Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exchange Rate Variability and Foreign Direct Investment: Consequences of EMU Enlargement

This paper analyzes theoretically and empirically the likely impact of the reduction in exchange rate uncertainty, due to European Monetary Union accession, on the intensity of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow into candidate countries. Theoretical models give an ambiguous picture of how exchange rate uncertainty and volatility affect the direction and magnitude of such inflows. This paper finds that exchange rate uncertainty and volatility--and nominal exchange rate uncertainty in particular--may negatively influence the decision to locate investment in transition and accession countries. Euro adoption, on the other hand, is likely to positively influence FDI inflows in accession countries.
STUDIES ON THE DEGRADATION OF 4-AMINO-3,5,6-TRICHLOROPlCOLINIC ACID IN SOIL

Summary. Picloram was incubated at concentrations of 0, 0·25, 0·5 and 1 ppmw in Regina heavy clay topsoil maintained at moisture-holding capacity and a t 25° C The herbicide was quantitatively bioassayed at regular intervals. There was a lag period prior to degradation at all concentrations. The duration of the lag period increased as the concentration of picloram in the soil was increased. Al the end of each lag period, the degradation of picloram occurred as a first-order reaction, i.e. the rate of degradation was independent of the concentration of picloram in the soil. Due to the pronounced variations in the duration of the lag periods with concentration, the assignment of half-value or half-life periods to picloram degradation in soil is considered to be of doubtful significance. Etude de la degradation de t'acide 4-amino-3,5,6-trichloropicolmique dans le sol Resume. Un sol argileux lourd de Regina, maintenu as a capacite de retention de l'eau aete mis a 25° C avec du piclorame a 0, 0·25, 0,5 et 1 ppm (en poids). Des determinations biologiques de I'herbicide furent effectuees a intervalles reguliers. a toutes les concentrations il y eut un temps de retard avant le debut de la degradation. La dure deree retard etait proportionnelle a la concentration du piclorame dans le sol. a la fin de chacune de ses periodesde retard, la degradation du piclorame se manifesta com me une reaction du premier ordre, c'est-a-dire que le taux de degradation etait independant de la concentration du piclorame dans le sol. En raison des variations marquees dans la duree des periodes de retard, en fonction de la concentration, l'etablissement des demi-valeurs, ou des demi-periodes de retard, pour mesurer la degradation du piclorame dans le sol, ne parait avoir qu'une signification incertaine. Untersuchungen uber den Abbau von 4-Amino-3,5,6-trichlorpikolinsaure im Boden Zusammenfassung. Pichloram wurde in Konzentrationen von 0,25, 0,5 und I ppm in schweren Regina Lehmboden, entnommen aus der Krume, eingearbeitet. Der Boden wurde bei 25° C und voller Wasserkapazitat gehalten. Die Herbizidwirkiing wurde in regelmassigen Abstanden mit Hilfe des Biotests quantitativ ermittelt. Bei alien Konzentrationen war zunachst kein Abbau festzustellen. Mit zunehmender Konzentration bei Pichloram im Boden erhohte sich die Dauer dieser Periode. Danaeh setzte der Abbau von Pichloram als eine Reaktion erster Ordnung ein, d.h. die Abbaurate war unabhangig von der Pichloramkonzentration im Boden. Wegen der konzentrationsbedingten Unterschiede in der Lange der Periode vor dem Abbau scheint die Bestimmung von Halbwertszeiten des Pichloramabbaus im Boden eine zweifclhafte Massnahme zu sein.
REPRODUCTION AND LARVAL DEVELOPMENT OF LABEO UMBRATUS (PISCES, CYPRINIDAE) IN THE TYUME RIVER, EASTERN CAPE

