Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE EVOLUTION OF ELONGATE SHAPE IN DIATOMS 1

Diatoms have been classified historically as either centric or pennate based on a number of features, cell outline foremost among them. The consensus among nearly every estimate of the diatom phylogeny is that the traditional pennate diatoms (Pennales) constitute a well‐supported clade, whereas centric diatoms do not. The problem with the centric–pennate classification was highlighted by some recent analyses concerning the phylogenetic position of Toxarium, whereby it was concluded that this “centric” diatom independently evolved several pennate‐like characters including an elongate, pennate‐like cell outline. We performed several phylogenetic analyses to test the hypothesis that Toxarium evolved its elongate shape independently from Pennales. First, we reanalyzed the original data set used to infer the phylogenetic position of Toxarium and found that a more thorough heuristic search was necessary to find the optimal tree. Second, we aligned 181 diatom and eight outgroup SSU rDNA sequences to maximize the juxtapositioning of similar primary and secondary structure of the 18S rRNA molecule over a much broader sampling of diatoms. We then performed a number of phylogenetic analyses purposely based on disparate sets of assumptions and found that none of these analyses supported the conclusion that Toxarium acquired its pennate‐like outline independently from Pennales. Our results suggest that elongate outline is congruent with SSU rDNA data and may be synapomorphic for a larger, more inclusive clade than the traditional Pennales.
Racial Discrimination in the Brazilian Labour Market: Wage, Employment and Segregation E'Ects

The social science literature has done much to document pervasive racial discrimination in Brazil and there is little doubt that a very dark color is a handicap to social advancement. Nevertheless, very few empirical economic studies have attempted to quantify the impact of ethnic discrimination in Brazil. Using data culled from the Pesquisa National por Amostra de Domiclios (PNAD), this paper falls this void by analysing ethnic wage and employment gaps, as well as sectoral segregation in Brazil, using the Oaxaca decomposition methodology. In addition, we use a quantile regression approach to see whether the inter-ethnic wage gap is heterogeneous over the conditional wage distribution.
Genetic Relationships among Soybean Plant Introductions with Resistance to Soybean Cyst Nematodes

Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ] cultivars in the USA, which are resistant to soybean cyst nematode (SCN) (Heterodera glycines Ichinohe), have resistance derived from only a few plant introductions (PIs). Many other SCN resistant PIs have been identified which could be used as sources for broadening the diversity of resistance genes in cultivars. The objectives of this research were to study the relationship among Pls with SCN resistance using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers and to assess their resistance response to five races of H. glycines. Thirty-eight Pls previously reported as being resistant to one or more SCN races were evaluated for resistance to H. glycines Races 1, 2, 3. 5, and 14 in a greenhouse and were tested with 201 genomic DNA clones. PI 437654 and PI 438489B were resistant to all five SCN races. Four PIs were resistant to four SCN races, nine resistant to three races, four resistant to two races, four resistant to one race and the remainder had only moderate resistance or moderate susceptibility to one or more races. The Pls were polymorphic for 138 clones which revealed 301 polymorphic DNA fragments. The groupings of the PIs for both cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were associated with resistance responses to races of H. glycines. One major group of PIs was distant from all previously used sources of resistance. These PIs had only moderate resistance to Race 3 but could potentially provide new genes for resistance to this race. The other Pls were in groups that included Pls with resistance sources previously used by breeders. This information on the relationship of the PIs should help researchers developing resistant soybean cultivars to identify sources of SCN resistance which are not closely related to previously used sources.
Mutations in genes downstream of the rpoN gene (encoding σ54) of Klebsiella pneumoniae affect expression from σ54‐dependent promoters

Two open reading frames (ORFs), designated ORF95 and ORF162, downstream of the Klebsiella pneumoniaeσ54 structural gene (rpoN) have been sequenced and shown to encode polypeptides of 12kD and 16kD, respectively. ORFs homologous to ORF95 are present downstream of four out of five rpoN genes sequenced to date from a range of Gram‐negative bacteria, and ORF162 is also conserved, at least in Pseudomonas putida. Chromosomal mutations have been created in each gene using a kan cassette and both have the same phenotype, i.e. they cause an increase in the level of expression from σ54‐dependent promoters. We propose that the products of both genes function to modulate the activity of Eσ54, although a physiological role for these proteins has not yet been identified.
Parasitoids of the endangered leafcutter ant Atta robusta Borgmeier in urban and natural areas

