Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Survival of Botrytis cinerea in soil in south-eastern Spain

The survival of Botrytis cinerea in sterile and unsterile soil at different temperatures and relative air humidities was investigated in south-eastern Spain. Conidia survived only 7 days at 40∘C but, depending on relative humidity, for 30–90 days at 22∘C. High air humidity (95%) was needed to maintain soil humidity (8%) at a level that favoured conidial survival. Conidia survived better in sterile soil than in unsterile soil, probably because of the presence in the latter of soil microorganisms antagonistic to B. cinerea. Survival of conidia in environmental conditions simulating those in a greenhouse was less than 28 days. Results showed that B. cinerea conidia cannot survive over summer in south-eastern Spain, and other primary sources of inocula are discussed.
Perverse Complementarity: Political Connections & the Use of Courts Among Private Firms in China

Using survey data of over 3,900 private firms in China, we examine whether – and how – political connections promote or undermine the use of formal legal institutions. We find that politically connected firms are more inclined than non-connected firms to use courts over informal avenues of dispute resolution. Furthermore, by comparing the effects of political connections on dispute resolution patterns across regional institutional environments, we find that “know-who�? (political influence over adjudication) dominates “know-how�? (knowledge of navigating courts) in linking political connections to the use of courts. Contrary to canonical theories that predict the declining significance of connections following the expansion of courts, our study suggests that informal networks and formal laws are more likely to share a relationship of perverse complementarity in transitional and authoritarian contexts. Political connections are positively linked to the use of legal procedures, and the primary mechanism behind the link is “know-who�? over “know-how. �?
The Non-Timber Forest Products Sector in Nepal: Emerging Policy Issues in Plant Conservation and Utilization for Sustainable Development

The non-timber forest products (NTFPs) sector in Nepal is being promoted with the concept of sustainable development as articulated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Traditionally, people have been dependent on NTFPs for subsistence; however, international trade is growing. To promote this sector, Nepal adopted the 2004 Herbs and NTFP Development Policy. Our goal is to assess the effectiveness of the policy along with the other forestry and natural resource policies in Nepal concerning the conservation and use of NTFPs. We conducted open-ended semi-structured interviews with 28 key informants in summer 2006 in Nepal and collected relevant documents and publications. Qualitative analyses of data yielded important issues that should be addressed to promote the sector as envisioned by the Government. The most important is the need for inventory and research on NTFP species in widespread use. There are some issues regarding species banned under various other National Acts; the lack of marketing information and capacity building; administrative barriers; royalty rates; and illegal harvesting. The most important immediate need is the development of an NTFP Strategy and Action Plan. Our findings should help further implement the policy and promote the sector along the stated mission of conservation and sustainable development.
Skull anatomy of Mussaurus patagonicus (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) from the Late Triassic of Patagonia

The skull anatomy of Mussaurus patagonicus from the Upper Triassic Laguna Colorada Formation is described based on a revision of the type material and several recently found specimens. The studied material include two distinct size classes of individuals. The type material consists of extremely young individuals whereas the new specimens are interpreted as juvenile or subadult individuals. The latter are significantly larger, having a skull approximately three times longer than the type material. The skull anatomy of this taxon shows derived characters shared with some basal sauropodomorphs and eusauropods, which are absent in other basal sauropodomorphs (e.g. Thecodontosaurus, Plateosaurus). These include the presence of an extension of the infratemporal fenestra ventral to the orbit, dorsal and anterior rami of quadratojugal subperpendicular to each other, dorsoventral expansion of dentary at mandibular symphysis, slightly procumbent teeth with broad serrations restricted to the apical region (absent in some teeth). Differences among the studied specimens helps to understand the early ontogenetic changes occurring in this basal sauropodomorph, revealing major changes in the rostral and temporal regions.
Crisis: Proposing a Diversified and Interacted Solution

