Longer Run Research Articles

Addressing the long- and short-run effects of climate change on major food crops production in Turkey.

This study assessed the long-run (LR) and short-run (SR) impacts of climatic and non-climatic factors, i.e., CO2 emissions (CO2e), average level of temperature (ALT), average level of precipitation (ALP), area harvested of wheat and rice crops (AHW and (AHR), domestic credit (DCR), and agricultural labor (ALB) on wheat and rice production (WP and RP) in Turkey by using annual time series data ranging from 1980 to 2016 and by employing several econometric techniques. The autoregressive distributed lag-bounds (ARDL) approach and the Johansen and Juselius cointegration (JJC) test confirmed a valid long-term connection among underlying variables. The estimation results from the ARDL model reveal that climatic factors such as CO2 emissions and temperature adversely affected wheat production in the long run as well as in the short run, whereas precipitation positively improved wheat production in both periods. Further results indicate that non-climatic factors like area harvested of wheat and domestic credit positively and significantly enhanced wheat production in the long run and short run. Similarly, CO2 emissions also adversely affected rice production in both periods, while temperature and precipitation positively contributed towards rice production in both cases. In addition, area harvested of rice positively and significantly boosted rice production in the long run as well as in the short run, while domestic credit negatively influenced rice production in the long run but in the short run positively improved rice production. Additionally, the outcomes of the VECM Granger Causality for both rice and wheat production confirm that both climatic and non-climatic variables have a strong influence on the production of both crops. This study found that climate change has a deleterious influence on both wheat and rice production; therefore, the study suggests that temperature-resistant varieties of both crops should be developed and introduced by agricultural research institutions. In addition to this, up-to-date information is more needed related to climate change, and in the farming communities, it should be provided by agricultural extension workers.

Biased reorientation in the chemotaxis of peritrichous bacteria Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

Many kinds of peritrichous bacteria that repeat runs and tumbles by using multiple flagella exhibit chemotaxis by sensing a difference in the concentration of the attractant or repellent between two adjacent time points. If a cell senses that the concentration of an attractant has increased, their flagellar motors decrease the switching frequency from counterclockwise to clockwise direction of rotation, which causes a longer run in swimming up the concentration gradient than swimming down. We investigated the turn angle in tumbles of peritrichous bacteria swimming across the concentration gradient of a chemoattractant because the change in the switching frequency in the rotational direction may affect the way tumbles. We tracked several hundreds of runs and tumbles of single cells of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in the concentration gradient of L-serine and found that the turn angle depends on the concentration gradient that the cell senses just before the tumble. The turn angle is biased toward a smaller value when the cells swim up the concentration gradient, whereas the distribution of the angle is almost uniform (random direction) when the cells swim down the gradient. The effect of the observed bias in the turn angle on the degree of chemotaxis was investigated by random walk simulation. In the concentration field where attractants diffuse concentrically from the point source, we found that this angular distribution clearly affects the reduction of the mean-square displacement of the cell that has started at the attractant source, that is, the bias in the turn angle distribution contributes to chemotaxis in peritrichous bacteria.

Effect of minimal pre-treatment on reverse osmosis using surface water as a source

Reverse osmosis is increasingly used in drinking water supply for treatment of fresh water sources which can directly result in high quality water. In practice reverse osmosis is never applied directly on fresh water sources, predominantly because of the occurrence of membrane fouling. Strategies to control membrane fouling in reverse osmosis without expensive and extensive pre-treatment include low flux operation, increase cross-flow velocities and improved (periodic) hydraulic cleaning. The objective of this research is to technically and economically compare minimal pre-treated reverse osmosis to state-of-the art ultrafiltration pre-treated reverse osmosis in surface water treatment to obtain high quality water. A parallel reverse osmosis system with six parallel 2540-type spiral wound membrane elements has been systematically operated during several months with only screens pre-treatment before reverse osmosis. A minimal pre-treated reverse osmosis system using only screens on surface water did not result in stable reverse osmosis operation, however, the ultrafiltration pre-treated reverse osmosis system also failed in the longer run. Lowering the membrane flux from 25 L/m2.h to 10 L/m2.h in minimal pre-treated RO resulted in an approximately 10-fold decrease of the membrane fouling rate, while not influencing the pressure drop increase. Periodical air water cleaning in minimal pre-treated RO resulted in an approximately 4-fold reduction of the spacer clogging rate, while not affecting the membrane fouling rate. The total cost of a minimal pre-treated low flux (10 L/m2.h) operated RO was significantly lower (0.46 €/m3) compared to state-of-the-art UF pre-treated RO at normal flux (25 L/m2.h) (1.21 €/m3). The cost difference in financial space provides an opportunity to develop minimal pre-treated RO systems with improved control of membrane fouling and spacer clogging.

