Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Hot Environment and Dietary Protein Level on Growth Performance and Meat Quality of Broiler Chickens

This study was conducted to determine the effect of hot environment and dietary crude protein level (CP) on performance, carcass characteristics, meat visual quality, muscle chemical composition and malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration of tissues in broilers. Two hundred and sixteen 21-d old Arbor Acre broilers were used in a 4×3 factorial arrangement and randomly reared in 4 environmental chambers and fed on 3 diets with different CP levels for 3 weeks. The results showed: (1) when air temperature (AT) rose to 33°C, average daily feed intake, average daily gain, carcass weight, right breast meat weight, left thigh and drumstick meat weight decreased (p<0.05) and feed conversion rate decreased (p<0.05), but the ratio of carcass to live weight and of left thigh and drumstick meat weight to carcass weight increased (p<0.05). (2) There were significant differences in pH and shear force in breast meat, and shear force, L* and a* in thigh meat (p<0.01 or 0.05) among hot environments. Dietary CP level tended to affect breast meat pH and pH and L* of thigh meat (p<0.06 or 0.09). Compared to the normal temperature (22°C), low temperature (15°C) and hot humid (AT 33°C, relative humidity (RH) 80%) treatments significantly (p<0.05) decreased the tenderness of thigh meat. L* and a* value in thigh meat under high temperature treatments, regardless of RH, were higher (p<0.05) than those under normal temperature. (3) Protein content in breast and thigh meat of broilers fed under high temperature (33°C) was lower (p<0.05) than that under 22°C, but fat content had an adverse change. High temperature (33°C) increased the moisture of breast meat significantly (p<0.05). Protein content in breast meat increased significantly (p<0.05), in which fat content had an adverse change (p<0.05), when the dietary protein rose. (4) MDA concentration in liver and breast meat under hot humid (AT 33°C, RH 80%) treatment increased markedly (p<0.05). (5) High humidity could sharpen the bad effect of high temperature on performance, carcass yield and choice cuts, crude protein and moisture content in breast meat. It was concluded that a hot environment could affect the performance and meat quality of broiler chicks more significantly than CP level and that high humidity would aggravate the bad influence of high temperature on the broiler. (
A Case Study of Downstream Baroclinic Development over the North Pacific Ocean. Part II: Diagnoses of Eddy Energy and Wave Activity

The sequential development of a western, and then an eastern, North Pacific cyclone is examined in terms of eddy energy and a phase-independent wave activity. Based on the propagation of both a contiguous wave activity center and eddy energy, the development of the western cyclone appears to influence its downstream neighbor. A quantitative comparison of these two diagnoses is made in terms of group velocity, and only minor differences are found during much of the initial evolution. It is only once the tropopause undulations lose their wavelike appearance (at which point, application of the group-velocity concept itself becomes quite tenuous) that the downstream propagation of eddy energy seems faster than that of wave activity. Conventional methods of tracking this wave packet are also briefly discussed.
Efflux Pumps and Mutation Sequences Related to Drug- resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Potential Targets for Epitope Based Immunotherapy?

With the rapid development of methodologies used in the process of scrutinizing the detailed mechanisms involved in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis, Mtb) infection, the role of efflux pumps has been drawing an increasing attention. These efflux pumps have a high relevance to the resistance of the anti-TB drugs, and they are mainly classified into several major families, such as, the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) superfamily, the major facilitator superfamily (MFS), the multidrug and toxic compound extrusion (MATE) family, the small multidrug resistance (SMR) family, and the resistance-nodulation-division (RND) superfamily. As to the substrates of these efflux pumps, some antibiotics and other compounds can be extruded in the case of multidrug resistance. Mutation sequences related to the drug-resistance of M. tuberculosis could also be used as potential targets for epitope identification, such as rpoB, katG, inhA, and embB. The vaccines based on epitopes from these targets can be used to enhance the effects of the chemotherapy and traditional vaccine therapy effects, especially to overcome the drug-resistance.
Intertemporal Asset Allocation with Habit Formation in Preferences: An Approximate Analytical Solution

In this paper we derive an approximate analytical solution to the optimal consumption and portfolio choice problem of an infinitely-lived investor with power utility defined over the difference between consumption and an external habit. The investor is assumed to have access to two tradable assets: a risk free asset with constant return and a risky asset with a time-varying premium. We extend the approach proposed by Campbell and Viceira (1999), which builds on log-linearizations of the Euler equation, intertemporal budget constraint, and portfolio return, to also contain the log-linearized surplus consumption ratio. The "difference habit model" implies that the relative risk aversion is time-varying which is in line with recent evidence from the asset pricing literature. We show that accounting for habit affects both the myopic and intertemporal hedge component of optimal asset demand, and introduces an additional component that works as a hedge against changes in the investor's habit level. In an empirical application, we calibrate the model to U.S. data and show that habit formation has significant effects on both the optimal consumption and portfolio choice compared to a standard CRRA utility function.
Is the HIV Dementia Scale a Reliable Tool for Assessing HIV-related Neurocognitive Decline?

