Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Indigenous biodiversity of Apatani plateau: learning on biocultural knowledge of Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh for sustainable livelihoods.

The paper throws light on various uses of 106 species of plants by the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. The data have been collected using personal interview schedule through established contact with key communicators of Apatani villages. There are a range of indigenous plant species (106) used in food, ethnomedicine, handicrafts, hunting and cultural uses. In majority of the cases, knowledge on plant resources use is observed to be community knowledge (public domain). Resource base of bio-culturally rich plant biodiversity is the backbone for livelihoods of Apatani tribe. The knowledge on plant resources use was observed to be location specific. Activities relating plant collection and their processing for various uses are primarily performed by women folk. Integration of outstanding traditional knowledge of this tribe with farming systems may further sustain their livelihoods. Characterization of plant based knowledge and refinement and value addition to bio-products may further advance livelihoods regime of Apatani tribes. This approach would also ensure their IPR protection on plant based knowledge and products, and equitable benefit sharing over plant based knowledge systems.
The Impact of Media Censorship: 1984 or Brave New World?

Media censorship is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes. We conduct a field experiment in China to measure the effects of providing citizens with access to an uncensored internet. We track subjects’ media consumption, beliefs regarding the media, economic beliefs, political attitudes, and behaviors over 18 months. We find four main results: (i) free access alone does not induce subjects to acquire politically sensitive information; (ii) temporary encouragement leads to a persistent increase in acquisition, indicating that demand is not permanently low; (iii) acquisition brings broad, substantial, and persistent changes to knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and intended behaviors; and (iv) social transmission of information is statistically significant but small in magnitude. We calibrate a simple model to show that the combination of low demand for uncensored information and the moderate social transmission means China’s censorship apparatus may remain robust to a large number of citizens receiving access to an uncensored internet. (JEL C93, D72, D83, L82, L86, L88, P36)
Market power, competition and earnings management: accrual-based activities

Purpose This study aims to understand the impact of market power and competition on earnings management, particularly discretionary accruals, in the Chinese and Taiwanese tourism industries. China and Taiwan differ not only in their political and social systems but also in their economic systems. The research aims to provide managers and investors with stock selection strategy in the decision-making process. Design/methodology/approach Accounting data consisted of 60 publicly traded travel companies in China and Taiwan from 2000 to 2014. Methodology included correlation matrix for the variables, univariate and multivariate regression and competition analysis. Findings Based on empirical results, the authors found a significant negative correlation between market power and discretionary accruals and market concentration (or lower market competition) and discretionary accruals in both the Chinese or Taiwanese markets. Although the Chinese travel companies enjoyed higher market power and market concentration, they engaged in less earnings manipulation than their Taiwanese counterparts as a result of the Chinese Government regulation. Research limitations/implications Based on listed travel companies, generalization of the research results to entire tourism industry is limited. This study compares the travel companies’ practices of smoothing out earnings between China and Taiwan, thus helping managers and investors in making their financing, investment decisions. Originality/value This research contributes to the earnings management literature by examining a specific industry of tourism. This paper is original in two ways. The authors linked market power and market competition with earnings management simultaneously and then compared the Chinese and Taiwanese tourism industries in manipulating earnings.
Relationship between Capital Structure and Profitability: Evidence from Four Asian Tigers

Purpose: Capital structure is one of the hot topics in corporate finance. To meet the needs of stakeholders, firms need to build a capital structure that is desirable for shareholders by decrease financial risk and expand their profitability. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between capital structure and profitability. <br><br>Methods: In examining the relationship between capital structure and profitability, we apply correlation and regression analysis on dataset from 2003 to 2016 for the firms in the Four Asian Tiger economies. The data are collected from the Compustat Global Vantage database and include 46,301 observations. <br><br>Findings: This study finds a significantly negative relationship between leverage and profitability, a significantly positive relationship between growth and leverage in Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong and a significantly positive relationship between size and leverage in each country. <br><br>Significance of the study: This study empirically examines the impacts of capital structure on the profitability in the case of firms of Four Asian Tiger economies, which appears to be main contribution to the literature of corporate finance.
DECIDUOUS FRUIT PRODUCTION IN INDIA

India produces all deciduous fruits including pome fruits (apple and pear) and stone fruits (peach, plum, apricot and cherry) in considerable quantity. These are mainly grown in the North-Western Indian States of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Himachal Pradesh (H.P.) and in Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) hills. The North-Eastern Hills region, comprising of the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur and Sikkim also grows some of the deciduous fruits on a limited scale. Due to introduction and adaptation of low chilling cultivars of crops like peach, plum and pear, they are also now being grown commercially in certain areas of the north Indian plains. Out of all the deciduous fruits, apple is the most important in terms of production and extent.
User Adoption Behaviors of Mobile Commerce: China VS Taiwan User Adoption Behaviors of Mobile Commerce: China VS Taiwan