SUMMARY AN account is given of some aspects of the reproductive ecology and larval development of Lubeo umbrutus which is of great importance in the Eastern Cape due to its abundance in rivers and dams. The sex ratio was found to be approximately 1:1 and females probably have a longer life span than males. Spawning takes place from October to January. Males become sexually mature at a length of 14 cm and females at a length of 20 cm. A spawning site is described. There is a curvilinear relationship between length and fecundity with the average fecundity increasing from 11 000 in fishes with a length of 20 cm to 48 000 in fishes with a length of 32 cm. Larval development from hatching to an age of 12 days is described.
Random movement pattern of fed and unfed adult Colorado potato beetles in bare‐ground habitat

1 Although the successful management of the Colorado potato beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say) depends on the prevention of its dispersal, its walking pattern in the landscape remains poorly understood. In the present study, post‐diapause, early summer, late summer and colony adult beetles, both fed and unfed before release, were tracked with a harmonic radar to establish their walking movement pattern in a bare‐ground field. 2 The random walk model successfully described the dispersal of all beetle types, whether fed or unfed. 3 The diverse life history of this species was manifested by an increased distance travelled and deviations of individual paths from the random model. Starved post‐diapause beetles travelled furthest and individual paths deviating from random were both local and directed, probably aiming to maximize opportunities for host colonization. Starved early summer beetles also travelled further than fed beetles but relied more on random movement to disperse in the habitat. Starving had little impact on the distance travelled or the path deviations of late summer beetles that are searching for overwintering site rather than hosts. 4 The increased displacement of starving beetles over fed beetles corresponded with an increased walking step and index of straightness. 5 The impact of starvation on travel distance was greater than expected from laboratory tests. 6 In conclusion, the results obtained in the present study suggest a random walking pattern to search arable land until host volatile or visual impulses trigger a more directed walk or flight.
Factors affecting selection of native seeds in two species of Australian desert rodents

Abstract The preferences for different species of native seeds by two species of Australian desert rodents, the sandy inland mouse, Pseudomys hermannsburgensis , and the spinifex hopping-mouse Notomys alexis , were investigated. In two sets of cafeteria trials providing low and high numbers of different seed species, both rodent species showed discrimination, preferentially consuming certain seed species, while avoiding others. In one of the two trials, P. hermannsburgensis selected seeds with the highest free water content, while N. alexis showed no clear mechanism of seed choice in either trial. It is suggested that although both species of rodents are omnivorous, P. hermannsburgensis relies more on seeds than does N. alexis , and is thus the more efficient seed harvester.
Change of fish fauna in ponds after eradication of invasive piscivorous largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, in north‐eastern Japan

1.The change in fish fauna was monitored in ponds within irrigation systems in Iwate prefecture, north-eastern Japan to evaluate the effectiveness of eradicating the invasive piscivorous largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides. 2.Eleven study ponds were categorized into three pond groups: bass-dwelling (n=3), bass-eradicated (n=3) and non-invaded ponds (n=5). 3.Species richness and diversity, which temporally decreased in bass-dwelling ponds, increased in bass-eradicated ponds. Furthermore, in bass-eradicated ponds, the mean numbers of topmouth minnow and freshwater goby were gradually restored, but in bass-dwelling ponds the numbers decreased and both species eventually disappeared. 4.Although the eradication of piscivorous invaders is helpful for restoring fish species diversity in ponds, its effectiveness varies among species, and other alien fish such as the rose bitterling (Rhodeus ocellatus ocellatus) often invade and proliferate in the bass-eradicated ponds. 5.To ensure successful restoration of native biota and avoid undesirable results, it is necessary to plan and implement continuous monitoring and adaptive management after eradication of alien predators. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Market Segmentation and Information Development Costs in a Two-Tiered Fee-Based and Sponsorship-Based Web Site

