Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interaction of Rice Residue and PRE Herbicides on Emergence and Biomass of Four Weed Species

Abstract Studies were conducted in a screenhouse to determine the interaction of rice residue as mulch (0, 3, and 6 t ha−1) and herbicides (nontreated, oxadiazon at 0.5 and 1.0 kg ai ha−1, and pendimethalin at 1.0 and 2.0 kg ai ha−1) on seedling emergence and biomass of barnyardgrass, crowfootgrass, junglerice, and rice flatsedge. Regardless of the residue amount, crowfootgrass and junglerice were effectively controlled by all herbicide treatments. No seedlings of these weed species escaped the herbicides when applied in the presence of residue cover. There was no survival of barnyardgrass seedlings when both herbicides were applied on bare soil (without residue cover); however, some seedlings survived oxadiazon and pendimethalin when applied in the presence of residue cover. For rice flatsedge, the herbicide applications in the presence of residue cover resulted in lower weed control than in the absence of residue. These results suggest that some weed species can escape the application of PRE herbicides in conservation agriculture systems in which residue can bind soil-applied herbicides and result in lower efficacy. Nomenclature: Barnyardgrass, Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) Beauv. ECHCG; crowfootgrass, Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L.) Willd. DTTAE; junglerice, Echinochloa colona (L.) Link. ECHCO; rice flatsedge, Cyperus iria L. CYPIR; rice, Oryza sativa L. ORYSA Resumen Se realizaron estudios en un invernadero para determinar la interacción de los residuos del arroz como cobertura (0, 3 y 6 t ha−1) y herbicidas (testigo no-tratado, oxadiazon a 0.5 y 1.0 kg ai ha−1, y pendimethalin a 1.0 y 2.0 kg ai ha−1) sobre la emergencia de plántulas y la biomasa de Echinochloa crus-galli, Dactyloctenium aegyptium, Echinochloa colona y Cyperus iria. Sin importar la cantidad de cobertura, D. aegyptium y E. colona fueron controladas efectivamente por todos los tratamientos de herbicidas. Ninguna plántula de estas especies de malezas escaparon a los herbicidas cuando se aplicó en presencia de la cobertura con residuos de arroz. No hubo sobrevivencia de plántulas de E. crus-galli, cuando ambos herbicidas se aplicaron sobre suelo desnudo (sin cobertura de residuos); sin embargo, algunas plántulas sobrevivieron a oxadiazon y pendimethalin cuando estos se aplicaron en presencia de la cobertura de residuos. Para C. iria, las aplicaciones de herbicidas en presencia de la cobertura resultó en menor control que en la ausencia de residuos. Estos resultados sugieren que algunas especies de malezas pueden escapar a las aplicaciones de herbicidas PRE en sistemas de agricultura de conservación en los cuales los herbicidas aplicados al suelo pueden adherirse a los residuos disminuyendo su eficacia.
Effects of silicon on tolerance to water deficit and heat stress in rice plants (Oryza sativa L.), monitored by electrolyte leakage

SummaryTo evaluate the positive efTects of silicon on the stress tolerance of rice plants, we measured the electrolyte leakage (El) from leaf tissue caused by desiccation with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and by high temperature to estimate the integrity of cell membranes. The El caused by 30% and 40% solutions of PEG decreased with the increase in the level of Si in leaves. In leaves of plants grown with 100 ppm Si02, the level of polysaccharides in cell walls, which is one of the factors related to tolerance to desiccation, was 1.6-fold higher than that in leaves of plants grown without Si. Ultrastructural observations of leaves revealed that polymerized Si accumulated in the walls of epidermal cells but not in those of the mesophyll cells, which are probably the main sites of El. These findings suggested that silicon in rice leaves is involved in the water relations of cells, such as mechanical properties and water permeability and plays a role in preventing El through the synthesis and functions of cell .
The Recent Behaviour of Financial Market Volatility

