Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Caprenin 1. Digestion, Absorption, and Rearrangement in Thoracic Duct-Cannulated Rats

Caprenin (CAP) is a triglyceride that primarily contains caprylic (C8:0), capric (C10:0), and behenic (C22:0) acids. This study was undertaken to determine whether or not CAP is qualitatively digested, absorbed, and rearranged like other dietary fats and oils that contain these medium-chain and very long-chain fatty acids. In vitro results showed that neat CAP, coconut oil (CO) and peanut oil (PO) were hydrolyzed by porcine pancreatic lipase. All of the neat triglycerides also were digested in vivo by both male and female rats. This was shown by the recovery of significantly more extractable lymphatic fat than with fat-free control animals and by the recovery of orally administered triglyceride-derived fatty acids in lymph triglycerides. However, substantially more PO (74%) and CO (51%) were recovered in lymph relative to CAP (10%). These quantitative differences are consistent with the fatty acid composition of each triglyceride and primary routes of fatty acid uptake. The 24-h lymphatic recovery of CAP-derived C8:0, C10:0, and C22:0 averaged 3.9%, 17.8%, and 11.2%, respectively, for male and female rats. The C8:0 and C10:0 results approximated those obtained with CO (2.0% and 16.3%, respectively). In contrast, the 24-h absorbability of C22:0 in CAP was significantly less than that seen in PO (55.4%). Finally, there was no evidence of significant rearrangement of the positions of fatty acids on glycerol during digestion and absorption. Those fatty acids recovered in lymphatic fat tended to occupy the same glyceride positions that they did in the neat administered oils. However, the lymph fats recovered from all animals dosed with fat emulsions were enriched with endogenous lymph fatty acids. It is concluded that CAP is qualitatively digested, absorbed, and processed like any dietary fat or oil that contains medium-chain and very long-chain fatty acids.
Short Communication: molecular characterisation of the wild yak (Bos grunniens mutus) melanocortin receptor-4 (MC4R) gene and a comparative analysis with that of other Bovinae species

The wild yak melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) gene was cloned and characterised in this study. Results showed that the wild yak MC4R gene was composed of 1343 bp nucleotides with no introns and a GC content of 49%, encoding a polypeptide with 332 amino acids. The speculated size of the open reading frame (ORF) was 999 bp with the start codon – ATG and stop codon – TAA. The sequence of the wild yak MC4R gene in this study is different from that reported before for the domestic yak, and represents a new haplotype within yak species. Nucleotide comparisons of the MC4R gene between wild yak and domestic yak, cattle and zebu showed relatively high sequence conservation. Two nucleotide mutations in the ORF region of the MC4R gene, namely C >T and C >A, existed in both yak species studied here. There were three nucleotide substitutions within the coding region that separated wild and domestic yak from cattle and zebu (A > G, C > G and C > G). One nucleotide mutation detected in the 3′ UTR separated wild yak from cattle and zebu (T > A) (no 3′ flanking region of domestic yak MC4R gene reported). There was no amino acid change between wild yak and domestic yak, or cattle and zebu. However, there were two changes between wild yak and domestic yak compared to cattle and zebu (A to T and V to L). A molecular phylogenetic tree showed wild yak and domestic yak to be joined first, followed by the cattle, zebu and then the sheep (Caprinae). The phylogenetic clustering result was not only identical to the taxonomy, but to the phylogenetic clustering using mitochondrial DNA.
Promoting Better Environmental Outcomes

The Productivity Commission convened a roundtable Promoting Better Environmental Outcomes at Old Parliament House, Canberra on 19-20 August 2008. Participants included government officials, academics, consultants, journalists and representatives of environmental organisations and agencies. Keynote addresses were presented by Professor Gary Libecap from the University of California and Professor Robert Stavins from Harvard University. The Promoting Better Environmental Outcomes roundtable sought to address two questions central to developing good environmental policy: • under what conditions can governments improve environmental outcomes? , and • how should governments intervene to ensure effective and efficient results? The roundtable proceedings are being published to enable a wider audience access to the information and insights that emerged. This volume includes papers by the speakers and a summary of the key points covered in the discussion sessions. The Commission is grateful to the speakers and other participants whose contributions made the roundtable such a valuable exercise.
Life History Patterns and Correlations in Sharks

