Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Activation of peritoneal macrophages by mangiferin, a naturally occurring xanthone

Mangiferin, a C‐glucosylxanthone (1,3,6,7‐tetrahydroxyxanthone‐C2‐β‐D‐glucoside), isolated from several plant sources, was shown to be effective in activating murine peritoneal macrophages. It acted as a strong inducing agent with a peak elicitation response at 48 h interval of treatment (10 μg mangiferin/g body weight, g b.w). The mangiferin‐elicited, as well as in vitro mangiferin‐treated, macrophages showed increased lysosomal enzyme acid phosphatase activity and enhanced cytotoxicity, and phagocytosis against ascitic fibrosarcoma (AFS) cells. The augmented tumour killing activities were associated with enhanced tumour target binding by the macrophages. However, the in vivo effect of mangiferin in activating macrophages was of short duration.
Corporate Governance and Financial Performance: The Case of Australia and Sri Lanka

This study analyses the correlation between Board attributes and company performance in a sample of 100 Australian and 100 Sri Lankan firms. The analysed Board attributes include size; gender ratio; fraction of non-independent members; and experience. The level of economic development considered to have a potential confounding effect on the outcomes. The analysis of the data suggest that: Boards in Australia are much larger than Boards in Sri Lanka; Boards are male dominated in both nations; and while Board structure provides predictive insight into firm performance, only a few individual attributes are significant. Important finding of this research is that the larger Boards of Australia have a significantly stronger influence on firm performance than the relatively smaller Boards of Sri Lanka. Future research should extend the review of the effects of Board size on corporate performance.
Chief Operating Officer's Overconfidence and Inventory Leanness

We explore whether and how the overconfidence of Chief Operating Officer (COO) affects the firm’s operational performance, in particular, the leanness of inventory. As overconfident managers tend to overestimate their firms’ operational capabilities, we hypothesize that an overconfident COO sets the goal of his company’s operations leaner, which is a risky strategy for the future disruptions, in anticipation of high operational responsiveness to demand fluctuation and variability. Such optimism, we postulate, leads the COO to make a decision that decreases inventory and thus affects the inventory leanness positively. To test the hypothesis, we collect data from a large number of U.S. manufacturing companies in the period between 1998 and 2015. Using option-based proxies for the overconfident manager, we show that an overconfident COO does keep lower inventory, achieving a lean inventory strategy. In addition, the relationship can be moderated by an external factor, i.e., whether the market is competitive or concentrated. Thus, our study contributes to the extant literature by suggesting that managerial traits are important in explaining a corporate inventory policy.
Who Reports Crime? Citizen Engagement with the Police in Russia and Georgia

Abstract What factors affect citizens’ engagement with the state? We explore this question through a study of victims’ and bystanders’ willingness to report crimes to the police, using data from survey experiments conducted in Russia and Georgia. We find that citizens’ willingness to report in both countries is strongly influenced by the nature of the crime, but not generally by instruments that the state might use to encourage greater reporting. Our results recommend scepticism about the ability of governments to easily engineer citizens’ engagement with the state.
Forest fragmentation leads to food web contraction

Fragmentation and loss of habitat are critical components of the global change currently threatening biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. We studied the effects of habitat loss through fragmentation on food web structure, by constructing and analyzing plant-herbivore and host-parasitoid food webs including more than 400 species and over 120 000 feeding records, in 19 Chaco Serrano remnants of differing areas. Food web structure was altered by habitat fragmentation, with different metrics being affected depending on interaction type, and with all changes being driven by the reduced size of networks in smaller fragments. Only connectance varied in both quantitative and qualitative analyses, being negatively related to area. In addition, the interactions were represented by proper successive subsets, modulated mainly by resource availability (plant–herbivore) or consumer specialization (host–parasitoid), as forest size decreased. The results suggest that habitat loss has led to food web contraction around a central core of highly-connected species, for plant–herbivore as well as for host–parasitoid systems. The study provides new insights into the effects of human perturbations on complex biological systems.
Why We Disagree About Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction, and Opportunity