COVID‐19 impact on fruit and vegetable markets: One year later

More than 1 year after the outbreak of COVID‐19, Canadian fruit and vegetable markets continue to adjust to the evolving landscape. In this article, we focus on three key measures of input and output market performance that serve as indicators of the stability of fruit and vegetable markets in Canada in the medium‐term, and offer some insight for how these markets will continue to adjust in the longer run. Specifically, we use data to highlight the most recent trends in (1) the production and aggregate movement for major fruit and vegetable crops in the United States and Canada, (2) labor supply and immigration visa patterns, and (3) U.S.–Canada trade patterns for fruits and vegetables. We provide evidence that the fresh produce supply chain in Canada, and for markets in their largest trade partner in the United States, has remained relatively robust.

Anti-inflammatory, anti-nociceptive and anti-oxidant activities of carvacrol containing leaf extracts of edible Indian borage plant Plectranthus amboinicus: an in vivo and in vitro approach

Inflammation remains a complex process in host defense system and the pathology caused by it remains unsolved till date. Several steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in current use to treat inflammatory diseases elicit side effects in longer run. Hence, in order to counteract these outcomes, a pharmacognistic study using a Lamiaceae plant, Plectranthus amboinicus has been focused in the present study. P. amboinicus commonly known as Indian borage has been used in folk medicine for years in treating numerous diseases. It is well known for the presence of major phytochemical constituents which possess anti-inflammatory properties. Assessment of biochemical constituents and molecular mechanisms behind the anti-inflammatory property of P. amboinicus leaves were carried out in in vivo and in vitro conditions. In vivo studies of formalin-induced nociception and paw edema in mice and for in vitro condition lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation using IC-21 macrophage cells were performed. Aqueous and ethyl acetate leaf extracts of P. amboinicus were analyzed for its phytochemical constituents. Variations in phytochemical components were noticed in GC-MS analysis. The carvacrol containing ethyl acetate extract exhibited higher anti-nociception in terms of lower paw licking time in the later phase of nociception and lowered hind paw edema volume up to 35%. The biochemical analysis revealed that the oxidative stress markers such as malondialdehyde and antioxidant enzymes have been modulated upon pretreatment with both extracts and also modulated the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase, cyclooxygenase 2, Interleukin-1β, histamine 1 receptor genes and nuclear factor kappa B protein. In addition, nitric oxide inhibitory effect was observed in P. amboinicus treated IC-21 macrophages. Therefore, the molecular mechanism put forth in this study provides insights that the presence of carvacrol in ethyl acetate extract enhances anti-inflammatory activity.

Stability in turbulent times? The effect of digitalization on the sustainability of competitive advantage

Does digitalization make competitive advantage more or less sustainable? One line of argument is that digitalization leads to hyper-competition and shorter spells of competitive advantage. An opposing claim is that digitalization leads to advantages of a size and sustainability unprecedented in the “old” economy. We argue that the likelihood of observing either of these outcomes depend on the extent to which the dominant business model(s) in a market combine the accumulation and use of Big Data with the generation and utilization of network effects. The more complementary Big Data and network effects are in a business model, the more likely that we will observe large and sustainable competitive advantages, and vice-versa. Furthermore, we argue that firms enjoying a data-driven network-advantage have strong incentives and ability to envelop to adjacent markets. In the longer run, such envelopment will cause an increasing number of markets to be characterized by more sustainable competitive advantages.

