Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical condition of Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) in relation to road disturbance

Roads and their associated low-frequency noise have been linked with a reduction in abundance and density for many songbird species. However, a handful of species remain equally abundant in roadside habitats and nondisturbed areas. Abun- dance is a valuable baseline indicator of a species' ability to adapt to habitats altered by roads, but does not directly ascertain whether health is affected in these species. Here we examine whether Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus (L., 1766)), a species that remains abundant near roads, exhibit higher levels of chronic stress or reduced physical condition when residing near roads. Neither hematological measures of chronic stress, nor any of our measures of physical condition, differed signifi- cantly between Black-capped Chickadees inhabiting areas near or far from roads. Our results suggest that health and physical condition, like abundance, are not significantly affected by roads in the Black-capped Chickadee. This species may be an ideal model for understanding how some songbird species adapt to roads and the noise that they produce.
An Econometric Panel-Midas Model of Asset Returns in the Brazilian Stock Market

The paper describes the specification, estimation, and testing of an unrestricted structural econometric model design to explain and forecast individual returns of securities listed on the Brazilian stock market. The model's explanatory variables include macroeconomic, fundamental and behavioural variables which are sampled at different frequencies, since they are informed within different time periods, i.e. daily, monthly or quarterly. Accordingly, the model is specified and estimated using the MIDAS (Mixed Data Sampling) regression methodology, which supports estimation of regressions with variables sampled at different frequencies. The sample includes non-financial institutions listed in the Brazilian stock exchange from 2010 to 2016. The results indicate that the model is robust in explaining and forecasting quarterly returns of individual shares listed in that market.
Critical Factors for the Development of Women Entrepreneurship in Retail Business of Bangladesh

Development of women entrepreneurship in the SME sector has a crucial importance in a developing country like Bangladesh where women constitute half of the total population. The majority of them are underprivileged, under nourished, illiterate and poor. Hence, the development of women entrepreneurship has tremendous potentials for transforming the society through socioeconomic empowerment of the women. This potential is remained untapped in Bangladesh because of lower number of women entrepreneurs in business and economic activities. According to the Bangladesh Economic Review 2009, around six percent of the country’s $90 billion economy comes from SMEs, which is also the largest sector in terms of employment generation. But the women entrepreneurs are less than ten percent of the total entrepreneurs of the country. However, in the recent years, women entrepreneurship in small retail businesses of the country has been increasing which is a good sign for the positive growth of the economy.
Wikipedia Search Momentum and Stock Returns

We present empirical evidence that collective investor behavior can be inferred from large-scale Wikipedia search data for individual-level stocks. Using Shannon transfer entropy, a model-free measure that considers any kind of statistical dependence between time series, we investigate the statistical information transfer between daily Wikipedia searches and stock returns for a sample of 447 stocks and all trading days from 2008 to 2017. We entertain a hypothetical trading strategy based on Wikipedia search momentum that maps our findings to average portfolio returns. Results are in line with the notion of investor sentiment and the trading patterns of retail investors.
Optimal Agenda-Setter Timing

We analyze the optimal timing problem of an agenda setter who can propose a project that is then voted on by a committee. The payoff consists of a common stochastic component and an idiosyncratic component that differs among committee members. The agenda setter may be biased for or against the project, relative to the median committee member, and chooses when to call the vote. We analyze how the timing decision depends on the political environment and the bias of the agenda setter. We show that both positively and negatively biased agenda setters can implement decisions that differ from those preferred by the median committee member.
Testing for Partial Exogeneity with Weak Identification

We consider the following problem. A structural equation of interest contains two sets of explanatory variables which economic theory predicts may be endogenous. The researcher is interesting in testing the exogeneity of only one of them. Standard exogeneity tests are in general unreliable from the view point of size control to assess such a problem. We develop four alternative tests to address this issue in a convenient way. We provide a characterization of their distributions under both the null hypothesis (level) and the alternative hypothesis (power), with or without identification. We show that the usual chi-squares critical values are still applicable even when identification is weak. So, all proposed tests can be described as robust to weak instruments. We also show that test consistency may still hold even if the overall identification fails, provided partial identification is satisfied. We present a Monte Carlo experiment which confirms our theory. We illustrate our theory with the widely considered returns to education example. The results underscore: (1) how the use of standard tests to assess partial exogeneity hypotheses may be misleading, and (2) the relevance of using our procedures when checking for partial exogeneity.
Validation of QTL for Grain Yield‐Related Traits on Wheat Chromosome 3A Using Recombinant Inbred Chromosome Lines