As anyone who engages in an attempt to reason with others about climate change and its implications knows, this is a domain that is rife with righteous certainty, conflict, ignorance and fear. One is quickly cast into one camp or another. Questions cause one to be instantly labelled climate change denialist - or alarmist - while exploration of fact and alternatives reach sudden dead-ends, and one's courage ebbs. And that is what happens in small forums, never mind the wider political sphere. The world in general and South Africa in particular have had a long succession of big fearful ideas about environmental change, each laden with the same kind of altercation - desiccation, desertification (and the invasion of the Karoo), nuclear winter, acid rain - and each with, at best, policy responses that have been only partially successful.
Yield Spreads on EMU Government Bonds - During the Financial and the Euro Crisis

This study analyzes determinants on government yield spreads by focusing on eleven EMU member states during the time period of January 2000 until September 2010. The study uses a dynamic panel regression approach to explain increasing yield spreads of selected Eurozone members during the financial crisis and the recent Euro crisis. The results imply that before the crisis, investors claimed equal yields on German sovereign bonds and sovereign bonds of other EMU members. Due to the financial crisis investors restarted to evaluate a countries’ credit risk which led to sharply increasing yield spreads. Moreover, interventions of the ECB in May 2010 negatively influenced yield spreads, whereas liquidity factors do not play an important role in determining yield spreads. Increasing risk aversion, which is measured by a volatility index, explains most of the rise in yield spreads since the outbreak of the financial crisis.
The fertilizing effect of compost and biogas residues from source separated household waste

In Sweden, deposition of organic waste will be prohibited in the year 2005. Instead, the waste will be either incinerated or source separated, processed (composted or anaerobically digested) and recycled back to arable land. In order to evaluate the biologically processed waste products as fertilizers, a field experiment was initiated in Sweden in the autumn of 1998. The main focus of the experiment was to compare compost (C) from source-separated domestic waste with biogas residues (BR) from source-separated domestic waste. Each fertilizer was applied in two combinations: in treatments C50 and BR50, 50 kg N/ha/year originates from the waste and 50 kg N/ha/year from mineral nitrogen fertilizer, while in C100 and BR100, the organic wastes were the only plant nutrient sources (100 kg N/ha/year). Mineral fertilizer (NPS100) and unamended were used as controls. Generally pure mineral fertilizers resulted in the highest yield, while control without nitrogen generated the lowest yield. A combination of organic fertilizer and mineral fertilizer resulted in higher yield compared with applying sole organic fertilizer. Total mineral N in the fertilizer was generally the best overall predictor/regressor for grain yield, total nitrogen yield and apparent bioavailable nitrogen. Application of biogas residue resulted in higher yield and grain quality than compost. The higher concentration of nitrogen in oats suggested that oats is a better choice when using compost as a fertilizer. In conclusion, compost and anaerobic biogas residues should not be used as sole fertilizers. Compost should be complemented with mineral N and the biogas residues with P. If compensation for the low content of mineral N in compost is made by a higher application rate, large amounts of heavy metals might be applied along with the compost.
Identification in Heterogeneous Agent Models

Many representative agent macro models suffer from parameter identification failure. These issues extend to the structural parameters of the standard incomplete markets model of Aiyagari (1994), the workhorse heterogeneous agent model for household and firm behavior. Similar as in representative agent models, the firm-side parameters can display weak or failure of identification. Strong identification of these parameters can, however, be obtained by using a transformation of the data that amplifies the effect of the parameters. The household preference parameter can, nonetheless, not be identified using aggregate data alone, but it can be identified from the shape of the wealth distribution. This is in contrast with representative agent models, where the identification of this preference parameter comes from time variation in aggregate data. Using these results, a two-step estimation procedure is proposed, which is analogous to the manner of identification. Its performance is confirmed in a Monte Carlo simulation and applied to US data.
Effect of chronic jet lag after induction of Dalton's lymphoma in male and female mice