Interpreting Burkholderia pseudomallei disc diffusion susceptibility test results by the EUCAST method

Interpreting Burkholderia pseudomallei disc diffusion susceptibility test results by the EUCAST method

How Do Nascent Social Entrepreneurs Respond to Rewards? A Field Experiment on Motivations in a Grant Competition

We conducted a field experiment to identify the causal effect of extrinsic reward cues on the sorting and performance of nascent social entrepreneurs. The experiment, carried out with one of the United Kingdom’s largest support agencies for social entrepreneurs, encouraged 431 nascent social entrepreneurs to submit a full application for a grant competition that provides cash and in-kind mentoring through a one-time mailing sent by the agency. The applicants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: one group received a standard mailing that emphasized the intrinsic incentives of the program, or the opportunity to do good (Social treatment), and the other two groups received a mailing that instead emphasized the extrinsic incentives—either the financial reward (Cash treatment) or the in-kind reward (Support treatment). Our results show that an emphasis on extrinsic incentives has a causal impact on sorting into the applicant pool: the extrinsic reward cues led fewer candidates to apply and “crowded out” the more prosocial candidates while “crowding in” the more money-oriented ones. The extrinsic reward cues also increased application effort, which led these candidates to be more successful in receiving the grant. Yet the selection resulting from the extrinsic incentive cues led to worse performance at the end of the one-year grant period. Our results highlight the critical role of intrinsic motives in the selection and performance of social enterprises and suggest that using extrinsic incentives to promote the development of successful social enterprises may backfire in the longer run. This paper was accepted by Toby Stuart, entrepreneurship and innovation.

The language of shame: a study of emotion in an early-twentieth century Urdu children’s periodical (Phūl)

ABSTRACT This article explores the vocabulary used for shame in a children’s periodical from Lahore, in colonial North India. Following decades of reconfigurations of norms of behaviour and of akhlaq (moral, ethical) literature, Phūl (‘Flower’) was one of the first periodicals for children, and one with the longest run. Using emotions, it aimed to entertain as much as to educate the young Urdu-reading public. Thanks to a careful examination of every weekly number through the year 1910 – the first full year of publication –, the objective is to highlight the various meanings and uses of shame in early twentieth-century Urdu children’s literature. In Phūl, shame was consistently expressed by the term sharm, with only rare exceptions. This conspicuously contrasts with the resort to diverse terms for contemporary representations of community shame and dishonour in the male public sphere since the late nineteenth century. Through typical animal stories, moral tales and illustrations, this article highlights how contributors used shame to monitor children’s emotions and behaviour. Despite its striking homogeneity of vocabulary, however, sharm involved a full palette of nuances, from the isolating emotion elicited by transgression (the ‘blackness’ of shame) to the very condition of respect, without which social cohesion was impossible. I argue that, crucial for the enculturation of morality, good manners, and gendered expectations, sharm was more semantically capacious than what we label as shame in English, notably by encompassing aspects which some, in Ruth Benedict’s and Eric R. Dodds’ steps, have associated to a different and sometimes opposite concept: guilt.

Spillover Effects of Financial Aid for Education: Does Post-9/11 GI Bill Reduce Veteran SNAP Participation?

Many veterans rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). We study the change in the veterans’ reliance on SNAP in response to the GI Bill, the veterans’ financial aid for higher education. Using the unanticipated increase in educational benefits due to the Post-9/11 GI Bill and employing a difference-in-differences approach, we estimate that the benefit increase lowered veteran SNAP participation by about 28%, the effect being larger among new veterans. These findings reflect changes in the veterans’ choices that are attributable to wealth effects, SNAP eligibility criteria, and human capital accumulation. SNAP eligibility typically expires when the veteran attends college, and a larger educational benefit increases the veterans’ probability of college attendance. Furthermore, a college degree increases future earnings, which reduces the veterans’ SNAP reliance in the longer run. Quantifying these relationships provides insights into how financial aid for education in general improves veterans’ economic well-being and may help break some veterans’ dependence on SNAP and similar welfare programs.

