Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cotton Fiber Cells Are Arrested at G1 Stage

Abstract Regulation of cell-cycle genes during the very early stages of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) fiber development triggers specific epidermal cells in the ovule to stop cell division and then elongate into fiber cells. This characteristic is especially unique since the other ovule epidermal cells surrounding the cotton fiber cell undergo continuous division like all other cells in the plants as the ovule matures. Very little information is available on the controlling mechanism of cell-cycle phase in cotton fiber cells. The objective of this study was to identify the cell-cycle phase in which cotton fiber cells are arrested before beginning elongation and the different cellular mechanisms that may control the initial phases of fiber development. We exploited the recent discovery that fiber cells can divide to determine the cell-cycle stage at which fiber cell elongation occurs. If elongation begins when the cell is in the G1 phase of the cell cycle, treatment with an inhibitor of DNA replication would prevent cell division and reduce the frequency of multi-celled fibers. On the other hand, if elongation begins from the G2 phase after the completion of DNA replication during S phase of the cell cycle, multi-celled fibers still would be produced. The 5-aminouracil (5-AU), an inhibitor of DNA replication, added to ovule culture medium, was used to identify the cell-cycle phase in which the developing fiber cells were arrested. Our results demonstrated that cotton fiber cells were arrested at the G1 stage. We also found that there were two types of fiber cells, one with a round tip and the other with a pointed tip, at the initial stage of initiation. The unique pattern of cell wall formation resulting in multi-cellular fiber demonstrated that an ovule epidermal cell regulates the morphogenesis or polarity in fiber at a very early stage of development by controlling cell wall formation only perpendicular to the long axis of the fiber. We did not observe branched fibers from ovules grown under any condition (in vitro or in vivo). The lack of branched fibers indicated polarized fiber growth was fixed. The results indirectly confirmed the regulation of polarity in fiber by specific patterns of wall formation during cytokinesis. In this case, the cell wall formation only occurs perpendicular to the growth axis, thus, controlling the polarity of the developing fiber cell. We also observed that, unlike many other dividing cells, cell division and cell elongation in multicellular fiber were not directly related because division was not initiated after cells reached a certain critical size.
Team Incentives and Reference-Dependent Preferences

We investigate a multi-agent moral-hazard model where agents have expectation-based reference-dependent preferences a la Koszegi and Rabin (2006, 2007). We show that even when each agent's probability of success in a project is independent, team incentives can be optimal. Because the agents are loss averse, they have first-order risk aversion to wage uncertainty. This causes the agents to work harder when their own failure is stochastically compensated through other agents' performance. In the optimal contract, both high- and low-performance agents are equally rewarded if most agents accomplish their projects; otherwise only high-performance agents are rewarded.
Does Corporate Governance Influence Convertible Bond Issuance?

We examine the influence of corporate governance quality on firms’ choice between convertible debt, straight debt, and equity. Using a Western European sample of security offerings made between 2000 and 2010, we find that weaker firm-specific and country-specific corporate governance quality increases firms’ likelihood of issuing convertible debt instead of straight debt and common equity. We also find that stockholder reactions to convertible debt announcements are more favorable for firms with weaker corporate governance. Overall, our results suggest that firms with poor corporate governance quality use convertible debt to achieve lower external financing costs.
The Impact of Bolsa Família on Women’s Decision-Making Power

Conditional cash transfer programs that transfer resources to women have considerable scope to increase women’s decision-making power. Yet evidence of this effect is limited. We provide the first direct quantitative evidence of a CCT’s impact on women’s decision making, showing heterogeneity based on household characteristics. We find that Brazil’s Bolsa Família program significantly increases women’s decision-making power regarding contraception. For women in urban areas and for women less educated than their spouses, we find additional significant increases in women’s decision-making power regarding children’s school attendance, health expenses, and clothing; women’s own labor supply and clothing; and household durable goods purchases.
The Granger Causality Study Between Exchange Rate And Stock Prices In The Indian Context

This paper identifies the dynamic linkage between stock rate indices and exchange rate in the Indian Market for the last 26 years. There has not been such a significant and detailed study on this in an Indian context, and we have extensively studied the granger causality between different industrial sector-wise stock market indices with the US Dollar - Indian Rupee exchange rate. The regression is split adequately into phases of economic significance, and daily data is studied. We do not find any bidirectional causality in most of the sectors during all periods of study except during 2014-2019, where many sectors including Auto, PSU, Metal and Manufacturing, show a bidirectional dependance. This paper further links the empirical findings to the possible scenario of the economy that may have caused the relation for the sector during that period. These results and discussions have few significant implications for policymakers, stock analysts and foreign investors.
Expectation Formation in the Treasury Bond Market

