Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effectiveness of Monetary Policy Transmission Channels in a Recessed Economy

The objective of the study is to assess the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission channels (MPTC) in a recessed economy and analyse their impact in achieving the macro economic objectives of low inflation rate, financial market/price stability and Economic growth. Nigeria in recent times has been battling with falling exchange rate, high inflation, high level of unemployment and low productivity. The effectiveness of monetary policy channel in addressing these challenges and impacting significantly on the real sector, financial sector and inflation in Nigeria is once again a prominent question. The paper investigate the link between the (MPTC) :interest rate channel (MPR), Asset price channels:equity price channels (All shares index ), exchange rate channel(EXCHR), credit channels (Bank lending rate), direct control and OMO instruments (Money supply and TB rate respectively) in Nigeria and their impact on inflation, real sector (RGDP) and ALSI (Financial Sector) in Nigeria using vector auto-regression (VAR) approach. The VAR result suggest that lending rate and TB Rate have a significant impact on CPI respectively but not on RGDP, MPR have significant impact on both ALSI and CPI but not on RGDP. Money supply had no significant impact; this is in line with the post-Keynesians stance that money supply does not determine national income. It is recommended that the government should use an effective monetary and fiscal policy mix to reduce the rate of inflation to a single digit, as well as use appropriate policies mix to attract foreign portfolio and foreign direct investment to Nigeria.
Studies on the fibronectin receptors of human peripheral blood leukocytes. Morphologic and functional characterization

We have investigated the interactions between plasma fibronectin (Fn) and human peripheral blood phagocytic cells. As shown by studies of the binding of Fn-coated fluorescent microspheres (Fn-ms), both polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) and monocytes had specific binding sites for Fn at the plasma membrane. However, as purified from blood, only monocytes were stimulated by Fn to become more actively phagocytic. This increase in phagocytosis was reflected by an Fn- induced increase in the ingestion of IgG-coated erythrocytes and, more dramatically by an Fn-dependent initiation of phagocytosis of C3b- coated erythrocytes. Despite this difference between PMN and monocytes in the functional consequences of Fn binding, the cell surface molecules responsible for Fn binding on the two cell types shared many characteristics. On both cells, binding of Fn-ms was inhibited by sufficient concentrations of fluid-phase Fn; both PMN and monocytes bound fewer Fn-ms at 4 degrees C than at 37 degrees C; both achieved maximal binding at similar Fn-ms/cell ratios; and phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride did not inhibit Fn-ms binding to either cell type. Most dramatically, monoclonal anti-Fn antibodies that inhibited binding of Fn-ms to one cell type inhibited binding to both; conversely, monoclonal anti-Fn antibodies that did not inhibit Fn-ms binding to either cell type did not inhibit binding to the other. Fn will stimulate PMN to a more actively phagocytic state, like that induced in monocytes, if the PMN are first exposed to C5a or N-formyl-methionyl- leucylphenylalanine. This effect occurs without apparent change in the number of Fn receptors. We conclude that the PMN and monocyte receptors for Fn are very similar, but that their milieu is very different in the two cells as purified from peripheral blood. Whereas Fn induces increased phagocytosis in monocytes, PMN must be activated before the Fn can be effective.
Global Linkages to Community-Based Ecosystem Management in the United States

Abstract Community-based ecosystem management (CBEM) in the United States is closely tied to global processes. Increasing and shifting international market demands for ecosystem products and services together with global trends in climate change and biodiversity loss have tangible impacts in communities in every region of the country. Meanwhile, community-based natural resource management efforts in other parts of the world, particularly in developing countries, have a longer history than in the United States. This history, and the tools and techniques developed elsewhere for community-based resource management, can help to inform North American advocates and practitioners of CBEM. This paper has four objectives. The first is to identify key global trends that affect communities in the United States. These trends include demand and supply relationships (especially of forest resources) and environmental changes that will shape economic and policy choices in coming decades. Second, the paper examines countervailing forces of globalization and decentralization. How are shifting patterns of governance and control around the world affecting the prospects for sustainable community-based resource management? Third, the paper seeks to understand migration as a growing feature of many communities. What challenges and opportunities does migration pose for sustainable resource management? Finally, the paper summarizes a few of the tools and techniques used internationally that might have relevance in the United States.
Data Standardization