It is not possible to evaluate the overall consequences of the present financial and global crisis beyond the government contributions to stabilize the financial sector and recover prior economic growth rates. It is not possible to close the eyes to the great ludicrous (dramatic) comedy without proposing what is necessary to do in order to prevent such deep and irresponsible disruption in the financial activity as a support to economic structure development and economic growth in the world. It is universally recognized that regulation and control have entirely failed and that must be more deep, liable and specialized to be called to account all the responsible, more exigent in companies’ capital structure requirements through technical-avoiding risk taking proposals. But it is also necessary and very urgent to implement the core of our solution proposed here and based on an organizational (operational)-avoiding risk taking proposals, when it is known the systemic risk coming from financial unbalanced banks in the present financial organization and system. In fact, there is very different risk taking levels associated with different banks activity: commercial or retail banks, investment and advising banks and, mainly, brokerage banks, which are related to complexity and opaqueness of some capital markets financial products. Without these different and structural changes, it will not be possible neither a sustainable financial system linked to a balanced economic structure and growth nor a true social engagement to overcome all or the main human problems associated with development. The present financial and further economic and social crisis is not a country-problem but a very serious worldwide top problem. This problem requires more financing flexibility conditions beyond traditional debt, equity and both debt and equity, based on new debt adjustment models where interacted short and long-term financial variables relate a co-operation to achieve a permanent financial balance. This interacted purpose and method corresponds to measure the existence (or not) of strong conditions of financial sustainability, exactly the primary condition to maintain firm’s sustainability conditions to develop all kind of business and improve economic structure and operations. It is not possible to grant sustainability without realizing permanent improvements in firm’s financial and economic activities to meet a competitive economic structure. The interacted conditions of financial sustainability also corresponds to present a corporate financial and sustainable ratio (CFSRt) as a financial-avoiding risk taking proposal, which should complement those mentioned before: technical-avoiding risk taking proposals (adoption of solutions related to more deep, objective and specialized regulatory actions in the financial system) and organizational (operational)-avoiding risk taking proposals (also related to the financial system on adjusting the banking operations specific risk to a correspondent specific organization without cross participations or holdings).
Political Beta

Using a framework akin to portfolio theory in asset pricing, we introduce the concept of “political beta” to model firm-level export diversification in response to global political risk. The main implication of our model is that a firm is less responsive to changes in political relations with a destination market when that country contributes less (has lower political beta) or even hedges against (has negative political beta) the firm’s total political risk. This result follows the diversification logic of portfolio theory, in which an investor values a given asset depending on the asset’s contribution to (comovement with) his/her overall investment portfolio. We find patterns consistent with our model using disaggregated Russian firm-by-destination-country data during 1999-2011: trade is positively correlated with political relations, though the effect is far weaker for trading partners whose political relations with Russia are relatively uncorrelated with those of other partners in a firm’s export portfolio. Our results highlight the importance of viewing firms’ political relations as an undiversifiable source of risk, and more generally points to the value of modeling firms’ treatment of risks as a portfolio diversification problem.
Diminishing Spatial Heterogeneity in Soil Organic Matter across a Prairie Restoration Chronosequence

Habitat restoration resulting in changes in plant community composition or species dominance can affect the spatial pattern and variability of soil nutrients. Questions about how these changes in soil spatial heterogeneity develop over time at restoration sites, however, remain unaddressed. In this study, a geostatistical approach was used to quantify changes over time in the spatial heterogeneity of soil organic matter (SOM) across a 26‐year chronosequence of tallgrass prairie restoration sites at FermiLab, outside of Chicago, Illinois. We used total soil N and C as an index of the quantity of SOM. We also examined changes in C:N ratio, which can influence the turnover of SOM. Specifically, the spatial structure of total N, total C, and C:N ratio in the top 10 cm of soil was quantified at a macroscale (minimum spacing of 1.5 m) and a microscale (minimum spacing of 0.2 m). The magnitude of spatial heterogeneity (MSH) was characterized as the proportion of total sample variation explained by spatially structured variation. At the macroscale, the MSH for total N decreased with time since restoration (r2= 0.99, p < 0.001). The decrease in spatial heterogeneity over time corresponded with a significant increase in the dominance of the C4 grasses. At the microscale, there was significant spatial structure for total N at the 4‐year‐old, 16‐year‐old, and 26‐year‐old sites, and significant spatial structure for total C at the 16‐year‐old and 26‐year‐old sites. These results suggest that an increase in dominance of C4 grasses across the chronosequence is homogenizing organic matter variability at the field scale while creating fine‐scale patterns associated with the spacing of vegetation. Areas of higher soil moisture were associated with higher soil N and C at the two oldest restoration sites and at the native prairie site, potentially suggesting patches of increased belowground productivity in areas of higher soil moisture. This study is one of the first to report significant changes over time in the spatial structure of organic matter in response to successional changes initiated by restoration.
Foreign Investors, Private Information, and Price Discovery

