Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Cross-Country Investigation of Foreign Aid and Dutch Disease: Evidence From Selected SAARC Countries

The efficacy of foreign aid inflow with regards to dictating the development of the recipient nations is often questioned in the light of the Dutch disease problem whereby a surge in such inflows tend to appreciate the respective real exchange rates of the recipient nations, bottlenecking their export competitiveness. Against this prelude, the main aim of this paper is to investigate the causal relationship between FAID inflow and RER movements in context of the four SAARC countries that have been traditionally dependent on foreign development assistance. The countries considered in this paper include Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The econometric model is structured using a multivariate framework incorporating annual time series data of all these four nations from 1980 to 2014. Following Edwards (1989) and Montiel (1999), real exchange rates were expressed as country-specific functions of foreign aid and other real fundamentals as control variables. Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test, Johansen cointegration test, vector error correction model approach and Granger causality test are considered. The corresponding results reveal that both in the cases of Bangladesh and India, the inflow of foreign aid in the form of official development assistance is statistically insignificant in explaining the movements in the respective real exchange rates, neither in the short run nor in the long run. A possible reason behind this similarity could be the fact that the central banks in both these nations managed to maintain a strong grip over their exchange rates which worked as a cushion against RER misalignments and avoided Dutch disease problems in these countries. In contrast, foreign aid inflows are found to stimulate appretiative pressures on the real exchange rates of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, imposing the threats of potential Dutch disease problems within these nations.
Differential Sensitivity of Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase p110γ to Isoforms of G Protein βγ Dimers*

The ability of G protein α and βγ subunits to activate the p110γ isoform of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PtdIns 3-kinase) was examined using pure, recombinant G proteins and the p101/p110γ form of PtdIns 3-kinase reconstituted into synthetic lipid vesicles. GTP-activated Gs, Gi, Gq, or Go α subunits were unable to activate PtdIns 3-kinase. Dimers containing Gβ1–4 complexed with γ2-stimulated PtdIns 3-kinase activity about 26-fold with EC50 values ranging from 4 to 7 nm. Gβ5γ2 was not able to stimulate PtdIns 3-kinase despite producing a 10-fold activation of avian phospholipase Cβ. A series of dimers with β subunits containing point mutations in the amino acids that undergo a conformational change upon interaction of βγ with phosducin (β1H311Aγ2, β1R314Aγ2, and β1W332Aγ2) was tested, and only β1W332Aγ2 inhibited the ability of the dimer to stimulate PtdIns 3-kinase. Dimers containing the β1 subunit complexed with a panel of different Gγ subunits displayed variation in their ability to stimulate PtdIns 3-kinase. The β1γ2, β1γ10, β1γ12, and β1γ13 dimers all activated PtdIns 3-kinase about 26-fold with 4–25 nm EC50 values. The β1γ11 dimer, which contains the farnesyl isoprenoid group and is highly expressed in tissues containing the p101/p110γ form of PtdIns 3-kinase, was ineffective. The role of the prenyl group on the γ subunit in determining the activation of PtdIns 3-kinase was examined using γ subunits with altered CAAX boxes directing the addition of farnesyl to the γ2 subunit and geranylgeranyl to the γ1 and γ11 subunits. Replacement of the geranylgeranyl group of the γ2 subunit with farnesyl inhibited the activity of β1γ2 on PtdIns 3-kinase. Conversely, replacement of the farnesyl group on the γ1 and γ11 subunit with geranylgeranyl restored almost full activity. These findings suggest that all β subunits, with the exception of β5, interact equally well with PtdIns 3-kinase. In contrast, the composition of the γ subunit and its prenyl group markedly affects the ability of the βγ dimer to stimulate PtdIns 3-kinase.
Are Regulatory Management Evaluations Informative about Bank Accounting Returns and Risk?