BII-Implementation: The causes and consequences of plant biodiversity across scales in a rapidly changing world

The proposed Biology Integration Institute will bring together two major research institutions in the Upper Midwest—the University of Minnesota (UMN) and University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW)—to investigate the causes and consequences of plant biodiversity across scales in a rapidly changing world—from genes and molecules within cells and tissues to communities, ecosystems, landscapes and the biosphere. The Institute focuses on plant biodiversity, defined broadly to encompass the heterogeneity within life that occurs from the smallest to the largest biological scales. A premise of the Institute is that life is envisioned as occurring at different scales nested within several contrasting conceptions of biological hierarchies, defined by the separate but related fields of physiology, evolutionary biology and ecology. The Institute will emphasize the use of ‘spectral biology’—detection of biological properties based on the interaction of light energy with matter—and process-oriented predictive models to investigate the processes by which biological components at one scale give rise to emergent properties at higher scales. Through an iterative process that harnesses cutting edge technologies to observe a suite of carefully designed empirical systems—including the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and some of the world’s longest running and state-of-the-art global change experiments—the Institute will advance biological understanding and theory of the causes and consequences of changes in biodiversity and at the interface of plant physiology, ecology and evolution. INTELLECTUAL MERIT The Institute brings together a diverse, gender-balanced and highly productive team with significant leadership experience that spans biological disciplines and career stages and is poised to integrate biology in new ways. Together, the team will harness the potential of spectral biology, experiments, observations and synthetic modeling in a manner never before possible to transform understanding of how variation within and among biological scales drives plant and ecosystem responses to global change over diurnal, seasonal and millennial time scales. In doing so, it will use and advance state-of-the-art theory. The institute team posits that the designed projects will unearth transformative understanding and biological rules at each of the various scales that will enable an unprecedented capacity to discern the linkages between physiological, ecological and evolutionary processes in relation to the multi-dimensional nature of biodiversity in this time of massive planetary change. A strength of the proposed Institute is that it leverages prior federal investments in research and formalizes partnerships with foreign institutions heavily invested in related biodiversity research. Most of the planned projects leverage existing research initiatives, infrastructure, working groups, experiments, training programs, and public outreach infrastructure, all of which are already highly synergistic and collaborative, and will bring together members of the overall research and training team. BROADER IMPACTS A central goal of the proposed Institute is to train the next generation of diverse integrative biologists. Post-doctoral, graduate student and undergraduate trainees, recruited from non-traditional and underrepresented groups, including through formal engagement with Native American communities, will receive a range of mentoring and training opportunities. Annual summer training workshops will be offered at UMN and UW as well as training experiences with the Global Change and Biodiversity Research Priority Program (URPP-GCB) at the University of Zurich (UZH) and through the Canadian Airborne Biodiversity Observatory (CABO). The Institute will engage diverse K-12 audiences, the general public and Native American communities through Market Science modules, Minute Earth videos, a museum exhibit and public engagement and educational activities through the Bell Museum of Natural History, the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (CCESR) and the Wisconsin Tribal Conservation Association.

Reassessing External Images of the EU: Evolving Narratives in Times of Crisis

The past decade has challenged the EU and its international image. The Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, the Ukraine crisis, the so-called irregular migration crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic have all put the EU under severe strain. This article explores if and how the EU’s performance in such crises has impacted upon the external image of the EU. The analysis shows that external images have closely followed the EU’s actual performance, although filtering it through the powerful lenses of local and regional concerns and sensibilities. While some traditional images have proved to be resilient in the longer run (as in the case of the EU as an economic powerhouse or a frequently divided community), others have been severely weakened by the EU’s crisis responses (such as the EU as a bastion of human rights). Our findings contribute to the discussion on the public diplomacy and information strategy of the European External Action Service (EEAS) in shaping locally-resonating positive images of the EU worldwide. external images of the EU, multiple crises of the EU, EU public diplomacy

Agreement morphology errors and null subjects in young (non-)CLIL learners


 
 