ABSTRACT This study examines life history patterns and correlations between traits related to body size, reproduction, age, and growth in sharks, using data from 230 populations representing 164 species, 19 families, and 7 orders. The analysis focused on interspecific life history variability, but intraspecific and intrapopulation variation were also considered. Interspecifically, body size correlated positively with litter size and offspring size, and a tradeoff between litter size and offspring size was found after factoring out the effects of body size. Offspring size correlated negatively with growth completion rate (K), but the correlation became positive after correcting for the effects of body size. Parental size for males and females was negatively correlated with K. Parental size and size at maturity exhibited a strong positive correlation, with sexual maturity occurring at about 75% of maximum size in both sexes. Males were 10% smaller than females and reached their maximum length 34% faster than females on average. Females tend to mature later and live longer than males, but age at maturity is reached at about 50% of maximum age in both sexes. Maximum size and empirical longevity were not significantly correlated in females, but were positively correlated in males. Size and age at maturity also exhibited a moderate positive correlation in males, especially after excluding data for Squalus acanthias. Principal component and cluster analyses were used to reflect similarities among life history traits of 40 populations from 34 species, and at least three separate life history strategies were identified.
Estudo da atividade anti-helmíntica do extrato etanólico de Jatropha mollissima (Pohl) Baill. (Euphorbiaceae) sob Haemonchus contortus em ovinos no semiárido paraibano

This study aimed to evaluate the anthelmintic effect of Jatropha mollissima through in vitro and in vivo experiments. Initially we investigated the concentration of extract with bioactive effect, through the toxicity evolution test of the ethanol extract of J. mollissima on the microcrustacean Artemia salina, obtaining CL50 concentration of 660. 80µg/ml, which was tested in fecal cultures containing infective larvae of Haemonchus contortus and in animals for the verification of OPG reduction. For in vivo test, the extract was dissolved in water to obtain concentrations of 660. 80µg/ml and 1321. 6µg/ml. Feces were collected weekly and blood was collected every fifteen days. As a result of in vitro test, the ethanol extract of the stem of J. mollissima proved toxic on A. salina, with CL50 less than 1000µg/ ml and inhibited the eggs hatching and the development of larvae of H. contortus, presenting an efficiency of 70.77%. in vivo test revealed that the extract is also effective in sheep, with a significant reduction in the count of OPG after 28 days of experiment, 47 and 44% of reduction in the groups treated with the extract, 7.5% in the untreated group of animals and 40.6% with ivermectin. Even parasitized, the animals remained clinically healthy and without anemia. The ethanol extract of the stem of Jatropha mollissima may represent an alternative to the control of sheep worms, because it slows the parasitic resistance.
Underwater predatory behaviour of the American mink (Mustela vison)

Fishing behaviour of the American mink (Mustela vison Schreber) was investigated in the laboratory. Data were recorded using cine film and tape recorded commentaries. Three species of prey were presented to mink, namely, carp (Cyprinus curpio), goldfish (Carassius auratus) and minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus). It was found to be necessary to train ranch-bred mink to enter water and catch fish; young mink appeared to be easier to train than adults. Mink spent 5–20 sec under water when fishing; prey had usually previously been located from an aerial vantage point. Predatory behaviour was highly organized sequentially whereas fish were more prone to indulge in unpredictable stratagems; the behaviour of mink and fish were highly correlated. The mink's efficiency in catching fish was related to prey size (smaller individuals being more vulnerable to capture) and shoaling. Minnows, which form highly organized shoals, were less easily caught when present in large numbers; this was not true of a loosely shoaling species, the carp. Of the three species of prey presented, vulnerability to capture took the form goldfish> carp> minnow; these differences, however, may have been influenced by the fish's previous experience of underwater predators.
An Ascending Multi-Item Auction with Financially Constrained Bidders1