I document that subjective bond risk premia implied by survey forecasts of future Treasury yields are acyclical at the one-year horizon. This is in stark contrast to large countercyclical variation in objective risk premia fitted from in-sample predictive regressions of future bond excess returns. This difference in risk premia implies a wedge between subjective and objective expectations of future short rates, which I show is predictable by trend and cycle components of macroeconomic forecasts. I show that these empirical findings can be explained with a learning model in which the agent filters latent trend and cycle components of fundamentals in real time, while an econometrician analyzing the data ex-post has full knowledge of the data-generating processes. The model also yields predictions, consistent with the data, on the joint behavior of the unconditional yield curve slope, the cyclicality of short-rate and macroeconomic expectation wedges, and the cyclicality of objective risk premia. My results suggest that equilibrium models of bond risk premia should target acyclical subjective risk premia and expectation formation, rather than ex-post in-sample fitted risk premia from predictive regressions.
Hormone and Metabolite Profiles in Nesting Green and Flatback Turtles: Turtle Species with Different Life Histories

Herbivorous turtle, Chelonia mydas, inhabiting the south China Sea and breeding in Peninsular Malaysia, and Natator depressus, a carnivorous turtle inhabiting the Great Barrier Reef and breeding at Curtis Island in Queensland, Australia, differ both in diet and life history. Analysis of plasma metabolites levels and six sex steroid hormones during the peak of their nesting season in both species showed hormonal and metabolite variations. When compared with results from other studies progesterone levels were the highest whereas dihydrotestosterone was the plasma steroid hormone present at the lowest concentration in both C. mydas and N. depressus plasma. Interestingly, oestrone was observed at relatively high concentrations in comparison to oestradiol levels recorded in previous studies suggesting that it plays a significant role in nesting turtles. Also, hormonal correlations between the studied species indicate unique physiological interactions during nesting. Pearson correlation analysis showed that in N. depressus the time of oviposition was associated with elevations in both plasma corticosterone and oestrone levels. Therefore, we conclude that corticosterone and oestrone may influence nesting behaviour and physiology in N. depressus. To summarise, these two nesting turtle species can be distinguished based on the hormonal profile of oestrone, progesterone, and testosterone using discriminant analysis.
Supply Chain Partners and Configuration Selection: An Intuitionistic Fuzzy Chouquet Integral Operator Based Approach

The concept of a supply chain exists for over twenty years but partners and configuration selection process still is rather unstructured. In order to increase value in any supply chain, a more comprehensive and integrative approach is required to select the right partners and establish the right configuration along the chain. Under economic growth wrong decisions does not jeopardize profitability dramatically. However, recent economy downtrends, has made the choice of suitable partners in the dynamic supply chain a key strategic concern. The nature of these decisions usually is complex and unstructured. This paper aims to present an intuitionistic fuzzy Chouquet integral operator based approach to partners and configuration selection. In order to bring structure in the evaluation process, the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model developed by Supply Research Council is employed. The paper discusses the development of the value chain concept from partners selection perspective, outlines general similarities and differences of the value chain and the SCOR, and uses a simple V-form supply chain example to establish the proposed approach. Finally, results of the application and sensitivity of the results to the change in the selection criteria weights are discussed.
International Trade Agreements Before Domestic Courts: Lessons from the Brazilian Experience

The world economy has been undergoing massive changes and Latin American emerging economies have been increasingly engaging in the international trade dispute settlement systems. At the same time, Latin American domestic courts adopt the direct effect of WTO agreements whereby international trade rules may be invoked by private parties in domestic litigation. Contrastingly, major WTO members do not give direct effect to WTO law, including the United States, the European Union, Canada, and China. The core question that emerges from this scenario is therefore: what should be the proper role of domestic courts in relation to international trade law? In order to answer this question, this paper examines Brazilian courts’ decisions to assess how the direct effect of WTO rules may work in the real world, and its impact in the function and objective of international trade rules. Through a qualitative research, this article gathers leading cases rendered by Brazilian courts involving the WTO agreements, namely the GATT and the antidumping Agreement. This study then challenges the core assumptions of the dominant international legal scholarship that fosters the application of international law by domestic courts and argues that the function and objective of international trade agreements and the principle of popular sovereignty and democratic self-government recommend declining direct effect of the WTO agreements. It indicates that the findings of the Brazilian experience may also be valid to a certain extent to other Latin American countries, suggesting future research for Mexico and Argentina. This study aims to raise the awareness that the prevailing international legal scholarship advancing an increased role of domestic courts in the application and interpretation of international law should not be applied to international trade agreements, although this perspective continues to harvest followers in Latin America and elsewhere.
Sexual maturity, larval release and reproductive output of two brachyuran crabs from a rocky intertidal area in central Portugal

