Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Secretome analysis of the mycoparasitic fungus Trichoderma harzianum ALL 42 cultivated in different media supplemented with Fusarium solani cell wall or glucose

Trichoderma harzianum is a fungus well known for its potential as a biocontrol agent against many fungal phytopathogens. The aim of this study was to characterize the proteins secreted by T. harzianum ALL42 when its spores were inoculated and incubated for 48 h in culture media supplemented with glucose (GLU) or with cell walls from Fusarium solani (FSCW), a phytopathogen that causes severe losses in common bean and soy crops in Brazil, as well as other crop diseases around the world. Trichoderma harzianum was able to grow in Trichoderma Liquid Enzyme Production medium (TLE) and Minimal medium (MM) supplemented with FSCW and in TLE+GLU, but was unable to grow in MM+GLU medium. Protein quantification showed that TLE+FSCW and MM+FSCW had 45‐ and 30‐ fold, respectively, higher protein concentration on supernatant when compared to TLE+GLU, and this difference was observable on 2D gel electrophoresis (2DE). A total of 94 out of 105 proteins excised from 2DE maps were identified. The only protein observed in all three conditions was epl1. In the media supplemented with FSCW, different hydrolases such as chitinases, β‐1,3‐glucanases, glucoamylases, α‐1,3‐glucanases and proteases were identified, along with other proteins with no known functions in mycoparasitism, such as npp1 and cys. Trichoderma harzianum showed a complex and diverse arsenal of proteins that are secreted in response to the presence of FSCW, with novel proteins not previously described in mycoparasitic‐related studies.
Empowering End Users to Customize their Smart Environments

Research on the Internet of Things (IoT) has devoted many efforts to technological aspects. Little social and practical benefits have emerged so far. IoT devices, so-called smart objects, are becoming even more pervasive and social, leading to the need to provide non-technical users with innovative interaction strategies for controlling their behavior. In other words, the opportunities offered by IoT can be amplified if new approaches are conceived to enable non-technical users to be directly involved in “composing” their smart objects by synchronizing their behavior. To fulfill this goal, this article introduces a model that includes new operators for defining rules combining multiple events and conditions exposed by smart objects, and for defining temporal and spatial constraints on rule activation. The article also presents the results of an elicitation study that was conducted to identify possible visual paradigms for expressing composition rules. Prototypes implementing the resulting visual paradigms were compared during a controlled experiment and the one that resulted most relevant for our goals was used in a study that involved home-automation experts. Finally, the article discusses some design implications that came out from the performed studies and presents the architecture of a platform supporting rule definition and execution.
Structure factors of vector-order-parameter systems containing random topological defects.

The spatial correlation function of a vector order-parameter field and its Fourier transform is derived analytically for a relaxational (N,D) ordering process following a quench with 1<N<D, where N and D are the dimensionality of the order parameter and space, respectively. An assumption that the topological defects are randomly distributed is used
How does research and development investment affect market value?

Abstract In recent decades, studies on the performance of investment in research and development (R&D) have received more attention. This paper aims to identify the cause-and-effect relationships among R&D investment, R&D capability, financial performance, and company market value for companies in different life cycle stages. From the empirical findings, there is a basic difference across stages, specifically on the mediating role of financial performance. In spite of this difference, there are also important similarities across the three stages. That is, four of the five paths are significant and are in the hypothesized direction for the three stages: (1) the effect of R&D investment on financial performance, (2) the effect of R&D investment on R&D capability, (3) the effect of R&D capability on financial performance, and (4) the effect of R&D capability on company market value.
Financial Management Strategy in a Community Welfare Organisation: A Boardroom Perspective

This paper presents the results of a four year participant observation study of boardroom deliberations and resulting financial management strategies in a large not–for–profit religious based community welfare organisation. Employing a complete membership research approach and informed by grounded theory analysis, the study develops a micro–theoretical framework portraying boardroom financial management and accountability strategising. The study finds that the strategic focus on mission financing was conditioned by the contested formulation of strategic objectives, core organisational service philosophies, and executive–board member interaction. A significant observed outcome of the strategic mission financing focus was the management of accountability and disclosure, to which two key strategies were contributory. These were the exercising of financial control and the exercising of relationships management. The findings offer hitherto unavailable insights into strategic financial management and accountability processes and their context at the boardroom level in the religious not–for–profit community welfare sector.
Was the Noaa Panel Correct About Contingent Valuation?