Biological rhythms are ubiquitous phenomena that enable an organism to temporally adapt to the environment. Jet lag occurs during rapid transmeridial transport and disrupts the normal biological rhythm. Disruption of the biological rhythm is known to reduce survival and hasten tumorigenesis in male mice. Dalton's lymphoma (DL) is a spontaneous and highly invasive T-cell lymphoma that develops as an ascitic tumor in murines. DL was induced by serial implantation of live ascite cells in laboratory-acclimated age-matched male and female AKR mice. The mice were then subjected to simulated chronic jet lag (CJL) by rapidly and alternately advancing and delaying the ambient light dark cycle by 8 h every 2 days. Females, but not males, with DL became arrhythmic after exposure to simulated CJL. Survival was significantly curtailed in both male and female mice with DL + CJL compared to survival in mice with DL alone or CJL alone (∼16 days after DL induction in mice and facing jet lag, and ∼28 days after DL induction in mice bearing but not undergoing jet lag simulation). These results suggest that female mice may be more at risk from jet lag associated effects if they have cancer prior to facing jet lag, and DL + CJL may detrimentally impact the female circadian clock more than that of the males.
Understanding Per‐Capita Income Growth in Preindustrial Europe

In a Malthusian environment, per&#8208;capita incomes are stagnant, meaning they cannot exhibit sustained growth. However, they can still display volatility and persistence when hit by shocks. This article simulates a Malthusian model with realistic life&#8208;cycle structure and stochastic and accelerating growth in land productivity. We find that differences across simulated economies are quantitatively similar to those found in recently compiled data over GDP per capita for several European countries before 1800. This speaks to the relevance of the Malthusian model for understanding preindustrial development in Europe, contrasting with contentions to the contrary in some of the existing literature.
The International Propagation of Economic Downturns Through Multinational Companies: The Real Economy Channel

Abstract We study how non-financial multinational companies propagate economic declines from their subsidiaries located in countries experiencing an economic downturn to subsidiaries in countries not experiencing one. We find that investment is 18% lower in subsidiaries of these parents relative to the same-industry, same-country subsidiaries of parents that are headquartered in the same parent country but do not have a subsidiary in a country experiencing an economic downturn. The employment growth rate in the affected subsidiaries is zero or negative while it is 1.4% in the subsidiaries of unaffected parents. The aggregate industry-level sales and employment are also negatively impacted in the countries of the affected subsidiaries.
Do Mortgage Subsidies Help or Hurt Borrowers?

Mortgage subsidies affect homeownership costs by reducing effective mortgage rates and increasing house prices. I show analytically the role of mortgage subsidies in determining house price changes, economic incidence, and efficiency costs using a theoretical framework for applied welfare analysis. I derive simple expressions for these effects, as functions of reduced-form sufficient statistics, which I use to measure the effects from eliminating mortgage deductions. My main results characterize the distributional impact of mortgage subsidies among buyers and owners and how house price responses attenuate efficiency losses. My results provide broader methodological insights into the welfare analysis of credit policies.
Germination and Seedling Response to Temperature, Daylength, and Salinity by Ammophila breviligulata from Michigan and North Carolina

Seed germination response to temperature and salinity and seedling response to daylength, temperature, and salinity were studied in Ammophila breviligulata Fern from Michigan and North Carolina Germination results indicated that Michigan seeds required cold treatment prior to germination in a 65-85 F treatment, but that seeds from North Carolina did not require cold treatment and germinated well in either 65-85 F or 65-95 F treatments. During germination, North Carolina seeds were more salt-tolerant and less sensitive to high temperatures than seeds from Michigan Seedling studies revealed that best vegetative growth by both populations occurred under long-day conditions with daytime temperatures between 70 and 80 F Growth of Michigan seedlings was more restricted under short daylengths at lower temperatures and also by high temperatures under both short- and long-day conditions than growth of North Carolina seedlings. Michigan seedlings generally contained more shoot moisture and had higher chlorophyll content than North Carolina seedlings North Carolina seedlings produced greater biomass than those from Michigan Salinity studies indicated no difference in substrate salt tolerance of seedlings of the two populations.
Strengthening Evidence-Based Policy in the Australian Federation (Volume 1: Proceedings)

