Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Technical note: whole-pen assessments of nutrient excretion and digestibility from dairy replacement heifers housed in sand-bedded freestalls.

Our objectives were to describe and test refined procedures for quantifying excreta produced from whole pens of dairy heifers. Previous research efforts attempting to make whole-pen measurements of excreta output have been complicated by the use of organic bedding, which requires cumbersome analytical techniques to quantify excreta apart from the bedding. Research pens equipped with sand-bedded freestalls offer a unique opportunity for refinement of whole-pen fecal collection methods, primarily because sand-bedded freestall systems contain no organic bedding; therefore, concentrations of ash within the manure, sand, and feces can be used to correct for contamination of manure by sand bedding. This study was conducted on a subset of heifers from a larger production-scale feeding trial evaluating ensiled eastern gamagrass [Tripsacum dactyloides (L.) L. ] haylage (EGG) that was incorporated into a corn silage/alfalfa haylage-based blended diet at rates of 0, 9.1, 18.3, or 27.4% of total DM. The diet without EGG also was offered on a limit-fed basis. Eighty Holstein dairy heifers were blocked (heavy weight, 424 ± 15.9 kg; light weight, 324 ± 22.4 kg) and then assigned to 10 individual pens containing 8 heifers/pen. One pen per block was assigned to each of the 5 research diets, and whole-pen fecal collections were conducted twice for each pen. Grab fecal samples also were gathered from individual heifers within each pen, and subsequent analysis of these whole-pen composites allowed reasonable estimates of OM and NDF excreta output. Under the conditions of our experimental design, pooled SEM for the excreta DM, OM, NDF, and NDF (ash corrected) output were 0.113, 0.085, 0.093, and 0.075 kg·heifer(-1)·d(-1), respectively. For DM excretion, this represented about one-third of the SEM reported for previous whole-pen collections from bedded-pack housing systems. Subsequent calculations of apparent DM and OM digestibilities indicated that the technique was sensitive, and linear trends (P ≤ 0.027) associated with the inclusion rates of EGG within the diet were detected. This technique allows estimation of apparent diet digestibilities on multiple animals simultaneously, thereby mitigating the need for isolating individual animals to obtain digestibility coefficients. The approach appears viable but requires hand labor for collections of multiple pens and thorough mixing of large volumes of manure as well as analytical corrections for sand ingested by lounging heifers.
Painting with light

We present a new approach to lighting design for image synthesis. It is based on the inverse problem of determining light settings for an environment from a description of the desired solution. The method is useful for determining light intensities to achieve a desired effect in a computer simulation and can be used in conjunction with any rendering algorithm. Given a set of lights with fixed positions, we determine the light intensities and colors that most closely match the target image painted by the designer using a constrained least squares approach. We describe an interactive system that allows flexible input and display of the solution.
Contemporary art music and its audiences: Age, gender, and social class profile

Contemporary art music (CAM) has experienced significant aesthetic changes in recent decades and has acted as a seismograph for socio-cultural movements. New music festivals have had a significant influence on the development and perception of this music by promoting aesthetic pluralism, introducing new concert formats, and expanding to unusual venues. These movements induce changes in the social patterns of CAM consumers and have an impact on the traditional high culture audience profile. This article relies on audience surveys at three European CAM festivals and draws on Bourdieu’s (1984) and Schulze’s (1992) class and lifestyle concepts in order to explore demographic characteristics and social class in CAM audiences. As the results show, consumption of CAM is still a distinctive practice sustained by an exclusive community having considerable education and “musical capital”. Nevertheless, the festivals show heterogeneity in the age structure and motivational structure of attendees as well as in specific patterns regarding knowledge, experience and active involvement with CAM. The analysis shows that aesthetic pluralism can lead to greater social openness regarding social class affiliation.
KNOWLEDGE-ENHANCED COMPRESSIVE MEASUREMENT DESIGNS FOR ESTIMATING SPARSE SIGNALS IN CLUTTER

In statistical estimation tasks arising for example in compressive sensing applications, we are often equipped with prior knowledge about the object we wish to infer (e.g., smoothness, characterized by the presence of only low-frequency components in the Fourier domain; a priori region of interest knowledge; or shared features extracted from sets of training data similar to the signal being acquired). This work investigates an estimation task where the goal is to estimate an unknown signal (vector) from compressive measurements corrupted by additive pre-measurement noise (“clutter”) as well as post-measurement noise, but where some (perhaps limited) prior knowledge on the signal, clutter, and noise is available. We pose the overall problem as an optimization, whose goal is to minimize the mean square error incurred in estimating the signal of interest, and derive a tractable convex program for designing knowledge-enhanced compressive measurement operators in such settings. We demonstrate, via simulation, the improvements of our proposed approach relative to traditional CS techniques that obtain measurements using iid random sensing matrices.
Intelligenzdiagnostik bei Kindern und Jugendlichen mit ADHS

