Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Major reproductive disorders of dairy cows in and around Asella town, Central Ethiopia.

Reproductive disorders are one of the most important problems that affect the production and productivity of dairy cows. A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of major reproductive disorders of dairy cows in and around Asella town, Central Ethiopia. For this purpose, a total of 82 owners and/or attendants of dairy cow herds were interviewed using structured questionnaire, and in addition, a total of 300 blood samples were randomly collected and analyzed from dairy cows in the study areas. Accordingly, the overall prevalence of reproductive disorders in the study area was 18.3%, with bovine brucellosis (32.9%), repeated breeding (26.8%) and abortion (14.6%) as the major reproductive disorders of dairy cows. It was also revealed that abortion is mostly common in exotic breeds (48.8%) and relatively less in local cows (9.8%) varying among parity and stage of pregnancy. Thus, it is recommended that strict animal husbandry especially animal feed and health management should be in place to minimize the risk of reproductive disorder occurrence in order to increase the production and productivity of dairy cows in the study area.
Socioeconomic Status in Perceived Oral Health and Contribution of Oral Health Behavioral Factors on Convergence

The study is investigated socioeconomic variations in perceived oral health status and contribution of oral health behavioral factors. A nationally representative sample (365 health and 1,787 unhealth aged 20 over years) from the 2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Surveys was analyzed using logistic regression. Perceived oral health was lower among lower socioeconomic groups compared with higher socioeconomic groups. This association was increased when demo-socioeconomic factors and oral health behavioral were adjusted. When each oral health behavioral factor was considered separately, mediators such as smoking, frequency of tooth brushing and used oral care products or oral health examination explained a large part of the increased socioeconomic oral health status. Subjective bad oral health arise from different socioeconomic status, but this difference is increased by oral health behavioral factors. Therefore, socioeconomic inequity in perceived oral health status can be corrected more effectively by promotional oral health behaviors.
An Intermediate Sanction That Fosters the Mother-Child Bond

Abstract Summit House is a residential alternative-to-incarceration program in North Carolina that operates in a home-like setting for female offenders and their children; the Program is designated an intermediate sanction. The Program has been recognized by experts in the field as a national model. And, in 1996 and 1998 respectively, it received two national awards-The President's Service Award and The Improvement of Justice Award. Despite national recognition and honor, however, little is known about the process by which the Program assists women in their role as mothers. This paper provides a process evaluation of the Summit House Program. To assess the Program, I reviewed an array of documents (e.g., resident manuals, incident reports, individualized treatment plans) and conducted a total of 44 interviews with administrators, staff, and clients. These individual face-to-face interviews took place in a private setting and averaged an hour in duration. Based on this information, I explain how the Program assists residents in building competency in the relationships they have with their children. The Program's strengths and weaknesses are highlighted and recommendations are offered for improvement.
OSTEOID-OSTEOMA: A BENIGN OSTEOBLASTIC TUMOR COMPOSED OF OSTEOID AND ATYPICAL BONE

The present article is a report on five cases of a type of benign neoplasm of bone apparently not hitherto classified. All the cases came to my attention during 1933. 1 They had the following features in common: 1. The patients were all adolescents or young adults from 11 to 22 years old. 2. In each case the principal complaint was of local pain, usually increasing and often severe enough to interfere with sleep. It was this symptom that brought the patients to consult a physician. 3. Uniformly, the lesion originated in an area of spongy bone. Although it sometimes involved cortical bone, it never penetrated the periosteum. 4. As observed roentgenographically, the pathologic areas were roundish, clearly circumscribed and confined within the bone. 5. The lesions were small and closely similar in size: Two were about 0.5 cm. , two were 1 cm. , and one was 2 cm. , in diameter.
Bedside Assessment of Pulmonary Mechanics: Instruments, Techniques, and Application

The major function of the respiratory system is gas exchange. Respiratory muscles exert the force necessary to move air into alveolar sacs, where gas exchange takes place by diffusion. Under resting conditions, alveolar gas passively exits the lung during expiration. Because of the respiratory system's large reserve capacity, gas exchange is usually accomplished with little noticeable effort in a normal person. This capacity can be severely reduced or inadequate to handle the load when respiratory mechanics are im­ paired by disease processes, however. When workload exceeds capacity, respiratory mus­ cles fatigue and respiratory failure may ensue. Many patients require ventilatory support while waiting for improved respiratory mechanics. It is therefore important to assess res­ piratory mechanics routinely in critically ill patients. It allows the physician to determine the physiological effects of the disease process, and it helps to assess the efficacy of ther­ apy. In this chapter, we will discuss the equipment and techniques needed to obtain lung mechanic measurements. Later, their clinical use will be considered.
Antibody response to feline panleukopenia virus vaccination in cats with asymptomatic retrovirus infections: a pilot study