Parasitoids of the endangered leafcutter ant Atta robusta Borgmeier in urban and natural areas. Hosts of parasitoids in urban areas may suffer from a double threat of habitat destruction by urbanization and parasitism pressure. Moreover, the parasitoids themselves might be at risk if they are specialists. Here, we studied whether Atta robusta (Hymenoptera, Formicidae), which is on the red list of Brazilian threatened species, suffers from higher parasitism pressure in an urban area compared to a natural one. In addition, we determined whether their specialist parasitoids, Eibesfeldtphora breviloba and Myrmosicarius exrobusta (Diptera, Phoridae), are in risk and evaluated whether they are influenced by habitat structure, temperature, humidity, ant traffic, and time of the day. The study was carried out in an urban park and in a natural protected area in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In each site we chose an open area and a closed area (forest) and sampled nine nests in each area. We found that parasitism pressure was similar in urban and natural areas, with the same two parasitoid species present in both areas. The main difference was related to habitat structure, since M. exrobusta was mainly present in open areas while E. breviloba was almost exclusively found in closed areas. Myrmosicarius exrobusta was not present during the hottest midday times, and its abundance was negatively correlated to vapor pressure deficit. These results suggest that green areas can be an important component in efforts to conserve diversity in urban areas. However, the complexity of the habitats in those areas is a fundamental issue in designing urban parks.
Antiinflammatory and Antipyretic Activities of Cuscuta chilensis, Cestrum parqui, and Psoralea glandulosa

The antipyretic and antiinflammatory properties of the infusions and methanol extracts of the whole plant of Cuscuta chilensis Ker-Gawl. and of the aerial parts of Cestrum parqui L’Herit. and Psoralea glandulosa L. were examined. A description and results of the in vivo studies are presented, based on the reduction of bacterial pyrogen-induced fever in rabbits and carrageenan-induced paw edema in guinea pigs, as well as acute toxicity assays. Both the infusion and the methanol extract of Psoralea glandulosa showed marked antipyretic and antiinflammatory activities. The infusion of Cuscuta chilensis reduced bacterial pyrogen-induced fever, but the methanol extract did not; both extracts, however, showed antiinflammatory activity. The infusion of Cestrum parqui was not significantly antipyretic, and the methanol extract only showed weak activity, but both extracts of this plant inhibited inflammation.
STUDIES ON TRANSPARENT EXOPOLYMER PARTICLES (TEP) PRODUCED IN THE ROSS SEA (ANTARCTICA) AND BY PHAEOCYSTIS ANTARCTICA (PRYMNESIOPHYCEAE) 1

The distribution and production of transparent exopolymer particles (TEPs) were studied quantitatively both in cultures of Phaeocystis antarctica Karsten (Prymnesiophyceae) and in natural phytoplankton assemblages in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. TEP production in culture was a function of growth rate and photosynthetic activity and was strongly influenced by photon flux density. The concentrations of TEP measured during a bloom, dominated by P. antarctica, were higher than those produced by coastal diatom blooms and were correlated with chlorophyll a (Chl a), being low at Chl a levels below 3 μgL−1 but increasing rapidly at greater Chl a concentrations. Because higher chlorophyll hek are dominated 4 larger P. antarctica colonies, this relationship suggests that TEP was produced primarily by sloughing and disintegration of the colonial matrix. TEP concentrations (both absolute and relative to Chl a) increased as the bloom's biomass increased. Vertical distributions of TEP and Chl a showed TEP: chlorophyll maxima at the bottom of the water column at most stations. Because TEP and floc formation are tightly coupled, we suggest that mucous flocs derived from TEP, rather than intact P. antarctica colonies, are the dominant component of aggregates and subsequent organic carbon vertical flux.
The Effect of Employment Protection Legislation and Financial Market Imperfections on Investment: Evidence from a Firm-Level Panel of EU Countries

This paper analyzes the joint effect of EPL and financial market imperfections on investment, capital-labour substitution, labour productivity and job reallocation in a cross-country framework. In the spirit of Rajan and Zingales (1998) and Ciccone and Papaioannou (2006), we exploit variation in the need for reallocation at the sectoral and aggregate level to assess the average effect of EPL on firms� policies. Then, exploiting firm-level information we study if the effect of EPL is stronger in firms with lower levels of internal resources. We find that, on average, EPL reduces investment per worker, capital per worker and value added per worker in high reallocation sectors relative to low reallocation sectors. The reduction in the capital-labour ratio is less pronounced in firms with higher internal resources, suggesting that financial constraints exacerbate the negative effects of EPL on capital deepening.
Residents’ Attitudes and Perception Towards Cruise Tourism Development: A Case Study of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

Cruise tourism is growing faster than any other sector of the tourism industry, producing different impacts on destinations. From the social and economic viewpoint, the interactions between the different actors of the exchange process – cruise passengers, crews, residents and producers of the tourism products- can bring both positive and negative consequences. The aim of this paper is to analyze how local population perceives the impacts of cruise tourism and which factors do affect the relationship between impacts and perceptions´ formation. The research involves a primary data collection in Cartagena de Indias during the peak of the cruise season in the last trimester of 2009. The number and quality of the 1004 questionnaires collected allowed us to perform a quantitative analysis of the hosts perceptions and attitudes. A cluster analysis has demonstrated the existence of four different groups, within which members have common features and similar perceptions and attitudes. In general, is has revealed a positive recognition of the economic impacts of tourism. Also, social and cultural impacts are recognized to be positive, but at a lower degree. In terms of the future tourism polices, the different groups identified in the cluster analysis exert different positions.
Slow Diffusion of Information and Price Momentum in Stocks: Evidence from Options Markets