 There is a wealth of studies on L2 English acquisition in CLIL contexts in Spain, but most have underexplored the potential impact of CLIL in the longer run on the morphosyntax of earlier starters from monolingual regions. This paper fills this gap by exploring agreement morphology errors and subject omission in the oral production of Primary Education English learners from the Spanish monolingual community of Cantabria. The sample investigated consists of the individual narration of a story by learners in two age-matched (11-12 year-olds) groups, one CLIL (n=28) and one non- CLIL (n=35). The results show no statistically significant differences between both groups for the provision of specific linguistic features at a younger age, though some evidence also points to a subtle effect of additional CLIL exposure. Both groups show moderately low rates of null subjects; they omit affixal morphology (*he eat ) significantly more frequently than suppletive inflection (*he _ eating) and they seldom produce commission errors (*they eats). Interestingly, non-CLIL learners show far greater rates of omission with auxiliary be than copula be and frequently use the placeholder is (*he is eat), which evinces an earlier stage of acquisition than that of CLIL learners.
 
 

The Effect of Rapid Structural Change on Workers

Abstract This paper deals with the question how workers’ labour market and non-monetary outcomes are impacted by a negative sector-specific labour demand shock. This issue is analysed in a setting of rapid structural change that happened in Eastern Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The sector-specific labour demand shock can be assumed to be exogenous to other worker characteristics as it was not anticipated and as career planning was highly restricted in the GDR. Using survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), I find considerable and partly persistent losses in labour market outcomes of workers from declining compared to booming industries. Life satisfaction of workers from declining industries is decreased in the short run whereas the probability to move to the West and to identify with a left-wing political party is increased merely in the longer run.

Heterogeneous Effects of State Enterprise Zone Programs in the Shorter Run and Longer Run

The authors take up two questions that have not been explored in research on enterprise zones. First, does a considerably longer-run perspective on the effects of state enterprise zones lead to different answers? And second, are there heterogeneous effects of enterprise zones that depend on the set of incentives these programs offer, which can vary widely? The results indicate that whether state enterprise zone programs were observed through a longer-term lens, or through the lens of program heterogeneity, the authors generally did not find any consistent indication of beneficial effects of state enterprise zone programs; if anything, the longer-run effects are negative. The lack of positive effects is consistent with most of the prior evidence that focuses on effects that are short term and homogeneous.

Mutual fund performance: Some recent evidence from European equity funds

This paper studies the performance of mutual funds that specialise in equity investment. We use a sample of the top sixteen actively managed European equity funds operating in the United States between July 1990 and November 2020. Using standard factor models, we show that none of our sample funds generated a positive and significant alpha. The observed funds could not outperform a simple passive strategy that involves tradeable European benchmark portfolios in the longer run. As a rule, the funds in our sample did not exploit the known asset pricing anomalies.

The Time-Varying Evolution of Inflation Risks

This paper develops a Bayesian quantile regression model with time-varying parameters (TVPs) for forecasting inflation risks. The proposed parametric methodology bridges the empirically established benefits of TVP regressions for forecasting inflation with the ability of quantile regression to model flexibly the whole distribution of inflation. In order to make our approach accessible and empirically relevant for forecasting, we derive an efficient Gibbs sampler by transforming the state-space form of the TVP quantile regression into an equivalent high-dimensional regression form. An application of this methodology points to a good forecasting performance of quantile regressions with TVPs augmented with specific credit and money-based indicators for the prediction of the conditional distribution of inflation in the euro area, both in the short and longer run, and specifically for tail risks. JEL Classification: C11, C22, C52, C53, C55, E31, E37, E51