This study aims to further test the technology acceptance model for mobile commerce (m-commerce) in China and Taiwan. Data was collected from 156 college students in Macau (China) and 173 college students in Kaohsiung (Taiwan). Exploration factor analysis is performed to examine the reliability and validity of the model; regression analysis is performed to access the relationship between behavior intention and each factor in these two markets; and t-tests are performed to compare the difference in the means from Chinese and Taiwan college students. This study finds out that even there is not significant culture difference between China and Taiwan, there is a significant difference in the means of social influence between these two markets.
Clinical characteristics of 82 death cases with COVID-19

Background A recently developing pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 was originated in Wuhan, China, and has quickly spread across the world. We reported the clinical characteristics of 82 death cases with COVID-19 in a single center. Methods Clinical data on 82 death cases laboratory-confirmed as SARS-CoV-2 infection were obtained from a Wuhan local hospital′s electronic medical records according to previously designed standardized data collection forms. Findings All patients were local residents of Wuhan, and the great proportion of them were diagnosed as severe illness when admitted. Most of the death cases were male (65.9%). More than half of dead patients were older than 60 years (80.5%) and the median age was 72.5 years. The bulk of death cases had comorbidity (76.8%), including hypertension (56.1%), heart disease (20.7%), diabetes (18.3%), cerebrovascular disease (12.2%), and cancer (7.3%). Respiratory failure remained the leading cause of death (69.5%), following by sepsis syndrome/MOF (28.0%), cardiac failure (14.6%), hemorrhage (6.1%), and renal failure (3.7%). Furthermore, respiratory, cardiac, hemorrhage, hepatic, and renal damage were found in 100%, 89%, 80.5%, 78.0%, and 31.7% of patients, respectively. On the admission, lymphopenia (89.2%), neutrophilia (74.3%), and thrombocytopenia (24.3%) were usually observed. Most patients had a high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio of >5 (94.5%), high systemic immune-inflammation index of >500 (89.2%), increased C-reactive protein level (100%), lactate dehydrogenase (93.2%), and D-dimer (97.1%). A high level of IL-6 (>10 pg/ml) was observed in all detected patients. Median time from initial symptom to death was 15 days (IQR 11-20), and a significant association between aspartate aminotransferase (p=0.002), alanine aminotransferase (p=0.037) and time from initial symptom to death were interestingly observed. Conclusion Older males with comorbidities are more likely to develop severe disease, even die from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Respiratory failure is the main cause of COVID-19, but either virus itself or cytokine release storm mediated damage to other organ including cardiac, renal, hepatic, and hemorrhage should be taken seriously as well.
Genetic analysis and correlation in sweet corn (Zea mays) for quali(y traits, field emergence and grain yield*

Sweet corn (Zea mays L. var rugosa) is most popular in USA, Canada, Japan and Taiwan. In India, sweet corn is cultivated mainly in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra but it is gaining importance in other parts of country as well. Sweet corn is consumed at immature grain stages of endospenn at 20-22 days after fertilization in various forms. Nearly all-commercial sweet corn is based on one or more homozygous recessive alleles (Coe and Polaco 1994) that alter the kernel carbohydrate content. Traditional sweet corn variety is homozygous for 'six' mutation with more sugar content (5-1 1%) compared to field corn and contains phytoglycogen, a water soluble polysaccharide giving creamy texture to kernels
China's Nation-Building Strategies and United Front Work for Tibetan Leadership

This chapter investigates the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) nation-building practice in Tibet over the past six decades and relates it to the evolving united front work employed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) towards Tibetan traditional elites. The chapter argues that the Chinese Party-state aims to construct a united multiethnic state which contains a superior Chinese national identity, whilst allowing the co-existence of plural ethnic identities. In line with this, the CCP strives to balance uniting the ‘ethnic upper strata’ with empowering autonomy for these ethnic elites. Specifically, in this way, the central regime had developed and switched its positions between deliberatively accommodating and collaborating with the Tibetan traditional elites, and suppressing them within this process. This chapter suggests that the former is applicable to the decades of the 1950s and 1980s, and the latter relates to the more recent era. The transiting dynamics have more to do with the state’s perceptions to these traditional elites. The chapter observes that as the ruling authority regarded Tibetan behaviours and demands with dynamics threating to the construction of Chinese nationhood, the authority tightened its control, which, however, reversely undermined the effects of existing inducement policies on economic and cultural developments designed for Tibetans. Furthermore, such political control intensified international disputes over the CCP’s statecraft.
Systematics and biogeography of the fishfly genus Parachauliodes (Megaloptera: Corydalidae) endemic to the east Asian islands