Background: The HIV Dementia scale (HDS) has been recommended as a cross-sectional screen for HIVassociated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) but its longitudinal usefulness has not been optimally established. Method: 55 HIV+ participants underwent baseline and follow-up HDS screening after an average of 3.9 (SD=1.1) months. They had completed standard neuropsychological (NP) evaluations within the last 6-18 months to calculate a baseline HAND rate (49.1%) and gold standard cognitive change performance: 12.7% showed mild to moderate decline compared to normative standards for NP change; 80% confidence interval; 1-tailed, the rest of the sample was cognitively stable. After normalizing HDS raw-scores, standard regression-based change scores were developed to quantify HDS-based decline, which corrected for practice effect, regression towards the mean, and yielded individual predictions of neurocognitive change. Clinically significant decline was defined as a z-score outside the 80% confidence interval; 1-tailed. Baseline HIV disease and laboratory data were collected. Results: The magnitude of HDS reliability was very large r=0.76 (p<0.0001). HDS-testing found that 21.8% significantly declined. Compared to gold standard NP decline, the HDS showed 57% sensitivity and 82% specificity. Only participants (n=4) that declined moderately (median HDS-change z-score=-2 SD below mean of zero; at least 3-4 points decline in raw HDS-score) were congruently identified. Standard regression-based change scores did not operate optimally at smaller magnitudes of decline. HAND diagnosis (gold standard) at baseline (p<0.03) and more severe HAND were associated with greater chance of decline (p<0.03). No baseline HIV biomarkers were associated with decline. Conclusions: The HDS is a reliable screen to detect at least moderate neurocognitive decline in individuals with MND and HAD. Other screening instruments are needed to detect milder levels of neurocognitive decline. Alternatively, non-parametric statistical modelling is needed to improve predictions of individual cognitive change on such scales that typically have a restricted range of values.
Research, part of a Special Feature on The influence of human demography and agriculture on natural systems in the Neotropics Total Historical Land-Use Change in Eastern Bolivia: Who, Where, When, and How Much?

We documented the history of land-use change and migration in eastern Bolivia in five temporal periods: pre-1976, 1976-1986, 1986-1991, 1991-2001, and 2001-2004. We included all land- cover types located below the natural montane tree line (~3000 m), including forest, savanna, scrubland, seasonal wetland, second-growth forest, pasture, and cropland. The rate of land-use change has increased from approximately 4.7 × 104 ha/yr in the 1960s to > 2.9 × 10 5 ha/yr in the most recent period. Land-use change was quantified for 10 groups within which cultural traditions and production systems are shared, including three nonmechanized indigenous groups, four mechanized farming groups, two cattle ranching groups, and the forest products sector. Mechanized Cruceno farmers and Andean indigenous colonists were responsible for most land-use change in the 1960s and 1970s; deforestation by the latter group increased to twice that by all other groups during 1986-1991, declined in the 1990s, and then increased again in the most recent period. In the last 15 years, land-use change by agro-industrialists specializing in soybean has become important, and cattle ranching based on cultivated pastures has surpassed land use by all other groups. When the rates of change increased for the three indigenous nonmechanized groups, they tended to decrease for the four nonindigenous mechanized groups, and vice versa.
Assessment of GPS radiosonde descent data

Abstract. Radiosondes are widely used to obtain basic meteorological parameters such as pressure (P), temperature (T), relative humidity (RH) and horizontal winds during the balloon ascent up to the altitude of balloon burst, usually ~ 32–35 km. Data from the radiosondes released from Gadanki (13.5° N, 79.2° E), a tropical station in India, have been collected during the ascent and during the descent as well without attaching any parachute or its equivalent since the year 2008. In the present study an attempt has been made to characterize the radiosonde descent data with the main objective of exploring its usefulness and reliability for scientific purposes. We compared the data obtained during ascent and descent phases of the same sounding. The mean differences in T, RH and horizontal winds between ascent and descent data are found to be small and are sometimes even within the uncertainty of the measurements and/or expected diurnal variation itself. The very good consistency observed between the ascent and the descent data shows that one more profile of the meteorological parameters can be constructed within 3 h of time of balloon launch practically at no additional cost. Further checks are done by utilizing the 3-hourly radiosonde observations collected during the Tropical Tropopause Dynamics campaigns conducted at Gadanki. In the process of checking the consistency between the radiosonde ascent and descent data, several new findings are arrived at and are reported in this study. In general, it has taken more than half an hour for the balloon to reach the ground from the burst altitude. It is also observed that the fall velocity is close to 10 m s−1 near the surface. Finally, it is suggested to record the observations also when the balloon is descending as this information is useful for scientific purposes.
An Unobstructed View of Liquid Flow in Structured Packing