Previously, quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for grain yield (GYLD) and yield-related traits were identifi ed by using a population of recombinant inbred chromosome lines (RICLs) developed from the wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivar Cheyenne (CNN) and its substitution line CNN(WI3A), in which the 3A chromosome of cultivar Wichita (WI) was substituted for CNN chromosome 3A. Our objectives were to identify and validate the QTL previously identifi ed in CNN(RICLs3A), using the mirror population WI(RICLs3A). A population of 90 WI(RICLs3A) was used to evaluate GYLD, 1000-kernel weight (TKW), kernels per spike (KPS), kernels per square meter (KPSM), spikes per square meter (SPSM), grain volume weight (GVW), plant height (PHT), and anthesis date (AD). Data were collected from replicated trials grown in six Nebraska environments from 2008 to 2009. Twelve QTL for GYLD, TKW, KPS, SPSM, GVW, AD, and PHT were detected. The phenotypic variance explained by these QTL ranged from 12% for SPSM to 53% for GVWT. Most of the QTLs were co-localized in one or two regions of chromosome 3A. The major grain yield QTL (QGyld.neb.3A.1) detected in the combined analysis explained 19% of the phenotypic variance and the substitution of CNN alleles for WI alleles decreased grain yield. Using a different genetic background, this study confi rmed most of the GYLD and yield-related QTL reported in previous RICLs3A mapping studies on chromosome 3A of winter wheat evaluated in Nebraska.
CHEMTAX - a program for estimating class abundances from chemical markers: application to HPLC measurements of phytoplankton

We describe a new program for calculating algal class abundances from measurements of chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The program uses factor analysis and a steepest descent algorithm to find the best fit to the data based on an initial guess of the pigment ratios for the classes to be determined. The program was tested with a range of synthetic data-sets that were constructed from known pigment ratios selected to be representative of samples of phytoplankton collected from the Southern Ocean and the Equatorial Pacific. Random errors were added both to the pigment ratios and to the calculated data-sets to simulate both uncertainties in the initial guess as to the pigment concentrations of each class and respectively experimental errors in the analysis of the p~gments by HPLC. Provided that the analytical data is of good quality, the program can successfully determine the class abundances, even when the initial estimates of the pigment ratios contain large errors. Of particular interest is the observation that the program can provide good estimates of prochlorophytes, even in the absence of experimental data on the concentrations of divinyl-chlorophylls a and b. The program is not restricted to the estimation of phytoplankton and can be used whenever specific biornarkers exist that can be used as indicators of biological or chemical processes.
Impact of Methyl jasmonate on antioxidant activity and some biochemical aspects of maize plant grown under water stress condition.

A pot-culture study was undertaken to investigate the possible role of Methyl jasmonate (MeJA)-treatment on the earlier vegetative growth stage and different chemical constituents of maize cultivar (Giza-2) plants subjected to water stress. The grains were divided into two groups: first group was pre-soaked in water, and the second one was pre-soaked in 50 μM MeJA for 8 h. The plants were subjected to different levels of water field capacity (WFC) 65%, 55% and 45%. The results showed that pre-soaking maize grains with MeJA led to increases in plant growth criteria evident in terms of plant height, fresh and dry weight of plant. The pigment levels concomitantly with total carbohydrates, total soluble sugar, polysaccharides, as well as free amino acids, proline and total protein content were markedly increased. Moreover, the application of the investigated MeJA significantly improved growth hormone in terms of IAA. In contrast ABA level was markedly declined in maize plant. The activities of oxidative CAT, POX and SOD were also increased with MeJA. In addition, the N, P and K content was increased significantly in shoot. As a conclusion, soaking maize grains with MeJA could alleviate the harmful effects of water stress.
Morphotypes, varieties, or subspecies?: genetic diversity and differentiation of four Saintpaulia (Gesneriaceae) morphotypes from the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania

Saintpaulia (H. Wendl.) is a forest-dependent, endangered plant genus endemic to Tanzania and Kenya. The taxonomy of Saintpaulia from the Usambara Mountains and adjacent lowlands in north-eastern Tanzania is problematic because of the morphological similarity of the species and the presence of considerable intraspecific variation. Conventional molecular phylogenetic methods have failed to reveal the genetic structure of this Saintpaulia complex. In this study, we assessed the genetic composition of 12 Saintpaulia populations, representing four different morphotypes, from the East Usambara Mountains using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Relatively high genetic diversities were observed within populations (mean h = 0.320), indicating their adaptive potential. Little genetic differentiation amongst populations (mean Fst = 0.063) and the genetic divergence of the rosulate and trailing morphotypes support the hypothesis of ongoing divergent evolution within the East Usambara metapopulation(s) of Saintpaulia. © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2008, 157, 347–355.
NET Institute* www.NETinst.org