Abstract The fishfly genus Parachauliodes van der Weele, 1909 comprises six species from Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, ranging along the east Asian islands. Herein, all the Parachauliodes species are described, including two new species, namely P. asahinai sp.n. and P. niger sp.n. A cladistic analysis based on adult and larval morphological characters was conducted to reconstruct the interspecific phylogeny of the Parachauliodes species. Two main clades within Parachauliodes were obtained from the cladistic analysis, namely ‘P. asahinai +P. continentalis’ and ‘(P. japonicus + P. yanbaru) + (P. nebulosus + P. niger)’. Based on the present interspecific phylogeny and distribution patterns of Parachauliodes, its ancestor might have invaded the east Asian islands by a land bridge from Taiwan via Ryukyu to the Japanese archipelago about 10−5 million years ago.
Morphological and mitochondrial-DNA analysis of the Indo-West Pacific rock oysters (Ostreidae: Saccostrea species)

Species of Saccostrea are common oysters on Indo-Pacific rocky shores. The taxonomy of this genus is unclear, however, because of morphological plasticity among its constituent species. Oyster samples with distinct morphotypes were collected from shores experiencing different degrees of wave exposure in Japan, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Singapore and Australia. Intraspecific and interspecific variations in shell characters have been identified. Only S. kegaki could be readily differentiated from S. cucullata-B, S. cucullata-C and S. mordax by multivariate shell allometric analyses. Phylogenetic analyses using partial mitochondrial 16S DNA sequences of approximately 513 base pairs identified two clades that correspond to superspecies, i.e. putative S. cucullata and putative S. mordax, comprising nine and two lineages from the Indo-West Pacific, respectively. These are S. cucullata-A, B, C, D, E, F, G, S. kegaki and S. glomerata in one clade, and S. mordax-A and B in the other. Interspecific sequence divergence (Kimura-2-parameter values) between lineages ranged from 1.02% to 11.74%. Both S. cucullata-C and S. kegaki are restricted to the northern hemisphere, whereas S. glomerata seems to be a temperate species from the southern hemisphere. S. cucullata-D occurs only in Taiwan. Other species, i.e. S. cucullata-A, B, D, E and F and S. mordax-A and B, have a wide range on rocky shores in the tropical and subtropical Western Pacific and in both northern and southern hemispheres.
Motivated Reasoning and Blame: Responses to Performance Framing and Outgroup Triggers during COVID-19

To manage citizen evaluations of government performance, public officials use blame avoidance strategies when communicating performance information. We examine two prominent presentational strategies: scapegoating and spinning, while testing how public responses vary depending on whether they are ideologically aligned with the public official. We examine these relationships in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where the Trump administration sought to shift blame by scapegoating outgroups (by using the term “Chinese virus”), and framing performance information on COVID-19 testing in positive terms. Using a novel pre-registered survey experiment that incorporates open and close-ended items, we offer three main findings. First, there is clear evidence of motivated reasoning: conservatives rate the performance of the Trump administration more positively and are more apt to blame prominent Democrats, Chinese residents and the Chinese Government. Second, performance information framing was found to impact blame attribution among conservatives, but only for open-ended responses. Third, while exposure to the term “Chinese virus” increased blame assigned to Chinese residents among all participants, conservatives exposed to the term appeared to blame President Trump more, suggesting repeated use of divisive blame shifting strategies may alienate even supporters.
Social Revolution and Authoritarian Durability

abstract:This article explores the causes of authoritarian durability. Why do some authoritarian regimes survive for decades, often despite severe crises, while others collapse quickly, even absent significant challenges? Based on an analysis of all authoritarian regimes between 1900 and 2015, the authors argue that regimes founded in violent social revolution are especially durable. Revolutionary regimes, such as those in Russia, China, Cuba, and Vietnam, endured for more than half a century in the face of strong external pressure, poor economic performance, and large-scale policy failures. The authors develop and test a theory that accounts for such durability using a novel data set of revolutionary regimes since 1900. The authors contend that autocracies that emerge out of violent social revolution tend to confront extraordinary military threats, which lead to the development of cohesive ruling parties and powerful and loyal security apparatuses, as well as to the destruction of alternative power centers. These characteristics account for revolutionary regimes' unusual longevity.
More than plain text: Censorship deletion in the Chinese social media

Although the Internet allows people to circulate messages using different media, most censorship studies discuss the removal of text content. This article presents a systematic study regarding the censorship of both plain text and multimedia content on the Chinese Internet. By analyzing both censored and surviving posts on the Chinese social media platform Weibo during the 2014 Hong Kong Umbrella Movement, we find that multimedia posts suffered more intensive censorship deletion than plain text posts, with censorship programs being oriented more toward multimedia content like images than the text content of multimedia posts. Our analysis has significant implications for censorship studies, information control, and politics in the “post‐text” era.
El uso de aguas pluviales en la ciudad de Alicante. De viejas ideas a nuevos enfoques