This paper investigates the source of price momentum in the stock market using information from options markets. We provide direct evidence of the gradual information diffusion model in Hong and Stein (1999): momentum profits are larger for stocks whose information diffuses slowly into the stock market. We exploit the options markets to identify stocks with slow information diffusion speed. As informed traders trade options to realize the information that has not been fully incorporated in the stock price, we are able to enhance the momentum strategy by selecting winner/loser stocks with high growth/large drop in call option implied volatility. Our empirical strategy generates a risk-adjusted alpha of 1.8% per month over the 1996–2011 period, during which the simple momentum strategy fails to perform. The results are robust to the impact of earnings announcement, transaction costs, industry concentration, and choice of options’ moneyness and time-to-maturity. Finally, our finding is not driven by existing stock- or option-related characteristics that are known to improve momentum.
E¢ cient estimation with many weak instruments using regularization techniques (cid:3)

The problem of weak instruments is due to a very small concentration parameter. To boost the concentration parameter, we propose to increase the number of instruments to a large number or even up to a continuum. However, in (cid:133)nite samples, the inclusion of an excessive number of moments may be harmful. To address this issue, we use regularization techniques as in Carrasco (2012) and Carrasco and Tchuente (2014). We show that normalized regularized 2SLS and LIML are consistent and asymptotically normally distributed. Moreover, our estimators are asymptotically more e¢ cient than most competing estimators. Our simulations show that the leading regularized estimators (LF and T of LIML) work very well (are nearly median unbiased) even in the case of relatively weak instruments. An application to the e⁄ect of institutions on output growth completes the paper.
Synergies or Overpayment in European Corporate M&A

The purpose of this research is to test whether the price paid for corporate takeovers in Europe is related to the synergies expected or whether bidders are overpaying for acquisitions. We analyzed the relationship between the premium paid in 147 mergers and acquisitions, and the bidders’ abnormal returns around the date of the transaction from 1995 to 2004. A quadratic relationship between the premiums and returns was found. When the amount paid in a transaction does not exceed the value of the target organization by more than 39.69-40.03%, the premium becomes a sign of the future synergy and will have a positive effect on the bidders’ returns. However, when the premium exceeds these values, the relationship between premiums and returns become negative and therefore the market considers bidders are overpaying. This paper show the importance of the correct valuation of the targets and of the premiums paid to ensure value creation in M&A.
Freedom Fries

Do firms choose inputs that minimize their cost of production, ignoring the attitudes of their owners and employees? We examine this question using an episode of worsening relations between the US and France: from February 2002 to March 2003, France's favourability rating in US public opinion polls fell from 83 percent to 35 percent. Very negative attitudes towards France became common even among college educated Americans with high levels of income, so they were likely prevalent among managers. Using data from 1999-2005, we find that the worsening relations reduced US imports from France by about 15 percent and US exports to France by about 8 percent, compared to other Eurozone or OECD countries. This decline was due in large part to a fall in France's share of the quantity of inputs traded between the Eurozone and the US; this decline is significant even after we control for changes in the product composition of trade flows. We also find that the decline in trade was accompanied by a similar drop in both business trips and tourist visitations of US residents to France compared to Western Europe. Taken together, our findings suggest that competition cannot eliminate the effect of attitudes on firms' choice of inputs.
Somatic recombination in Rhynchosporium secalis

Drug-resistant mutants were induced in strains of Rhynchosporium secalis. Two mutants resistant to hygromycin-B and 5-fluorouracil, respectively, were stable and easily selected in culture. Mixtures of the two mutants failed to yield any recombinants, whether under selection pressure or not, on agar and on barley leaves. After protoplast production and fusion, followed by selection on media containing both drugs, two recombinants were isolated. Single-spore derivatives expressed the drug resistances of both parental strains.
Invertebrate drift: Behavioral experiments with intertidal meiobenthos†

Water column drift of benthic invertebrates may be the result of either active migration from the bottom or of erosion by water currents. Recent studies have shown that marine meiobenthos occur regularly in the water column; however, whether this is due to active (behavioral) processes or passive (erosional) processes is not known. A series of experiments were performed that showed meiobenthos do not regularly emerge, suggesting that drift of meiobenthos is due to erosion. The behavior of the animals can, however, influence their susceptibility to suspension. Fauna most active on the sediment surface (primarily harpacticoid copepods) were most susceptible to passive suspension. A multi‐factorial experiment tested the effects of time of day (light vs. dark) and tide (high, low, flow) on number of animals active on the sediment surface. Animals frequenting the sediment surface did so only in the absence of currents and regardless of time of day. Animals began to burrow as soon as flow increased. If they wer.
How to Evolve a Complex Plastid? ‐ A Hypothesis