A significant body of literature in information systems, marketing, and economics has shown the important implication of the distinction between experience products and search products (“product type”) on consumer information search, marketplace design, and firm strategy. However, how to empirically measure product types remains a challenge, and this challenge is further complicated by the growth of online commerce and the increasing availability of online reviews that have transformed the nature of many products and altered the traditional perception of these products. The objective of this research is to propose an online product review-based measure that could accurately reflect consumers’ perception of a product, as search or experience dominated product. Based on the definitions of search and experience products — whether information can be easily transferred or not — we propose a data-driven method that can be used to infer product type from statistical analyses of online product reviews. Our theoretical analyses indicate that the variance of the ratings should decrease as more consumers rate a pure search product; for experience products however, the variance of the ratings may remain constant or increase depending on the importance of the experience attributes in determining consumer utility. We demonstrate the empirical applications of this approach at the category, product, and attribute levels using product reviews data from Amazon.com, Yelp.com, and Ctrip.com, respectively. In addition, a user study conducted on Amazon Mechanical Turk shows our review-based measure to outperform Nelson’s (1970) product classification, which historically has been the standard in determining product type. Overall, this new measure provides an easy to implement, less subjective and more accurate measure of product type. Therefore, researchers and practitioners can use this measure to better understand how consumers perceive products and to design strategies accordingly.
IFAD Impact Assessment - Coastal Climate Resilient Infrastructure Project (CCRIP): Bangladesh

The Coastal Climate Resilient Infrastructure Project (CCRIP) is a $150 million rural infrastructure project which was implemented in 12 districts of Bangladesh since 2013, and is due to be completed by the end of 2019. The project is funded by IFAD, the ADB, KfW of Germany, and the Government of Bangladesh. The project aims to improve the connectivity of farms and households in the face of climatic shocks, focusing on one of the most shock-prone areas of one of the most shock-prone countries in the world. The main component of the project is the construction of improved markets and market connecting roads, that are designed to remain useable during the monsoon season. This is expected to improve sales of on-farm produce, along with access to inputs as well as opportunities for off-farm income generation, leading to increased productivity and income. The project also aims to improve women's empowerment by employing Labour Contracting Societies (LCS), consisting mainly of destitute women, to carry out some of the construction work. This impact assessment focuses on the activities funded by IFAD, which includes the strengthening of markets and roads at the community and village levels. Using data from an in-depth household questionnaire covering 3,000 treatment and control households, combined with extensive qualitative interviews, we analyse the project's impact on a range of impact indicators relating to income; crop, fish and livestock production and sales; assets, food security and education; financial inclusion; and women's empowerment. We assess impact on the whole sample, as well as for a range of sub-groups, including by geographic location, location within the market catchment area, and by livelihood activity, integrating findings from the qualitative data to help to explain the mechanisms that shaped the project's impact. Regarding on-farm activities, we find that, despite a lack of impact on productivity, income from selling crops and fish increased significantly (by 104 and 50 per cent, respectively). However, we do not find a similar increase in income from the sale of livestock and livestock products. The lack of impact on productivity was seemingly caused by persisting issues with accessing high-quality inputs during the monsoon season, as well as households having limited capital to purchase these inputs. Despite this, the project increased the amount of produce that was sold, the amount that was sold at a market rather than from home or the farm gate, and increased the likelihood of growing cash crops, leading to the large increase in on-farm income. As well as improving on-farm income, the project also increased income from wage labour, which together produced a positive impact on total income of 11 per cent, along with a four per cent reduction in poverty. This increased prosperity was also reflected in reduced food insecurity and increased ownership of households assets.
A global infrageneric classification system for the genus Crotalaria (Leguminosae) based on molecular and morphological evidence

Crotalaria is a large genus of 702 species with its centre of diversity in tropical Africa and Madagascar and secondary radiations in other parts of the world. The current infrageneric classification system is based on morphological and morphometric studies of the African taxa only and is here re-evaluated using a phylogenetic approach. DNA sequences derived from the nuclear ITS and the plastid matK, psbA-trnH and rbcLa markers were analyzed using parsimony and model-based (Bayesian) approaches. The resultant molecular phylogeny allowed for a new interpretation of diagnostically important morphological characters, including specialisations of the calyx, keel, standard petal and style, which are variously convergent in several unrelated infrageneric groups. Of particular interest is the congruence between the new phylogeny and the distribution of standard petal callosity types. A sectional classification system for the entire genus is proposed for the first time. The new system that is formalised here comprises eleven sections: Amphitrichae, Calycinae, Crotalaria, Geniculatae, Glaucae, Grandiflorae, Hedriocarpae, Incanae, Schizostigma, Borealigeniculatae and Stipulosae. Sectional limits of the Geniculatae, Calycinae and Crotalaria are modified. The subsections Stipulosae, Glaucae and Incanae are raised to sectional level, while some groups previously recognized as subsections are abandoned due to non-monophyly (subsections Chrysocalycinae, Hedriocarpae, Macrostachyae and Tetralobocalyx). Two new sections are recognized, Amphitrichae and Borealigeniculatae.
Frequently Purchased Goods and Price Expectation