A number of heterogeneous items are to be sold to a group of potential bidders. Every bidder knows his own values over the items and his own budget privately. Due to budget constraint, bidders may not be able to pay up to their values. In such a market, a Walrasian equilibrium typically fails to exist and furthermore no existing allocation mechanism can tackle this case. We propose the notion of an ‘equilibrium under allotment’ to such markets and develop an ascending auction mechanism that always finds such an equilibrium assignment and corresponding price system in finitely many rounds. The auction can be viewed as an appropriate and proper generalization of the ascending auction of Demange, Gale and Sotomayor from settings without financial constraints to settings with financial constraints. We examine various properties of the auction and its outcome.
Productivity Change of Indian Commercial Banks: A Non-Parametric Study

With the growth of Indian economy, the volume of transactions of commercial banks has grown manifold. The study attempts to investigate the total factor productivity change of four leading Indian commercial banks using non-parametric data envelopment analysis (DEA) and distance function based Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) over FY2007 to FY2016. The operating approach (or income-based approach) is adopted for input-output selection, viewing the banks as decision-making units (DMU) transforming a bundle of inputs (costs) to produce a set of outputs (revenues). A DMU is considered efficient which maximizes the revenues without increasing the costs. The results indicate that the annual TFP growth registered by these four banks is 3.3%. While two banks recorded productivity growth, the productivity of two other banks declined during the period. Highest productivity growth was recorded during FY2015 and FY2016. TFP growth is further decomposed to Efficiency change (EFFCH) and Technical change (TECHCH) components to study the catchup by less efficient DMUs.
Market Risk Reporting by the World's Top Banks: Evidence on the Diversity of Reporting Practice and the Implications for Accounting Harmonisation

The increasing adoption of international accounting standards and global convergence of accounting regulations is frequently heralded as serving to reduce diversity in financial reporting practice. In a process said to be driven in large part by the interests of international business and global financial markets, one might expect the greatest degree of convergence to be found amongst the world’s largest multinational financial corporations. This paper challenges such claims and presumptions. Its content analysis of longitudinal data for the period 2000-2006 reveals substantial, on going diversity in the market risk disclosure practices, both numerical and narrative, of the world’s top-25 banks. The significance of such findings is reinforced by the sheer scale of the banking sector’s risk exposures that have been subsequently revealed in the current global financial crisis. The variations in disclosure practices documented in the paper apply both across and within national boundaries, leading to a firm conclusion that, at least in terms of market risk reporting, progress towards international harmonisation remains rather more apparent than real.
The Importance of Trade and Capital Imbalances in the European Debt Crisis

The current debate on the European crisis has highlighted the role of fiscal imbalances in explaining the turmoil that has dominated Europe in the past few years. This paper adopts a different point of view by suggesting that intra-European payments imbalances are crucial for the survival of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Indeed, payment imbalances between the North and South have contributed to the accumulation of large stock of foreign debt, while flows of foreign capital ceased to finance productive investments that might have contributed to debt repayments -- being used instead to finance consumption and real estate. The dynamic interplay between current account imbalances and the accumulation of foreign debt reveals that, once the system is driven into disequilibrium by a real exchange rate misalignment, the longer a payments imbalance persists and the harder the eventual adjustment will be. Capital reversals, by shifting portfolio balances, then lead the system toward instability, sovereign default, and the collapse of the exchange rate regime. Replacing private with public creditors can temporarily help us to stay away from the point where the system breaks down. But this is only a temporary expedient because the underlying imbalances will need continuing and increasing financing until equilibrium is restored by other means. One permanent solution is the European Central Bank’s (ECB) official monetary transactions program, if the potential expansions to the central bank’s balance sheet can be tolerated.
Semiparametric Efficiency in GMM Models of Nonclassical Measurement Errors, Missing Data and Treatment Effects