With data rapidly becoming the lifeblood of the global economy, the efficiency of its use significantly affects both social and private welfare. While the volume of data collected has reached astronomical proportions, the fact that most data are collected in a system that is largely modular and distributed creates a “Tower of Babel�? of different databases, thereby potentially limiting synergetic knowledge production. Data standardization is key to facilitating and improving the use of data. Indeed, standardization is a precondition for the operation of industries in which cross-firm and cross-industry data exchanges are critical. It can also create substantial benefits when data synergies carry high value. It does so by reducing the three main technological obstacles to data portability and interoperability: metadata uncertainties, data transfer obstacles, and missing data. Despite the importance of data standardization, the role of the government in such standardization is rarely examined. This article analyzes the justifications for and the limitations of data standardization in light of data’s special characteristics. We first review the relevant characteristics of data and data markets. We discuss the three main technological obstacles to widening the use of data, based on interviews with data scientists. We then explain how data standardization affects these obstacles and analyze the benefits and costs of data standardization. As shown, data raises new considerations about the appropriate interventionist role for regulators, that are generally absent from debates about the standardization of other products, and adds a novel dimension to some of the traditional considerations raised in more typical cases. For example, on the plus side, data standardization can lead to smoother data flows, better machine learning, and easier policing in cases where rights are infringed or unjustified harms are created by data-fed algorithms. It might also help support a more competitive and distributed data collection ecosystem. At the same time, increasing the scale and scope of data analysis can create negative externalities in the form of better profiling, increased harms to privacy, and cybersecurity harms. Repercussions for investment and innovation in data collection and analysis are also analyzed. Finally, we explore whether market-led standardization initiatives can be relied upon to increase welfare, and evaluate the role governmental-facilitated standardization should play, if at all. We show that the need for reviewing and possibly facilitating data standards can be especially strong where potential data synergies are cross-industry or inter-temporal. We also explore the appropriateness of different regulatory methods for achieving these tasks. While governmental facilitation of data standardization may be justified only in limited scenarios, the current situation in which data standardization is rarely considered carries a large price tag.
Prey-size selection by brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) in a stream in northern Spain

Brown trout in the River Negro in northern Spain preferentially ate larger aquatic prey items (found throughout the water column). A model based on size-dependent prey encounters was able to account for this trend and to generate accurate predictions of the consumption of aquatic prey of different sizes. In contrast, the same model failed to predict the size composition of terrestrial prey (restricted to the upper layers of the water column) eaten bv the trout. Trout ignored the larger (more profitable) terrestrial prey, and the consumption of prey of a given size class was more dependent on their relative abundance than on their size. However, the smallest prey were rejected. We suggest that trout were switching, i.e., overexploiting the most abundant prey, because of perceptual limitations mediated by large differences in relative abundance of the different size classes of terrestrial prey. The size-frequency distributions of the available terrestrial prey were always greatly dominated (75-90%) by the t.
Information Provision to Tourists: A Stochastic Analysis

We study the provision of information to tourists in a probabilistic setting. Specifically, we provide answers to three hitherto unstudied questions in the tourism literature. We first delineate a continuous-time Markov chain (CTMC) model of a tourist information center (TIC) and then we compute the equilibrium distribution of the number of tourists present in this TIC. Next, we calculate the long run fraction of tourists with informational requests who join the queue in our TIC. Finally, we derive the long run average number of tourists served by our TIC staff member per unit time.
Microfoundations

ABSTRACT This paper argues that the microfoundations programme can be understood as an implementation of an underlying methodological principle—methodological individualism—and that it therefore shares a fundamental ambiguity with that principle, viz, whether the macro must be derived from and therefore reducible to, or rather consistent with, micro-level behaviours. The pluralist conclusion of the paper is not that research guided by the principle of microfoundations is necessarily wrong, but that the exclusion of approaches not guided by that principle is indeed necessarily wrong. The argument is made via an examination of the advantages claimed for dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models, the relationship between parts and wholes in social science, and the concepts of reduction, substrate neutrality, the intentional stance and hypostatisation.
The emulsan polymer: Perspectives on a microbial capsule as an industrial product

Microbial polysaccharides have become significant industrial products in recent years, primarily because of their high molecular weight and unique rheological properties. More recently, a new class of microbial biopolymer has been developed—namely, the exopolysaccharide bioemulsifiers. The best studied of this class of biopolymer is the capsular anionic polysaccharide of the oil‐degrading bacterium Acinetobacter calcoaceticus RAG‐1, emulsan. The emulsan polymer (MW, 106) consists of D‐galacatosamine, D‐galactosamine uronic acid (pKa, 3.01), and a diamino deoxyhexosamine. The amphipathic properties of emulsan are due in part to the presence of fatty acids linked to the polysaccharide backbone in both ester and amide linkages. Emulsan is characterized by a very high affinity for the oil/water interface, and its major industrial application is in the stabilization of oil‐in‐water emulsions at very low concentrations (emulsan : oil, 1 : 1000). This interfacial binding is accompanied by a conformational change in the polymer, which in turn allows for the concentration of normally water‐soluble cations, proteins, and even phages in the oil layer after emulsion separation. Emulsan is now a commercial product produced by fermentation on an industrial scale. Two major applications are likely to involve its ability to stabilize heavy oil‐in‐water emulsions for (1) transportation in pipelines of high‐viscosity oils at lower temperatures and (2) upgrading of high‐viscosity fuels so that the homogeneous oil/water emulsions can be burned directly without water removal. Both applications have been tested on a semi‐industrial scale and their feasibility has been demonstrated.
Effect of Defoliation on Peanut Plant Growth1