The past few years have seen a highly charged debate about whether contingent valuation (CV) surveys can provide valid economic measures of people's values for environmental resources. In an effort to appraise the validity of CV measures of economic value, a distinguished panel of social scientists, chaired by two Nobel laureates, was established by NOAA, to critically evaluate the validity of CV measures of nonuse value. The Panel provided an extensive set of guidelines for CV survey construction, administration, and analysis, and distinguished a subset of items from their guidelines for special emphasis and described them as burden of proof requirements. Of particular interest was the Panel's requirement that CV surveys demonstrate "responsiveness to the scope of the environmental insult. " That demonstration has come to be called a scope test. The paper reports the findings from the first CV study that adheres to the NOAA Panel's guidelines and includes a formal scope test.
The Structural Budget Balance: The IMF’s Methodology

This paper describes the methodology used by the IMF staff to calculate the structural budget balance, estimates of which are published regularly in the IMF`s World Economic Outlook. The structural budget balance is the government`s actual fiscal position purged of the estimated budgetary consequences of the business cycle, and is designed in part to provide an indication of the medium-term orientation of fiscal policy. Interpretation of the structural budget balance requires caution in several respects, however, some of which are reviewed in the paper. The paper then considers briefly the potential usefulness of the structural budget balance as a tool for enforcement--under the Stability and Growth Pact--of the European Economic and Monetary Union reference value on the deficit specified in the Maastricht Treaty.
The Labor Market Effects of Indexing Unemployment Benefits to Previous Earnings

In most Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, unemployment benefits are tied to previous labor earnings. The authors study the progressivity of this indexation with regard to its effects on employment, output, and wages in three non-Walrasian equilibrium models of the labor market. In the cases of decentralized union wage bargaining and search unemployment and Nash wage bargaining, employment, output, and wages increase with the degree of indexation. The indexation of unemployment benefits to previous earnings, however, has no effect in the case of efficiency wages. The results also suggest that a more progressive indexation of unemployment benefits is welfare enhancing if wages are bargained.
Assessing the willingness to pay for reliable domestic water supply via catchment management: results from a contingent valuation survey in Nairobi City, Kenya

Shortage of domestic water is a key problem in Nairobi. The Sasumua Reservoir supplies 20% of Nairobi's water. However, reservoir water quantity has been impacted by human activities. Landholders within the catchment have no incentives to take into account this impact in their decision. The objective of this study was to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of Nairobi residents for reliable domestic water via catchment conservation. Data were collected through face-to-face surveys. A censored regression model was employed to estimate the WTP. Results show that monthly mean WTP of an average household is about 275 Kenya shillings; income, education, and age are the key variables affecting WTP; and lack of an appropriate institutional regime is the major public concern that could hinder implementation of market-based schemes.
Routine Measurement of Head Circumference as a Tool for Detecting Intracranial Expansion in Infants: What Is the Gain? A Nationwide Survey

OBJECTIVE. The aim of the present study was to investigate the importance of routine head circumference measurements in the detection of intracranial expansive conditions, because only fragmented evidence exists in favor of this routine. METHODS. The study was a nationwide study based on the medical records of all Norwegian departments of pediatrics and neurosurgery. The study included all Norwegian children <5 years of age who were hospitalized because of intracranial expansion during a 4-year period (1999–2002). Information about diagnostic codes, symptoms, and ages at symptom onset and at admission was collected from the medical records. RESULTS. The study included 298 patients. For 173 (58%), hydrocephalus was the primary diagnosis; 57 (19%) had intracranial tumors and 68 (23%) had other primary diagnoses. For 46% of the children, increased head circumference was the first and main symptom leading to diagnosis. Increased head circumference was much more common as the symptom that led to diagnosis for patients with hydrocephalus (72%), compared with patients with cysts (31%) or tumors (5%). Increasing head circumference seems important mainly in detecting hydrocephalus and cysts, especially during the first 10 months of life. CONCLUSIONS. Routine measurements of head circumference during the first year of life mainly detect infants with hydrocephalus or cysts; other expansive conditions yield other symptoms. Most children with increased head circumference as a symptom of intracranial expansion are identified during the first 10 months of life.
Global Analysis of Arabidopsis Gene Expression Uncovers a Complex Array of Changes Impacting Pathogen Response and Cell Cycle during Geminivirus Infection1[W][OA]