Zusammenfassung. Mit seiner neuartigen Indexstruktur bietet die Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fifth Edition (WISC-V; Wechsler, 2014 , 2017 ) eine differenzierte Messung kognitiver Fähigkeiten. Es wurden die Leistungen von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit ADHS (n = 103) in der WISC-V mit einer parallelisierten Kontrollgruppe verglichen. Zusätzlich zur Analyse der Leistungen auf signifikante Gruppenunterschiede wurden für alle fünf Indexwerte, den Gesamt-IQ sowie die entsprechenden Untertests Effektgrößen bestimmt und miteinander verglichen. Für die Kinder mit ADHS zeigten sich auf allen fünf Indizes und dem Gesamt-IQ signifikant niedrigere Leistungen, wobei die größten Effekte in den Bereichen Arbeitsgedächtnis, Fluides Schlussfolgern und Gesamt-IQ gefunden wurden. Spezifische Minderleistungen bei ADHS ließen sich auch auf Untertestebene identifizieren. Die Ergebnisse der vorliegenden Studie bestätigen, dass die WISC-V als valides und sensibles Instrument zur Erfassung kognitiver Defizite bei Kindern mit Aufmerksamkeitsstörungen angesehen werden kann. In der klinischen Praxis kann die WISC-V-Profilanalyse wichtige Informationen zu einer vorab diagnostizierten ADHS liefern.
Video Motion Capture

This paper demonstrates a new vision based motion capture technique that is able to recover high degree-of-freedom articulated human body conﬁgurations in complex video sequences. It does not require any markers, body suits, or other devices attached to the subject. The only input needed is a video recording of the person whose motion is to be captured. For visual tracking we introduce the use of a novel mathematical technique, the product of exponential maps and twist motions, and its integration into a differential motion estimation. This results in solving simple linear systems, and enables us to recover robustly the kinematic degrees-of-freedom in noise and complex self occluded conﬁgurations. We demonstrate this on several image sequences of people doing articulated full body movements, and visualize the results in re-animating an artiﬁcial 3D human model. We are also able to recover and re-animate the famous movements of Eadweard Muybridge’s motion studies from the last century. To the best of our knowledge, this is the ﬁrst computer vision based system that is able to process such challenging footage and recover complex motions with such high accuracy.
Thermal emission from the stellar‐mass black hole binary XTE J1118+480 in the low/hard state

We report on the detection of a thermal disc component from the stellar-mass black hole binary XTE J1118+480 in the canonical low/hard state. The presence of a thermal component with a temperature of approximately 0.21 keV in the Chandra spectra of XTE J1118+480 is found at more than the 14σ confidence level. Based on this evidence, we argue that the accretion disc in XTE J1118+480 is not truncated far from the central black hole in contrast with previous claims.
How was work today? Interpersonal work experiences, work-related conversations during after-work hours, and daily affect

ABSTRACT Talking about work during leisure time is an important part of employees’ daily life and represents a behavioural pathway connecting work and home. However, past research has not paid much attention to this phenomenon of sharing work experiences during after-work hours, its possible antecedents and consequences. In the present study, we examine how interpersonal work experiences (i.e. social conflicts and perceived prosocial impact) are associated with work-related conversations during after-work hours, and how work-related conversations, in turn, are associated with affect at bedtime and in the next morning. A daily diary study with three measurement occasions per day over five consecutive workdays (N = 144 employees) showed that negative work-related conversations during after-work hours were directly related to negative affect at bedtime and indirectly related to negative affect in the next morning. Positive work-related conversations were directly related to positive affect in the next morning. Moreover, perceived prosocial impact and positive work-related conversations during after work hours were negatively related to negative affect at bedtime. Our results suggest that employees actively shape their work-home boundaries by talking about work during after-work hours which show both beneficial and harmful associations with subsequent affective states.
The Influence of Gratitude on Psychological Resilience of Adolescence Living in Youth Social Care Institutions

This study aims to determine the role of gratitude on psychological resilience of adolescents who live in youth social care institutions (orphanages). The study was conducted using a quantitative cross-sectional design. The population of the study was adolescents who lived at youth social care institutions in Jakarta and Bekasi. Two hundred samples were obtained by convenience sampling. The researcher used the Indonesian version of gratitude scale and an adapted resilience scale as measurement tools. Regression analysis found that gratitude explains 13.1 percent variance of adolescences’ psychological resilience. The role of gratitude toward psychological resilience is positive, indicating that higher gratitude reflect higher resilience. Therefore, gratitude needs to be considered in the development of resilience program for adolescents living in youth social care institutions. Keywords : adolescence, gratitude, orphanages, resilience, social care .
Investigations of usefulness of average models for calculations characteristics of the boost converter at the steady state

In this paper the characteristics of the boost converter operating at the steady state obtained by SPICE transient analysis and with the help of the method of the average models are compared and discussed. From the presented results of calculations, the boost operating conditions, for which the average models are sufficient and for which the transient analysis have to be performed, was defined.
Stock Price Effects of Transacting Technology Rights : Quick Reversal of Good Fortunes ? !