We develop an analytical model of a separating equilibrium for a two-tier fee-based and sponsorship-based information Web site. We examine the monopolist's choice of content quality and price for a fee-based site targeted at high-type consumers and the content quality level for a sponsored site offered free to all consumers. We show how a reduction in the potential for advertising revenues results in lower content quality on the free site, but permits the seller to raise the fee charged to high-type consumers. We also show how differences in consumer tolerances to ads affects content quality, banner ad volume, and usage fees. In particular, the seller can increase profits by making ads more attractive to either high- or low-type consumers, but rarely both at the same time. We show the conditions that determine which consumer segment the seller should seek to improve ad relevancy.
Comportamento alimentar de aves em Cecropia (Moraceae), em mata atlântica, no Estado de São Paulo

This study is based on observations of behaviour of the bird species which visit and feed on 2 species of Cecropia catkins in three localities of the Atlantic forest, SP. A total of 31 species was observed visiting Cecropia; out of these, 17 were seen feeding on the catkins. Two species of the family Psittacidae were observed as seed predators. Seed germination tests of the seeds obtained from the birds' feces eating C. adenopus catkins proved that they function as dispersal agents.
Development of a Device to Collect Mass-Reared False Codling Moth, Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), in a Commercial Insectary

The false codling moth, Thaumatotibia leucotreta (Meyrick), has been reared successfully for many years in several small insectaries in South Africa (Schwartz 1971). Rearing was for various purposes, including research, production of the egg parasitoid, Trichogrammatoidea cryptophlebia Nagaraja (Schwartz 1977), and for commercial production of the false codling moth granulovirus, CrleGV (Moore 2002; Moore et al. 2004). The techniques commonly used were adequate for the scale on which rearing was conducted. In 2002 the South African citrus industry initiated research on the sterile insect technique for false codling moth control. As this project progressed it became apparent that the equipment previously used was inadequate for mass rearing false codling moth for commercial sterile insect technique purposes. A programme was launched to design new equipment that would allow for the production of 15 million insects per week. This equipment was installed in a new insectary, Xsit (Pty) Ltd, recently built in Citrusdal, South Africa, for the mass rearing of false codling moth. Amongst others, a moth collection system, using cyclonic separators, was installed. The technical principles in the use of cyclonic separators for particulate matter collection have often been described as in Griffin (1994). However, the development of this type of equipment specifically for the collection of mass-reared moths is poorly documented and often only relates to models suitable for insect collection on a relatively small or laboratory scale, for example Wolf & Stiemann (1971). The use of cyclonic separators in new rearing facilities is therefore probably based on working models in existing mass-rearing facilities.
Antimicrobial evaluation, determination of total phenolic and flavoniod contents in Zanthoxylum armatum DC

The ethanolic and n-hexane extracts of leaves, fruits and bark of Zanthoxylum armatumwere evaluated for their antimicrobial potential against bacteria (Micrococcus leutus,Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pasturella multcidia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa,Bacillus subtilis, and Streptococcus viridians) and fungi (Trichophyton longifusis, Candida albicans, Fusarium solani, Microsporum canis, Aspergillus flavus and Candida glabrata). The total flavonoids and phenolic contents were also quantified in ethanolic extract of all parts. The ZLE extract showed highest inhibition against M. leutus (18.00 ± 0.71 mm), P. multocida (18.00 ± 0.71 mm), E. coli (17.00 ± 0.71) and B. subtilis (15.33 ± 0.81 mm). The ZFE showed topmost action against M. leutus (21.33 ± 0.41 mm) and P. multocida (18.33 ± 0.41 mm) while the ZFH showed inhibitory action against M. leutus (19.67 ± 0.41 mm) as compared to other tests species. The ZBH extract was found active against M. leutus(20.33 ± 0.41 mm). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values for most of the bacterial species were found to be 0.65 µg/ml. The crude ethanolic and n-hexane of all parts were proved a rich source of fungicidal effect. Highest flavonoids was found in ethanolic extract of Z. armatum fruit (ZFE) (22.8 ± 1.33 mg/g) followed by ethanolic extract of Z. armatum bark (ZBE) (18.33 ± 1.22 mg/g) while highest phenolic contents were found in ZFE (21.68 ± 0.44 mg/g) followed by ZBE (16.48 ± 1.33 mg/g). Key words: Zanthoxylum armatum, antimicrobial, MIC, phenolic, flavoniods.
Report of a parasitic wasp (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) parasitizing cotton mealybug (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) in Pakistan and use of PCR for estimating parasitism levels