The Productivity Commission's 2009 roundtable was organised around the topic Strengthening Evidence-Based Policy in the Australian Federation, and held at Old Parliament House in Canberra on 17-18 August 2009. Participants included government officials, academics, consultants and representatives of non-government organisations. Keynote addresses were presented by Dr Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution, and Professor Jeffrey Smith of the University of Michigan. The roundtable discussed the principles of the evidence-based policy movement and reviewed how well Australian use of evidence conformed to best practice. It then considered how to improve the availability of quality evidence, and reviewed possible institutional developments to embed good use of evidence more firmly into policy-making.
ÍNDICE DE CONSUMO E EFICIÊNCIA DO USO DA ÁGUA EM EUCALIPTO, SUBMETIDO A DIFERENTES TEORES DE ÁGUA EM CONVIVÊNCIA COM BRAQUIÁRIA

Foram avaliados, em casa de vegetacao, os indices de consumo e a eficiencia do uso da agua em mudas de Eucalyptus citriodora e E. grandis, cultivadas em solo com tres teores de agua, associadas ou nao com Brachiaria brizantha. Utilizou-se o delineamento em blocos ao acaso, com quatro repeticoes, em arranjo fatorial (2x3x4+3x3): duas especies (E. citriodora e E. grandis), tres teores de agua (20, 23 e 26%) e quatro diferentes quantidades de plantas de B. brizantha (0, 1, 2 e 3 plantas/vaso), mais tres diferentes quantidades de B. brizantha (1, 2 e 3 plantas), associadas aos tres teores de agua. Maior crescimento do E. citriodora, E. grandis e B. brizantha foi observado em solo com o maior teor de umidade (26%). A convivencia de B. brizantha com E. citriodora ou E. grandis, em um mesmo vaso, reduziu o acumulo de biomassa seca do eucalipto, independente do teor de agua no solo. Maiores teores de agua no solo proporcionaram maior ICA, que esta diretamente relacionado a maior acumulo de biomassa seca pelos eucaliptos e B. brizantha. A eficiencia do uso de agua do eucalipto foi alta (282 g de agua/g de biomassa seca produzida), semelhante ao observado por B. brizantha (265), ambas especies estao dentro da faixa de plantas eficientes ao uso da agua, independente do teor de agua no solo. CONSUMPTION AND WATER EFFICIENCY USE INDEX BY Eucalyptus citriodora AND E. grandis PLANTS CULTIVATED IN POTS CONTAINING SOIL WITH THREE WATER CONTENTS IN THE SOIL JOINTLY WITH DIFFERENT Brachiaria brizantha POPULATIONS Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate water efficient use of, E. citriodora and E. grandis amount of cultivated in subtract with three water contents, jointly with four amount of Brachiaria brizantha plant. Treatments were arranged in factorial design, with four replications, in a randomised blocks (2x3x4+3+3): two species of eucalyptus (E. citriodora and E. grandis), three water contents (20, 23 and 26%) and four B. brizantha populations (0, 1, 2 and 3 plants/pot) and three plus B. brizantha (1, 2 and 3 plants/pot) associated to three contents of water contents in the soil. The highest growing of E. citriodora, E. grandis and B. brizantha was observed in a soil with the highest moisture content (26%). B. brizantha association with E. citriodora or E. grandis, in the same pot, reduced the eucalyptus dry biomass accumulation regardless of water content in the soil. Higher water contents in the soil allowed higher Water Consumption Index, which is directly related to the higher accumulation of dry biomass by eucalyptus and B. brizantha Eucalyptus water use efficiency (transpiratory coefficient) was high (282 g water/g of produced dry matter), similar to observed for B. brizantha (265). They are in the range of efficient plants in water use, regardless of water content in the soil.
Ocean Water as a Substitute for Postemergence Herbicides in Tropical Turf1

