Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of Microbial Inoculants on Seedling Production in Teak (Tectona grandis L.f.)

Abstract An experiment was conducted in forest college campus, Mettupalayam, India with an objective of studying the influence of microbial inoculants on seedling growth of teak. The fruits were collected from the seed production area in top slip (Tamil Nadu) from 63-year mother trees. The microbial inoculants viz., Azospirillum, Azotobacter, phosphobacteria, AMF, Azospirillum + AMF, Azotobacter+ AMF, phosphobacteria + AMF and an uninoculated control formed the treatments. The inoculants were mixed sand and red soil at 1:1:3 ratio, respectively, for preparing nursery mixture for filling the poly pots. The seeds were sown into the poly pots @ two seeds per pot. The experiment was set up in a randomized Block Design with three replications. Biometric observations on various growth attributes were recorded six months after treatment and also their survival in the main field-tested for one year. Azotobacter gave best performance with respect to shoot length, shoot weight and leaf area and combined inoculation of phosphobacteria and AMF gave higher root length and biomass, dry matter production and fine root weight. The survival was better in seedlings that were inoculated with phosphobacteria and AMF. However, below ground biomass and out planting survival during early phase are critical in any tree species. Hence it is concluded that inoculation of phosphobacteria and AMF conjointly be done for better survival and growth of teak seedlings.
Pigeonpea nutrition and its improvement.

Abstract Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan [L.] Millsp.), known by several vernacular and trade names such as red gram, tuar, Angola pea, Congo pea, yellow dhal and oil dhal, is one of the major grain legume crops of the tropics and sub-tropics. It is a favorite crop of small holder dryland farmers because it can grow well under subsistence level of agriculture and provides nutritive food, fodder, and fuel wood. It also improves soil by fixing atmospheric nitrogen. India by far is the largest pigeonpea producer where it is consumed as decorticated split peas, popularly called as ‘dhal’ In other countries, its consumption as whole dry seed and green vegetable is popular. Its foliage is used as fodder and milling by-products form an excellent feed for domestic animals. Pigeonpea seeds contain about 20-22% protein and appreciable amounts of essential amino acids and minerals. Dehulling and boiling treatments of seeds get rid of the most antinutritional factors such as tannins and enzyme inhibitors. Seed storage cause.
Systematic Financial Intermediation and Business Cycles

Theory suggests that financial intermediation (FI) spurs economic growth by reducing investment frictions. Prior literature focuses on bank lending as a driver of economic growth, with limited success for US GDP. We augment bank balance sheet data with that from shadow banks, mutual and pension funds, insurers, and brokers, finding that aggregate FI assets lead GDP growth and forecast recessions up to three quarters in advance, although the weight of each FI group in the aggregate fluctuates. Aggregated FIs expand their total assets when the slope of the Treasury yield curve is upward sloping and the effective Federal funds rate is higher, thereby revealing the importance of monetary policy in the financial intermediation process. We further show that aggregate FI contains leading information about investment and consumption and predicts industrial production and unemployment.
β-Adrenergic Activation of p38 MAP Kinase in Adipocytes