We examine the relation between intra-day price discovery and proxies for financial openness and investor accessibility using a sample of intra-day price and quote data of 1,504 stocks from 23 emerging markets. We measure price discovery by weighted price contribution across segments of the trading day. There is a reliable relation between price discovery in early trading and direct foreign ownership, controlling for other factors. We project foreign ownership onto proxies for private information and investor recognition. The residual from the projection regression captures the impact of unknown factors. We find that the role of private information is much more important than investor recognition and unknown factor in facilitating price discovery.
Importance and nutritional value of large ciliates for the reproduction of Acartia clausi during the post spring-bloom period in the North Sea

Shipboard experiments were performed to examine the qualitative importance of large marine microzooplankton for the reproduction of Acartia clausi in the North Sea. Feeding and egg production were compared in 2 treatments in which females were fed natural seston or natural ses- ton selectively enriched with large prey (>20 µm). The mineral (C, N) and lipid contents of the food suspensions were determined for size-fractionated samples to characterize the nutritional composi- tion of prey. Large oligotrich ciliates and Strobiliidae dominated the seston biomass. Ciliates, partic- ularly the oligotrich Laboea strobila, were the preferred food and made up more than 86% of the diet (2.9 µg C female -1 d -1 ) in the natural treatment. Small thecate dinoflagellates composed the remain- ing part. Egg production was high (>25 eggs female -1 d -1 ), achieving maximum rates recorded for this species in the North Sea. Ingestion and egg production of females increased equally in the enriched treatment, largely due to ingestion of additional ciliates. This allowed calculation of the gross growth efficiency for egg production on a diet of mixed ciliates, which was high at ~30%. Measurements of the mineral and lipid content confirmed a high seston nutritional quality. The 20 to 48 µm fraction reflected the composition of female diets and indicated an enrichment of N and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in the diet compared to total seston. The fraction >48 µm con- sisted mostly of ciliates (>97%) and was particularly important in providing N to copepods. Ciliates were also rich in PUFA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which is normally characteristic of diatoms. We conclude that large ciliates constitute an excellent food source for the reproduction of A. clausi. The occurrence of biomass peaks of large ciliates following the spring diatom bloom probably contributes substantially to the spring recruitment of the species in the North Sea.
Effects of size and fragmentation of marine reserves and fisher infringement on the catch and biomass of coral trout, Plectropomus leopardus, on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

A spatially structured simulation model of the population dynamics and line fishing exploitation of common coral trout, Plectropomus leopardus Lacepede, was used to evaluate the effects of infringement and different amounts and arrangements of marine reserves on the Reef Line Fishery of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. With no marine reserves and under a constant future effort level equal to that for 1996, the size of the population was reduced and the biomass stabilised at about 40% of pre-exploitation levels. Marine reserves were ineffective at conserving biomass when limited infringement was allowed throughout an entire reserve. When infringement was absent altogether or limited to the edges of reserves, larger marine reserves lead to lower total catches and higher overall biomass. When infringement was limited to reserve edges, a single large closure was more effective at conserving biomass than more fragmented arrangements. Simulations suggested that marine reserves might lead to better conservation of a fishery-targeted species if infringement is negligible or limited to reserve margins. Even where infringement occurred only at the edges of reserves, a network of small reserves may be less effective at conserving a targeted species than a smaller number of larger reserves.
Prospects for subsistence livelihood and environmental sustainability along the Kalahari Transect: The case of Matsheng in Botswana's Kalahari rangelands

Botswana's Kalahari rangelands have historically supported a diversity of wildlife and a number of subsistence livelihood activities, such as agropastoralism, hunting and gathering. Recently, however, concerns about environmental and livelihood sustainability in the Kalahari have been raised. This paper demonstrates the validity of these concerns using data from research undertaken in the Matsheng area of southwest Botswana. It is illustrated that: (a) Matsheng soils are too infertile to sustain productive arable farming, (b) herbaceous vegetation cover decreases in a reversed decay function towards settlements, (c) the herbaceous vegetation cover trend is inversely reflected by woody-thorny vegetation, (d) despite being a major rangeland activity, livestock production benefits only a minority of inhabitants, and (e) rangelands are no longer the major source of livelihood for the majority.
The effect of limited visibility on vigilance behaviour and speed of predator detection: implications for the conservation of granivorous passerines