From 1960’s, the Mediterranean Spanish coastal is characterized by a spectacular increase of urban uses related with residential and sun and beach tourism. This process has affected the consumption growth of certain resources such water. To all this, it is necessary to add supply and availability problems associated to its shortage by climatic factors and the increased demand. The aim of this research is to show and to examine the importance and the potential that rainwater has in the hydro-social cycle in the city of Alicante (Spain) for increasing water supply for certain uses (watering gardens, street cleaning, etc.). To obtain it, it has been analysed databases about the use and collection of these resources. Also, different interviews have been carried out to the technical staff of the company (Aguas municipalizadas de Alicante. Empresa Mixta, S.A.) that is responsible of the tank management where these resources are stored. As main conclusion, it could be pointed that the use of this new water resources has allowed, on the one hand, reducing the use of drinking water to certain municipal water uses, and on the other, to reduce pollution and flooding risk coinciding with episodes of intense rainfall.
An Environmental Chamber Study of the Characteristics of Air Pollutants Released from Environmental Tobacco Smoke

Environment tobacco smoke (ETS) is an important source of anthropogenic pollution in indoor environments. This research reports an environmental chamber study of pollutants released from ETS generated by smoking cigarettes in the chamber. Six cigarettes samples sold in Hong Kong and China were characterized. Gaseous pollutants: carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), methane (CH4), non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHC), carbonyls and volatile organic compounds (VOCs); and particulate matter (PM), including organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and total carbon (TC), were determined using online and offline analytical methods during smoking and post-smoking periods. Acetaldehyde, acetone and formaldehyde were the three most abundant carbonyls. A total of 18 aromatic and chlorinated VOCs were quantified. Among these, benzene and toluene were the two most abundant VOCs. OC was more dominant (> 93% of TC) than EC. The amounts of tar and nicotine in the cigarettes could have a direct correlation with the PM emitted. Menthol, an additive in cigarettes, could also contribute to the ETS pollutants. The indoor ETS could be removed by a higher air exchange rate, which would also minimize secondary VOC formation.
Male‐biased sex allocation in late‐blooming flowers driven by resource limitation in the clonal perennial Aconitum kusnezoffii (Ranunculaceae)

Flowering phenology and clonal growth are known to affect resource and pollen availability, and therefore select for adaptive or constrained sex allocation strategies to some degree. However, the consequences of temporal sex allocation patterns for reproductive fitness across the flower, inflorescence, and genet levels have rarely been examined. Moreover, experimental tests of the underlying regulatory mechanisms are scarce. We examined the association of flowering phenology and inflorescence position with temporal sex allocation and reproductive success in the protandrous perennial clonal herb, Aconitum kusnezoffii, over four consecutive growing seasons by examining more than 39 000 flowers. We also conducted controlled experiments to test the effects of resource and pollen limitation on the female reproductive success of lateral inflorescences. We found that some male functions were positively correlated with flowering phenology, whereas female reproductive success was negatively correlated with flowering phenology and inflorescence position. Lateral inflorescences invested more in male function than terminal inflorescences and therefore yielded fewer and smaller seeds. Resource limitation may serve as the key mechanism underlying this differentiated pattern. Decreased female reproductive success was consistently observed at the flower and inflorescence levels as flowering occurred later in the growth season. Late‐blooming lateral inflorescences specialized in the male function, and their female reproductive success was constrained by early‐blooming terminal inflorescences. This might be the first attempt to systematically demonstrate sex allocation strategy differentiation in a protandrous plant species at the inflorescence level. In addition, our study provides empirical evidence of dichogamy selecting for specialized sex allocation strategies among inflorescences.
An impor tant role for FlhDC in the control of nucA expression , cell division and flagellar synthesis in Serratia marcescens

(1) School and Graduate Institute of Medical Technology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O. C. (2) Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O. C. (3) Institute of Infections and Immunity, University of Nottingham, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, NG7 2UH and School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, U. K.
The role of financial and epidemic crises on tourism loyalty

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role of financial and epidemic crises on tourism loyalty. Using monthly data from January 1978 to February 2016, our analysis shows that tourists arriving to Singapore from 11 countries (Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Taiwan, the UK, and the US) exhibit evidence of tourism loyalty, suggesting that international tourists considered Singapore as a long-run attractive tourist destination. During the five subsample periods, representing the four most recent global financial and epidemic crises (the AFC, SARS, the GFC and H1-N1), we find evidence of transitory effect, suggesting that international tourists considered Singapore as an attractive tourism destination in the short-run. We argue that shocks generated by the financial and epidemic crises strongly contribute to the existence of the permanent loyalty evidence, and that such evidence is likely to be spurious.