Because of increasing evidence that G protein-coupled receptors activate multiple signaling pathways, it becomes important to determine the coordination of these pathways and their physiological significance. Here we show that the β3-adrenergic receptor (β3AR) stimulates p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) via PKA in adipocytes and that cAMP-dependent transcription of the mitochondrial uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) promoter by β3AR requires p38 MAPK. The selective β3AR agonist CL316,243 (CL) stimulates phosphorylation of MAP kinase kinase 3/6 and p38 MAPK in a time- and dose-dependent manner in both white and brown adipocytes. Isoproterenol and forskolin mimicked the effect of CL on p38 MAPK. In all cases activation was blocked by the specific p38 MAPK inhibitor SB202190 (SB; 1–10 μm). The involvement of PKA in β3AR-dependent p38 MAPK activation was confirmed by the ability of the PKA inhibitors H89 (20 μm) and (R p)-cAMP-S (1 mm) to block phosphorylation of p38 MAPK. Treatment of primary brown adipocytes with CL or forskolin induced the expression of UCP1 mRNA levels (6.8- ± 0.8-fold), and this response was eliminated by PKA inhibitors and SB202190. A similar stimulation of a 3.7-kilobase UCP1 promoter by CL and forskolin was also completely inhibited by PKA inhibitors and SB202190, indicating that these effects on UCP1 expression are transcriptional. Moreover, the PKA-dependent transactivation of the UCP1 promoter, as well as its sensitivity to SB202190, was fully reproduced by a 220-nucleotide enhancer element from the UCP1 gene. We similarly observed that increased phosphorylation of ATF-2 by CL was sensitive to both H89 and SB202190, while phosphorylation of cAMP-response element-binding protein was inhibited only by H89. Together, these studies illustrate that p38 MAPK is an important downstream target of the β-adrenergic/cAMP/PKA signaling pathway in adipocytes, and one of the functional consequences of this cascade is stimulation of UCP1 gene expression in brown adipocytes.
Volatility Discovery

We propose a novel way to assess information processing in a complex environment of market fragmentation. We take a different angle from the price discovery literature, and investigate information processing in the stochastic process driving stock's volatility (volatility discovery). We show that our volatility discovery framework successfully identifies the leading market in the volatility process, whereas price discovery measures are unable to capture the dynamics of the market-specific volatilities. We compute volatility discovery for 30 stocks and find significant differences in how exchanges impound information into the efficient volatility, as ARCA and NYSE are more important than NASDAQ. Interestingly, price discovery measures suggest different results for nearly half the sample.
Study of Financial Performance and its Determinants: Empirical Evidence from Listed Indian 2/3 Wheeler Manufacturer Firms

The present study is based on the study of financial performance and impact of internal financial determinants on financial performance of listed 2/3 wheeler manufacturer firms in India. The study adopted Causal research design which involves the investigation of cause –and- effect relationships. The study is based on secondary data and data has collected from Annual reports of the considered 2/3 wheelers manufactures firms listed at BSE, India. The financial performance of the firms has been measured by Return on Assets (ROA). The identified internal financial determinants were Export Intensity (EXIN), Growth (GRT), Capital Structure (CS), Profitability Ratio (PR), Research and Development Intensity (RDI), Liquidity (LIQ), Non-Debt Tax Shield (NDTS), Interest Coverage Ratio(ICR), Tax (TAX), Operating Efficiency (Dividend Pay Out (DPOT), Capital Intensity (CIN), Tangibility(TANG), Leverage (LEV), Size (SIZE), Working Capital Ratio (WCR) and Operating Profit Ratio (OPR). The results indicated that financial performance was affected by selected internal financial determinants and these internal financial determinants have varying impacts on financial performance.
Response of northeastern North American forests to climate change: Will soil conditions constrain tree species migration?

Plant species distribution and plant community composition vary along environmental gradients. At the continental scale, climate plays a major role in determining plant distribution, while at the local and regional scales vegetation patterns are more strongly related to edaphic and topographic factors. The projected global warming and alteration of the precipitation regime will influence tree physiology and phenology, and is likely to promote northward migration of tree species. However the influence of soil characteristics on tree species migration is not as well understood. Considering the broad tolerance of most tree species to variations in soil factors, soils should not represent a major constraint for the northward shift of tree species. However, locally or regionally, soil properties may constrain species migration. Thus, while climate change has the potential to induce a northward migration of tree species, local or regional soil properties may hinder their migratory response. These antagonistic f.
Chemical, biological and sensory evaluation of pasta products supplemented with α-galactoside- free lupin flours