Summary Sexual maturity, larval release and reproductive output were examined and compared in the intertidal crabs Xantho incisus (Brachyura: Xanthidae) and Pachygrapsus marmoratus (Brachyura: Grapsidae). Categorising females into predefined abdominal morphotypes proved to be the most realistic procedure to estimate size at 50% sexual maturity (i.e., the size at which 50% of the individuals are mature) in both species. In males, maturity estimates based on the proportion of individuals bearing mature gonads suggested that complementary allometric techniques using the relative growth of gonopods are adequate for both P. marmoratus and X. incisus. During the first half of the breeding season, both species breed intensively producing multiple broods within a single intermoult stage. Clutch age is positively correlated to stage of gonad development, and a new egg batch can be extruded within a few days of larval release. After July, ovigerous females with advanced broods were commonly found with spent gonads indicating a gradual decrease of breeding activity. In contrast to most brachyurans studied so far, asynchronous patterns of larval release were recorded for both species. It is suggested that the lack of an entrained lunar cycle may enable breeding females to produce successive egg batches within a shorter period, thus compensating for an increased larval mortality due to sub-optimal timing of larval release. The production of offspring can be adequately estimated by egg counts in P. marmoratus, but brood loss is significant in X. incisus, female size having no effect on this feature. Differences of brood volume, controlled for variation in crab size, suggested a slightly higher reproductive effort per batch in X. incisus. The reproductive variables examined will be used in future research to generate egg production profiles for the studied populations.
Stepwise Maturity Transformation - Intermediation Chains as a Way to Reconcile Different Purposes of Debt Financing

Maturity transformations are often performed in different steps along intermediation chains. (An example is: banks with long-term assets sell commercial paper with month-long duration to money market funds that are daily redeemable.) This paper provides a theory of such stepwise maturity transformations. It combines the idea of debt as disciplining device with the idea of debt as `money-like' claim. These ideas lead to conflicting predictions of the optimal debt duration, but they can be reconciled in intermediation chains: banks sell `medium-term' debt, which is optimal for disciplining managers, to funds with short-term financing, which is optimal for providing money-like claims.
Predatory Stock Price Manipulation

We develop a model in which feedback effects from equity markets to firms' access to external finance allow uninformed traders to profit by short selling a firm's stock while going long on its competitors. Because this strategy distorts the investment incentives of the firm targeted by short selling to the benefit of its rivals, we label it predatory stock price manipulation. Our model shows that predatory stock price manipulation leads to inefficient market concentration. Our analysis further unveils product market competition as a channel through which buy orders increase manipulation profits, providing new insights into the regulation of short sales.
Employee Volunteer Self-Regulation and Strengthening Employee Political Representation

This article offers an in-depth study of self-regulation of a bank’s employee volunteers as a modality of organizational control from the late 1970s onwards. It also seeks to discuss the affinity between these methodical and intentional organizational practices and other parallel formative events in the sphere of the bank’s industrial relationships. The paper is based on a case study in a privately-owned Israeli bank, from its establishment in 1935 until the late 1970s. Research data was collected using semi-structured interviews and archive material, including dozens of bank bulletins published from 1964 onwards. The article follows the transformation in the self of the bank’s employee, from a passive object of generous workplace health, education, and financial aid welfare programs – established together with the bank itself – to an autonomous and competitive individual who, from the late 1970s onwards, was required to initiate, plan, and participate in community volunteering, to advance bank sales. The article also demonstrates that organizational control of the employee’s self-intensified parallel to greater political status and importance of employee representation during the 1970s. The study challenges positivistic managerial literature that avoids discussing social repercussions of managerial practices of self-construction for volunteering employees. Furthermore, the study raises questions for further research about the nature of the link between corporate volunteering and issues concerning labor relations, such as acceptance or resistance by employees and their representatives of managerial control of self.
Review of Underwater Biotelemetry, with Emphasis on Ultrasonic Techniques

Underwater biotelemetry includes studies of movements, behavior, and physiological functions of underwater animals, as well as environmental conditions surrounding them. In such studies data are received via signals from a transmitter on or in an animal. Ultrasonic signals were used in early work. More recently both ultrasonic and radio signals have been used.In the two decades since the first underwater biotelemetry studies in the mid-1950s there have been considerable technical advances. Transmitters have become smaller, more powerful, and have longer operating life. Coding of individual transmitters has become more reliable and decoding more automated. Transmitters capable of sensing environmental, behavioral, and physiological factors from free-swimming animals have been built. Receiving systems ranging from small ones for tracking from canoes to large ones for oceangoing vessels have been developed.With this equipment about 60 species of underwater animals have been studied. Various techniques of tra.
The ω-Loop Region of the Human Prothrombin γ-Carboxyglutamic Acid Domain Penetrates Anionic Phospholipid Membranes*