The liquid distribution on the surface of structured packing, the holdup and the relative interfacial area are investigated using X-ray computed tomography (CT). Packed columns of two different inner diameters 100 mm and 200 mm are used and the fluid dynamics for MellapakTM of two different specific geometric areas are explored. Three-dimensional information is obtained by means of a helical scan. Despite deviations in the holdup profiles in detail, there is a good agreement between the average holdup and average relative interfacial area of Mellapak 500.Y measured in the two column diameters. Therefore, the 100 mm data of Mellapak 500.Y and the 200 mm data of Mellapak 250.Y are generally valid, and information is transferrable to larger column diameters. Relative interfacial area does not scale according to the liquid line load. Geometric features of the packings affect the flow morphology significantly, and in such a way that geometric similarity cannot be claimed for the two packings.
Muscle-Targeted Gene Therapy of Charcot Marie-Tooth Disease is Dependent on Muscle Activity

Stephan Klossner1, Marie-Noelle Giraud2, Sara Sancho Oliver3, David Vaughan4 and Martin Fluck1,4 1Institute of Anatomy, University of Berne, Berne, 2Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Inselspital, Berne, 3Department of Medicine, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, 4Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, 1,2,3Switzerland 4United Kingdom
Polycystine radiolarians in the Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian Seas: Species and assemblage distribution

Cluster analysis and Q-mode factor analysis have been applied to polycystine radiolarian census data from 160 core-top samples. This allowed us to recognize four faunal assemblages in the Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian Seas, each related to different oceanographic conditions. A regression equation for deriving palaeotemperatures from these assemblages has also been developed. The standard error of estimate for this equation is - 1.2°C. The relative abundance of the species having the higher loadings in the core-top assemblages has been mapped, in order to identify and analyse water mass and environmental requirements for these species. Cluster analysis has also been performed on the same data set, providing results which are in good harmony with those derived by Q-mode factor analysis.
Genes involved in sex determination and the influence of temperature during the sexual differentiation process in fish: A review

1 Laboratório de Engenharia Genética Animal – LEGA/Departamento de Zoologia e Genética/Instituto de Biologia/Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Campus Universitário, s/no. 96010-900 Pelotas, RS, Brazil. 2 Programa de Pós Graduação em Zootecnia, Faculdade de Agronomia Eliseu Maciel; Laboratório de Engenharia Genética Animal –LEGA/DZ/IB/UFPel, Brazil. 3 Departamento de Ecologia – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. 4 Programa Pós-graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. 5 Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management, College of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria.
Effects of using specific versus general data in social program research

We present a comparison of results of similar analyses of a particular social program using two sources of data: one representative of the general population, and one representative of the population that actually is eligible for the social program. To do this, we focus on a particular public assistance program as implemented in Florida as our public policy program of choice. We compare the results of an analysis of the program's participation rates using US Census data for the general population of Florida to the results of the exact same model using a dataset that includes only the population of Florida that is actually eligible for the program. We find that while generally signs of effects remain the same, they do not always remain the same; moreover, significance differs, and the marginal effects of various demographic and socio-economic factors on program participation rates vary greatly. We submit that such differences are important for policymakers to recognize so that they can effectively target programs to those individuals and geographic areas most in need of such programs.
TM-TE DECOMPOSITION OF POWER LOSSES IN MULTI-STRANDED LITZ-WIRES USED IN ELECTRONIC DEVICES

E-ciency often constitutes the main goal in the design of a power system because the minimization of power losses in the magnetic components implies better and safer working conditions. The primary source of losses in a magnetic power component is usually associated with the current driven by the wire, which ranges from low to medium frequencies. New power system tendencies involve increasing working frequencies in order to reduce the size of devices, thus reducing costs. However, optimal design procedures involve increasingly complex solutions for improving system performance. For instance, using litz-type multi-stranded wires which have an internal structure to uniformly share the current between electrically equivalent strands, reducing the total power losses in the windings. The power losses in multi-stranded wires are generally classifled into conduction losses and proximity losses due to currents induced by a magnetic fleld external to the strand. Both sources of loss have usually been analyzed independently, assuming certain conditions in order to simplify the derivation of expressions for calculating the correct values. In this paper, a unifled analysis is performed given that both power losses are originated by the electromagnetic flelds arising from external sources where the wire is immersed applying the decomposition into transversal magnetic (TM) and transversal electric (TE) components. The classical power losses, the so called conduction and proximity losses, can be calculated considering the TM modes under certain conditions. In addition, a new proximity loss contribution emerges from the TE modes under similar conditions.
Cutting and Breaking Events in Telugu