This paper considers the association between regulatory management evaluations and bank accounting returns and risk. For robustness, we estimate our tests using a matched sample with equal numbers of banks with and without weak regulatory management evaluations. We document a strong association between weak ex-ante regulatory assessments of management and poor accounting returns not explained by other financial or regulatory indicators. We do not find robust evidence that weak management evaluations are linked with risk. Our results suggest that regulatory assessments of bank management are informative and that better managed banks perform better without necessarily taking on greater risk.
Directors’ Career Concerns: Evidence from Proxy Contests and Board Interlocks

Abstract This paper studies the disciplinary spillover effects of proxy contests on companies that share directors with target firms, that is, interlocked firms. In difference-in-differences tests, I find that interlocked firms reduce excess cash holdings, increase shareholder payouts, cut CEO compensation, and engage in less earnings management in the year after proxy contests. The effects are more pronounced when both the interlocked and target firms have a unitary board and when the interlocking director is up for election, is younger, or has shorter tenure. Overall, the evidence highlights the importance of directors’ career concerns in policy spillovers across firms with board interlocks.
Local biodiversity patterns in micrometazoans: Are tardigrades everywhere?

Abstract The aim of this paper was to assess the relationships between habitat type and diversity indices, richness and abundance of terrestrial tardigrade communities. Our analyses are based on results from a survey performed in Sierra de Guadarrama, in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. We performed a multi‐habitat intensive sampling in terrestrial environments (mosses and lichens on rocks, tree trunks and leaf litter), to test if local biodiversity patterns for tardigrades exist, to test the ‘everything is everywhere’ hypothesis, and if distributions can be attributed exclusively to environmental properties (as proposed for protists), or to a combination of historical and environmental events (as proposed for larger metazoans). Our analyses of richness, diversity indices and abundance of tardigrade communities revealed habitat‐dependent patterns on these community descriptors. Leaf litter habitats showed high species richness and low abundances, rock habitats (mosses and lichens) showed intermediate species richness scores and high abundances, and trunk habitats (mosses and lichens) showed low numbers of both richness and abundances. Besides, common tardigrade species, and not scarce ones, determined the difference on tardigrade community composition between different habitats. We also describe two opposite patterns in tardigrade assemblages characterised by Heterotardigrada vs. Eutardigrada species; while Heterotardigrada‐based communities presented low species richness and large tardigrade numbers, Eutardigrada‐based assemblages showed high species richness and low abundances. In conclusion, tardigrade local biodiversity across habitats exhibited patterns closer to larger animals than to unicellular microorganisms even when environmental and biological conditions (small size, dispersal forms) are closer to these last organisms. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Species and Phylogenetic Heterogeneity in Visitation Affects Reproductive Success in an Island System

Plant-pollinator mutualisms can be disrupted in fragmented and isolated populations. Isolated populations attract fewer and less diverse pollinators, but it is not generally known whether this is due to reductions in the abundance and/or diversity of flowers at a site or to the biogeography of pollinators (or both). Islands represent one system potentially suitable to analyze the effects of spatial isolation. Here, we examine the contribution that differences in visitor composition make to increased selfing and seed production by examining the major visitors to Plectritis congesta in populations on the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island. We find that (1) connectivity is more strongly associated with visitor assemblages and seed production than components of the floral community and (2) taking phylogeny into account suggests that increased visitation by solitary bees as opposed to other functional groups increases female fitness in P. congesta.
Helicascus gallicus sp. nov., a new freshwater pleosporalean ascomycete from France

x A new species of Helicascus ( H . gallicus ) is described and illustrated from submerged wood collected from aquatic habitats in western and southern France. It is morphologically characterized by multilocular ascomata covered by a thick clypeus and sharing a common ostiole, clavate asci with endoascus coiling in the pedicel, cellular pseudoparaphyses, and brown 2-celled ascospores with a marked submedian septum. Its relationships with other species of Helicascus are discussed based on morphology and 28S and ITS n rDNA sequence comparisons.
Feeding performance of the copepod Clausocalanus lividus (Frost and Fleminger, 1968)