Defoliation experiments were performed in order to provide information for development of a pest management simulation model for peanuts (Arachis hypogaea L.). ‘Florunner’ peanut plants were defoliated uniformly and nonuniformly at 9, 12, and 16 weeks after planting and harvested 2, 4, or 6 weeks following treatment. All defoliations resulted in lower stem weight to length ratios, lower pod numbers and weights, and equal or higher leaf numbers and weights. Defoliation altered the normal partitioning of photosynthate between plant parts. The location of defoliation damage (either uniform throughout the canopy or confined to the outer portion of the canopy) affected plant response in that plants defoliated nonuniformly grew more leaves in the 2 weeks following treatment than those defoliated uniformly
Digital Scalability and Growth Options of Intangible Assets

Scalability indicates the ability of a process, network, or system to handle a growing amount of work. Scalability fosters economic marginality, especially in intangible-driven businesses where variable costs are typically negligible. Massive volumes may offset low margins, producing economic gains. Digitalization is defined as the concept of “going paperless”, the technical process of transforming analog information or physical products into digital form. Digital scalability operates in a web context, where networked agents interact to generate co-created value. Economic and financial margins that represent a primary parameter for valuation are boosted by cost savings and scalable increases of expected revenues. Digitalized intangibles synergistically interact through networked platforms that reshape traditional supply chains.
Comparison of Endogenous IAA and Cytokinins in Shoots of Columnar and Normal Type Apple Trees

Seasonal changes of endogenous IAA and cytokinin concentrations in shoots of two columnar type cultivars, 'Maypole' and 'Tuscan', and a normal type apple tree, 'McIntosh', were compared by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry-selected ion monitoring (GC-MS-SIM). The IAA concentrations in both types were higher in June, when shoot growth was vigorous, than in July. However, distinct differences in the IAA concentrations between columnar and normal types were not found. Cytokinin concentrations, particularly zeatin riboside (ZR), in shoots were higher in columnar type trees than in the normal type during the whole growing season in June. These results suggest that the concentration of cytokinins, particularly ZR, in shoots may be related to the growth characteristics of columnar type trees.
Habitat Momentum

In this paper we find strong empirical evidence that stocks connected by common ownership with well-performing stocks tend to perform well in the following periods. Based on this observation, we introduce a new strategy – dubbed habitat momentum – and show for US stock price data from the period 1980-2014 that it yields 1.1% risk-adjusted alpha per month and is not sensitive to size nor liquidity of constituents as well as other well-known pricing factors. Interestingly, the habitat momentum effect provides empirical support for the Vayanos and Woolley (2013) model of institutional momentum.
Bivalve contribution to benthic metabolism in a California Lagoon

Populations of suspension feeding bivalves constitute a metabolically important component of the benthos in Colorado Lagoon, Long Beach, California. Oxygen and nutrient flux were measuredin situ at monthly intervals over a two-year period. Estimates of bivalve metabolism were based on regressions of oxygen and ammonium flux on a measure of clam biomass adjusted allometrically. The introduced bivalve,Mercenaria mercenaria, occurs at maximum densities exceeding 400 per m2. Based on mean densities (143 per m2), bivalves contributed more than 50% of the 77 mg O2 per m2 per hr mean annual oxygen uptake and the 191 μM per m2 per hr mean ammonium release. Although bivalve biomass was not correlated with other inorganic nutrient flux, on an annual basis the sediments were a source of phosphate (26 μM per m2 per hr annual average, range 5 to 50) and a small sink for nitrate and nitrite. Net primary production, ammonium flux, and phosphate flux showed great annual variability while respiration was relatively constant. Total community oxygen uptake was not correlated with temperature. Long term incubations revealed no obvious rhythms having a period between four hours and four days. The benthic flux of ammonium and phosphate was calculated to supply more than the annual requirement of Lagoon phytoplankton.
Demographic Impacts on Life Cycle Portfolios and Financial Market Structures

