact of shill bidding. We first construct a shill score for each listing, then estimate the trade probability and transaction price equations, while controlling for shill bidding. We find that shill bidding increases transaction price, a result consistent with its purpose. Moreover, increasing the reserve price increases transaction price but reduces trade probability. Despite this, reducing the reserve price still results in higher expected revenue. Finally, our empirical result rejects a recent theoretical prediction that shill bids mainly occur as last-minute bids.
Retailers' Content Strategies on Social Media: Insights from Analysis of Large-scale Twitter Data

Social media platforms have been used by firms for a variety of purposes including for attracting new customers, communicating with existing customers, building firms’ brand image, among others. However, there is very little research on the content strategies adopted by traditional rival firms competing on online social media platforms and what the effects of such content strategies are on related outcomes. Our paper seeks to fill this gap by examining whether retailers that are close competitors in the traditional context also adopt similar content strategies on Twitter. In doing so, our study proposes a new measure of online social media competition based on content similarity. We find that traditional close competitors that have a higher degree of similarity offline, show greater divergence in their content strategies online. We also find that firms whose online content strategies are less similar to their close traditional rivals have higher online engagement and acquire new followers faster. We then examine why divergence in online content strategies from close traditional rivals leads to better online outcomes for firms on Twitter. We find that their superior online performance is attributable to their ability to leverage the higher-level affordances of Twitter more effectively as compared to their rivals. Our findings have important implications for firms’ competitive strategies in online social media platforms.
Oops! I Shrunk the Sample Covariance Matrix Again: Blockbuster Meets Shrinkage

Existing shrinkage techniques struggle to model the covariance matrix of asset returns in the presence of multiple-asset classes. Therefore, we introduce a Blockbuster shrinkage estimator that clusters the covariance matrix accordingly. Besides the definition and derivation of a new asymptotically optimal linear shrinkage estimator we propose an adaptive Blockbuster algorithm that clusters the covariance matrix even if the (number of) asset classes are unknown and change over time. It displays superior all-around performance on historical data against a variety of state-of-the-art linear shrinkage competitors. Additionally, we find that for small and medium-sized investment universes the proposed estimator outperforms even recent nonlinear shrinkage techniques. Hence, this new estimator can be used to deliver more efficient portfolio selection and detection of anomalies in the cross-section of asset returns. Furthermore, due to the general structure of the proposed Blockbuster shrinkage estimator the application is not restricted to financial problems.
Autumn, winter and spring dynamics of aphid Sitobion avenae and parasitoid Aphidius rhopalosiphi interactions

The potential of parasitoids for aphid control during summer has been well documented. Few results are available on the impact of parasitoid populations on aphid hosts during autumn and winter and on the dynamics of their interactions during this period. The population development of Sitobion avenae, in Belgium, is analysed, from October to April, in the presence and absence of the parasitoid Aphidius rhopalosiphi. In the presence of parasitoids in winter, aphid populations decreased markedly and remained low at the beginning of spring. Induction of winter diapause in A. rhopalosiphi was observed during November at a mean temperature of 6.3 degreesC and a decreasing photoperiod from 9.5-8.5 h of day light. A large range of A. rhopalosiphi mummy colourations, between dark and light, was noticed. This range of colouration did not allow a clear-cut distinction between diapausing and non-diapausing individuals of A. rhopalosiphi. The influence of seasonal weather and particularly temperature conditions on parasitoid mortality, strategy for overwintering and aphid population dynamics are discussed.
Zooplankton Community Responses during Recovery from Acidification in Little Rock Lake, Wisconsin