Clausocalanus is a small-sized copepod genus that is widespread in the world ocean, but it has been poorly investigated from a biological and ecophysiological point of view. In this study, we targeted the species Clausocalanus lividus, one of the less studied circumglobally occurring congeners of the genus, to explore a number of aspects of its feeding. We examined the functional feeding response of adult wild females to seven monospecific diets with prey items differing in terms of size (ESD: 4―28 μm) and motility. Clausocalanus lividus did not significantly clear the small flagellate, Isochrysis sp. , while for the larger-sized food items offered (ESD > 5 μm), it exhibited a type II functional feeding response. Its maximum daily carbon intake ranged from 54 to 137% of its body carbon and was generally higher on prey with ESD > 15 (μm, being up to 17 μg C cop ―1 day ―1 for the diatom Thalassiosira weissflogii. The clearance maxima (10―308 mL cop ―1 day ―1 ) were generally associated with prey size (increasing with the ESD). The estimated feeding rates of C. lividus are discussed in relation to the concentration and size of food and compared to findings for other congeners.
Current status in avian semen cryopreservation

Semen cryopreservation in domestic birds has been studied extensively in the past fifty years. However, efficient methods to freeze semen of chicken of different breeds have emerged only in the last decade of the 20th century. Methods using the cryoprotectants glycerol, dimethyl acetamide and dimethyl sulfoxide, slow or rapid freezing-thawing procedures, pellets or vials or straws packaging have been developed. Other methods have been studied in turkeys, guinea fowl, ducks, ganders and some wild species. They are often less successful than chicken freezing methods with wide intra-species variability. Reliable predictors of suitability of semen for cryopreservation are also needed to improve freezing methods and to optimize the management of frozen semen. The quality of whole fresh semen measured by classical morphologic, metabolic and mobility tests is an indicator. More specialized tests such as membrane fluidity of fresh spermatozoa are indicative of the freezing ability of the gametes. The main use of semen cryopreservation in birds is the ex situ management of genetic resources in the context of dramatic decrease in avian genetic biodiversity. This is achieved through germplasm cryobanks. There are three main national avian germplasm cryobank programmes in 2006, operating in North America, The Netherlands and France. They mainly include semen and blood samples issued from Public Research Lines, indigenous breeds and individual specific genotypes. The future need for semen cryopreservation programmes will focus mainly on three objectives 1) improvement of predictors of male suitability for semen freezing, 2) emergence of standardized methods of semen freezing in species other than chicken and 3) increasing development of avian cryobanks.
Modelling the Phishing Avoidance Behaviour Among Internet Banking Users in Nigeria: The Initial Investigation

The positive usage of Internet Technology advantage had inspired the banking sector in Nigeria to invest in digitalizing the banking platform, which has been a move towards the usage of IB for financial services; however, such move also implies an increase opportunity for Phishing Attacks (PA). Despite this huge enhancement, the ratio of usage has been relatively low, among IB users in Nigeria. This evidence indicates that there is an urgent requirement to investigate the factors behind the issue. Therefore, this study is conducted to develop a conceptual model based on Technology Threat Avoidance Theory (TTAT) and Modified TTAT to evaluate the PA among IB users in Nigeria and to enhance avoidance behaviour. As the study is still in the early stage, this paper will present the initial investigation that leads to the development of the conceptual model, including the background of the study, literature review and research methodology that the study wishes to employ. Finally, this study seeks to contribute some understandings on how the new Conceptual Model can predict the success of phishing avoidance behaviour among Nigerian IB users.
Entrepreneurial Behavior by Employees in Organizations