We study semiparametric e‐ciency bounds and e‐cient estimation of parameters deflned through general nonlinear, possibly non-smooth and over-identifled moment restrictions, where the sampling information consists of a primary sample and an auxiliary sample. The variables of interest in the moment conditions are not directly observable in the primary data set, but the primary data set contains proxy variables which are correlated with the variables of interest. The auxiliary data set contains information about the conditional distribution of the variables of interest given the proxy variables. Identiflcation is achieved by the assumption that this conditional distribution is the same in both the primary and auxiliary data sets. We provide semiparametric e‐ciency bounds for both the \verifyout-of-sample" case, where the two samples are independent, and the \verify-in-sample" case, where the auxiliary sample is a subset of the primary sample; and the bounds are derived when the propensity score is unknown, or known, or belongs to a correctly specifled parametric family. These e‐ciency variance bounds indicate that the propensity score is ancillary for the \verify-in-sample" case, but is not ancillary for the \verify-out-of-sample" case. We show that sieve conditional expectation projection based GMM estimators achieve the semiparametric e‐ciency bounds for all the above mentioned cases, and establish their asymptotic e‐ciency under mild regularity conditions. Although inverse probability weighting based GMM estimators are also shown to be semiparametrically e‐cient, they need stronger regularity conditions and clever combinations of nonparametric and parametric estimates of the propensity score to achieve the e‐ciency bounds for various cases. Our results contribute to the literature on non-classical measurement error models, missing data and treatment efiects. JEL: C1, C3
Remittances, Exchange Rate Regimes, and the Dutch Disease: A Panel Data Analysis

Using disaggregated sectorial data, this study shows that rising levels of remittances have spending effects that lead to real exchange rate appreciation and resource movement effects that favor the nontradable sector at the expense of tradable goods production. These characteristics are two aspects of the phenomenon known as Dutch disease. The results further indicate that these effects operate more strongly under fixed nominal exchange rate regimes.
Utilização do inseticida Methomyl na seleção de genótipos de aveia resistentes à helmintosporiose

Spot Blotch is a plant disease which causes yield losses in oat and other cereals. Selection for resistant genotypes using Helminthosporium sativum toxic filtrates is an efficient technique, which reduces the pathogen variability and the influence of the environment over the genotype expression. The filtrates extraction is time consuming and a difficult process, and the possibility of using a synthetic product to simulate its action of inhibiting the cell electron transport chain would be useful. The Methomyl insecticide is an efficient product to simulate the effects of the fungus that causes spot blotch in corn. The objective of this study was to check its efficiency in oat. Oat roots and callus growth were evaluated in the insecticide presence. Growth values that were less inhibited by the insecticide were used to correlate with spot blotch resistance. The results indicate that Methomyl reduces the growth of oat root and calli and may be used to differentiate genotypes more and less resistant to Spot Blotch. Therefore, UFRGS 14, which was the most affected genotype in the presence of the fungus toxic filtrates, had also the most reduced root and calli growth in the presence of Methomyl.
Determination of nitrate, nitrite, N- nitrosamines, cyanide and ascorbic acid contents of fruit juices marketed in Nigeria

The nitrate, nitrite, N- nitrosamines and ascorbic acid content as well as the levels of cyanide in eight brands of fruit juices and twelve brands of sachet water commonly marketed and consumed in Nigeria were estimated. The mean values of nitrate ranged from 2.29±0.05 to 16.50±1.21 mg/L for the juices and 0.64±0.21 to 7.56±3.10 mg/L for sachet water. While the mean concentration of nitrite ranged from 6.84±0.47 to 12.03±1.07 and 0.12±0.02 to 4.42±0.33 mg/L for juices and sachet water, respectively. Four out of the eight brands of juices analyzed contained detectable levels of nitrosamines (2.75±0.47 to 45.70±3.07 ig/L) while none of the samples contained any detectable amount of cyanide. Ascorbic acid concentrations of the samples varied from 100 to 400 mg/L. The results are discussed from nutritional and toxicological points of view.
Expression and regulation of gonadotropin‐re leasing hormone (GNRH) and its receptor MRNA transcripts during the mouse ovarian development

