Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temperature‐Driven Variation in Substrate Oxygenation and the Balance of Competition and Facilitation

Emergent wetland plants often alleviate the effects of anaerobic soils on root respiration by passively transporting oxygen belowground through continuous air spaces (aerenchyma) in leaves and roots. Oxygen leaked from the roots into the rhizosphere may oxidize minerals in the soil or become available to other plants. Some spatial patterns in marsh plant communities suggest interspecific facilitative interactions, but there is little experimental evidence for interplant facilitation via soil oxygenation. We investigated the capability of the widespread, highly aerenchymous wetland plant, Typha latifolia, to aerate sediments and affect the growth of two non-aerenchymous neighbors, Salix exigua and Myosotis laxa, both in greenhouse experiments and in a natural pothole pond in western Montana. At soil temperatures of 11°-12°C in the greenhouse, mean dissolved oxygen (DO) ranged from 2.75±0.41 to 4.43±1.11 mg/L (mean ± 1 SE) in pots with Typha, whereas in pots without Typha DO content ranged from 0.40±0.06 to 0.65±0.06 mg/L. At soil temperatures of 18°-20°C, DO in the Typha treatment was lower than in the low-temperature experiment and did not differ significantly from DO in the pots without Typha. At substrate temperatures of 11°-12°C, all rooted Salix cuttings survived when planted with Typha, whereas none survived when planted alone. At the same substrate temperature, Myosotis transplants grew significantly larger when planted with Typha than when alone, also indicating that facilitation occurred. When grown with Typha at soil temperatures of 18°-20°C, however, Myosotis root mass was significantly less than when grown alone, suggesting that competition occurred. At the pond margins where Typha and Myosotis coexist in water-saturated soils, naturally occurring Myosotis plants adjacent to transplanted Typha had significantly larger shoot and fruit mass than did control Myosotis without nearby Typha. In this experiment DO levels in soil water and available soil nitrogen did not differ among treatments. These experiments indicate that aerenchymous wetland plants have the potential to facilitate neighbors via soil oxygenation, and that facilitation and competition may shift in importance with changes in the physical environment.
Plant interactions govern population dynamics in a semi‐arid plant community

1 The structure and composition of plant communities are influenced by positive and negative interactions between plants, the balance of which may change in intensity and sign through time and space, depending on availability of resources and on plant life history. 2 Over a 2‐year period we analysed the balance of interactions between different life stages of a perennial grass, Stipa tenacissima, and a shrub, Cistus clusii, the dominant species in a semi‐arid community in south‐east Spain. 3 Cistus shrubs acted as nurses for juvenile Stipa plants, improving their water status, nutrient content, carbon assimilation rates and growth. The mechanisms underlying this facilitation effect were mainly the improvement of microclimatic conditions and soil physical and chemical properties under shrub canopies. By contrast, juvenile Stipa plants had an overall neutral effect on Cistus shrubs, although Cistus suffered some competitive effects during periods of water shortage. At this life stage, the short‐term outcome of the interaction for both species was dependent on resource availability. 4 Close spatial association between adult plants had no negative effects for the interacting species, although positive effects most likely counterbalanced negative effects. 5 The long‐term outcome of the interaction is reflected in the spatial distribution of both species, and determines population dynamics in this semi‐arid plant community. 6 Our data show that the short‐term balance of plant interactions may easily shift in response to environmental variability, which in turn may have important consequences for plant community structure.
Targeted integration of foreign genes into repetitive sequences of the Brevibacterium lactofermentum chromosome

Directed integration of heterologous DNA into the insertion sequence IS13869 of Brevibacterium lactofermentum has been achieved by using integrative vectors that contain a 600 bp fragment from IS13869 and a kanamycin resistance cartridge with unique PacI, SwaI and PmeI sites. The incorporation of these restriction sites for rare-cutting enzymes, which recognize octanucleotide sequences, allowed rapid mapping of the location of plasmid insertion into the chromosome. Mapping by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and hybridization with an IS13869 probe showed four types of transformants. In three of these types, integration of the vector occurred at each of three different sites in the chromosome. These vectors have the advantage of increasing the number of integration events due to the presence of multiple targets in the genome.
Essential oils of camphor tree (cinnamomum camphora nees & eberm) cultivated in Southern Brazil

The essential oils of two varieties of Camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora Nees & Eberm, Lauraceae), known as Hon-Sho and Ho-Sho cultivated in experimental stands in Southern Brazil were studied. The essential oils were obtained from the leaves and twigs of young plants by hydrodistillation. The identification of the components was performed using GC, GC/MS and retention indexes on methyl silicone and carbowax phases. The main components identified were linalool in the Ho-Sho and camphor in the Hon-Sho.
Overconfidence by Bayesian Rational Agents

This paper derives two mechanisms through which Bayesian-rational individuals with differing priors will tend to be relatively overconfident about their estimates and predictions, in the sense of overestimating the precision of these estimates. The intuition behind one mechanism is slightly ironic: in trying to update optimally, Bayesian agents overweight information of which they over-estimate the precision and underweight in the opposite case. This causes overall an over-estimation of the precision of the final estimate, which tends to increase as agents get more data.
Australia's High Company Tax Rate and Dividend Imputation: A Poor Recipe for a Small Open Economy?

