Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial Organisation Influences Citrus Pseudocercospora Leaf and Fruit Spot Disease Severity in Cocoa-Based Agroforestry Systems

An investigation to assess the spatial structure and severity of Pseudocercospora leaf and fruit spot disease (PLFSD) on citrus trees in cocoa-based agroforests was carried out in three contrasting ecological zones in southern Cameroon, viz: 1) the humid forest zone, 2) the degraded forest zone, and 3) the forest-savannah transition zone. Two main parameters were investigated viz: 1) the spatial structure of cocoa based agroforests, and 2) the disease severity. In total, the spatial structure of 19 cocoa-based agroforests was analysed using the Ripley K(r) function, meanwhile the collection of epidemiological data that consisted of noting the presence of PLFSD spots on leaves and fruits on 438 citrus trees was used to characterise the severity of the disease. Results showed that, the spatial structure of citrus trees in these agroforests investigated were regular in seven plots, random in nine, and aggregated in three. Aggregated plots presented a significantly higher mean of disease severity on leaves and fruits (28.55 and 30.37 respectively), as compared to randomised (20.91 and 16.32 respectively) and regular plots (16.28 and 14.97 respectively), at P-value < 0.05. These results suggest that the spatial structure of citrus trees in the cocoa-based agroforests studied influences the severity of PFLSD. Proper integrated control measures can therefore be initiated, leading to a considerable reduction of the use of manufactured inputs, and thereby, the cost of production of citrus fruits.
Title : Repeatability and Comparison of Clinical Techniques for Anterior Chamber Angle Assessment Abbreviated Title : Repeatability and Comparison of ACA Assessment Techniques

1. Ophthalmology, “t Tho as’ Hospital, West i ster Bridge Road, Lo do , SE1 7EH 2. Institute of Optometry, Neville Chappell Research Clinic, 56-62 Newington Causeway, London, SE1 6DS 3. London South Bank University, Faculty of Health and Social Care, 103 Borough Road, London, SE1 0AA 4. School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, Maindy Road, Cardiff, CF24 4HQ 5. Cole Martin Tregaskis Optometrists, 23 Shenfield Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 8AG
A Review of the Literature on Productivity Impacts of Global Value Chains and Foreign Direct Investment: Towards an Integrated Approach

Information spillovers from multinational enterprises to local firms in developing countries are examined in the literature on global value chains (GVCs) and foreign direct investment (FDI). However, both GVC and FDI studies are carried out independently and separately. On the one hand, GVC studies explore an important mechanism underlying the productivity improvements of local firms but largely descriptive and conceptual, without rigorous quantitative analysis. On the other hand, FDI studies are quantitative, focusing on the impacts on the productivity of local enterprises in developing countries; however, their frequently used estimation functions have several restrictive assumptions. The present review of previous GVC and FDI studies shows that these two strands of the literature are concerned commonly with information spillovers, absorptive capacity of domestic enterprises, and backward linkages between foreign and domestic enterprises, even though their theoretical perspectives differ substantively. This literature review concludes that an integrated approach of incorporating the insightful perspective of GVC studies into the empirical approach of FDI studies will likely lead to more meaningful empirical findings that may reveal, in greater depth, the mechanisms underlying the productivity improvements of local enterprises in developing countries.
Hydrophobic Solvation of Gases (CO2, CH4, H2, Noble Gases) in Clay Interlayer Nanopores

In the past few years, experimental studies have shown that CO2 is roughly 5 times more soluble in water-saturated clay interlayer water than in bulk liquid water. The fundamental basis of this selectivity remains unknown, as does its relevance to other gases. Here, we use molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and gravimetric adsorption experiments to determine the solubilities of CO2, CH4, H2, and noble gases in clay interlayer water. Our results confirm that clay minerals, despite their well-known hygroscopic nature, have a significant hydrophobic character at the atomistic scale. The affinity of dissolved gases for the clay surface shows significant variations related to the size and shape of the adsorbing molecules and the structuring of interfacial water by clay surfaces. Our results indicate that dissolved gases likely do not behave as inert tracers in fine-grained sedimentary rocks such as shale and mudstone, as routinely assumed in groundwater hydrology studies. Our results have implications for the.
Chronicle of Unanticipated and Anticipated Increases in Military Spending