Geminiviruses are small DNA viruses that use plant replication machinery to amplify their genomes. Microarray analysis of the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) transcriptome in response to cabbage leaf curl virus (CaLCuV) infection uncovered 5,365 genes (false discovery rate <0.005) differentially expressed in infected rosette leaves at 12 d postinoculation. Data mining revealed that CaLCuV triggers a pathogen response via the salicylic acid pathway and induces expression of genes involved in programmed cell death, genotoxic stress, and DNA repair. CaLCuV also altered expression of cell cycle-associated genes, preferentially activating genes expressed during S and G2 and inhibiting genes active in G1 and M. A limited set of core cell cycle genes associated with cell cycle reentry, late G1, S, and early G2 had increased RNA levels, while core cell cycle genes linked to early G1 and late G2 had reduced transcripts. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting of nuclei from infected leaves revealed a depletion of the 4C population and an increase in 8C, 16C, and 32C nuclei. Infectivity studies of transgenic Arabidopsis showed that overexpression of CYCD3;1 or E2FB, both of which promote the mitotic cell cycle, strongly impaired CaLCuV infection. In contrast, overexpression of E2FA or E2FC, which can facilitate the endocycle, had no apparent effect. These results showed that geminiviruses and RNA viruses interface with the host pathogen response via a common mechanism, and that geminiviruses modulate plant cell cycle status by differentially impacting the CYCD/retinoblastoma-related protein/E2F regulatory network and facilitating progression into the endocycle.
Exercise Preferences of Endometrial Cancer Survivors: A Population-Based Study

Exercise has gained recognition as an effective supportive care intervention for cancer survivors, yet participation rates are low. Knowledge of the specific exercise counseling and programming preferences of cancer survivors may be useful for designing effective interventions. In this study, we examined the exercise preferences of 386 endometrial cancer survivors. Participants completed a questionnaire that included measures of past exercise behavior, exercise preferences, and medical and demographic information. Some key findings were as follows: (a) 76.9% of participants said they were interested or might be interested in doing an exercise program and (b) 81.7% felt they were able or likely able to actually do an exercise program. Participants also indicated that walking was their preferred activity (68.6%) and moderate exercise was their preferred intensity (61.1%). Logistic regression analyses showed that meeting public health guidelines for exercise, being overweight or obese, receiving adjuvant treatment, months since diagnosis, income, marital status, and level of education all influenced exercise preferences. These results suggest that endometrial cancer survivors have unique exercise preferences that are moderated by a number of demographic and medical variables. These findings may have implications for the design and implementation of clinical and population-based exercise interventions for endometrial cancer survivors.
A Process Perspective on Industrial Symbiosis

It has been long recognized in the conceptual literature that industrial symbiosis requires a perspective that focuses on long‐term evolution. This has not yet been matched by adopting an adequate process‐oriented research methodology. This article provides the underpinnings for such a methodology, presents a developed methodology, event sequence analysis, and shows its added value through a set of research questions and an empirical example. It shows how the process perspective leads to asking new research questions as well as the uncovering of new insights about the emergence, evolution, and dissolution of symbiotic relationships and the institutional capacity required to build such relationships.
The Effect of Mandated Market Risk Disclosures on Trading Volume Sensitivity to Interest Rate, Exchange Rate, and Commodity Price Movements

We hypothesize that firms' 10‐K market risk disclosures, recently mandated by SEC Financial Reporting Release No. 48 (FRR No. 48), reduce investors' uncertainty and diversity of opinion about the implications, for firm value, of changes in interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates, and commodity prices. We argue that this reduced uncertainty and diversity of opinion should dampen trading volume sensitivity to changes in these underlying market rates or prices. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that after firms disclose FRR No. 48‐mandated information about their exposures to interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates, and energy prices, trading volume sensitivity to changes in these underlying market rates and prices declines, even after controlling for other factors associated with trading volume. The observed declines in trading volume sensitivity are consistent with FRR No. 48 market risk disclosures providing useful information to investors.
The Usefulness of Disclosures of Untaxed Foreign Earnings in Firm Valuation

ABSTRACT: Under current accounting rules, U.S. multinationals are not required to record liabilities for future taxes on earnings of foreign subsidiaries, as long as those earnings are deemed to be indefinitely reinvested in those subsidiaries. These rules allow considerable flexibility in the designation of earnings deemed permanently reinvested and the reporting of expected repatriation taxes thereon. Some firms disclose amounts for unrecorded taxes on permanently reinvested earnings, but most do not. We show that while estimated repatriation taxes are relevant in explaining share prices of non-disclosing firms, they are less relevant than firm-disclosed amounts are in explaining share prices of disclosing firms. This result is due to estimated repatriation tax amounts exhibiting downward bias, and less accuracy for actual repatriation tax effects, relative to firm-disclosed repatriation tax amounts. We propose new disclosures designed to improve the relevance of estimated repatriation tax amounts.
Estimation of Risk and Time Preferences: Response Error, Heterogeneity, Adaptive Questionnaires, and Experimental Evidence from Mortgagers

We develop a methodology for the measurement of the parameters of cumulative prospect theory and time discounting models based on tools from the preference measurement literature. These parameters are typically elicited by presenting decision makers with a series of choices between hypothetical alternatives, gambles or delayed payments. We present a method for adaptively designing the sets of hypothetical choices presented to decision makers, and a method for estimating the preference function parameters which capture interdependence across decision makers as well as response error. We apply our questionnaire design and estimation methods to a study of the characteristics of homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than the current value of the underlying real estate asset. Our estimates indicate that such homeowners have larger discount rates and present bias than others, but do not differ in their risk preferences.
Is sonographic assessment of cervical length better than digital examination in screening for preterm delivery in a low‐risk population?