The hydrophobic ω-loop within the prothrombin γ-carboxyglutamic acid-rich (Gla) domain is important in membrane binding. The role of this region in membrane binding was investigated using a synthetic peptide, PT-(1–46)F4W, which includes the N-terminal 46 residues of human prothrombin with Phe-4 replaced by Trp providing a fluorescent probe. PT-(1–46)F4W and PT-(1–46) bind calcium ions and phospholipid membranes, and inhibit the prothrombinase complex. PT-(1–46)F4W, but not PT-(1–46), exhibits a blue shift (5 nm) and red-edge excitation shift (28 nm) in the presence of phosphatidylserine (PS)-containing vesicles, suggesting Trp-4 is located within the motionally restricted membrane interfacial region. PS-containing vesicles protect PT-(1–46)F4W, but not PT-(1–46), fluorescence from potassium iodide-induced quenching. Stern-Volmer analysis of the quenching of PT-(1–46)F4W in the presence and absence of 80% phosphatidylcholine/20% PS vesicles suggested that Trp-4 is positioned within the membrane and protected from aqueous quenching agents whereas Trp-41 remains solvent-accessible in the presence of PS-containing vesicles. Fluorescence quenching of membrane-bound PT-(1–46)F4W is optimal with 7- and 10-doxyl-labeled lipids, indicating that Trp-4 is inserted 5 to 7 Å into the bilayer. This report demonstrates that the ω-loop region of prothrombin specifically interacts with PS-containing membranes within the interfacial membrane region.
HRM Problems

SMEs play a big role in the development of economies especially in developing countries such as Vietnam. With SME’s accounting for close to 95% percent of all businesses in Vietnam the role of HRM in enabling them attain business objective has been, put on the spotlight. HRM strategies remain an integral part of operations management that enables managers to cater to the needs of employees within the organization. HR strategies empower HR managers to recruit, train and assess the performance of employees effectively and efficiently hence enabling commercial organizations to gain competitive advantage within an industry in the long-term. Phan Vu Limited is one of Vietnam’s many SMEs. The organizations unique capabilities have enabled the organization to produce quality cement poles and piles consumed local and within the export market. Recent developments indicate that the company is experiencing significant growth as the company as exports a considerable amount of its output to other Asian nations such as Japan, and India. Nonetheless, the organizations expansion is under threat as the company’s workforce faces HRM hurdles. It is for this purpose, that the study investigates whether recruitment, training, and assessment strategies are the major causes of the HRM problems for middle managers at Phan Vu Ltd. During the study, the researcher identified astute employee recruitment, training, and assessment strategies by conducting a critical literature review before coming up with a fit researcher methodology that enabled the researcher to collect qualitative and quantitative data from employees of Phan Vu Limited. The researcher then analyzed data quantitatively and qualitatively before asserting that Phan Vu HR problems emanated from the organizations deficient employee recruitment, training, and assessment practices. Following the analysis the researcher engaged the reader in a heated discussion that was succeeded that, concluded Phan Vu Limited is required to institute organizational wide changes in its HR department to ensure that employee recruitment, training, and performance assessment practices improve to enable the organization to gain competitive advantage.
Tethyan relicts on continental coastlines of the northwestern Pacific Ocean and Australasia: molecular phylogeny and fossil record of batillariid gastropods (Caenogastropoda, Cerithioidea)

The Batillariidae are a family of cerithioidean gastropods consisting of 14 living species, classified in six to eight genera. They are abundant on sandy mudflats and sometimes on rocky shores, on continental margins in the warm‐temperate to tropical regions of the northwestern Pacific Ocean, Australasia and the Americas. Using samples from all 14 nominal batillariid species, we present a molecular phylogenetic hypothesis constructed from two genes, mitochondrial 16S rRNA and nuclear 28S rRNA, with taxa from four marine cerithioidean families as outgroups (Cerithiidae, Modulidae, Planaxidae, Potamididae). The Batillariidae as traditionally conceived are not monophyletic, because the Neotropical ‘batillariids’Lampanella and Rhinocoryne are sister to the Planaxidae. The monophyletic Batillariidae sensu stricto are restricted to the northwestern Pacific and Australasia; we suggest a revised generic classification consistent with our phylogenetic hypothesis and recognize the four genera Batillaria, Pyrazus, Velacumantus and Zeacumantus. We propose a definition of the family using shell characters, as a basis for a review of the extensive fossil record. Batillariids appeared in the Late Cretaceous or Palaeocene, and the extinct genera Pyrazopsis, Vicinocerithium and Granulolabium became diverse in the Tethyan realm before the group disappeared from Europe at the end of the Miocene. The Batillariidae s. s. reached Australia and New Zealand by the Late Oligocene, and the genera Pyrazus, Velacumantus and Zeacumantus still survive in this refugium of Tethyan fauna. Two lineages, Batillaria and the extinct Tateiwaia, migrated north to China and Japan in the Early Miocene, to establish the present disjunct distribution of this relictual group in southern Australasia and the Oriental region.