By international standards, Australia’s business tax system combines a high company tax rate of 30 per cent with low taxation of domestic investors through dividend imputation. This prioritizing of domestic investors over foreign investors is at odds with the evidence in this paper that the marginal investor is foreign. Better aligning Australia’s business tax system with international practice would encourage business investment, reduce tax avoidance and reduce the riskiness of national income. This paper assesses the evidence on the size of these three effects and models the consumer benefits of better aligning the Australian business tax system with international practice.
Schools Workforce

The Productivity Commission’s third phase of the Education and Training Workforce study examined the workforce of the schools sector, this research report – Schools Workforce – was released on 4 May 2012. A well-performing school system is fundamental to building Australia’s ‘human capital’ and is integral to the nation’s economic and social futures. Teachers, with the support of other school workers, play a central role in promoting positive outcomes for students and the community generally. This report, the final in a series on the education and training workforces, is concerned with the schools workforce. Two previous reports examined the workforces for vocational education and training, and early childhood development. The Commission has proposed a package of reforms for the schools workforce that gives priority to improving teacher quality and reducing teacher shortages, including to ameliorate educational disadvantage. It identifies a need to strengthen the use of evidence in policy making. In the course of its study, the Commission consulted widely within the schools sector, as well as with governments, non-government organisations and individuals. The Commission acknowledges the valuable contribution of all those who participated.
Shade and Plant Location Effects on Germination and Hormone Content of Palmer Amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) Seed

Abstract Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of shading on and location of the mother plant on germination and hormone content of Palmer amaranth seed. Increasing the shading from 0 to 87% decreased germination of fresh, viable seeds in dark from 25 to 12%. Abscisic acid (ABA) content of seeds from plants in 0% shade increased from 13.3 ng g−1 dry seed to 19.1 ng g−1 dry seed with 87% shade. Shading of the mother plant did not influence the 1,000-seed weight of Palmer amaranth. Seeds that matured in the top and middle third of the mother plant had 67 to 78% greater germination than those that matured in the bottom third of the mother plant. Endogenous gibberellic acid (GA) content of seeds did not differ between locations on the mother plant; however, the ABA content of seeds produced on the bottom third of the plant was 46 and 59% higher than the ABA content of seeds produced at the middle and top third of the plant, respectively. Endogenous ABA or GA content of seeds and 1,000-seed weight had no relationship with seed germination over and above the treatment effects. This research suggests that shading and plant location can influence germination of fresh, viable seeds of Palmer amaranth, which will be a dormancy strategy for seed dispersal over time. Nomenclature: Palmer amaranth, Amaranthus palmeri S. Wats. AMAPA.
Pragmatic Field Experiments in Policy Research: The Case of a Pilot Program for Municipal Water Customers

The pragmatic field experiment is a flexible methodology for assessing public policies and programs. This study illustrates the use of the pragmatic approach with a novel program, LIFT-UP, where municipalities offered financial counseling to public water utility customers who were behind on payments. Unlike a traditional randomized control study, the four municipalities in this study were encouraged to adapt treatment protocols, sample designs and outcome measures to reflect the local implementation context. This approach is internally valid within each site, and also offers externally valid implications for other municipalities that replicate the same broad principle-based mechanisms. While inconsistent with the traditional approach of randomized experiments, the pragmatic approach is practical and offers insights for policy analysis and program implementation.
Differences in CEO Compensation Under Institutional and Large Shareholder Ownership

Using the most recent data available, I examine the influence of large shareholders and institutional investors on different components of CEO compensation. Increased large shareholder ownership reduces total pay and current elements of incentive compensation, i.e. option, stock, and bonus pay, while institutional investors lower long-term incentive pay, i.e. pension, deferred pay, stock incentive pay. These findings are consistent with the managerial agency theory and the substitution of incentive pay by institutional monitoring. The results are more pronounced for higher levels of ownership, and firms with weak governance, smaller boards, less financial distress, tenured CEO, multiple segments, and free cash-flow.
Economic Reforms

