Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Milk production responses of primiparous and multiparous dairy cows to dose of conjugated linoleic acid consumed in rumen inert form

Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has the potential to be used as a dietary means of manipulating milk fat production of dairy cows to meet specified short-term targets, as in a supply-managed industry. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the dose-response to calcium salts of CLA fed as a top-dress on a corn- and alfalfa-based TMR. In two 5 × 5 Latin squares of 28-d periods, five primiparous and five multiparous cows were fed 0, 22, 45, 67 or 178 g d-1 CLA (29% trans-10, cis-12) as a calcium salt. Results from one multiparous cow on the 178 g d-1 treatment were removed from statistical analysis because milk production fell to 1.2 kg d-1 by the end of the period. On average, milk, lactose and protein yields increased at the lower doses of CLA and decreased to control levels at the highest dose. Milk fat yield declined progressively from 876 to 770, 689, 676 and 543 g d-1 on the five doses. Net energy balance of cows increased linearly from -1.5 Mcal d-1 on the control to 2.0 Mcal d-1 at 178 g d-1 CLA. The.
Correlates of Song Organization Among North American Wrens

Of the nine North American wrens, the house, winter, Bewick's, Carolina, cactus, and canyon wrens repeat a song type several times before changing to another, that is, AAA. BBB. The rock, long-billed marsh, and the short-billed marsh wrens use frequently or exclusively song organizations involving more immediate variety, for example, ABCABC. MNOMNO. These latter three wrens have larger song repertoires and occur in high densities in communities of low avifaunal diversity, where intraspecific interactions are likely to be more frequent and intense. Rates of presentation of new song types to conspecifics are highest in the long-billed marsh wren, a very polygynous species; and, of the six AAA. BBB. songsters, the winter wren is the most polygynous (according to European studies); has by far the longest and most complex songs; and, during a song bout, spends the highest percentage of time actually singing. Such correlations suggest that (1) strong sexual selection in polygynous mating systems and (2) high encounter rates within dense wren populations have been selective forces in the evolution of large song repertoires and complex singing behaviors.
Experimental assessment of a degree‐day model for predicting the development of parasites in the field

The adequacy of a degree‐day model for predicting the development of parasites, and hence their potential generation turnover rate, in the field was experimentally tested. The parasite‐host system used was Aphelinus asychis Walker and Diuraphis noxia (Mordwilko). Input data for the model tested included: 1. developmental parameters (“t” and “K”) of A. asychis and 2. observed, and long‐term average, daily maximum and minimum air temperatures. The parameters “t” and “K” were obtained under constant temperature conditions in the laboratory using least squares linear regression analysis of temperature on percent rate of development. The developmental parameters for the egg‐to‐mummy development period of A. asychis were estimated as t = 5.4°C, and K = 142.5 degree‐days. The upper developmental threshold was observed to be above 29.4°C. A paired sample t‐test indicated that predicted developmental times, based both on observed and long‐term average temperature data, were not significantly different from observed developmental times in the field. On average, differences between observed and predicted developmental times did not exceed one day. The underlying errors to which the differences between predicted and observed developmental times can be attributed to are discussed. Results obtained point to the potential of using simple laboratory and modelling techniques as aids in assessing the biological control potential of newly imported parasites, or explaining the field performance of established ones, during evaluation processes.
The Equilibrium Models of Bond Pricing and Duration Measures: A New Perspective

A new approach to the conditions that a duration measure must satisfy to represent the interest rate risk adequately is proposed in this paper. These conditions are derived from an intertemporal model of utility maximization. In addition, this approach is used to provide a new perspective on the arbitrage opportunities arising from the convexity effect on hedged bond portfolios. For several decades this has been considered in the literature as the main cause of the incompatibility between the traditional duration measures of Macaulay (1938), Fisher and Weil (1971), and other “immunizing” duration measures and the equilibrium models of bond pricing. Using empirical data, this paper shows that convexity effect on the rates of return on bonds is not completely eliminated, when the duration measures derived from equilibrium models of Vasicek (1977) and of Cox, Ingersoll and Ross (1985) are used in hedging strategies. The empirical analysis also shows that the influence of convexity on bond returns depends on the magnitude of interest rate changes.
Control of arrhythmic breathing in bimodal breathers: Amphibia