Background. This randomized controlled trial compared the diagnostic accuracy of the sonographic assessment of cervical length and clinical digital examination of the cervix in the second trimester regarding the prediction of preterm delivery in a low‐risk population. Methods. In total, 282 unselected, asymptomatic women with singleton pregnancy randomly underwent sonographic cervical length measurement (study group, n = 138) or clinical digital examination (control group, n = 144) in the second trimester. In the study group cervical length ≤5th percentile (≤24 mm) for our population was defined as shortened. In the control group, Bishop score ≥95th percentile (≥4) for our population was defined as high. The primary outcome measure was the diagnostic accuracy of both tests regarding the prediction of preterm delivery (<37 weeks). Results. Shortened cervical length was found in 6/138 (4.3%) women whereas the high Bishop score was found in 17/144 (11.8%) (p = 0.038, Fisher's exact test). The incidence of preterm delivery was 5.7% (16/282). Regarding the prediction of preterm delivery, shortened cervical length and high Bishop score had sensitivity 57.1% versus 33.3% and positive predictive value 66.7% versus 17.6%. Shortened cervical length in comparison with high Bishop score had 12‐fold higher positive likelihood ratio for preterm delivery in a low‐risk population (37.4; 95%CI [8.2–170.7] versus 3.2; 95%CI [1.1–9.2]). Conclusion. Sonographic assessment of cervical length has better diagnostic accuracy in the prediction of preterm delivery compared to digital examination in a low‐risk population.
FADS IN THE INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING MARKET

m Early research related to initial public offerings (IPOs) documented the tendency of IPOs to provide abnormal returns to investors who purchased them at the initial offering (Reilly and Hatfield [27] and Stoll and Curley [33]). Refinements and extensions followed, including efforts to explain the variation in abnormal returns across firms and underwriters (Johnson and Miller [16] and Miller and Reilly [22]). Information asymmetry, legal liability, and signaling theories have also been incorporated into IPO related research (Allen and Faulhaber [1], Baron [4], Rock [30], and Tinic [35]). In general terms, there are two possible explanations for these abnormal returns. The most widely held view is that IPOs are underpriced at the initial offering. A second possibility, however, is that IPOs are not priced at intrinsic values in early aftermarket trading. Financial researchers have traditionally adhered to the first explanation (underpricing) rather than the second (aftermarket inefficiencies). For example, Tinic [35] considers the possibility that speculative bubbles exist in the IPO market but writes that " . there is no empirical evidence that supports such a pattern . " [p. 792]. However, there has been little comprehensive empirical analysis of the aftermarket price behavior of IPOs. The overwhelming majority of IPO related research has focused on price behavior in the days or weeks following the offering. Aftermarket efficiency has been supported because there are typically no abnormal returns for investors purchasing in the aftermarket. However, the short time periods studied do not allow for more comprehensive examination of price behavior. This research was partially supported by research grants from the U.S. Small Business Administration and Georgetown University. The extensive research assistance of Mr. Kamran Bakr is gratefully acknowledged. Professors Dennis Logue, Lemma Senbet, Richard Sweeney, Donald Tuttle, David Walker, and participants at the SEC workshop provided helpful comments. We have also benefitted from the critiques of four anonymous reviewers and the editor. Finally, we are grateful to the many investment bankers who answered our questions for this and related research.
Cooperatives, Surplus, and the Social

In this essay, I argue that communism involves eliminating capitalist exploitation and changing both the appropriation and distribution of the surplus. Cooperatives (and other forms of communal production) are an important step, but only one step, in this process. We do cooperatives a disservice by placing too large a burden on them.
Towards commercial and environmental excellence: A green portfolio matrix

This article examines the strategic framework and options available for product strategy towards commercial and environmental excellence. It defines the environmental dimension as a ‘moving target’, explores a conceptual framework to integrate commercial and environmental dimensions and elaborates a ‘green portfolio matrix’. The proposed matrix is also empirically investigated as to its practical validity by using a set of secondary data including twelve product cases. Using the matrix, a company can diagnose its existing product mix from an environmental point of view, and furthermore can establish future ‘targets’ for an environmentally-friendly product portfolio. In addition, the matrix can be used as a framework for comparative analyses between strategic business units or for longitudinal assessment of a specific business entity.