α-Galactoside-free lupin flour has been used to supplement durum wheat semolina flour in order to increase the nutritive value of pasta products. Supplemented pasta products had a shorter cooking time, higher cooking water absorption, cooking loss and protein loss in water than control pasta prepared with only semolina. Sensory evaluation of cooked pastas showed that products supplemented with 80 g kg−1 of α-galactoside-free Lupinus angustifolius var. Emir flour or with 100 g kg−1 of α-galactoside-free Lupinus angustifolius var. Troll flour showed the same acceptability by panellists as the semolina pasta. These levels of supplementation were selected for further studies. The cooked α-galactoside-free lupin/semolina pastas showed higher amounts of protein, dietary fibre, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc and antioxidant capacity than control pasta and a reasonable level of vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and vitamin E. Biological assessment of cooked pastas indicated that the true protein digestibility did not change after the fortification of semolina but protein efficiency ratio increased sharply in the pasta supplemented with α-galactoside-free lupin flours (2.07 and 1.92 for Emir and Troll lupin varieties, respectively) in comparison with the control pasta (1.11). It is concluded that the α-galactoside-free lupin flours are an adequate ingredient to improve the nutritional quality of pasta products without adding flatulent oligosaccharides. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry
Physiological mechanism of tolerance of Lycopersicon spp. exposed to salt stress.

The physiological mechanism of salt tolerance in Lycopersicon spp. was investigated. Ten Lycopersicon spp. were exposed to a gradual NaCl-induced decline in root zone water potential of −0.10 MPa d−1 for 10 d and maintained at −1.065 MPa (221.4 mM NaCl) for a period of 20 d. Growth, water relations and accumulation of ions and compatible solutes, such as proline and the quaternary ammonium compound, trigonelline (methylated nicotinic acid), were studied and correlated. Salt tolerance, measured as growth, in selected Lycopersicon species of varying ecological habitats indicated that L. cheesmanii, native to a saline-coastal habitat, was the most tolerant and L. pennellii, the most sensitive. The commercial cultivar, L. esculentum 'Duke', ranked 7th in the order of relative tolerance to salt. All species accumulated proline in all organs in response to salinity; but there was no general relationship between the ability of these species to accumulate proline and their relative salt tolerance. Relative trigon.
Societal Trust and the Economic Behavior of Non-Profit Organizations

This study explores the impact of societal trust on the economic behavior of nonprofit organizations. Although prior studies reveal that trust has a positive impact on the economic behavior of for-profit firms, the institutional differences between the two organization types make it unclear whether trust plays a similar role in nonprofits. Our results show that nonprofits operating in higher trust areas are more likely to overspend on administrative expenses. This positive relationship between trust and overspending is primarily driven by service organizations, as opposed to public charities. Moreover, within service organizations, we find that the positive trust-administrative overspending association is most prevalent in situations of weaker monitoring or governance. Additional tests show trust has a similar impact on excess compensation and abnormal accruals in service organizations. Overall, our findings suggest that trust may provide opportunities for nonprofit managers, particularly in service-oriented organizations, to engage in opportunistic behavior that may be exacerbated by weaker forms of oversight.
Disclosure Quality, Price Efficiency, and Expected Returns

Using the information rating consisting of disclosure items from five dimensions – regulatory compliance, timeliness, financial forecast, annual report, and corporate website, we examine how a firm’s disclosure quality influences its stock’s price efficiency and expected return in Taiwan stock market. We find the stock of a firm with better disclosure quality reflects both market-wide and firm-specific news more efficiently after controlling investor attention and stock liquidity variables. Furthermore, the component of information rating which is associated with outside governance, inside governance, and turnover of the important position variables also negatively correlates with a firm’s stock price delay. Finally, our findings show that the governance-determined information rating component of stock price delay significantly and positively explains stock returns in the following year, suggesting a negative relationship between a firm’s cost of equity capital and its governance-determined disclosure quality.
Dynamics of Consumers’ Dissatisfaction Due to Stock-Outs