The present study examines the expression and regulation of gonadotropin‐releasing hormone (GnRH) and its receptor (GnRH‐R) mRNA levels during mouse ovarian development. A fully processed, mature GnRH mRNA together with intron‐containing primary transcripts was expressed in the immature mouse ovary as determined by Northern blot analysis and reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR). The size of ovarian GnRH mRNA was similar to that of hypothalamus, but its amount was much lower than that in the hypothalamus. Quantitative RT‐PCR procedure also revealed the expression of GnRH‐R mRNA in the ovary, but the estimated amount was a thous and‐fold lower than that in the pituitary gland. We also examined the regulation of ovarian GnRH and GnRH‐R mRNA levels during the follicular development induced by pregnant mare's serum gonadotropin (PMSG) and/or human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Ovarian luteinizing hormone receptor (LH‐R) mRNA was abruptly increased at 48 h after the PMSG administration and rapidly decreased to the basal level thereafter. Ovarian GnRH mRNA level was slightly decreased at 48 h after the PMSG administration, and then returned to the basal value. GnRH‐R mRNA level began to increase at 24 h after the PMSG treatment, decreased below the uninduced basal level at 48 h, and gradually increased thereafter. HCG administration did not alter ovarian GnRH mRNA level, while it blocked the PMSG‐induced increase in GnRH mRNA level. Taken together, the present study demonstrates that the expression of GnRH and GnRH‐R mRNA are regulated by gonadotropin during follicular development, suggesting possible intragonadal paracrine roles of GnRH and GnRH‐R in the mouse ovarian development.
A Scale of Credit Risk Evaluations Assessed by Ordered Fuzzy Numbers

Banks faced many difficulties related to lax credit standards. The effective management of credit risk is a critical component of a comprehensive approach to risk management and it should maintain credit risk exposure within acceptable parameters. However, the problem arises when standards are not strictly quantitative as managers often depend on various approaches – also on experts’ techniques. Each bank has the credit assessment department and a specific credit assessment committee. The committee is provided with the analysts’ recommendation based on ratios from financial statements and internal rating system. However, the final decision belongs to the committee members who do not solely rely on financial data and take into consideration factors of a wider spectrum, e.g. the prospects of the line of business or the experience of board members etc. Those factors are often considered on the linguistic scale which includes imprecise and inaccurate quantifiers such as: more/less, better/worse etc. which for the experts are justified and result from their personal experience. <br><br>The paper presents the approach of the decision-making techniques and scales of imprecise phrases commonly used in the process of credit risk assessment based on experts’ preferences. Due to the imprecision, ordered fuzzy numbers are a useful tool. It also focuses on a question how, a human judgement approach, based on prioritizing and ranking prospect borrowers, affects the decision-making process.
The role of resources and natural enemies in determining the distribution of an insect herbivore population

1. Both resources and natural enemies can influence the distribution of a herbivore. The ideal free distribution predicts that herbivores distribute themselves to optimise utilisation of resources. There is also evidence of herbivores seeking out refuges that reduce natural enemy attack (enemy‐free space). Which of these theories predominates in a thistle–tephritid Terellia ruficauda (Diptera: Tephritidae)–parasitoid interaction is examined.
Unusual methanogenic flora of a wood‐fermenting anaerobic bioreactor

Antibody probes and immunotechnology were used in qualitative and quantitative studies of the methanogenic flora of two mesophilic continuously stirred tank reactors in which wood or sorghum served as substrates. This represents the first immunological study of a wood-fermenting bioreactor. An overwhelmingly predominant methanogenic subpopulation was observed which, after 2.5 years of operation represented nearly 90% of all methanogens detectable immunologically, reaching 97% 1 year later. This subpopulation was weakly related antigenically to Methanomicrobium mobile BP and morphologically was indistinguishable from it. Such predominance of a single methanogen subpopulation and its relatedness to M. mobile BP has not been observed previously in bioreactors, and may be a distinctive trait of wood-fermenting bioreactors. The majority of other methanogens detected immunologically were not of the same immunotype as reference strains, suggesting that important methanogens remain to be isolated from these systems.