Objectives Currently, there are only a few studies on how immunocompromised cats, such as cats infected with feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), respond to vaccination. Therefore, this study measured feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) antibodies in retrovirus-infected cats within a period of 28 days after FPV vaccination, and compared the immune response to that of non-infected cats. Methods Eight asymptomatic retrovirus-infected cats (four FeLV, four FIV), and non-infected age-matched control cats (n = 67) were vaccinated with a commercial FPV modified live virus (MLV). Pre- and post-vaccination antibody titres were measured by haemagglutination inhibition (HI) on days 0, 7 and 28. An HI titre ⩾1:40 was defined as protective. An adequate response to vaccination was defined as a four-fold titre increase or higher. Comparison of the immune response of retrovirus-infected and non-infected cats was performed. Results Pre-vaccination FPV antibody titres ⩾1:40 were present in 100% (n = 8/8; 95% confidence interval [CI] 62.8–100) of retrovirus-infected and in 77.6% (n = 52/67; 95% CI 66.2–86.0) of non-infected cats. An adequate response to vaccination (titre increase ⩾four-fold) was seen in 1/8 retrovirus-infected cats (12.5%; 95% CI 0.1–49.2) compared with 22/67 non-infected cats (32.8%; 95% CI 22.8–44.8). In cats with high pre-vaccination titres (⩾1:160), a four-fold titre increase or higher was observed in 1/8 retrovirus infected cats (12.5%; 95% CI 0.1–49.2) compared with 4/42 non-infected cats (9.5%; 95% CI 3.2–22.6). None of the eight retrovirus-infected cats developed illness or vaccination side effects after vaccination with MLV against FPV within the 28 days. There were no significant differences between groups: for pre-vaccination titres; for at least four-fold titre increases following vaccination in either all cats or the cats with high pre-vaccination titres; and concerning adverse effects. Conclusions and relevance All retrovirus-infected asymptomatic cats had pre-vaccination FPV antibodies indicating protection against panleukopenia. Response of retrovirus-infected cats to vaccination was similar to the response of non-infected cats.
Barriers Affecting Sustainable Agricultural Productivity of Smallholder Farmers in the Eastern Free State of South Africa

Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAPs) are the most promising pathways to enhance the productivity and resilience of agricultural production of smallholder farming systems while conserving the natural resources. This study was undertaken to identify the barriers affecting sustainable agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers in the eastern Free State, South Africa. Data were collected from 359 smallholder farmers using questionnaires and the validity of the collected data was confirmed through focus group discussions with key informants. Descriptive statistics and a binary logistic regression model were used to analyze data. Results indicated that traditional SAPs such as intercropping, mulching and crop rotation were more likely to be adopted by farmers with access to land yet without access to credit (and had low levels of education, although this finding was not significant). In contrast, new SAPs such as cover cropping, minimum-tillage, tied ridging and planting pits were more knowledge (education), capital and labor intensive. Therefore, extension strategies should take these differences into consideration when promoting both the adoption of traditional SAPs and new SAPs. Targeting resource-constrained farmers (in terms of access to credit and education) through raising awareness and building capacity is essential to ensure the adoption of traditional SAPs. In turn, promoting the adoption of new SAPs not only needs awareness raising and capacity building but also must fundamentally address resource constraints of South African smallholder farmers such as knowledge, capital and labor. It is recommended that government should provide resources and infrastructure to improve the quality and outreach of extension services through field demonstration trials and training.
Imputation of the working time information for the employment register data

"Due to changes in the data collection method in 2011, German Employment Register data temporarily exhibit an uncharacteristically high share of missing information (25 %) regarding the job activity profile (Tatigkeitsschlussel). We assess the consequences of this on wage analyses and develop a simple model to impute the missings. To this aim, we compare the predictive power of Logit and linear probability models, classification trees and nonparametric probit models. " (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
New architectures for very deep learning

Artificial Neural Networks are increasingly being used in complex real-world applications because many-layered (i.e., deep) architectures can now be trained on large quantities of data. However, training even deeper, and therefore more powerful networks, has hit a barrier due to fundamental limitations in the design of existing networks. This thesis develops new architectures that, for the first time, allow very deep networks to be optimized efficiently and reliably. Specifically, it addresses two key issues that hamper credit assignment in neural networks: cross-pattern interference and vanishing gradients. Cross-pattern interference leads to oscillations of the network’s weights that make training inefficient. The proposed Local Winner-Take-All networks reduce interference among computation units in the same layer through local competition. An in-depth analysis of locally competitive networks provides generalizable insights and reveals unifying properties that improve credit assignment. As network depth increases, vanishing gradients make a network’s outputs increasingly insensitive to the weights close to the inputs, causing the failure of gradient-based training. To overcome this limitation, the proposed Highway networks regulate information flow across layers through additional skip connections which are modulated by learned computation units. Their beneficial properties are extended to the sequential domain with Recurrent Highway Networks that gain from increased depth and learn complex sequential transitions without requiring more parameters.
Using dataflow based context for accurate value prediction