Abstract:- 1) This new economic system contains a new tax system without multiple taxes, tax laws, tax collection departments, tax tribunals and tax enforcement agencies. Citizens need not maintain separate account books and submit tax returns annually for paying either Direct taxes on personal incomes or Indirect taxes while running business or industry. That means there will be no tax collection expenditure for the Government and absolutely no tax compliance cost for citizens in paying either Direct taxes on personal incomes or Indirect taxes while running business or industry. Yet, the tax revenues from single tax called "TOP Tax" will be 20 to 30% more than the tax revenues accruing from present multiple Direct and Indirect taxes in the present tax system. Thus 7 billion people of the world will be relieved from the cobweb of ambiguous and complex tax structures, plethora of tax laws, mandatory and cumbersome accounting, auditing, tax returns and consequent quagmire of all tax related cases. 2) New banking system: Taxation, tax collection, tax enforcement, tax compliance, allocation of revenues to various ministries or departments and money supply into the economy are unified and integrated in the banking system. Budget preparation and presentation will become simple, easy and time saving exercise. All citizens' money, loans, shares, movable and immovable properties, personal and family details will be stored, maintained and used in his/her same account (Main Savings Account) with different folders operated by banks. 3) New monetary system and money supply; This new economic system shall be operated by banks at minimum operating cost. In this new economic system the total money supply (minimum 52.63% real money and maximum 47.37% loan money generated by banks) in the banking system should be at the minimum level of 100% and at the maximum level of 110% of the value of GDP of the country. Out of this total money supply in the economic system, 99.7% of the money will be in dematerialised (non physical) form in the accounts of citizens, Governments and companies. Only small portion of money, equaling just 0.3% of the total money in the economic system, will be in physical form i.e. currency notes or coins. All high valued paper currency notes will be demonetised. You can down load and read full article.
Do Analysts and Their Employers Value Access to Management? Evidence from Earnings Conference Call Participation

Abstract The literature examining analyst activity assumes that access to management is valued by analysts and their employers. We propose a readily observable measure of access: How often an analyst is invited to be among the first to ask questions in the Q&A session of an earnings conference call. These “early participants” are more successful in the labor market than peers from the same brokerage when their brokerages close. Our results show that access is valued by both sell-side and buy-side employers and reflects connectivity to management as well as analyst skill dimensions not captured in traditional measures of performance.
Uncertainty about Future Economic Policy and Expected Stock Returns - International Evidence

I investigate the role of economic policy uncertainty (EPU), proxied by the news-based measure of Baker et al. (2016), in the cross-section of individual stock returns in 23 countries. I estimate a stock’s beta toward its country-specific EPU index (βEPU) and show that stocks in the lowest βEPU quintile generate about 4.6% higher annual returns compared to stocks in the highest βEPU quintile. My results complement the well-established literature on the distinction between uncertainty and risk, as they indicate that uncertainty-averse investors demand a premium for owning stocks with negative βEPU. Vice versa, investors are willing to pay higher prices for stocks with positive βEPU, as these stocks act as a hedge against high levels of EPU. My findings underpin the results of Brogaard and Detzel (2015), as I provide evidence in favor of EPU being an economically priced and distinct risk factor for equities on an international scale.
Investors' Perception and Audit Expectation-Performance Gap (AEG) in the Context of Listed Firms in Sri Lanka

Corporate failures around the globe in recent times have placed the auditing profession in the spotlight. The profession is beset by confusion and crises caused by the differences in the beliefs held by auditors and the public concerning the auditor’s duties, which have even led to lawsuits against auditors. This situation is the result of what is known as the ‘Audit Expectation–Performance Gap’ (AEG). In the light of the contemporary importance of the subject, lack of theoretical underpinnings of the causes of AEG and the dearth of studies on it in Sri Lanka, the present study attempts to ascertain the status of AEG and to examine the factors contributing to AEG, in the Sri Lankan context. A positivist approach was adopted and a structured questionnaire survey done involving professional auditors and investors of listed firms. The results of independent sample t-test indicated a statistically significant difference between the perceptions of professional auditors and investors regarding the duties of auditors in the context of listed firms in Sri Lanka. The relative contribution to the overall AEG was that much of the gap (50 per cent) in AEG was attributable to deficient standards, 16 per cent to unreasonable expectations of society about auditors’ duties, and 34 per cent was due to the perceived sub-standard performance of auditors. On the other hand, in terms of the contributory factors, the mean ranking with one sample t-test results found that 12 factors contributed significantly to AEG. The main contributory factors highlighted by respondents were the lack of auditing education and lack of auditing experience among users. Thus, as regards policy implications, it was noted that policymakers and regulators need to increase community awareness through audit education to reduce AEG in Sri Lanka as one of the main measures.
Mycobatidae (Acari: Oribatida) of Pacific Northwest canopy habitats