In this paper we take stock of the literature on entrepreneurial behaviors by employees in organizations. Although different definitions and constructs have been proposed, for convenience we here label the phenomenon as 'intrapreneurship'. Our review includes multiple literatures, which overlap to a large extend. First, there is the organizational behavior literature, with a continuous feedstock from organizational psychologists and business administrators, dealing with proactive and innovative behaviors of employees. Second, there is a smaller but significant strand of research in the entrepreneurship literature which focuses on employees' behaviors to identify and exploit opportunities. We here summarize the core concepts in these literatures and present an overall framework to map the similarities and differences between these behaviors. The paper ends with an overview of the antecedents and consequences of intrapreneurship, and a brief discussion of how this influences any managerial efforts to stimulate employees' entrepreneurial activities.
Beneficial effects of different dietary oils on cholesterol level and fatty acids profile of turkey pectoral muscle

Abstract Human health depends to a great extent on the quality of consumed food. The relationship between the diet and health is increasingly evident. Therefore, the exact food composition, as well as the possibilities of its improvement, is intensively investigated. Turkey pectoral muscle is often recommended today as the most healthy meat product. The aim of our study was to improve the pectoral fat content of turkeys by adding some extra fat sources to their meals. The study was performed on 90 female turkeys of the hybrid Nicholas 700, in their final fattening period (from 15th to 19th week of age). Turkeys were divided into three groups, each represented by 30 individuals, and fed with meals differing in fat source, in the amount of 3% of the total meal weight. The added fat in the first group came from the commercial preparation Bergafat. Pronova Biocare Epax 3000 TG was added to the food of second group, while the third group had rapeseed oil added. After the fattening period, the quality of pectoral muscle was determined for the 10 carcasses from each experimental group (water holding capacity - WHC, meat color, protein, fat, ash, water, cholesterol and fatty acids content). Meat color did not differ between the investigated groups, while WHC statistically differed (P<0.05). Turkey muscles in the first group had the best WHC (7.76 cm2), while the the second group had the worst (9.12 cm2). No difference could be shown in the turkey muscle protein, water and ash content between the experimental groups. However, the second experimental group had a lower total lipid content (1.73%, P<0.05) compared to the first (1.97%) and third (1.93%). Turkeys from the first and second groups had lower cholesterol concentration in the pectoral muscle lipids (21.74 and 18.04 mg/100g, respectively, P<0.05) compared to the third group (41.00 mg/100g). The second experimental group had the highest PUFA content (P<0.001) and lowest n-6/n-3 ratio (P<0.001) compared to the other experimental groups. We concluded that the most favourable effects on the lipid status of turkey pectoral muscle was observed with the Pronova preparation, which lowered its total lipid and cholesterol concentration, raised PUFA content, and lowered the n-6/n-3 ratio. Further investigations, including combinations of added oils to the diet, should be directed to minimize the observed undesirable effects of Pronova preparation on turkey meat quality characteristics.
Dynamics of Market Anomalies and Measurement Errors of Risk-Free Interest Rates

Two-market anomalies since the 2008 global financial crisis – the widespread failure of covered interest parity (CIP) in foreign exchange swaps and negative 30-year US dollar interest rate swap-Treasury spreads have been challenging for conventional asset pricing models. Using a three-factor non-Gaussian-term structure model for the US Treasuries, an estimated short-rate premium tends to move in tandem with the CIP deviations and negative swap spread. The dynamics between the premium and two-market anomalies are found to be cointegrated, suggesting a long-run equilibrium between them. As the premium is found to be empirically related to demand for Treasuries, including the Fed’s quantitative easing program and demand for safe assets, it may reflect a convenience yield embedded in the yield curve such that the observed Treasury interest rate is lower than the true risk-free interest rate. The anomalies manifest such measurement error as additional spreads on the observed US dollar interest rates for pricing the corresponding instruments, consistent with recent studies that the US dollar and its interest rates play an important role in determining the CIP deviations.
The Drivers of Structural Change