In this paper, we quantify the effects that product stock-outs led consumer dissatisfactions have on consumer behavior. The study yields a practical solution that retailers could use to determine how a representative consumer is likely to respond to a stock-out situation and hence be proactive in relationship management. We also determine backorder costs that captures both the short term and long term effects of stock-outs and helps retailers in assortment planning. We use the concept of dissatisfaction and the theory of dissatisfaction dynamics to link past temporal patterns in stock-outs to the current dissatisfaction levels and its effects of consumer choice (substitution, postponement, and abandonment). The richness in consumer behavior and the variability in the dissatisfaction levels allow us to: (a) Confirm the existence of a nonlinear relationship between dissatisfaction and consumer behavior and even characterize it as an asymmetric S-shape; and (b) Develop realistic estimates of the backorder costs as a weighted sum of the probabilities of various consumer actions times the costs associated with each action.
Price Discovery during Parallel Stocks and Options Preopening: Information Distortion and Hints of Manipulation

Many stock exchanges implement advanced procedures toward preventing manipulative orders from distorting informative price discovery during preopening sessions. Often, such sessions involve both the stock and options markets, with book-based indicative stock prices and traded index options, whose underlying is the indicative index. Significant differences between the options-implied and the indicative indexes may point at either differences in informational efficiencies, or that one of the markets is manipulated. Using a unique dataset, we explore informational (prices) and transactional (liquidity) efficiencies. We find significant price and illiquidity patterns similar to those predicted by theoretical models of manipulation, but also informational inefficiencies.
Origins and migratory patterns of bats killed by wind turbines in southern Alberta: evidence from stable isotopes

Large numbers of migratory bats are killed every autumn at wind energy facilities in North America. While this may be troubling from a population perspective, these fatalities provide an opportunity to learn more about bat migration and the origins and summer distributions of migratory bats by using endogenous markers. Such markers include stable isotope values, which have been used to answer questions about ecological systems, such as trophic levels and food webs, and the origins and migratory routes of animals. To estimate the origins of migratory bats, we determined nitrogen (δ15N), carbon (δ13C), and hydrogen (δ2H) stable isotope values of fur (δ15Nf, δ13Cf, δ2Hf, respectively) from hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus) and silver-haired bats (Lasionycteris noctivagans) killed at a wind energy facility in southern Alberta, Canada. We determined that mean isotope values varied among species, year, sex, and age class. δ13Cf and δ2Hf values indicated that silver-haired bats likely originated in the boreal fores.
Overexpression of the EGF Receptor and p53 Mutations are Mutually Exclusive in the Evolution of Primary and Secondary Glioblastomas

Glioblastoma multiforme, the most malignant human brain tumor, may develop de nova (primary glioblastoma) or through progression from low‐grade or anaplastic astrocytoma (secondary glioblastoma). We present further evidence that primary and secondary glioblastomas constitute distinct disease entities which develop through the acquisition of different genetic alterations. We analyzed p53 mutations, p53 protein accumulation and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpression in 49 biopsies classified as primary or secondary glioblastorna according to clinical and histopathologic criteria. Patients with primary glioblastoma were selected on the basis of a clinical history of less than 3 months and histopathologic features of glioblastoma at the first biopsy 119 cases; mean age, 55 years). The diagnosis of secondary glioblastomas required at least two biopsies and clinical as well as histologic evidence of progression from low grade or anaplastic astrocytoma (30 cases; mean age, 39 years). DNA sequence analysis showed that p53 mutations were rare in primary glioblastomas (11%) while secondary glioblastomas had a high incidence of p53 mutations (67%), of which 90% were already present in the first biopsy. The incidence of p53 protein accumulation (nuclear immunoreactivity to PAb 1801) was also lower in primary (37%) than in secondary glioblastornas (97%). In contrast, immunoreactivity for the EGF receptor prevailed in primary glioblastornas (63%) but was rare in secondary glioblastornas (10%). Only one out of 49 glioblastomas showed EGFR overexpression and a p53 mutation. These data indicate that overexpression of the EGF receptor and mutations of the p53 tumor suppressor gene are mutually exclusive events defining two different genetic pathways in the evolution of glioblastoma as the common phenotypic endpoint.
The Trade-off between Unemployment and Wage Inequality Revisited