Follow‐up studies after whole‐ecosystem‐stress experiments can provide important insights into the recovery process itself and into basic ecosystem properties. We report here on zooplankton community recovery during the first 5 years following the experimental acidification of Little Rock Lake, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Acidity in the lake’s treatment basin returned quickly to near pre‐manipulation levels. Zooplankton population shifts, however, did not support our hypothesis that species that had increased in abundance with acidification would persist and resist the return of the pre‐manipulation community. The three species that had proliferated most dramatically under low pH conditions—Daphnia catawba, Tropocyclops extensus, and Keratella taurocephala, returned close to their originally low, pre‐acidification population levels during the early stages of acid recovery. Some species that had been reduced during low pH conditions, such as Diaptomus minutus and Daphnia dubia, did not recover to pre‐manipulation levels. Overall, the zooplankton community in the treatment basin exhibits little similarity to that in the reference basin, a condition quite different from that which had occurred prior to the imposition of acid stress.
Fiat Money, Intrinsic Properties, and Government Transaction Policy

Why do people coordinate on the use of valueless pieces of paper as generally accepted money? A possible answer is that these objects have intrinsic properties that make them better candidates to be used as media of exchange. Another answer stresses the fact that unconvertible fiat money will not easily appear unless there is a centralized institution that favors its use.The main objective of the paper is to analyze these questions. In order to do this, we take a model of commodity money in which fiat money does not play any significant role and modify it to examine under which circumstances fiat money might come to circulate as medium of exchange. Some of the results obtained from the model differ in a rather substantial way from previous related literature.
Decomposing Achievement Test Scores Into Measures of Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills

Achievement test scores not only reflect students’ ability, knowledge and intelligence, but also their noncognitive skills such as personality traits and motivation. If multiple traits determine test scores, an important question is whether it is feasible to unravel the information from one test to get separate measures for different traits. The aim of this paper is to disentangle cognitive and noncognitive factors from the performance on a single test. We use the random allocation of test booklets to students, which generates exogenous variation in the position of questions in the test. We document that (1) performance declines during the test; (2) this decline differs from the performance at the start of the test; (3) these factors are very stable over time; (4) both factors are differently related to cognitive and noncognitive measures. Performance at the start of the test strongly relating to cognitive measures and openness, and the performance decline during the test relating to conscientiousness, agreeableness, and need for achievement; and (5) both factors predict life outcomes differently. Performance at the start of the test shows a stronger relation with being employed, being in good overall health and not smoking at age 34, whereas the performance decline during the test shows a stronger relation with being single, life satisfaction or drinking behavior at age 34. The paper shows that one achievement test can be used to measure different personal characteristics – both cognitive and noncognitive – enabling the investigation of the channels through which achievement tests predict future outcomes and providing an approach for objective measurement of personality.
Introduction and Expression of Glucose Transporters in Pancreatic Acinar Cells by In Vivo Electroporation

cDNAs encoding facilitated-diffusion glucose transporters GULT1, GULT3, GULT4, and GULT5 were introduced into the rat pancreas by in-vivo electroporation method, and their expression and localization in pancreatic acinar cells were examined immunohistochemically. GLUT1 was localized at the basolateral membrane, whereas GLUT3 and GLUTS were at the apical membrane. Restriction of GLUT3 and GLUTS to the apical membrane makes a marked contrast to their localization to the entire plasma membrane when expressed in hepatocytes in situ. Such differential localization may be due to differential apical targeting mechanism: direct targeting in acinar cells and indirect transcytotic delivery in hepatocytes in situ. GLUT4 was present in the membrane of zymogen secretory granules in the cytoplasm in acinar cells. This observation suggests that GLUT4 is segregated to the regulated secretory pathway. Expression of glucose transporters in situ is a useful method in analyzing the targeting mechanism of membrane proteins in cells of tissues in situ.
Responses of Dairy Cows to Different Amounts of Wheat Middlings in the Concentrate Mixture