This paper makes a contribution to the on-going debate on conceptualization and lexicalization of cutting and breaking (C&B) verbs by discussing data from Telugu, a language of India belonging to the Dravidian family. Five Telugu native speakers’ verbalizations of agentive actions depicted in 43 short video-clips were analyzed. It was noted that verbalization of C&B events in Telugu requires formal units such as simple lexical verbs, explicator compound verbs, and other complex verb forms. The properties of the objects involved, the kind of instruments used, and the manner of action had differential influence on the lexicalization patterns. Further, it was noted that all the complex verb forms encode ‘result’ and ‘cause’ sub-events in that order. Due to the polysemy associated with some of the verb forms, our data does not support the straightforward bipartition of this semantic domain. Keywords—Cluster analysis, Cutting and breaking events, Polysemy, Semantic extension, Telugu.
Leakage from climate policies and border tax adjustment:lessons from a geographic model of the cement industry

We present a spatial international trade model, GEO, which computes transportation costs bynot treating markets as dimensionless points and explicitly represents capacity shortages andinvestment decisions in new production capacities. We link it to CEMSIM, a partialequilibrium model of the world cement industry developed by the IPTS. We assume that theKyoto Protocol Annex B countries (except the USA and Australia), create a CO2 tax at 15euros per tonne. This policy entails significant emissions reductions (around 20%) in thesecountries. A significant leakage occurs, with an emissions increase in the rest of the world ofaround 20% of the emissions reduction in Annex B-USA&Australia. We thus run twoscenarios combining a CO2 tax with border-tax adjustments (BTA). With the more ambitiousBTA tested, not only is there no leakage, but emissions in the rest of the world decreaseslightly. However, compared to business-as-usual, non-Annex B price-competitiveness andproduction decrease a little and these countries loose some market shares, so they couldattack this system as distorting competition in favour of Annex B countries. A less ambitiousBTA is thus tested, which cannot be criticised on this ground and prevents almost all leakage.The only drawback of both BTA policies is that the cement price in Annex BUSA&Australia increases a little more than without BTA, further impacting the cementconsumers in these countries.
SOCIAL CHOICE AND JUST INSTITUTIONS: NEW PERSPECTIVES

It has become accepted that social choice is impossible in the absence of interpersonal comparisons of well-being. This view is challenged here. Arrow obtained an impossibility theorem only by making unreasonable demands on social choice functions. With reasonable requirements, one can get very attractive possibilities and derive social preferences on the basis of non-comparable individual preferences. This new approach makes it possible to design optimal second-best institutions inspired by principles of fairness, while traditionally the analysis of optimal second-best institutions was thought to require interpersonal comparisons of well-being. In particular, this approach turns out to be especially suitable for the application of recent philosophical theories of justice formulated in terms of fairness, such as equality of resources.
Study of changes in thyroid profi le and serum calcium after subtotal thyroidectomy

Goiter is an enlargement of thyroid gland. It usually presents as a non-tender anterior neck mass. The patients generally presented with wheezing, change in quality of voice, difficulty in respiration and dysphagia [1]. Approximately, 45% patients have sub-sternal extension of the gland [2]. Two types of treatment modalities are available. The first mode is the medical treatment, which reduces the size of the gland or may avoid the progression of the disease; it is commonly used in asymptomatic patients. Second mode of treatment is the surgical procedure which is one of the most frequently performed, since ancient times. These procedures are frequently done in patients presented with symptoms of thyroid disease. The outcome and complication rates are chiefly dependent on skill and experience of the surgeon. Two different surgical techniques are used for the treatment of hyperthyroidism: Total thyroidectomy and subtotal thyroidectomy (STT). STT was considered better because of the lower incidence of postoperative complications, including recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis and hypo-parathyroidism, and an anticipated postoperative euthyroid state by leaving a small remnant of thyroid tissue in situ to maintain adequate hormone production. There is, however, the risk that the disease will persist or recur in the remnant [3]. The aim of this retrospective case study was to evaluate the thyroid functions before and after STT for hyperthyroidism. In this case report, we also mention the importance of half-lives of T3 and T4, the levels of serum calcium and serum albumin to determine the frequency of post-operative complications after revision STT.
Encouraging compliance: bonuses versus fines in inspection games

In this article we examine the effectiveness of bonuses and fines in an "inspection game," where costly inspection allows an authority to detect whether or not an individual complies with some standard of behavior. Standard game theoretic analysis predicts that in the inspection game non-compliant behavior is deterred by fines targeted at non-compliant individuals, but encouraged by bonuses awarded to compliant individuals. In an experiment we find that fines are effective in deterring non-compliance. However, in agreement with recent behavioral theories, we find that the effect of bonuses on compliance is much weaker than predicted. (JEL C72, C92, K42).