We identify unanticipated and anticipated defense spending shocks and examine their effects in the US economy. Unanticipated shocks have real effects because they induce a sectoral reallocation that increases total factor productivity and the output multiplier is zero when the TFP channel is shut down. Anticipated defense spending shocks carry news about fiscal policy that induces a significant and persistent increase in output, consumption, investment, hours and the interest rate. Standard DSGE models fail to produce relatively more pronounced responses of real variables with respect to news shocks. We propose a sticky price model with variable capital utilization, capital adjustment costs, and rule of thumb consumers that replicates the empirical patterns.
60 specific eDNA qPCR assays to detect invasive, threatened, and exploited freshwater vertebrates and invertebrates in Eastern Canada

Freshwater ecosystems rank among the most endangered habitats in the world and due to increasing human pressures conservation of these ecosystems remains a challenge (Chatterjee, 2017; Dudgeon et al., 2006; Reid et al., 2019; WWF, 2018). Among anthropogenic causes, habitat degradation, destruction or modification, unsustainable fisheries, pollution, and invasive species are persistent and significant drivers of population declines in freshwater ecosystems (Dudgeon et al., 2006; Reid et al., 2019). In North America, more than 80% of threats to fish, reptile, and amphibian populations are related to habitat degradation, exploitation, and invasive species (WWF, 2018). Reptilian and amphibian species face the highest proportion of decline among vertebrates (Böhm et al., 2013; IUCN, 2019). In Canada, wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) and the spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera) are examples of species classified as Received: 17 December 2019 | Revised: 20 March 2020 | Accepted: 27 March 2020 DOI: 10.1002/edn3.89
Applying exogenous variables and regime switching to multi-factor models on equity indices

This article aims to extend the evaluation of classic multifactor models of Carhart (1997) for the case of global equity indices and to expand analysis performed in Sakowski, Slepaczuk, and Wywial (2015). Our intention is to test several modiﬁcations of these models to take into account diﬀerent dynamics of equity excess returns between emerg-ing and developed equity indices. Proposed extensions include volatility regime switch-ing mechanism (using dummy variables and the Markov approach) and three new risk factors based on realized volatility of index returns, percentage deviation from nominal GDP trend and capitalisation relative to GDP factor. Additional modiﬁcations include introduction of common and country speciﬁc variables in order to control for global risk where ﬂuctuations of volatility of various assets, prices of commodities, currencies and rates is really important. Moreover, instead of using data for individual stocks (which is a common approach in the literature), we evaluate the performance of these models for weekly data of 81 world investable equity indices in the period of 2000-2015. Such approach is proposed to estimate equity risk premium for a single country. Empirical evidence from the ﬁrst part reveals important diﬀerences between results for classical models estimated on single stocks (either in international or US-only frame-work) and models evaluated for equity indices. Additionally, we observe substantial discrepancies between results for developed countries and emerging markets. The last part of this research helps us to understand results revealed in the ﬁrst part. Thanks to introduction of new risk factors, and additional common and country speciﬁc variables we were able to increase explanatory power of our factor models especially in case of emerging market indices. Finally, using weekly data for the last 15 years we illustrate importance of model risk and data overﬁtting eﬀects when drawing conclusions upon results of multifactor models.
The Neoclassical Firm Under Moral Hazard

We develop a model of the neoclassical firm under moral hazard with endogenous capital and employment and perfectly competitive capital, labor and product markets. We assume that effort becomes harder to measure as the firm gets larger and the exogenous parameters are affiliated. The model explains why incentives decline but wages rise with firm size, the mixed evidence on the risk&#8208;reward tradeoff, and the positive correlation between wages and profits. In the long run, incentives are increasing in risk via endogenous capital. Finally, the model makes novel predictions about the relationship between incentives and labor market conditions.
Molecular Mechanisms Leading to Interleukin-1β Release by Macrophages in Response to Wear and Corrosion Products from Metal Implants

x Acknowledgments . xi Thesis Organization . xii 1 Literature Review . 1 1.1 Biomaterials and Orthopaedic Implants . 1 1.2 Synovial Joints . 1 1.3 Joint Arthroplasty . 2 1.3. 1 Prevalence of Joint Arthroplasty . 2 1.3. 2 Hip Arthroplasty . 3 1.3. 3 Knee Arthroplasty . 4 1.4 Implant Design . 4 1.4.
Constraining the abundance of dark matter in the central region of the galaxy cluster MACS J1206.2−0847 with a free-form strong lensing analysis