I examine the short and long term stock price performance of firms which acquire, sell, abandon, or involuntarily repossess technology rights. I find significant announcement-period abnormal returns, which are positive to the acquirers and sellers and negative to the abandoners and repossessors, without any robust post-announcement long term abnormal returns. Surprisingly, however, the announcement-period gains to the acquirers and sellers are reversed during the following twenty trading days. These quick fortune reversals cannot be attributed to methodology, they prevail in the 1980s and the 1990s, and in bear and bull stock markets, and they are neither the result of insider trading, nor confined to low technology industries. This evidence represents an anomaly to the rational expectations model. JEL classifications: G14; G31; O34
Acceptance of Educational Technology: Field Studies of Asynchronous Participatory Examinations

This research examines asynchronous participatory examinations, a new technology-mediated assessment strategy especially suitable for online courses. The participatory exam innovation utilizes information technology to support engaging students in the entire examination lifecycle, including creating and solving problems, and grading solutions. These learning processes enable students to not only gain new knowledge but also to strengthen their assessment skills. A five-semester field study in the U.S., supplemented by a small scale replication in Austria, investigated how participatory exams can facilitate higher-order learning and what explains students‘ acceptance of the innovation. An extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), adapted to the educational context, predicts acceptance based on three key constructs: ―perceived enjoyment,‖ ―perceived learning,‖ and ―recommendation for use. ‖ The study results support the premises that participants perceive learning from all stages of the cooperative exam process, and that the innovation acceptance is a function of both intrinsic motivations (e.g., enjoyment of the experience) and extrinsic motivations (e.g., perception that one has learned from the process).
Airbnb and the rent gap: Gentrification through the sharing economy

Airbnb and other short-term rental services are a topic of increasing concern for urban researchers, policymakers, and activists, because of the fear that short-term rentals are facilitating gentrification. This article presents a framework for analyzing the relationship between short-term rentals and gentrification, an exploratory case study of New York City, and an agenda for future research. We argue that Airbnb has introduced a new potential revenue flow into housing markets which is systematic but geographically uneven, creating a new form of rent gap in culturally desirable and internationally recognizable neighborhoods. This rent gap can emerge quickly—in advance of any declining property income—and requires minimal new capital to be exploited by a range of different housing actors, from developers to landlords, tenants, and homeowners. Performing spatial analysis on three years of Airbnb activity in New York City, we measure new capital flows into the short-term rental market, identify neighborhoods whose housing markets have already been significantly impacted by short term, identify neighborhoods which are increasingly under threat of Airbnb-induced gentrification, and estimate the amount of rental housing lost to Airbnb. Finally, we conclude by offering a research agenda on gentrification and the sharing economy.
Committee Machines

In this chapter, we describe some of the most important architectures and algorithms for committee machines. We discuss three reasons for using committee machines. The first reason is that a committee can achieve a test set performance unobtainable by a single committee member. As typical representative approaches, we describe simple averaging, bagging and boosting. Secondly with committee machines, one obtains modular solutions which is sometimes desirable. The prime example here is the mixture of experts approach whose goal it is to autonomously break up a complex prediction task into subtasks which are modeled by the individual committee members. The third reason for using committee machines is a reduction in computational complexity. In the presented Bayesian committee machine, the training data set is partitioned into several smaller data sets and the different committee members are trained on the different sets. Their predictions are then combined using a covariance-based weighting scheme. The computational complexity of the Bayesian committee machine approach grows only linearly with the size of the training data set, independent of the learning systems used as committee members.
The Effect of Ethical Leadership on Employee Creativity

This research aims to find the relationship between ethical leadership and employee creativity. Data collected from Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Dammam branch. The study was applied to a sample of 62 leaders and 135 employees. The result of the study showed that there a significant relationship between ethical leadership and employee creativity. The study recommended that in order to increase and improve the employee creativity, leaders need to improve ethical leadership dimensions that related to fairness and role clarification.
Cytokine Profile of Children Hospitalized with Virologically-Confirmed Dengue during Two Phase III Vaccine Efficacy Trials