This BIS Paper studies the behaviour of financial market volatility since 1970, with special emphasis on the evolution in recent years. Financial market volatility plays an important role in corporate investment decisions and in the willingness and ability of banks to extend credit. This Report emphasises that the reduction in volatility seen in recent years largely represents: the consequence of improvements in the functioning and structure of global financial markets; increased market liquidity; the greater role of institutional investors; better communication between central banks and financial markets; and stronger company balance sheets The study was prepared by a study group under the Chairmanship of Mr Fabio Panetta of the Bank of Italy.
Domestic Macroeconomic Drivers of Industrialization in Nigeria: Status and Prospects From the Manufacturing Sub-Sector

While most advanced economies are in the process of de-industrializing their economies, efforts by successive governments to transform the economy of Nigeria, from a commodity-driven to an industrialized one, has not yielded much fruit despite several industrial policies and reforms. In Nigeria, the problem of industrialization is not the difficulty in attaining economic growth but the predicament of the extent to which attention is paid to infrastructure, human capital, private sector credit, technology, foreign direct investment, domestic price and exchange flexibility as determinants of the manufacturing sub-sector’s utilization capacity rate and its productivity index. Based on the United Nations/World Bank success yardsticks with theoretical framework rooted in the Prebisch-Singer Hypothesis and the endogenous growth model, this study utilizes the K-class estimation procedure on Nigeria’s time series between 1990 and 2016. The result obtained indicate that infrastructural development, appropriate moderate institutional frameworks, bank credit, foreign direct investment, electricity, a stable exchange rate, low inflation and economic diversification are key drivers of industrialization. The findings also confirm that unless the Nigerian economy achieves improved infrastructure delivery and institutional framework as well as stable domestic and currency prices, the efforts towards economic diversification may be counterproductive. It is therefore expedient that Nigeria focuses on building strong macroeconomic fundamentals that would accentuate its take-off to industrialization.
Dynamic Probabilistic Forecasting with Uncertainty

In this paper, we introduce a dynamical model for the time evolution of probability density functions incorporating uncertainty in the parameters. The uncertainty follows stochastic processes, thereby defining a new class of stochastic processes with values in the space of probability densities. The purpose is to quantify uncertainty that can be used for probabilistic forecasting. Starting from a set of traded prices of equity indices, we do some empirical studies. We apply our dynamic probabilistic forecasting to option pricing, where our proposed notion of model uncertainty reduces to uncertainty on future volatility. A distribution of option prices follows, reflecting the uncertainty on the distribution of the underlying prices. We associate measures of model uncertainty of prices in the sense of Cont.
The Effect of Voluntary Governance Rating Disclosures on SEOs and Acquisitions

Voluntary disclosures play an increasingly larger role in the corporate world, yet their implications remain controversial. On the one hand, voluntary disclosures create value by decreasing information asymmetry between managers and investors. On the other hand, they may be used opportunistically by the managers in capital market transactions and corporate development activities. We contribute to this debate by examining the effect of firms' voluntary disclosures of corporate governance ratings on the timing and performance of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) and acquisitions. We conduct our analyses within the context of Turkey, one of the countries in which corporate governance scores are obtained on a voluntary basis. We find that firms which voluntarily disclose their governance ratings are less likely to undertake both SEOs and acquisitions which are commonly associated with managerial opportunism. Furthermore, these firms experience higher abnormal stock returns from the announcement of SEOs and acquisitions suggesting that voluntary disclosures of governance ratings provide credible signals to investors.
Differences Between Savings from Equity Issuance and Savings from Cash Flow