Abstract Three new species of oribatid mites in two genera of Mycobatidae are recorded from canopy habitats of coniferous temperate rainforest and montane forest in the Pacific Northwest of North America. These species, Mycobates acuspidatussp.nov., M. corticeussp.nov., and Zachvatkinibates epiphytossp.nov., are described on the basis of adults and immatures. The previous key for adult Mycobates species of America north of Mexico is modified to include these new species, and a key for adults is given for the three species of Zachvatkinibates now known from North America. Résumé Trois nouvelles espèces d’oribates appartenant à deux genres de Mycobatidae ont été recensées dans le couvert de la forêt de conifères tempérée pluvieuse et de la forêt de montagne du Nord-Ouest américain. On trouvera ici les descriptions de ces espèces, Mycobates acuspidatussp.nov., M. corticeussp.nov. et Zachvatkinibates epiphytossp.nov., basées sur l’examen d’adultes et de juvéniles. La clé des adultes de Mycobates d’Amérique au nord du Mexique est révisée et une seconde clé permettra d’identifier les adultes des trois espèces de Zachvatkinibates de l’Amérique du Nord. [Traduit par la Rédaction]
Exploring the Role of Institutions in Cross Country Malmquist Productivity Analysis: A Two-Stage Double Bootstrap DEA Approach

This paper explore the role of institutions to enhance the productivity growth across countries using a two stage Double Bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The productivity growth is calculated on the basis of Malmquist productivity index. It also explores the sources of productivity growth and the influence of different types of institutions (Siddiqui and Ahmed, 2013a) on them. In the first stage, productivity growth and its decompositions a) technological change and b) efficiency change are estimated for a period of 1990-2000 for 78 countries. In the second stage, the impact of institutions on these estimates is analyzed through a bootstrapped regression. Findings suggest that institutions played a strong and positive role in enhancing cross country productivity mainly through promoting technological change but the evidences of institutions influencing efficiency change are not found. This study also shows that institutions that curb corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, lax regulations and unfriendly business policies, tend to have a larger effect on productivity growth than other two indices that curb political rents and that reduces transactional risks. However when they are aggregated, their impact is more pronounced than their combined individual impacts.
Correlational Analysis of Workers Extra-Role Behaviour and Organizational Socialization: A Study of Road Passenger Transport Operators in Umuahia, Abia State.

This study examines the correlational analysis between workers extra-role behaviour and organisational socialization of selected road passenger transport operators in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. However, this study adopted a cross-sectional research survey. Target population for the study consists of all registered private road passenger transport operators in Umuahia, Abia State. Nigeria. Thus, the accessible population consists of 5 registered private road passenger transport operators. A total of 120 workers were surveyed. The study adopted a simple random sampling technique. The sample size for the study is 92 using Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample size determination table. After data cleaning, a total of 80 copies of questionnaire were found useful for data analysis. The study adopted Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient as a statistical tool for data analysis with the aid of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The finding of this study show that workers’ extra-role behavior measured in terms of sportsmanship and altruism is strongly dependent on the organisational socialization of workers’ in the road passenger transport firms operating in Umuahia. Based on this finding, the study concluded that organisational socialization improves workers extra-role behaviour in the road passenger transport operators. Drawing from our conclusion, the study recommended that human resource managers and practitioners in the road transport industry should improve the organisational socialization processes to promote and encourage workers’ extra-role behaviour.
Does Trust Pay Off?

Do individuals with a trusting perception towards strangers have higher incomes? This paper exploits a data driven classification method to measure interpersonal trust. Contrary to previous studies, trust is conceptualized as a personal skill related to social intelligence. It is hypothesized that individuals who are better able to discern helpful individuals from self-interested individuals will be more trusting, and will have a lower probability of being exploited. The latter should be visible through an increase in the individual's economic performance. Using micro-economic data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (2003,2008) a latent class model is estimated, which results in two distinct trust classes: one for low, and one for high trust individuals. Subsequently, by entering class membership in a two-wave panel analysis the study finds that belonging to the high trust class positively influences an individual's economic performance, as measured by annual individual labor earnings and hourly wages. Furthermore, low-trust individuals from 2003 that move towards the high-trust class in 2008 show a trust-related income increase of 6 to 9% as compared to individuals that remained in the low-trust category. Using the observed response to the survey question “Do you think that most people are helpful, or that they are self-interested? ” as instrumental variable, I show that trust related income differences between and within individuals are robust against endogeneity.