We performed a free-form strong lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster MACS J1206.2−0847 in order to estimate and constrain its inner dark matter distribution. The free-form method estimates the cluster total mass distribution without using any prior information about the underlying mass. We used 97 multiple lensed images belonging to 27 background sources and derived several models, which are consistent with the data. Among these models, we focus on those that better reproduce the radial images that are closest to the centre of the cluster. These radial images are the best probes of the dark matter distribution in the central region and constrain the mass distribution down to distances ∼7 kpc from the centre. We find that the morphology of the innermost radial arcs is due to the elongated morphology of the dark matter halo. We estimate the stellar mass contribution of the brightest cluster galaxy and subtracted it from the total mass in order to quantify the amount of dark matter in the central region. We fitted the derived dark matter density profile with a gNFW, which is characterised by rs = 167 kpc, ρs = 6.7 × 106 M⊙ kpc−3, and γgNFW = 0.70. These results are consistent with a dynamically relaxed cluster. This inner slope is smaller than the cannonical γ = 1 predicted by standard CDM models. This slope does not favour self-interacting models for which a shallower slope would be expected.
Therapeutic potency of probiotics in the treatment of gastrointestinal parasites

Current World Health Organization estimates suggest that around 1.5 billion people worldwide and approximately a quarter of all people on earth, chiefly among the developing countries, are affected by intestinal parasites, despite the aggressive control and an alarming treatment over the years. Besides, the extensive use of the available chemotherapeutic agents, against the infection, has created widespread drug resistance problem. Probiotics, therapeutic non-pathogenic microorganisms have been recently identified as a novel alternative prophylactic and chemotherapeutic agents against several gastrointestinal parasites. They are mostly gram-positive bacteria, isolated from the human gut microflora or various dairy products such as curds, lassi and kulfi with characteristics non-pathogenic, resistant to low pH and acid. Their non-pathogenic symbiotic activities in the gut help in the restoration of gut bacteria microbiota by stimulating immune system, metabolism and anti-pathogenic effect, especially when administered in large quantity. In addition, several strains of probiotics have been identified to possess antiparasitic effects against some gastrointestinal parasites both in egg and larval stage of the parasites. This present review therefore elucidates the potential of probiotics in the treatment and management of gastrointestinal parasites. There is need for more clinical studies and especially molecular studies for better perception of the mechanism underlying the beneficial effects of probiotics on parasitic infections.
ALERT: Accurate Learning for Energy and Timeliness

An increasing number of software applications incorporate runtime Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) to process sensor data and return inference results to humans. Effective deployment of DNNs in these interactive scenarios requires meeting latency and accuracy constraints while minimizing energy, a problem exacerbated by common system dynamics. Prior approaches handle dynamics through either (1) system-oblivious DNN adaptation, which adjusts DNN latency/accuracy tradeoffs, or (2) application-oblivious system adaptation, which adjusts resources to change latency/energy tradeoffs. In contrast, this paper improves on the state-of-the-art by coordinating application- and system-level adaptation. ALERT, our runtime scheduler, uses a probabilistic model to detect environmental volatility and then simultaneously select both a DNN and a system resource configuration to meet latency, accuracy, and energy constraints. We evaluate ALERT on CPU and GPU platforms for image and speech tasks in dynamic environments. ALERT's holistic approach achieves more than 13% energy reduction, and 27% error reduction over prior approaches that adapt solely at the application or system level. Furthermore, ALERT incurs only 3% more energy consumption and 2% higher DNN-inference error than an oracle scheme with perfect application and system knowledge.
The Internationalization of Social Enterprises: A Systematic Review of Literature

Social enterprises (SEs) hold the potential to solve some of the most pressing global challenges of our time, and are increasingly operating across national borders, creating transformational global movements and improving the lives of people around the world. SEs are undoubtedly becoming important players in society, with approximately one out of four new enterprises in the European Union being an SE. However, extant research is centered on enterprises working within communities, regions, or countries, and there is scant empirical research examining their international operations. Furthermore, while the internationalization processes of purely commercial firms have been studied extensively, the understanding of how this process might differ in the case of SEs is limited. The objective of this thesis is to gain an understanding of extant knowledge of the phenomenon of the internationalization of SEs. In order to do so, I examine the state of current research at the intersection of international business and social entrepreneurship by conducting a systematic literature review of 183 articles on social enterprises and social entrepreneurship in relevant journals. Through the systematic literature review, I synthesize and analyze extant literature, uncovering the most prominent contributions and theoretical viewpoints in SE research to date. I identify institutional theory, the resource-based view and the network view as the most prominent theoretical approaches used in the literature. However, the review also reveals a dearth of knowledge of the international operations and internationalization process of SEs. Therefore, I subsequently review insights from international business literature, considering how they may shed light on the identified knowledge gaps. As the main theoretical contribution of the study, I propose a model of the internationalization process of SEs, bringing together the scholarly fields of social entrepreneurship and international business. The proposed model highlights the role of networks of likeminded individuals and organizations, and of the innovative mobilization and use of resources, as well as the substantial influence of the guiding social goal in the internationalization process of SEs. In addition to synthesizing and analyzing current knowledge and proposing a model of the internationalization process of SEs, I present two illustrative case studies, which provide empirical insights of the internationalization paths SEs may take. In addition, the illustrative case studies highlight areas in need of further research.
Description of the growth of pequi fruits by nonlinear models