РОЛЬ ІНДУСТРІАЛЬНИХ ПАРКІВ ДЛЯ СТРАТЕГІЧНОГО РОЗВИТКУ ТЕРИТОРІЙ

The paper presents the operations and functional models of industrial parks as important components of territorial development in Poland, in particular the development of rural areas. It includes the data on the number of industrial parks in Poland. It also reviews the literature related to this topic. The aim and the objectives of this study are to analyze the most efficient functional models of industrial parks in Poland, in particular those located in the border region (Lublin voivodeship). We believe that their experience is the most appropriate for implementation in Ukrainian realities. Industrial parks are presented as a form of cooperation under fair competition. The paper identifies their place in regional development policy. It is worth noting that this cooperation is the most efficient when it is limited to the regional level. Its purpose is to coordinate the activities of economic, political, and academic regional interest groups. The paper reviews the influence of industrial parks on the competitiveness of the regional economy. It also identifies the prerequisites of their successful development. The examples of different models of industrial parks that operate in Poland are presented. The successful example of the Lublin Science and Technology Park, established in 2005 in the Lublin Voivodeship (Poland), is reviewed in detail. Its model is exceptional and relevant for Ukraine. Most industrial parks in Poland were founded by central government institutions. However, the park chosen for analysis was founded by the University of Life Sciences in Lublin and the self-government of the Lublin Voivodeship and the relationship between the partners was more balanced than in other industrial parks in Poland. The establishment and functioning of industrial parks have become of particular importance in Ukraine after the decentralization reform since most new hromadas (territorial communities) are not self-sustaining yet. However, the key purpose of all industrial parks, regardless of the name and profile, is to obtain innovative solutions that could have a positive impact on local and regional development in the longer run. The Triple Helix model is proposed to discuss the efficiency of industrial park operations. It describes the relationship between key institutions (participants) through the prism of stimulating economic development. The key aspect of the model is that the cooperation of businesses, academic circles, and public administration will promote the growth of innovations, entrepreneurship, and, in the long run, improve the standard of living in a region.

Drug Resistance in Epilepsy: Which Prospect to Tame its Stubbornness?

Epilepsy is a major health problem, it being among the most common chronic neurologic pathologies. Its basic therapy is via anti-seizure drugs (ASDs), of which nearly two dozen are currently available for symptomatic treatment of epileptic seizures. But, notwithstanding the increasing ASD options, about one-third of epileptic patients remain drug-refractory, and this fraction did not diminish over decades. This paper reviews the subject of drug resistance in epilepsy (DRE), in view of exploring the prospect to overcome its persistence. The survey of various hypotheses about DRE origin and mechanisms notices that any of them alone does not fully account the DRE, their multitude deriving from the lack of solution to this bad medical need. The non-pharmacological (neurosurgical, brain stimulation, focal treatments and dietary) approaches of drug-intractable epilepsy are also surveyed, with the sober conclusion that, in a predictable future, the mainstay of epilepsy therapy will likely remain the drugs. The vast multiplicity of molecular changes associated with DRE suggests that its pharmacological resolution might arise only from integrative, systemic approaches, beyond the reductionist single-target paradigm that dominated the ASD discovery, in the last several decades. A conceivable lessening of DRE might be brought about by precision (personalized) medicine, assisted by complex systems biology description of individual epileptic pathology. In a longer run, the emergent network pharmacology might led to genuine innovative multi-potent antiepileptic drugs, able to treat distinct subpopulations of current refractory patients.

Novel technique of PCL avulsion fracture fixation using a modified double pulley method

Background: Posterior Cruciate Ligament (PCL) avulsion fractures are a rare injury and are seen to occur commonly in younger patients. Traditionally these injuries were treated conservatively and that resulted into malunion of avulsion piece and resultant PCL laxity and posterior tibial sag. This on longer run caused altered knee biomechanics, instability and early arthritis. Newer techniques are being tried in treatment in Posterior cruciate ligament avulsion fractures to prevent all these complications.Methods: We present here a surgical technique which makes use of suture anchors in a modified double pulley technique for the reduction and fixation of PCL avulsion fractures. In our institute we conducted a prospective study of 100 patients having PCL avulsion fracture in which all patients were in young age group and had a traumatic injury, less than 7 days old and followed them up at 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year post surgery to check for their functional and radiological outcomes. All were operated by same surgeon by same method and got the same physiotherapy protocol in same ward and come under same age group.Results: It was found that our technique showed excellent functional and radiological outcomes at 1 year follow up.Conclusions: By using this modified double pulley technique for fixation of the PCL avulsion fracture, the surgeon can achieve adequate compression and absolute stability of the fracture fragment. This method has several advantages over the other techniques used for fixation and produces equivalent or better functional and radiological outcome with very minimal complication rate.