This paper provides a framework to endogenize rates of return for risk-free bonds and risky capital in an overlapping generation model. The rate of return on capital is endogenized by introducing idiosyncratic production shocks to avoid computation challenges associated with aggregate production shocks in the literature. The framework enables the interaction between financial markets and macroeconomic conditions in a production economy. Based on this framework, the paper first examines life-cycle portfolio choice without demographic change, and illustrates that several factors such as borrowing costs, labor income and production risk play important roles in life-cycle portfolios. The paper then investigates the impacts of population aging on macroeconomic conditions, life-cycle behaviors and financial market structures. The results show that population aging leads to higher capital-labor ratios, and reduces the rates of return on both assets. The bond market shrinks significantly, and capital decreases if the fertility rate declines but increases if the mortality rate declines, leading to structural change in financial markets. The impacts on life-cycle variables are quite different in the fertility and mortality cases particularly at the late stage of life.
Photoperiod-Nonresponsive Morphs: A Possible Variable in Microtine Population-Density Fluctuations

Microtine rodents tend to breed in the spring and summer. Winter breeding occurs in many species and often precedes large increases in population density. Short photoperiods (less than 12 hours of light per day) arrest reproduction in a majority of animals. Laboratory studies have demonstrated that some individuals within a population are inherently unresponsive to day-length cues and continue to breed when maintained in winter photoperiods. Other studies have indicated that nutritional and other extrinsic factors can override reproductive inhibition in animals that normally respond to short day lengths. It is proposed that responsiveness to photoperiod is the common physiological pathway whereby both intrinsic and extrinsic factors can interactively influence breeding. In order for animals to breed during the short days of winter, photoperiodic information must be ignored. This masking of reproductive inhibition can occur if the proportion of non-photoperiodic morphs within a population increases, if abundant food or other favorable conditions override responsiveness to short days, or if some complex multifactor interaction occurs between intrinsic and extrinsic factors that determine responsiveness to day length. Factorial experiments that tease apart the influences of various biotic and abiotic factors on photoperiodic responsiveness are necessary in order to understand the factors that permit winter breeding and subsequent increases in population density.
ARTHROPOD PHYLOGENY: A COMBINED APPROACH

Abstract— Ribosomal and ubiquitin protein coding sequence data are generated from 20 arthropods and five close relatives. These molecular data are combined with morphological characters derived from the literature to approach arthropod phylogenetics from the perspective of total evidence. Trilobita were included in the analysis through morphological comparison alone. The overall data strongly support arthropod monophyly. Recent molecular analyses which have yield different results are shown to have been based on few characters, few taxa or both. The most parsimonious explanation of the data is (Annelida + (Onychophora + (Trilobita + Chelicerata) + (Crustacea + (Myriapoda + Hexapoda))))). The data are largely concordant both internally among data sets and externally with previous cladistic anatomical analyses.
Molecular Aspects of Osmotic Stress in Plants

Abstract Plant molecular responses to osmotic stress are complex as evidenced by the isolation of numerous OR (osmotic stress-regulated) genes. Although functions including osmolyte biosynthesis, membrane transport, signal transduction, and cellular protection have been predicted for OR genes, few of them have been established. Current efforts toward isolating and analyzing the expression of individual OR genes should be replaced by systematic approaches to analyze all OR genes simultaneously in selected plant species. Both transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of OR genes have been described. Cis-elements that respond to osmotic stress through abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent as well as ABA-independent pathways have been identified. Functional genetic approaches using yeast and plant model systems are expected to complement current molecular analysis of overexpression of OR genes in transgenic plants. These systems will help to establish functions of OR genes, to dissect osmotic stress-signalin.
Plant traits, species pools and the prediction of relative abundance in plant communities: a maximum entropy approach

Questions: To what extent can Shipley et al.'s original maximum entropy model of trait-based community assembly predict relative abundances of species over a large (3000 km2) landscape? How does variation in the species pool affect predictive ability of the model? How might the effects of missing traits be detected? How can non-trait-based processes be incorporated into the model? Location: Central England. Material and Methods: Using 10 traits measured on 506 plant species from 1308 1-m2 plots collected over 3000 km2 in central England, we tested one aspect of Shipley et al.'s original maximum entropy model of “pure” trait-based community assembly (S1), and modified it to represent both a neutral (S2) and a hybrid (S3) scenario of community assembly at the local level. Predictive ability of the three corresponding models was determined with different species pool sizes (30, 60, 100 and 506 species). Statistical significance was tested using a distribution-free permutation test. Results: Predictive ability was high and significantly different from random expectations in S1. Predictive ability was low but significant in S2. Highest predictive ability occurred when both neutral and trait-based processes were included in the model (S3). Increasing the pool size decreased predictive ability, but less so in S3. Incorporating habitat affinity (to indicate missing traits) increased predictive ability. Conclusions: The measured functional traits were significantly related to species relative abundance. Our results both confirm the generality of the original model but also highlight the importance of (i) taking into account neutral processes during assembly of a plant community, and (ii) properly defining the species pool.