Firms have different choices of using equity issuance and cash flow to save. Empirically, we find three differences between savings from equity issuance and cash flow. First, firms may not increase or decrease the savings rates of equity issuance and cash flow at the same time. Second, the savings rate of equity issuance is higher than that of cash flow. Third, in 1985-2016, the savings rate of equity issuance increases more than that of cash flow. To investigate the differences, we analyze the cash-savings motives from the following perspectives: growth options, financial constraints, and equity overvaluation. Our theory predicts that the savings rate of equity issuance increases in the above three scenarios, whereas the savings rate of cash flow only increases because of financial constraints. Empirical results suggest that the savings motives result in the first difference and the growth of intangible investment causes the second and third differences.
Piscivority by Stocked Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) and Its Impact on the Nongame Fish Community of Bottom Creek, Virginia

The magnitude of fish consumption by brown trout (Salmo trutta) was assessed by experimentally stocking large (> 280 mm) and small (< 280 mm) brown trout in separate sections of a Virginia stream. Large brown trout ate five species of fish consistently during the May–November, 1979, experimental period; by November, every trout stomach examined contained fish remains. Small trout rarely ate fish. Effects of fish consumption were apparent in trout growth and in abundance of prey species. Large trout grew 9.4% in length and 21.3% in weight, whereas small trout grew 4.5% in length and 4.7% in weight. Abundance of the major prey species, torrent sucker (Moxostoma rhothoecum), decreased between April and October in the stream section containing large trout, but remained constant in a comparable reference section; estimates of total consumption of torrent suckers by brown trout accounted for a large portion of the decrease in abundance. Predation on torrent suckers was selective for smaller individuals. The fie.
Fund Performance and Social Responsibility: New Evidence using Social Active Share and Social Tracking Error

Using a sample of 2516 U.S. mutual funds over the period 2010-2017, we examine the effects of socially responsible investing (SRI) on mutual fund performance. We use two proxies of deviation from SRI: social active share (SAS) and social tracking error (STE) which, respectively, capture the differences in holdings and returns between a fund and a socially responsible index, namely the MSCI KLD 400. In the univariate analysis, the SAS results align with more socially responsible funds outperforming less socially responsible funds, while STE provides mixed evidence. The multivariate analysis shows, for both SAS and STE, that more socially responsible funds outperform their less socially responsible peers. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that SRI does not damage fund performance.
Technology, Economic Booms, and Politics: Evidence from Fracking

Hydraulic fracking generated unexpected shale oil and gas booms. After these booms, voter support for Republicans rises, leading Republicans to win seats from Democrats. Roll-call voting by House members becomes more conservative after shale across issues extending beyond energy or the economy. The results suggest that changes in preferences on specific issues can have broad spillover effects across a wide range of policy outcomes.
Product Innovation with Industry Leaders and Consumer Switching Costs

We analyze firms’ investment in product innovation when there are heterogeneous consumer switching costs in markets with an industry leader. We show that higher switching costs require a successful entrant to charge a higher price and increase investment in product innovation to remain competitive, while an industry leader’s best strategy is to increase R&amp;D, ensuring greater market share and profit. Alternatively, with relatively low switching costs, entry reduces an industry leader’s R&amp;D investment. Our results provide evidence of a co-existence between “Arrowian” and “Schumpeterian” investment theories, which hinges on the magnitude of consumer switching costs. Overall, entry in an innovative industry may be socially undesirable due to switching costs. Our analysis suggests that an industrial policy designed to lower switching costs (such as product standardization) unambiguously increases consumer surplus and overall welfare but may affect product innovation negatively.
A Production-Inventory Problem under an Energy Buy-Back Program

This paper considers a production-inventory problem in which the manufacturer participates in an energy buy-back program, which offers him probabilistic opportunities with rewards for not using electricity. That is, the manufacturer will get paid for stopping production to save on electricity. The amount rewarded in a period will depend on the electricity market condition at that time. The market condition in any given period is represented by three states: normal (i.e., non-peak), semi-peak, or peak, and the reward amount in the period will be 0, K1; and K2, respectively. The occurrence of each state in a period is dictated by a known probability distribution. The objective is to determine from the manufacturer's perspective, whether to take such an offer when it arises. Under a mild assumption, we show that in the normal market condition, the production decision is partly a base-stock policy, whereas under semi-peak and peak conditions, the manufacturer, upon accepting the offer, produces according to (s1; S) and (s2; S) policies, corresponding to K1 and K2; respectively. Two variants of the model are also discussed.
Pension Literacy and Retirement Planning in an Emerging Economy