Abstract A parasitic wasp, Aenasius bambawalei, was studied for its biological parameters and parasitism levels in the cotton mealybug (Phenacoccus solenopsis). Biological parameters including parasitism efficiency, time to pupation, time to eclosion and adult sex ratio were studied under lab conditions. Parasitism levels in field collected mealybug were determined using PCR. Results showed an increase in parasitism over the study period, with higher parasitism levels in 2009 compared to the preceding 2 years.
Aligning More Words with High Precision for Small Bilingual Corpora

In this paper, we propose an algorithm for identifying each word with its translations in a sentence and translation pair. Previously proposed methods require enormous amounts of bilingual data to train statistical word-by-word translation models. By taking a word-based approach, these methods align frequent words with consistent translations at a high precision rate. However, less frequent words or words with diverse translations generally do not have statistically significant evidence for confident alignment. Consequently, incomplete or incorrect alignments occur. Here, we attempt to improve on the coverage using class-based rules. An automatic procedure for acquiring such rules is also described. Experimental results confirm that the algorithm can align over 85% of word pairs while maintaining a comparably high precision rate, even when a small corpus is used in training.
Checklist of freshwater ichthyofauna from coastal streams of Juréia-Itatins reserve, southeastern Brazil

The Jureia-Itatins Ecological Station (JIES) is one of the few protected areas in the state of Sao Paulo, which harbor a significant portion of the Atlantic forest. Although there is high diversity and endemism of fish species in this region, knowledge of the ichthyofauna in JIES is incipient. A total of 4,809 specimens belonging to six orders, 15 families and 31 species were captured during April 2009 to February 2010, using electrofishing, gillnets and traps. The family Characidae was predominant, mainly due to the abundance of freshwater species such as Astyanax ribeirae , Mimagoniates microlepis , and Hollandichthys multifasciatus . Although the estuarine regions were rarely sampled in this study, six brackish water species were captured. In this study, nine species previously unknown from JIES were discovered. Five endangered fish species, endemic to the Atlantic forest, occur at JIES, thus the presence of protected areas, as a conservation measure, is particularly relevant.
SemEval-2015 Task 14: Analysis of Clinical Text

We describe two tasks—named entity recognition (Task 1) and template slot ﬁlling (Task 2)—for clinical texts. The tasks leverage annotations from the ShARe corpus, which consists of clinical notes with annotated mentions disorders, along with their normalization to a medical terminology and eight additional attributes. The purpose of these tasks was to identify advances in clinical named entity recognition and establish the state of the art in disorder template slot ﬁlling. Task 2 consisted of two subtasks: template slot ﬁll-ing given gold-standard disorder spans (Task 2a) and end-to-end disorder span identiﬁcation together with template slot ﬁlling (Task 2b). For Task 1 (disorder span detection and normalization), 16 teams participated. The best system yielded a strict F1-score of 75.7, with a precision of 78.3 and recall of 73.2. For Task 2a (template slot ﬁlling given gold-standard disorder spans), six teams participated. The best system yielded a combined overall weighted accuracy for slot ﬁlling of 88.6. For Task 2b (disorder recognition and template slot ﬁlling), nine teams participated. The best system yielded a combined relaxed F (for span detection) and overall weighted accuracy of 80.8.
The Architecture of the Aquatic Environment and Its Influence on the Growth and Development of Tadpoles (Xenopus laevis)