Abstract Eighteen lactating dairy cows were used in each of two feeding trials to evaluate the effect of different amounts of wheat middlings in the ration on intake and milk yield. Concentrate mixtures containing 0, 20, and 40% and 0, 40, and 60% middlings in two respective trials were calculated to be isocaloric and isonitrogenous. These made up 60% of the total ration with alfalfa hay as the forage component. Samples for ruminal ammonia and blood plasma urea nitrogen were taken 3h after concentrate feeding. Milk yield of cows fed concentrate mixtures containing 20 or 40% middlings was similar to that of cows fed the control ration; however, yield of those fed a concentrate mixture with 60% middlings was decreased. Milk fat percentage was similar for all groups within trials. Concentration of ruminal ammonia was higher in cows fed rations containing middlings, whereas effect on concentration of plasma urea nitrogen was inconsistent. Similar feed consumption for all treatment groups indicated no ration acceptability problems when middlings were as much as 60% of the concentrate mix.
Remobilization of carbon and nitrogen in wheat as influenced by postanthesis water deficits

Preanthesis stored C and N in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) are important in a mediterranean climate because grain filling frequently depends on the remobilization of preanthesis assimilates. We determined the effect of the rate of development of postanthesis water deficits on the remobilization of C and N to the grain using stable isotopes of C and N accumulated in the plant during the vegetative phase. Plants were grown in pots with adequate water and under similar temperature and humidity conditions until anthesis, and then were transferred to two temperature and humidity regulated greenhouses, and watering was stopped. One greenhouse was maintained at minimum relative humidity of 80% and the other at 40%
Which Factors Determine the Capital Structure of Non-Financial Publicly Traded Irish Firms?

In this paper, we trace the indebtedness of the non-financial corporate sector in Ireland over the period from 1980 to 2007. This period witnessed an episode of leveraging to 2001, following by a period of deleveraging to 2007. Our findings suggest that fundamentals can help explain why firms became more indebted between 1980 and 2001, but the deleveraging that took place after 2001 is due to factors other than the fundamentals included in our analysis. While we cannot say definitively, our findings may be in line with evidence which points to a concerted effort on the part of Irish firms to reduce their debt financing since 2001.
How Important Is Sexual Conflict?

Sexual selection is a fundamental component of evolutionary biology, playing an important role in areas as diverse as extinction rates (e.g., Doherty et al. 2003), the purging of deleterious mutations (e.g., Radwan 2004), and speciation (e.g., Seehausen et al. 1997). In spite of intense study over the last few decades (reviewed in Andersson 1994), the field is currently going through a minor revolution mainly because debate about the costs and benefits of sexual selection has recently intensified. Until a short time ago, the predominant paradigm was that sexual selection, while not adaptive (i.e., it was opposed by natural selection), was not costly at equilibrium: the benefits of sexual selection balanced the natural selection costs. Darwin (1871) clearly recognized that natural selection often opposed sexual selection but also suggested that sexual selection could increase the quality of a taxon. This latter view was increasingly embraced, culminating in the notion that sexual selection is always adaptive because benefits inevitably become linked to good genes (Jennions and Petrie 2000). This somewhat Panglossian position has been questioned by recent suggestions that sexual selection is driven by direct costs rather than either direct or indirect benefits and that these costs have their roots in sexual conflict, that is, the divergent evolutionary interests of males and females (Holland and Rice 1998). While the ubiquitous nature of sexual conflict has been long acknowledged (Bateman 1948; Trivers 1972; Parker 1979, 1984; Eberhard 1985; Simmons et al. 1994; Cook and Wedell 1999), as has the fact that this conflict can in principle generate unresolvable evolutionary arms races between the sexes (Dawkins and Krebs 1979; Parker 1979), it is only relatively recently that sexually antagonistic evolution generated by sexual conflict has been championed as a major mechanism of evolution via sexual selection
Elevated CO 2 affects the content of glomalin related soil protein in xeric temperate loess and temperate semi-desert sand grasslands