Abstract Pequi tree is a species native to the Brazilian cerrado, with wide geographic distribution, whose fruit is very appreciated in cooking, composing traditional dishes. In general, pequi fruit is consumed when ripe in the fresh form or in the various derived products such as oils, liqueurs, sweets, ice creams among others, involving important socioeconomic activity generating employment and income in family agriculture. The aim of this study was to evaluate the adjustment of Brody, Gompertz, Logistic and Von Bertalanffy models in the growth and development of pequi fruits based on their physical characteristics such as longitudinal and cross-sectional diameter and fresh mass obtained over time. Parameters were estimated using R software routines, using the least squares method and the Gauss-Newton iterative process. The adjustment of models was compared using the following criteria: residual standard deviation, adjusted determination coefficient and corrected Akaike information criterion. In general, data presented no correlation error structure and the Von Bertalanffy model did not fit fresh mass data. The models presented good quality in the adjustment to pequi growth data, except for the Brody model for fresh mass. The Gompertz and Logistic models were those that best described variables, and the Gompertz model was the most suitable to describe diameter and mass data. Based on the adjustment, a slow initial growth was observed up to about 20 days after anthesis; after this period, the fruit developed more rapidly up to 90 days and then presented a tendency to stability until the end of the evaluation period at 117 days after anthesis, with sigmoid curve character. Pequi fruits obtained final average value of 7.1 cm for cross-sectional diameter, 6.8 cm for longitudinal diameter and 113g for fresh mass.
A Study of the Interactions of Activated Carbon-Phenol in Aqueous Solution Using the Determination of Immersion Enthalpy

In this study, the amount of phenol adsorbed between 0 and 10 mmol·L−1 during an immersion calorimetric experiment is compared with the adsorption that takes place once phenol adsorption reaches the solid–solution equilibrium. The activated carbons used were prepared by impregnation of one obtained from coconut shell with solutions of nitric and phosphoric acid, nitric acid with subsequent reflux in ammonium hydroxide solution, and carbonisation in a nitrogen atmosphere at 1073, 1173, and 1273 K. The phenol/activated carbon interactions during the calorimetric experiment and in equilibrium were studied using a modified Langmuir model. The values of the BET surface area for the samples were between 469 and 1113 m2·g−1, micropore volumes were between 0.18 and 0.43 cm3·g−1, and the distribution of pore size was between 0.3 and 1.4 nm. The interactions between water and activated carbons determined by immersion enthalpies were between −11.0 and −24.8 J·g−1, which showed that the treatments modified the surface chemistry of activated carbon. The results show that the presence of nitrogen as a different heteroatom to oxygen on the activated carbon surface favors the phenol adsorption rate, and this process is 97% complete during the calorimetric experiment, indicating that it is an enthalphy-driven processes.
The Role of Climate in the Dynamics of Annual Plants in a Chihuahuan Desert Ecosystem

Question: What is the role of temporal climate fluctuations in the dynamics of desert winter annual plants in the Portal Bajada, and in the sustained irruption of the non-native annual plant species, Erodium cicutarium? Field site: Portal Bajada, San Simon Valley, Arizona, USA. Methods: We counted plants at flowering over a 21-year period on twelve permanent plots and related these numbers to weather data collected at an on-site weather station, supplemented by observations from the National Climate Data Center. Specific summary climate variables considered most relevant to annual plant biology were developed as candidate predictors of plant response variables. Statistical techniques: We removed trends in the data associated with the irruption of E. cicutarium, removed temporal autocorrelation, and applied a technique that sought the strongest climatic predictors of vegetation response variables by testing climate variables against each other in bivariate regression analyses. The validity of this technique was demonstrated by simulation. We supplemented our analysis with multivariate regression for simultaneous tests on multiple response variables. Conclusions: Winter rainfall was the strongest predictor of total annual plant abundance, but number of species was more strongly predicted by average temperature over the total growing season (fall and winter), with cooler weather favouring more species. Average size of a rainfall event, although often thought important in desert plant biology, did not emerge as a significant predictor of the community-level variables, total abundance and number of species, but winter event size did emerge as a significant predictor of differences between the abundances of native species. Our analyses do not support a role for climate in the sustained irruption of