This paper links pension literacy to retirement planning in an emerging economy. The results show that the correct knowledge about pension basics and savings rate have a positive effect on employees’ efforts to plan for their retirement. Conversely, employees’ correct knowledge about pension lump sum impairs their retirement planning efforts. Enhanced retirement preparedness is associated with the correct knowledge of pension basics and lump sum, pension savings rate and lump sum or pension basics, savings rate and lump sum all together.
The better turbulence index? Forecasting adverse financial markets regimes with persistent homology

Persistent homology is the workhorse of modern topological data analysis, which in recent years becomes increasingly powerful due to methodological and computing power advances. In this paper, after equipping the reader with the relevant background on persistent homology, we show how this tool can be harnessed for investment purposes. Specifically, we propose a persistent homology-based turbulence index for the detection of adverse market regimes. With the help of an out-of-sample study, we demonstrate that investment strategies relying on a persistent homology-based turbulence detection outperform investment strategies based on other popular turbulence indices. Additionally, we conduct a stability analysis of our findings. This analysis confirms the results from the previous out-of-sample study, as the outperformance prevails for most configurations of the respective investment strategy and thereby mitigating possible data mining concerns.
Regulatory Bias in the Price Structure of Local Telephone Services

This article combines a discrete choice model of demand for residential local telephone access and an optimal price regulation model to estimate the welfare weights that state regulators place on consumers with different incomes and locations. I find no evidence of a bias towards rural consumers on average, but the relative weight on low income consumers in a geographic area can vary as a function of the proportions of rural and poor population and the political characteristics of the regulator. I also measure the welfare consequences of deviating from total consumer surplus maximization and disconnecting prices from costs.
Growth responses and survival of the goldfish, Carassius auratus (Cyprinidae) fry reared on Moina (Cladocera) and Cyclops (Copepoda).

Five sets of 20-day old goldfish fry, Carassius auratus with average weights of 0.167 ± 0.003 g were reared for eight weeks in plastic bowls for growth and survival studies. One set (labelled MN) was fed Moina and Cyclops. A second set (labelled FM) was fed fishmeal, and a third set (labelled AF) was fed a 45% protein artificial feed. The fourth and fifth sets were fed mixtures of Moina/Cyclops with the fishmeal (MFM) and the artificial feed (MAF). Survival was 60% in the fry fed fishmeal (FM) alone but 100% in all the other groups. Specific growth rate (SGR) and mean weight gain was not significantly different (P > 0.05) in fry fed Moina/Cyclops alone (MN) or in combination with fishmeal (MFM) and artificial feed (MAF). They were, however, significantly different (P Key words : Moina, Cyclops, Goldfish, Carassius auratus, Larval fish nutrition. Journal of Aquatic Sciences Vol.18(1) 2003: 43-46
Macrobenthic fauna in the Ensenada de San Simón (Galicia, north-western Spain)

Distribution and abundance of the macrobenthic fauna was studied in the intertidal and subtidal soft-bottoms of the Ensenada de San Simón (north-western Spain). Depth and grain size were the most important factors in determining patterns of distribution of the macrozoobenthos. A reduced Macoma community was present in the inner area of the inlet structured in two facies subdivision in the community that does not affect its qualitative composition: the first one was in intertidal areas associated with meadows of the sea grasses Zostera noltii and Z. marina and defined by the dominance of Hydrobia ulvae; the second facies in intertidal sediments was characterized by the dominance of Tubificidae and nematodes and Pseudopolydora paucibranchiata. The poverty of these bottoms in number of species can be due to salinity fluctuations and human activities developed in the area. Subtidal bottoms were characterized by a Syndosmya (=Abra) alba community. Two facies were detected: one facies located in shallow subtidal bottoms with H. ulvae and Thyasira flexuosa as characteristic species, and a second facies in deeper areas, characterized by the polychaetes Ampharete finmarchica, P. paucibranchiata, Aphelochaeta marioni, Melinna palmata and Paradoneis lyra.
The Effect of Diversity and Elaboration on Multidisciplinary Greenhouse Gas Assurance Team Effectiveness