The Krugman hypothesis attributes high wage inequality in the US and high unemploy- ment in continental Europe in the 1980s to the same negative change in the demand for the low skilled under different degrees of wage rigidity. This paper revisits the hypothesis in order to explain the labor market developments in France, the UK, and the US in the 1990s. We estimate a labor supply and labor demand model with heterogenous types of labor to analyze the effects of market forces and wage rigidity on changes in skill-group labor market outcomes. The results provide evidence in favor of the Krugman hypothesis when France is compared to the US and the UK. We also find support for an extended version of the Krugman hypothesis, which suggests that, when labor supply is sensitive to wages, there is a trade-off between unemployment on one hand, and wage inequality and inactivity on the other.
The Ring of Gyges in the Laboratory: The Effect of Tangibility and Earned Money on Giving and Taking

We report the results of a real-donation experiment in which we test the effect on giving to charity of tangible and intangible house and earned money. We also expand the action set, allowing our participants to take from, as well as give to, their charities. In our intangible treatments, the allocation decision is indicated on a standard decision sheet. In our tangible treatments, endowments are received as currency and participants indicate their allocation decisions by anonymously allocating their endowments between own and charity envelopes. We test if in a highly anonymous environment with cash in hand, will participants give to, or take from charity? We also test if participants’ behavior depends on the nature of their endowment: earned or house money? We report three results. First, tangible endowments are found to reduce, but not eliminate, charitable giving. Second, there is significantly more taking in the tangible treatments than the intangible treatments. Finally, we do not observe a consistent earned money effect. With tangible endowments, earned money reduce giving. For intangible endowments, we find that earned money increase giving. This is in contrast to prior studies that found that earning one’s endowment reduced giving in standard dictator games (i.e., those with anonymous other subjects as recipients). Our results suggest that the nature of the recipient, and possibly the action set, are important factors for giving decisions in the laboratory. Implications for experimental design are discussed.
Institutional Investors and Director Remuneration: Do Political Connections Matter?

This study examines the relationship between institutional investors and director remuneration in Malaysia against an important institutional backdrop of political connections. Our panel analysis of 434 firms from 1999 to 2003 finds a negative relationship between institutional ownership and director remuneration suggesting the effectiveness of institutional monitoring. Although we find no evidence to suggest a politically-determined remuneration scheme, the negative relationship between institutional ownership and remuneration becomes less in politically-connected firms. This suggests that political connections mitigate institutional monitoring in relationship-based economies.
Comovement

We consider two broad views of return comovement: the traditional view, derived from frictionless economies with rational investors, which attributes it to comovement in news about fundamental value, and an alternative view, in which market frictions or noise-trader sentiment delink it from comovement in fundamentals. Building on Vijh (1994), we use data on inclusions into the S&P 500 to distinguish these views. After inclusion, a stock's beta with the S&P goes up. In bivariate regressions which control for the return of non-S&P stocks, the increase in S&P beta is even larger. These results are generally stronger in more recent data. Our findings cannot easily be explained by the fundamentals-based view and provide new evidence in support of the alternative friction- or sentiment-based view.
Characterization of resistance to Globodera rostochiensis pathotype Ro1 in cultivated and wild potato species accessions from the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry

Potato cyst nematodes (PCN) collected in six localities in the Leningrad region of North West Russia were identified as Globodera rostochiensis pathotype Ro1 and were used for subsequent resistance tests. Seventy-nine accessions of cultivated and closely related wild potato species from the VIR collection in Russia were screened on resistance to G. rostochiensis pathotype Ro1 and on the presence of molecular markers for H1 and Gro1-4 resistance genes. No associations were detected between the resistance level of diploid and tetraploid Andean and tetraploid Chilean potato landraces (indigenous cultivars) and their related wild species and their geographical distribution or presence of PCR-based markers that are associated with the H1 and Gro1-4 genes. At the same time, all susceptible genotypes lacked such markers. New sources of resistance were found and could be used in breeding.