I study how the price expectation regarding future prices affects consumer purchase behaviour for frequently, non-durable, goods. Using a standard dynamic model of utility maximisation, I show how current purchases depend on expectation about future prices. Then, I use scanner data to provide reduced-form evidence on which type of expectation, among those commonly used in the literature, is consistent with the data. I find that, on av- erage, consumers are weak-rational, i.e. only past prices matter to form expectations about future prices, but there is some degree of heterogeneity in price expectations.
The Effect of Leniency Rule on Cartel Formation and Stability: Experiments with Open Communication

Cartels can severely harm social welfare. Competition authorities introduced leniency rules to destabilize existing cartels and hinder the formation of new ones. Empirically, it is difficult to judge the success of these measures because functioning cartels are unobservable. Existing experimental studies confirm that a leniency rule indeed reduces cartelization. We extend these studies by having a participant in the role of the competition authority actively participating in the experiment. Based on chat communication content and price setting behavior, this authority judges whether firms formed a cartel and decides on fines in real time. We find that a leniency rule does not affect cartelization in this setup.
Identification of Singular and Noisy Structural VAR Models: The Collapsing-ICA Approach

When the number of variables is larger than the number of structural shocks driving the economy,<br>the associated structural VAR system is said to be singular. We propose an identification method for singular structural VAR models contaminated by noise that combines a collapsing procedure with the Independent Component Analysis. We discuss the consistency of the proposed combined procedure and examine its finite sample properties with Monte Carlo simulations. <br> The empirical application of the proposed scheme on U.S. data allows to identify the low dimensional system of structural shocks driving the U.S. economy.
The Impact of Human Development on Economic Growth: A Panel Data Approach

The development of its people is one of the principal objectives of an economy. To the ambit that greater capabilities and opportunities will improve the productivity of people, human development is also expected to have a positive influence on economic growth. The primary objective of this paper is to empirically examine whether human development significantly affects economic growth. We use panel data consisting of 25 developed and 25 developing countries from the year 2000 to 2014. The data has been collected from Human Development Report (UNDP) and World Development Indicators (World Bank). Ordinary least squares, fixed effects, and random effects models have been employed for the examination. One set of the equations uses HDI as an aggregated measure of human development. The second set uses health and education as dis-aggregated measures of human development to assess their separate effects on growth. A significantly positive relationship between HDI and economic growth can be found in the cases of both developed and developing economies. Life expectancy and primary gross enrollment ratio used as measures of health and education, respectively, impact economic growth negatively.
The Consequences of Providing Lower Quality Audits at the Engagement Partner Level

Using data from Taiwan, where a long history of engagement partner performance is available, we examine the reputational consequences that engagement partners suffer for having a recent history of past audit failures. We find that when an engagement partner’s recent history of poor audit quality is observable to audit clients, they are more likely to lose clients and are less likely to be reassigned to serve other clients of the audit firm over the next five years. We also find that these engagement partners are more likely to stop serving as engagement partners in the next five years, and those who remain in client service experience a re-allocation of assignments (both as a lead engagement partner and as a concurring (second) partner). Additionally, the clients that these partners continue to serve exhibit increased risk. Overall, our findings suggest that an engagement partner’s prior audit quality influences clients’ and audit firms’ engagement partner selection. The results suggest that audit clients can obtain valuable information from partner name disclosures and that audit firms signal a commitment to quality by managing engagement partner assignments.
Do Consumers Switch to the Best Supplier?

This paper assesses the ability of consumers to choose between alternative suppliers. Across two independent datasets from the UK electricity market we find that consumers switching exclusively for price reasons appropriated only a quarter to half of the maximum gains available. While such behaviour can be explained by high search costs, the observation that 20-30% of the consumers actually reduced their surplus as a result of switching cannot. A brief analysis rejects an explanation involving suppliers' mis-selling tactics. Consumers may need direct protection, as well as good information, if their decisions are insufficiently accurate to engender competitive markets.