Research was designed to reduce herbicide use by replacing POST herbicides with readily available ocean water to control weeds in turfgrasses. Sensitivity to salt stress was evaluated for large crabgrass, goosegrass, mimosa-vine, alyceclover, and yellow nutsedge, as well as the turfgrasses such as seashore paspalum, bermudagrass, St. Augustinegrass, and centipedegrass. Three different salinity levels, (55, 37, and 19 dS/m) and two salt-stress durations (3 and 6 d) were tested. Mimosa-vine was fully controlled at 55 and 37 dS/m. Alyceclover showed maximum injury at 95% when treated at 55 dS/m for 6 d and 90% when treated for 3 d. Large crabgrass was controlled at 55 dS/m. Goosegrass injury was up to 90% at 55 dS/m, but injured plants recovered to 48% at 30 d. Yellow nutsedge showed a maximum of 38% injury but showed 0% injury at 30 d. Among tested turfgrasses, seashore paspalum showed tolerance to pure ocean water at 55 dS/m, with maximum injury at 18%. At the same level of stress, maximum injury for bermudagrass was 30%, for St. Augustinegrass 60%, and for centipedegrass 100%. Lower levels of salt stress resulted in less injury but were still excessive for St. Augustinegrass and centipedegrass. Ocean water was shown to be an effective method to control mimosa-vine, and large crabgrass in seashore paspalum and bermudagrass turfs. Nomenclature: Alyceclover, Alysicarpus vaginalis (L.) DC. #3 ALZVA; bermudagrass, Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. # CYNDA; centipedegrass, Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro) Hack. # ERLOP; goosegrass, Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertn. # ELEIN; large crabgrass, Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop. # DIGSA; mimosa-vine, Mimosa strigillosa Torr. & Gray # MIMST; seashore paspalum, Paspalum vaginatum Swartz. # PASVA ‘Adalayd’; St. Augustinegrass, Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Ktze. STPSE ‘Raleigh’; yellow nutsedge, Cyperus esculentus L. # CYPES. Additional index words: Alternative weed control, salt stress, turfgrass salt tolerance. Abbreviation: POST, postemergence.
EVALUATION OF MATERNALLY DERIVED ANTIBODIES AGAINST NEWCASTLE DISEASE VIRUS AND ITS EFFECT ON VACCINATION IN BROILER CHICKS

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The study was conducted to determine the persistence of maternally derived antibody (MDA) and its effects on protection against NDV in broiler chickens and to investigate the status of humoral immune response following vaccination with BCRDV ® (F-strain, lentogenic) at different ages of broiler chickens during the period from August to October, 2008. A total of 90 day-old broiler chicks of Cobb 500 strain with the history of vaccination of parent stock against Newcastle disease (ND) was divided into three groups (A, B and C). Birds of group A (n = 35) were used for the study of protection ability of MDA against NDV, the birds of group B (n = 45) were used for the measurement of humoral immune response in chickens following vaccination at different ages and birds of group C (n = 10) were used for the determination of persistence of maternally derived antibody. The level of antibody titre against NDV was determined by HI test. The protective potentiality of MDA and vaccine was determined by the rate of survivability of the chickens following challenge infection. It was observed that the MDA titre in day-old chicks was higher and gradually declined at minimal level at day 28. The MDA titre of 128 or above protected the birds following challenge infection with virulent NDV. There were significant decrease in HI titres of chickens which were vaccinated once at day 1 and day 7, and could not withstand challenge infection with virulent NDV. Single vaccination with BCRDV ® at day 14 triggered the production of antibody but could not provide complete protection to the birds. The birds which were boosted with the same vaccine 7 days and 21 days after primary vaccination produced better immune response. However, the birds which were vaccinated primarily at day 1 and boosted at day 7 could not withstand the challenge completely. Of the other regimens of twice vaccination, primary vaccination at day 7 and booster dosing at day 28 was found to be the best in terms of immune response and protection potentiality. Therefore, it may be concluded that (a) The MDA titre level of 128 or above is sufficient to protect broilers against challenge with virulent NDV,( b) Primary vaccination at day 7 followed by a booster dosing at day 28 may be followed for better immune response and protection against ND in broilers. DOI: 10.3329/bjvm.v7i2. 5995 Bangl. J. Vet. Med . (2009). 7(2) : 296 – 302
Detecting a Robust Change in Wealth Concentration without the Knowledge of the Wealth Distribution

The paper focuses on the concentration of wealth defined as the expected present value of lifetime resources. We propose an indirect but robust method that detects a change in the concentration of wealth when the full stream of income receipts along the life cycle is unknown. We rely on the consumption distribution at a given period. We exploit the key property of concavity of consumption with respect to wealth to infer a change in wealth concentration from the one in consumption concentration. An application to American data is provided which illuminates the main changes occurred in wealth concentration during the twenty past years.