The main goal of this paper is to provide an integrated survey of the literature devoted to identifying the drivers of structural change, broadly defined as the process of reallocation of economic activity across the three broad sectors agriculture, manufacturing and services. Using the GGDC 10&#8208;Sector Database, this paper first presents the empirical facts associated with structural change in different regions of the world &#8211; that is Europe and the USA, Asia, Latin America, and Africa &#8211; then reviews four determinants of structural change: (i) changes in income, (ii) changes in relative (sectoral) prices, (iii) changes in input&#8211;output linkages and (iv) changes in comparative advantage(s) via globalization and trade.
Disclosing to Conceal: Impeding Competitor Learning from the Stock Market

A firm’s stock price may reveal information that the firm itself might not want to share. In particular, stock price may reveal information about future demand, which when learned by a rival undercuts the firm’s competitive position. This paper establishes that when a firm discloses cost information it can confound decision-relevant demand information embedded in the stock price that a rival can otherwise extract. With stock price valuing firm profit (not cost and revenue separately), a disconnect is introduced between the firm’s actions and its intent – it discloses more on one dimension when its intent is to conceal on another. Consequently, a firm’s disclosure must be made strategically accounting for both direct communication as well as indirect information transmission via its stock price. From the firm’s perspective, the “competitive upside” from disclosing to keep the rival in the dark about market demand is evaluated against the “valuation downside” from disclosing more unfavorable cost information.
Diet, development and the optimization of warning signals in post-metamorphic green and black poison frogs

Summary 1. Many prey species are chemically defended and have conspicuous appearance to deter predators (i.e. aposematism). Such warning signals work because predators pay attention to the colour and size of signals, which they associate with unprofitability. 2. Paradoxically, in early life stages, aposematic species are often warningly coloured, but their chemical defences are lacking because they have yet to be acquired through the diet or synthesized endogenously. This state of being conspicuous yet poorly defended must place individuals at increased risk of predation, but how they minimize this risk during development is unclear. 3. We reared larval green and black poison frogs (Dendrobates auratus) on a relatively low or a higher food supply and tested the hypothesis that individuals with more resources should grow larger while reducing their investment in warning signals at metamorphic completion. We also assayed markers of oxidative balance (malondialdehyde, superoxide dismutase and total antioxidant capacity) to ascertain whether there were resource-allocation trade-offs that differed with diet treatments. 4. Low-food froglets were relatively small, and their body size and signal luminance (perceived brightness) were positively correlated. In contrast, in high-food froglets body size and warning signal luminance were negatively correlated, suggesting either a resource-allocation trade-off or alternatively a facultative reduction in luminance exhibited by larger froglets. 5. The reduction in luminance in relatively large, high-food froglets did not appear to arise because of oxidative stress: signal luminance and markers of oxidative stress were positively correlated in high-food froglets, but were negatively correlated in low-food froglets suggesting a trade-off. 6. Our results highlight developmental plasticity in body size and coloration as affected by resource (i.e. food) supply. Such plasticity seems likely to minimize predation risk during the vulnerable period early in life when individuals are warningly coloured and must make the transition from an undefended phenotype to a mature aposematic state.
Foraging ecology and behaviour of the ponerine ant Ectatomma opaciventre Roger in a Brazilian savannah

This study provides a detailed account of the foraging behaviour of the ponerine ant Ectatomma opaciventre in a ‘cerrado’ savannah in south-east Brazil. Our observations suggest that this species has an exclusively diurnal foraging pattern. Feeding habits included both predation and scavenging, with termite workers and leaf-cutting ants as the most important food items. Contrary to all other Ectatomma species studied to date, no liquid food such as hemipteran honeydew or plant nectar was collected. Foragers showed clear individual foraging area fidelity.Workers of E. opaciventre employed a typical individual foraging strategy, i.e. there was no co-operation between foragers in the search for or retrieval of food, neither by tandem running nor by trail laying. Nest density was considerably lower than in other Ectatomma (0.015 nests per m2). The observed mean distance to the nearest neighbouring nest was 5.85 m, with a significant tendency toward over-dispersion. Nests were more frequently found in specific microhabitats, which may suggest active choice of nesting site by founding queens.