Foraging animals frequently change their pattern of vigilance when they move from a patch with a clear view to one with a relatively obstructed view. This has been widely interpreted as compensation for a reduced ability to detect approaching predators in obstructed habitats. We test the extent to which changes in vigilance may compensate for the effect of reduced visibility on an animal's ability to detect predators. We measured the vigilance, foraging and speed of predator-response behaviours of lone chaffinches Fringilla coelebs that fed on seeds (800 per m2) scattered on artificial stubble habitats (with either a clear view of surroundings or an obstructed view). On both treatments, individuals with more rapid head-up rates responded more quickly to a flying model sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus (P=0.04); as did individuals with shorter food-search times (P=0.02). However, neither head-up rate nor food-search period varied with obstruction. Based on research previously published using this system, we suggest that this is because individuals are constrained in their ability to increase head-up rate because doing so is largely determined by their individually determined foraging efficiency. Instead chaffinches increased the duration of their head-up periods by 13% in the visually obstructed treatment (long stubble) and peck rates were 13% lower. Despite this presumed attempt to compensate for reduced visibility, duration of head-up period had no effect on response time of the fast-moving predator in our experiment and birds were 24% slower to respond in the long stubble. Rather than being maladaptive, increasing head-up duration may have been related to enhanced detection of other predator types, for example stalkers. Our results have implications for the conservation of wild granivorous birds. They support the view that agroeconomic decisions that affect micro-habitat structure over a large scale could affect predation risk, habitat choice and the conservation status of granivorous birds.
Federal Student Loan Program: Quantitative Implications for College Enrollment and Default Rates

I quantify the effects of alternative student loan policies on college enrollment, borrowing behavior, and default rates in a heterogeneous model of life-cycle earnings and human capital accumulation. I find that the combination of learning ability and initial human capital stock drives the decision to enroll in college while parental wealth has minimal effects on enrollment. Repayment flexibility increases enrollment significantly, whereas relaxation of eligibility requirements has little effect on enrollment or default rates. The former policy induces substantial welfare gains for bottom income quantiles, while the latter implies minimal welfare gains for bottom income quantiles.
Peso Problems in the Estimation of the C-CAPM

This paper shows that the consumption-based capital asset pricing model (C-CAPM) with low-probability disaster risk rationalizes pricing errors. We find that implausible estimates of risk aversion and time preference are not puzzling if market participants expect a future catastrophic change in fundamentals, which just happens not to occur in the sample (a ‘peso problem’). A bias in structural parameter estimates emerges as a result of rational pricing errors in quiet times. While the bias essentially removes the pricing error in the simple models with constant risk-free rates, time-variation may also generate large and persistent estimated pricing errors in simulated data. We also show analytically how the problem of biased estimates can be avoided in empirical research by resolving the misspecification in moment conditions.
Recurrent selection for seed size in soybean. III: Indirect effects on seed composition

In soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr. ], correlations between seed yield and seed composition are often significant, while correlations between seed size ( a component of yield) and seed composition are usually low. In addition, selection for changes in seed composition have often resulted in seed yield changes but usually not changes in seed size. The objective of this research was to examine the indirect effects of recurrent selection for increased seed size on protein and oil concentration in a random mating population that segragates for male sterility. The intermating population N79-1500 was divided into three subpopulations designated SS1, SS2, and SS3 [. ]
Testing Theories of Gambler’s Fallacy and Hot-hand Fallacy: Probability Bias vs. Randomized Choice

This paper proposes a new method to identify gambler’s fallacy (GF) and hot-hand fallacy (HHF). In the classical method, subjects are classified as exhibiting GF/HHF even they are just randomizing/indifferent between options. In our method, subjects play the game twice and we vary the payoff between different options, and their probability beliefs are elicited. We experimentally test three competing theories of GF and HHF: probability bias, randomized choice, and bounded rationality. We find that the classical method substantially overestimates the proportion of subjects exhibiting GF and HHF due to wrongly classifying randomized and mistaken choices as exhibiting these biases. About 7% (18%) of subjects exhibit true GF (HHF), while the classical method suggests about 51% (48%). We show that probability bias, randomized choice, and bounded rationality accounts for 31%, 41%, and 20% of behavioral GF, while the shares are 40%, 26%, and 18% for behavioral HHF.