The evolution of complex plastids in general and the phylogeny of the intermediate forms present in chlorarachniophytes and cryptophytes are considered. By comparing possible protein transport mechanisms in these algae, also taking into account problems in explaining horizontal gene transfer between eukaryotic nuclei, we arrive at the hypothesis that the initial step in the evolution of complex plastids was a primary endocytobiosis of the host (! ) cell. Our hypothesis also explains why the nucleomorph (the reduced nucleus of a secondary endocytobiont) is not eliminated.
Net Neutrality on the Internet: A Two-Sided Market Analysis

Two-sided market model in which platforms sell Internet access services to consumers and may set fees to content and applications providers 'on the other side' of the Internet. When access is monopolized, we find that generally net neutrality regulation (that imposes zero fees 'on the other side' of the market) increases total industry surplus compared to the fully private optimum at which the monopoly platform imposes positive fees on content and applications providers. Similarly, we find that imposing net neutrality in duopoly increases total surplus compared to duopoly competition between platforms that charge positive fees on content providers. We also discuss the incentives of duopolists to collude in setting the fees 'on the other side' of the Internet while competing for Internet access customers. Additionally, we discuss how price and non-price discrimination strategies may be used once net neutrality is abolished. Finally, we discuss how the results generalize to other two-sided markets.
Loss of genetic diversity and fitness in Common Toad (Bufo bufo) populations isolated by inimical habitat

Measures of genetic diversity (including heterozygosity), survival and developmental homeostasis were found to be significantly lower in small, urban populations of the Common Toad (Bufo bufo) than in larger, rural populations of the same region. The autecology and genetic analysis of this relatively sedentary species suggested that the causal mechanism was genetic drift, arising from barriers to migration created by urban development. The pre‐metamorphic survival of larvae cultured in identical conditions increased positively with the mean number of alleles at a locus and the percentage of polymorphic loci. Observed heterozygosity in urban garden and rural populations was correlated inversely with the number of observed physical abnormalities (used as a measure of developmental homeostasis) in the developing tadpoles. Genetic distances between town sites of mean 2.2 km separation were significantly higher than those between rural sites of mean 37 km separation. Genetic data were based on allozyme analysis of 27 loci in 8 urban and 4 rural populations. A subset of these sites (3 urban, 2 rural) were also assessed at 3 minisatellite loci and a positive correlation found between the average number of alleles per locus detected by the two methods. Estimates of Nei's 1972 genetic distance, derived separately from the DNA and protein data, were not, however, correlated. The reduction in genetic diversity and fitness observed in these urban toads provides an example of the effect on population persistence that longer term depletion in numbers and habitat fragmentation can have in the wider environment.
Dinâmica de populações de Euglossina (Hymenoptera, Apidae) em mata ciliar, Urbano Santos, Maranhão, Brasil

Males of Euglossina bees were collected in benzil benzoate, eucaliptol, eugenol, methyl salicylate and vanillin scent baits, during one year in a riparian forest area, located in the municipality of Urbano Santos, Maranhao. The collections were carried out monthly, between 8 am and 4 pm, totalling 96 hours of sampling, resulting in 283 individuals, 4 genera and 16 species. Euglossa Latreille, 1802 was the most abundant genus, followed by Eufriesea Cockerell, 1909, Eulaema Lepeletier, 1841 and Exaerete Hoffmannsegg, 1817. The most frequent species were Euglossa modestior (Dressler, 1982), Euglossa cordata (Linnaeus, 1758), Eulaema cingulata (Fabricius, 1804), Exaerete smaragdina (Guerin-Meneville, 1845), Eulaema nigrita Lepeletier, 1841 and Euglossa gaianii (Dressler, 1982). Eucaliptol was the most attractive chemical bait. The highest frequencies of visits were in the morning and the highest diversity of species occurred in the rainy period.
Welfare Impact of Trade Liberalization

This paper constructs a static Applied General Equilibrium Model and analyzes the distributional impact of trade reforms. To calibrate our model, we work with the Household Expenditure Survey to disaggregate household groups by income, age, and skill intensity, and the Input-Output table to construct a Social Accounting Matrix. Our benchmark simulation looks at Slovenia joining the European Union. We then compare with two alternative scenarios: a free trade agreement between Slovenia and the EU, and an alternative fiscal arrangement of distributing tariff revenues under the EU. While trade reforms lead to falling prices in the import sector, rising production in the export sector, and improvement in aggregate welfare, the distributional impacts across household groups vary in its degree.