Amphibians employ a system of gas exchange whereby various combinations of the lungs, gills, and skin are used to exploit gas exchanges in both air and water (bimodal breathing). Continuous lung ventilation is rarely observed in these animals. Instead, the dominant breath pattern is arrhythmic in nature and is believed to have evolved in response to a periodic need to supplement aquatic gas exchange. Such a need is largely dependent on the activity state of the animal concerned and its capacity for aquatic gas exchange. The overall control system appears to be one that turns lung ventilation on and off by trigger signals arising from chemo- and mechano-sensitive receptors responding to changing conditions during periods of breath holding and breathing. In amphibians in which the aquatic exchanger is a major avenue for CO2 elimination, levels in the lungs and blood do not change substantially in the latter stages of a breath hold. Under these conditions falling levels of oxygen may be the primary stimulus .
Asia’s Industrial Transformation: The Role of Manufacturing and Global Value Chains (Part 1)

This paper argues that the single most important factor that explains East Asia’s development success was its fast structural transformation toward industrialization, manufacturing in particular. Workers moved out of agriculture into manufacturing, and the sector diversified and upgraded its structure. Manufacturing activities are subject to increasing returns to scale, and many manufacturing goods have high income elasticities of demand. For these reasons, manufacturing is referred to as the “engine of growth. ” It is in the context of industrialization that openness played an important role in East Asia’s success, i.e., the connection between “export-led growth” (the relaxation of the balance-of-payments constraint on foreign exchange) and industrialization. Part 1 of the paper documents the extent of structural transformation in developing Asia. Second, it analyzes the relationship between the export-led growth model (i.e., the relaxation of the balance-of-payments constraint on foreign exchange) and industrialization. Finally, it reviews the industrialization experiences of Japan and the Republic of Korea, and discusses the recent deindustrialization debate.
CEO Relative Compensation, Takeover Premium and Bidder Performance in Australia: Efficient Contracting or Managerial Power?

This paper analyses the impact of CEO relative compensation on takeover premiums and bidder performance. Based on a sample of takeover deals between Australian listed targets and bidders from 2000 to 2015, we find that there is insignificant difference between bid premiums offered by CEOs who are paid a higher relative compensation to other directors on the board compared with that of deals undertaken by CEOs with lower relative compensation. The correlation between CEO relative compensation and bidders’ announcement return is significantly negative, while its association with one-year post-takeover is in an upward direction, which is in a sharp contrary to the US and UK markets. In the two years’ time, the outperforming effect becomes marginal and insignificant. Overall, our findings largely support the efficient contracting theory to have more explanatory power in the Australian context.
The Effect of Investor Category Trading Imbalances on Stock Returns

Trading is the mechanism of the economist's 'invisible hand;' the means by which price discovery occurs. We use daily shareholdings data from the Australian equities clearinghouse to investigate the impact of the trading imbalances of investor categories on stock returns. Our evidence does not contradict the behavioural finance assumption that the trading of individual investors contributes to price discovery. Furthermore, we find that, while the trading of all investor categories Granger-causes returns, returns Granger-cause trading only for the individual investor category. That is, in the short term of up to one month, only individual investors engage in feedback trading.
Noisy Persuasion

We study the effect of noise due to exogenous information distortions in the context of Bayesian<br>persuasion. In particular, we ask whether more noise (a la Blackwell) is always harmful for<br>the information designer, i.e., the sender. We show that in general this is not the case. We<br>provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the sender to always be worse off when noise<br>increases in a binary noisy channel. There are two ways to read our result: (a) the sender always<br>dislikes additional noise if and only if we start with little noise in the first place, (b) the sender<br>always dislikes additional noise if and only if this additional noise is modelled by a sufficiently<br>symmetric channel. Finally, we provide sufficient conditions that extend this result to channels<br>of arbitrary cardinality.
Do Consumers Purchase Fresh Produce Differently to Packaged Goods? Evidence From the United States

Although both fresh produce and consumer packaged goods (CPG) are sold within supermarkets, there is little research comparing how consumers purchase them. To provide insights into this area of research, this study compares the frequency of buying fresh fruits and vegetables, the concentration of sales amongst consumer segments and the stability of those segments with what has been established in the CPG literature for decades. To achieve this, we analyze the Negative Binomial Distributions and Pareto shares (or the 80/20 rule) of the Nielsen panel data covering over 4,200,000 fresh produce purchases in the United States, between 2004 and 2016 and compare them to CPG studies. The results show that consumers purchase fresh produce in the same manner as CPG, that is, there are many more infrequent buyers and that the most frequent buyers contribute ~60% of sales (not the expected 80%); furthermore, they purchase less frequently over time and contribute fewer sales. This implies that frequent buyers have limited potential in terms of growing the fresh produce category or their own consumption. Instead, fresh produce marketing campaigns should appeal to all buyers, especially, those who are not buying or buying infrequently, thereby growing their customer base, rather than the loyalty of their existing buyers.
Capital Insufficiencies, Absortion Role of Management Inefficiencies and Financial Distress (or Bankruptcy) Probabilities – A Panel Data Probit Analysis from European Western Countries