Greenhouse gas (GHG) assurance is increasingly used by companies as a means to increase stakeholder confidence in the quality of externally reported carbon emissions. The multidisciplinary nature of these engagements means that assurance is performed primarily by multidisciplinary teams. Prior research suggests the effectiveness of such teams could be affected by team composition and team processes. We employ a retrospective field study to examine the impact of educational diversity and team member elaboration on multidisciplinary GHG assurance team effectiveness. Results show that team processes such as sufficiency of elaboration on different team member perspectives significantly increases the perceived effectiveness of the teams. While educational diversity is not found to directly improve perceived team effectiveness, it is found to have a positive effect through increasing perceived sufficiency of elaboration. These findings have important implications for standard setters and audit firms undertaking GHG assurance engagements.
Do Voluntary CSR Reports Affect Earnings Informativeness?

This study examines whether voluntary issuance of stand-alone CSR reports affects the informativeness of earnings information. We find that the first-time voluntary adoption of CSR reporting is associated with higher subsequent earnings response coefficients, suggesting that CSR reporting improves earnings informativeness. Our cross-sectional tests show that the content of CSR reports matters; CSR reports only improve the informativeness of earnings to the extent that they address key firm-specific business risks of concerned by investors and stakeholders, which could threaten firms’ sustainability. The findings are consistent with the notion that CSR reports enhance earnings informativeness by helping investors assess earnings persistence.
The Severity of behavioral changes observed during experimental exposures of killer (Orcinus orca), long-finned Pilot (Globicephala melas), and sperm (Physeter macrocephalus) whales to naval sonar

This study describes behavioral changes of wild cetaceans observed during controlled exposures of naval sonar. In 2006 through 2009, 14 experiments were conducted with killer (n = 4), long-finned pilot (n = 6), and sperm (n = 4) whales. A total of 14 6-7 kHz upsweep, 13 1-2 kHz upsweep, and five 1-2 kHz downsweep sonar exposures, as well as seven Silent vessel control exposure sessions and eight playbacks of killer whale sounds were conducted. Sonar signals were transmitted by a towable source that approached each tagged subject from a starting distance of 6 to 8 km with a ramp up of source levels (from 152 to 158 to a maximum of 198 to 214 dB re: 1 μPa m). This procedure resulted in a gradual escalation of the sonar received level at the whale, measured by towed hydrophones and by tags that record movement and sound (Dtags). Observers tracked the position of each tagged animal and recorded group-level surface behavior. Two expert panels independently scored the severity of diverse behavioral changes observed during each sonar and control exposure, using the 0 to 9 point severity scale of Southall et al. (2007), and then reached consensus with a third-party moderator. The most severe responses scored (i.e., most likely to affect vital rates) included a temporary separation of a calf from its group, cessation of feeding or resting, and avoidance movements that continued after the sonar stopped transmitting. Higher severity scores were more common during sonar exposure than during Silent control sessions. Scored responses started at lower sound pressure levels (SPLs) for killer whales and were more severe during sonar exposures to killer and sperm whales than to long-finned pilot whales. Exposure sessions with the higher source level of 1 to 2 kHz sonar had more changes and a trend for higher maximum severity than 6 to 7 kHz sessions, but the order of the sessions had no effect. This approach is helpful to standardize the description of behavioral changes that occurred during our experiments and to identify and describe the severity of potential responses of free-ranging cetaceans to sonar.