Monoliths of temperate loess grassland and temperate semi-desert sand grassland have been exposed to elevated CO 2 (700 μmol mol −1 ) and present ambient CO 2 concentration in a 6-year open top chamber (OTC) experiment. In loess grassland elevated CO 2 increased both biomass and vegetation cover, whereas there was no similar effect found in semi-desert grassland. The content of glomalin related soil protein (GRSP) increased in both loess and sand grasslands under CO 2 enrichment (early summer aspect). The increase was higher in the case of easily extractable fraction (EEG), representing 14.7 and 22.2% of the chambered control’s EEG, for loess and sand grassland respectively. In the case of total glomalin the increase was much lower 7.9% (loess) and 2.6% (sand). On the basis of differences between elevated and ambient CO 2 treatment we could conclude that elevated CO 2 promoted C-deposition in xeric temperate grassland in early summer. Increases of EEG indicate an efficient partitioning of the recently fix.
Regionalism and Confl‡ict: Peace Creation and Peace Diversion

We investigate the implications of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) for interstate confl‡ict. We set up a two-stage game with three competing importers, where fi…rst, two of the countries decide on whether to initiate war against each other, and subsequently, all three countries select their import tariffs. We show that PTAs produce both a "peace-creation”" and a "“peace-diversion"” effect, whereby they reduce the likelihood of confl‡ict between member countries (peace creation), but could render the eruption of war between member and non-member countries more likely (peace diversion). This paper is the fi…rst to identify and explicitly model the peace-diversion effect of PTAs, and is also the only one in this literature to endogenize countries’terms of trade. We use data from the Correlates of War project to empirically test these predictions, and after controlling for endogeneity, we fi…nd robust evidence of both peace creation and peace diversion in relation to free-trade-area as well as customs-union establishment.
The Impact of Institutional Quality on Initial Public Offerings

Country-level institutional quality is positively correlated with the underpricing of initial public offerings (IPOs). The association is strong for IPOs issued in developed markets, but nearly absent for emerging market IPOs. We hypothesize that extra-legal institutions, including financial reporting practices, law enforcement, public trust, and outside monitoring affect the availability and value of private benefits of control accessible to entrepreneurs, which in turn shapes the relation between institutional quality and IPO underpricing. Our evidence supports prior studies that suggest that underpricing is motivated, at least in part, by entrepreneurs’ desire for post-IPO control.
The Stable Coexistence of Two Competitors for One Resource

A mechanistic model of interspecies competition expresses population growth in terms of resource consumption rate, consumption in terms of resource encounter rate, and encounters in terms of resource searching rate and resource abundance, which themselves depend on population sizes. Standard isocline analysis reveals that it is possible, under a variety of conditions on the component functions, for one resource to support two competing species at globally stable equilibrium population sizes. Under this formulation, stable coexistence requires a suitable form of interference competition. The possibilities include greater intraspecific than interspecific interference in resource searching rates or resource encounter rates and a pattern of internal energy allocation that ensures that the less aggressive interference competitor is the more efficient resource consumer. Hypothetical examples are phrased in terms of actively foraging animals, terrestrial plants, and suspension-feeding marine benthic invertebrates. The mechanistic nature of the model helps resolve long-standing semantic difficulties concerning limiting resources that arise from the Lotka-Volterra model, and it encourages both future theoretical extensions and empirical testing.
The Internet and Retail Trading: The Downside of Big Data

Using a novel measure calculated using the number of websites returned from a Google search of a firm’s ticker, I examine the impact of changes in data availability on the incorporation of earnings news into stock prices. I find that larger increases in data availability are negatively associated with the speed at which earnings information is impounded into price. This effect is only observed in firms with a high amount of retail trading. I find evidence that this relation is concave increases in data availability initially promote price discovery but then begin to hamper price discovery as the increases become larger – but only when retail trading activity is high. My results are consistent with retail traders being more susceptible to information processing constraints. I address the concern that my measure simply captures uncertainty (or surprise) by documenting that the observed results are not driven by firms with large earnings surprises and that the size of the earnings surprise does not predict the change in online data availability (but the earnings surprise does predict changes in traditional media coverage). I also find evidence to suggest that some proportion of retail traders price protect and opt out of trading when data increases are large. My findings suggest that the widespread information access provided by the Internet does not always benefit investors and an overabundance of online data may “muddy the water” and impede the impounding of earnings information into stock prices, particularly for retail investors.