The aim of this paper is to analyze financial distress probability supported by two proxies defined by short and long term capital insufficiencies as dependent variables. The conditions under which may be explained with the scholar explanatory variable sets constituted by financing, profitability, return volatilities and flexibility in financing and assets structure. Control variables are related to firm’s trade credit policy: trade credit duration gap and trade credit risk taking associated when facing different coverage ratios. In relation to the inclusion of trade credit duration gap and trade credit risk taking associated to different coverage ratios in basic model (1) finish to eliminate return on assets, return volatilities and trade credit risk taking to coverage ratio effects on short term capital insufficiency. Another important conclusion is that short term financing withdraw to itself financial costs, trade credit duration gap ratio and trade credit risk taking ratios negative effects to deteriorate short term capital insufficiency. In turn, equity negative impact represents an important autonomous effect to meet trade-off predictions on reducing short term capital insufficiency besides decreasing its coefficient magnitude after entering trade credit variables in the basic model (1). Negative working capital acts as a complement of short term financing positive effect on the deterioration of short term capital insufficiency that contributes to increase probability of financial distress (or bankruptcy). Only trade-off predictions are present in all control models when equity presents permanently a negative impact on short term capital insufficiency. More over, the inclusion of trade credit duration gap and trade credit risk taking associated to different coverage ratios in basic model (2) presented before eliminate return on sales volatility, negative working capital and trade credit risk taking ratios more related to core business coverage ratios impacts on long term capital insufficiency. Another important conclusion is that short term financing represents now a financing substitution role that contributes to decrease long term capital insufficiency. In turn, equity impact acts as the most important autonomous effect to meet trade-off predictions on strongly reducing long term capital insufficiency after entering trade credit variables in the basic model (2). Pecking order predictions are also respected by the negative impact of return on assets on long term capital insufficiency, confirming findings that no single theories provides a complete explanation for all aspects of the data analysed. Pecking order and trade off predictions are long term well running when trade credit control variables enter in long term capital insufficiency basic model. At last, FDL and Z-core models are substantially confirmed by results of ours long term capital insufficiency model.
Emotions and Inventor Productivity: Evidence from Terrorist Attacks

We examine whether the emotional shocks associated with terrorist attacks affect local inventors' productivity. We find that high‐fatality attacks make inventors less innovative, and low‐fatality attacks make them more innovative. Inventors living in high risk‐taking environments have greater increase in productivity following low‐fatality attacks, while less decrease in productivity following high‐fatality attacks. Further, the effect of terrorist attacks on inventor productivity comes mainly from exploratory innovation which involves more risks. Inventors affected by high‐fatality attacks are also more likely to move to places without any significant terrorist attack history, but there is no such effect for low‐fatality attacks.
Does Stock Return's Idiosyncratic Volatility Still Predict Corporate Bond Returns?

In contrast to earlier decades, since the early 2000s, the average idiosyncratic volatility of stocks has fallen back to its pre-1990s level. Here, we examine whether decreasing volatility still helps to explain the cross-sectional variation of bond returns. Using a panel data of corporate bond returns spanning July 2002 to June 2016, we find that the average bond returns and lag idiosyncratic volatility are positively associated. The average returns on bonds with high sensitivities to average idiosyncratic volatilities exceed bonds with low sensitivities by about 2.4% for financial firms and 1.5% for nonfinancial firms. The positive association is robust when we control for size, bond ratings, leverage ratio, and bond maturity as well as the effects of default spread, term spread, and liquidity spread. The results suggest that idiosyncratic volatility is still an important factor in explaining the cross-sectional variation of average bond returns.
Impact of male on the functional response of Diaeretieila rapae (M'Intosh) (Hym., Aphidiidae), a parasitoid of Lipaphis erysimi Kalt. (Hom., Aphididae)

The functional response of the parasitoid Diaeretieila rapae parasitising Lipaphis erysimi was studied for single female in the presence and absence of single male parasitoid at varied host densities viz. 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 200 aphids. The response was sigmoid in nature and is described by an exponential equation
Experimental evaluation of methods for sampling and assaying intertidal epilithic microalgae

In preparation for more detailed studies of epilithic assemblages, an experimental assessment was made of several of the available methods for both obtaining and assaying intertidal microalgae. Samples were obtained from the natural substratum (by chipping, by scraping and by brushing) and from artificial substrata (stone blocks, glass slides and perspex cubes). The density of microalgal cells in each sample was then estimated by a range of methods (counts using light, fluorescent and scanning electron microscopes; and measurements of chlorophyll concentration). Estimates of cell density on the original substratum were compared and the advantages and disadvantages of each combination of methods are discussed. It is concluded that, for reliab~lity and reproducibility of results and for ease of apphcation to routine sampling, light microscope studies of samples obtained by brushing the rock surface are most suitable.
IMPROVING RECOVERY PLANNING FOR THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES

T he Endangered Species Act (ESA) is arguably the most important legislation passed by the United States Congress to protect species and their habitats (the use of the term "species" covers species, subspecies, and even distinct populations). The ESA has three major provisions (Rohlf 1989, Schwalbe 1993, Mueller 1994, NRC 1995, Easter-Pilcher 1996). First, it stipulates a process for determining whether or not a candidate species should be listed as threatened or endangered, based solely on scientific information and specifically excluding potential economic impact. Second, it provides listed species with legal protection to reduce the threat of extinction. The principal protections are limits to "take"-that is, to the destruction of a listed species or
Incidence of Characteristics of the Board of Directors on the Policy of Dividend Distribution: Study of Tunisian Non-Financial Listed Companies.

The objective of this paper is to study the effect of the characteristics of the board of directors on the policy of dividend distribution in a context of the Tunisian non-financial listed companies between 2001- 2014. Thus, our empirical study is based on the estimation of a single model by following the technique of multiple linear regression (Panel). <br><br>Our results show a positive effect between the characteristics of the board of directors proxies {the size of the board of directors, the remuneration of the leader and the duration of the meetings of the board of directors} and the policy of dividend distribution in a context of Tunisian non-financial listed companies. In the same way, our empirical work do not make it possible to highlight a positive effect between the independence of members of the board of directors and the level of dividend distribution. On the other hand, our results of the estimate do not enable us to highlight the existence of a negative effect between the number of board meetings and the share of capital held by the leader and the policy of dividends distribution in the same context of Tunisian. <br>
Do Client Bankruptcies Preceded by Clean Audit Opinions Damage Auditor Reputation?

There is a maintained assumption within the accounting literature that client bankruptcies preceded by clean audit opinions (Type II GCO errors) damage an auditor’s reputation. Consistent with this view, the PCAOB proposes that stakeholders may use Type II GCO errors as indicators of low audit quality. This study examines audit committee and investor responses to Type II GCO errors. I find no evidence that audit offices with Type II GCOs are more likely to be dismissed, have lower subsequent audit fees, or have a lower likelihood of being selected for new audit engagements. These findings are consistent with audit committees not using Type II GCO errors as indicators of low auditor quality. Using event study analysis, I find evidence of modest incremental negative investor responses for clients of audit offices with Type II GCO errors. However, these negative investor responses are found only during the financial crisis period of 2008–2010 and are observed only within windows of 30 days or less. Given this limited evidence that stakeholders do respond to Type II GCO errors, I examine whether stakeholders should respond to Type II GCO errors. I find that audit office Type II GCO errors are positively associated with subsequent restatements, an established measure of low audit quality. Taking the results as a whole, I do not find that audit offices incur substantial reputational costs for Type II GCO errors. However, the negative investor response and the positive association with restatements provide some evidence that Type II GCO errors may serve as indicators of low audit quality.
Reproduction in the slender loris (Loris tardigradus malabaricus)

A breeding colony of slender lorises (Loris tardigradus malabaricus) was studied to obtain data for comparison with other prosimian species, to contribute reproductive information for improving management of captive lorises, and to resolve some uncertainties in the literature regarding reproduction in the slender loris. At the Duke University Primate Center, a female slender loris reached sexual maturity at approximately ten months of age and conceived at one year of age. The length of the estrous cycle was 29–40 days, with copulation occurring over two consecutive days during estrus. Gestation length was 166–169 days. Litter size for each six births was one. Conception did not occur during an immediate post‐partum estrus, but four months after birth, resulting in a 9 1/2‐month interbirth interval. There was no evidence of reproductive seasonality. Lactation lasted between five and seven months. Reproductive rates of slender lorises are among the lowest of primates less than 500 g. Differences in reproductive parameters may exist between different subspecies of slender lorises.
Does Financial Innovation Lead to Real Innovation? Evidence from Financial Derivatives

We present evidence that financial innovation plays a role in increasing the level of real, innovative activity. We focus on non-financial firms' innovation performance, measured by patent-based metrics, and employ an exogenous change in the market for over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives in 1987. Distance from financial centers is used as an instrument for the likelihood of derivatives use. We find that firms with higher likelihood of derivatives use innovate more and have higher quality of innovations. The relationship is stronger for firms that are more likely to have an existing relationship with dealers or banks. Furthermore, we find that these results are driven by a greater ability of financially-constrained firms to invest in more risky ventures such as innovative projects.