Many ecological factors are known to influence anuran growth and development. However, little is known about the influence of the shape of the aquatic environment. We investigated how the size of the air–water interface (surface area), water depth, and partitioning the aquatic space independently affect the growth and development of tadpoles of Xenopus laevis. To do this, we used a series of pyramidal frustra and partitioned aquaria. In our experimental containers, as the surface area decreased the dissolved oxygen concentration decreased and the tadpoles' air-breathing rates increased. As the depth of the water increased, the dissolved oxygen concentration decreased and the tadpoles' air-breathing rates increased. When the aquatic space was vertically partitioned to form a maze with corridors either 2 cm or 4 cm wide, the tadpoles avoided the narrow spaces between the partitions. Neither varying the surface area, nor vertically partitioning the aquatic space, significantly affected the growth or development of the tadpoles. However, the tadpoles raised in the shallower containers grew significantly slower than the tadpoles raised in the deeper containers. Tadpoles raised in shallow water behaved differently than those raised in deeper water. Shallow water appeared to prevent the tadpoles from ascending normally to break the surface tension of the water and properly air-breathe. Instead, the tadpoles in the shallow containers often floated at the surface, rather than in their normal position in the water column. Our study suggests that shallow water, independent of other variables such as water volume or dissolved oxygen concentration, may detrimentally impact air-breathing tadpoles, since shallow water appears to physically impede the animals' ability to air-breathe.
Nitrogen fixation and growth of non-crop legume species in diverse environments

Abstract Of the 643 legume genera, few have been exploited in agriculture and 40% have not even been evaluated for their ability to nodulate and fix nitrogen. Most of these are in tropical/subtropical regions, with habitats ranging from extremely dry to flooded. Recent work in some of these areas shows that plants can nodulate under conditions previously thought to be disadvantageous. The accepted dogma that nitrogen fixing legumes have a high demand for P is challenged and examples of how legumes can extract P from soils with low available P described. Species tolerant to shading and high soil Al are cited, although the mechanisms of adaptation are not yet clear. Some tropical soils have high nitrate levels and, contrary to perceived wisdom, there are legumes which can nodulate under such conditions. Many tropical tree legumes prefer ammonium to nitrate and are able to fix nitrogen and assimilate ammonium at the same time. In all these cases, there are genotypic differences, both within and among species. Large areas of tropical fresh water, such as the Brazilian Pantanal and the Orinoco floodplain have nodulated legumes predominant in their flora. The ecological potential of these has not been evaluated. One of the sites of nodule evolution is likely to have been in such areas. Modes of infection of legumes by rhizobia vary with taxonomic tribe and may represent evolution for survival in different environments. As more legumes, from more ecosystems are studied, a wider range of adaptations is likely to be found. Work is urgently needed to study these, especially in areas being cleared for agriculture or by logging.
Effects of Ethanol, Carbonation and Hop Acids on Volatile Delivery in a Model Beer System

J. Inst. Brew. 117(1), 74–81, 2011 A model beer was created to investigate the effects of ethanol, carbonation and hop acids on volatile release (ethyl acetate, isoamyl alcohol and phenethyl alcohol) using both headspace analysis and in-nose measurement during consumption. None of the factors were found to impact on equilibrium headspace partitioning, however headspace sampling after short term decanting revealed minor and compound specific effects of each of the components. When measured in-vivo, hop acids had no significant effect on volatile delivery; however ethanol significantly increased the delivery of volatiles during consumption. This increase was sustained throughout the release profile. Carbonation was found to increase the release of ethyl acetate and isoamyl alcohol during the first release peak after swallowing, but had no significant effect on phenethyl alcohol. Furthermore, ethyl acetate was increased by carbonation in the second peak after swallowing, but this effect was not found to be persistent in subsequent peaks. These results indicate a trend between the compound’s air-water partition coefficient and the effects of carbonation in-vivo. The effects of ethanol and carbonation seemed to be independent and therefore an additive effect is possible. This study highlights the difference between data collected by headspace and in-vivo means.