Background Two large-scale efficacy studies with the recombinant yellow fever-17D–dengue virus, live-attenuated, tetravalent dengue vaccine (CYD-TDV) candidate undertaken in Asia (NCT01373281) and Latin America (NCT01374516) demonstrated significant protection against dengue disease during two years’ active surveillance (active phase). Long-term follow up of participants for breakthrough disease leading to hospitalization is currently ongoing (hospital phase). Methodology/Principal findings We assessed the cytokine profile in acute sera from selected participants hospitalized (including during the active phase) up to the beginning of the second year of long-term follow up for both studies. The serum concentrations of 38 cytokines were measured in duplicate using the Milliplex Human Cytokine MAGNETIC BEAD Premixed 38 Plex commercial kit (Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA). Partial least squares discriminant analyses did not reveal any difference in the overall cytokine profile of CYD-TDV and placebo recipients hospitalized for breakthrough dengue regardless of stratification used. In addition, there was no difference in the cytokine profile for breakthrough dengue among those aged <9 years versus those aged ≥ 9 years. Conclusions/Significance These exploratory findings show that CYD-TDV does not induce a particular immune profile versus placebo, corroborating the clinical profile observed.
Principles of nonlinear pedagogy in sport practice

ABSTRACT Background: There are deeply relevant questions concerning how to integrate and organise various nonlinear pedagogical strategies and methods in order to structure training in the professional development of Physical Education (PE) teachers and sport coaches. To promote the emergence and development of innovative and adaptive performance behaviours in sport, nonlinear pedagogy advocates the methodology of constraints manipulation to facilitate learning. Sport pedagogues have to manage and apply different constraint manipulations at varying times in practice contexts, that is, while planning before/following a learning session (i.e. designing the micro-structure of practice) and in interactions during the session. In nonlinear pedagogy, the design of practice micro-structure is predicated on the continuous, intertwined relationships between decision-making, action, perception and cognition in sport performance and learning contexts. Purpose: Here, we present an analysis of the activities that pedagogues engage in to facilitate learning and performance in sport (i.e. the micro-structure of practice) during practical interventions in sport and exercise contexts, based on the use of a Constraints-led approach by PE teachers and coaches. Method: Based on data from illustrative studies on performance analysis and constraints manipulation, we exemplify some of the main principles and assumptions of nonlinear pedagogy. This synthesis, framed in a nonlinear pedagogy, aims to reveal how adopting a constraint led approach can straightforwardly enhance learning designs of sport practitioners. Conclusions: This article shares insights from a nonlinear pedagogy that can frame the micro-structure of practice during interventions, compared to utilization of traditional pedagogical practices. It is proposed that PE teachers and coaches are designers of learning environments and that both learning and performance improvement are seen as emerging from the interaction of key constraints (related to task, learner and environment).
Salmonella transmission in poultry farms: The roles of rodents, lizards and formites

Introduction: Salmonellosis constitutes a major threat to poultry industry in Nigeria. The study investigated the roles of rodents, lizards and fomites in the transmission of Salmonella in poultry farms. Methods: A total of 320 samples consisting of litter (n = 70), feed (n = 50), water from drinkers (n = 50), cloacal swabs from chicken (n = 50), faeces from rodents (n = 50) and faeces from lizards (n = 50), were collected from selected poultry farms in Maiduguri, Borno State between March and August, 2011. The samples were subjected to standard bacteriological analyses and presumptive Salmonella isolates were serotyped using slide agglutination technique. Results: A total of 31 (9.7%) Salmonella isolates comprising 7 serovars were obtained. Salmonella serovars Kentucky and Enteritidis were the major serovars recovered from all sample sources and these represent 3.4 % (n= 11) and 3.1 % (n= 10) respectively. These serovars were the predominant in rodents and lizards and were equally isolated from chicken and other samples, however, Salmonella Hadar was only isolated from litters, but not from chicken or other environmental samples (feed or water). Significance: It was concluded that rodents and lizards play significant roles in poultry Salmonella infection via environmental contamination. Farmers should focus more attention on these agents of Salmonella carriage in the poultry environment.
Current risks of occupational blood-borne viral infection.

BACKGROUND Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and other viruses remain occupational risks for both surgeons and patients in the operating room environment. In the past, this concern attracted great attention, but recently, this subject has been given much less attention. METHODS Review of the literature over the past 50 years on occupational risks of viral infection in the operating room. RESULTS Transmission of HIV still looms as a potential pathogen in the operating room, but no case has been documented in the United States. Infection with HBV can be prevented by a safe and effective vaccine. Chronic HCV infection is present in more than three million U.S. residents and remains a risk that can be managed only by adhering to strict infection control practices and avoiding blood exposure. CONCLUSIONS The risks of viral infection in the operating room remain the same as a decade ago even though attention to this issue has waned. The avoidance of blood exposure to prevent transmission of both known and unknown blood-borne pathogens continues to be a goal for all surgeons.