We explore the reasons behind the rather low prediction accuracy of existing data value predictors. Our studies show that contexts formed only from the outcomes of the last several instances of a static instruction do not always encapsulate all of the information required for correct prediction. Complex interactions between data flow and control flow change the context in ways that result in predictability loss for a significant number of dynamic instructions. For improving the prediction accuracy, we propose the concept of using contexts derived from the predictable portions of the data flow graph. That is, the predictability of hard-to-predict instructions can be improved by taking advantage of the predictability of the easy-to-predict instructions that precede it in the data flow graph. We propose and investigate a run-time scheme for producing such an improved context from the predicted values of previous instructions. We also propose a novel predictor called dynamic dataflow-inherited speculative context (DDISC) based predictor for specifically predicting hard-to-predict instructions. Simulation results verify that the use of dataflow-based contexts yields significant improvements in prediction accuracies, ranging from, 35% to 99%. This translates to an overall prediction accuracy of 68% to 99.9%.
Restrained drying : commercial experience

On presente des donnees recentes obtenues sur une secherie Bel-Champ, qui incluent le retrait de la feuille en fonction de la siccite du papier et les proprietes de la feuille dans le sens travers (elasticite, absorption d'energie de traction, rigidite sous traction).
Individual variation in syntactic processing in the second language: Electrophysiological approaches

This chapter reviews research on how individual differences in linguistic and cognitive abilities influence syntactic processing in the second language (L2). We briefly discuss individual variability in L2 syntactic processing through the lens of behavioral measurements, followed by a more extensive review of electrophysiological (i.e., Event-Related Potentials, ERP) studies on L2 syntactic processing. Relative to the behavioral literature, fewer ERP studies have examined individual variability in L2 syntactic processing and the large majority of these studies focused on only two factors: Age of Acquisition and L2 proficiency. We also discuss studies that used correlational and regression analyses and oscillatory neural dynamics and complex network analysis. We conclude the chapter with a discussion of studies that examined inter-individual variation in ERP response profiles associated with L2 and L1 syntactic processing in L2 learners, and the application of the Response-Dominance Index to quantify individual variability in ERP response profiles.
Retrospective drug testing : can the skin provide a record of drug taking history?

It has been shown that prolonged systemic presence of a drug can cause a build up of that drug in the skin. This drug ‘reservoir’, if properly understood, could provide useful and important information about the recent drug-taking history of a patient. In this thesis we create three mathematical models which combine to explore the potential for a drug reservoir to form in the skin and be collected as a method of monitoring compliance. The first model is used to characterise timedependent drug concentrations in plasma and tissue following a customisable drug regimen. Outputs from this model provide boundary conditions for the second, spatio-temporal model of drug build-up and concentration profile in the skin. This then provides initial conditions for the final model which predicts the extraction. These models are then used to identify the scenarios which have the greatest potential for successfully monitoring patient compliance via the skin. We focus in particular on drugs that are highly bound as this will restrict their potential to move freely into the skin but which are lipophilic so that, in the unbound form, they would demonstrate an affinity to the outer layers of the skin (which are built around a lipid matrix). We highlight how this study might be used to inform future experimental design and data collection in order to provide relevant parameter estimates for reservoir formation and its potential to contribute to enhanced drug monitoring techniques.
A Silent Chemotherapy Extravasation As The Unexpected Enemy: A Case Report

Introduction: Chemotherapeutic agents can cause extravasation which is one of the most devastating complications. Docetaxel is used in the treatment of many solid tumors. Diagnosing its extravasation is usually easy because clinical symptoms appear early but sometimes this process might be a slightly symptomatic acute event or even an indolent one. Case presentation: We report a case of a Caucasian man, aged 81, w i th metasta t ic pros ta te adenocarcinoma and progressive disease. In 2010 he complained of pain on his hip. Serum level of PSA was higher than 3000 ng/ml. He started chemotherapy with Docetaxel and Prednisona. With one of the infusions, he experienced burning sensation, itching and slight erythema in the region of venipuncture. He presented an erythematous area without swelling. He was instructed to use topical betamethasone and gentamicin cream but he came to meet us seven days after because he presented a violaceous and painful area of swelling with appearance of subcutaneous infiltration and an incipient 1 cm blister. He was recommended to apply betamethasone and gentamicin cream again but much higher doses, to cover the lesion to protect it from the sunlight and to take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to relief pain, experiencing improvement without sequalae. Conclusion: Docetaxel extravasation is a complication that can be very serious which requires early treatment to avoid or reduce sequalae. It is very important to be aware of this potential lesion in any patient receiving chemotherapy even more if the lesion appears after an asymptomatic infusion. Key messages: 1. Chemotherapy extravasations occur rarely but these might be serious. 2. Docetaxel extravasation tends to be vesicant in contrast with that described in several published articles and usually with severe sequalae. 3. In most cases the diagnosis is easy because it is very symptomatic but there are silent cases with a very difficult diagnosis. 4. Early treatment can help to reduce the damage and subsequent sequalae. 5. This existence of these cases must be known by the professionals in order to start the treatment quickly aiming to reduce the damage and subsequent sequalae.
The Tyrosine Phosphatase SHP2: A Key Molecule Linked both Type 2Diabetes and Cancers?

Emerging epidemiological evidence suggests that T2DM may be associated with an increased risk of certain cancers. However, the underlying molecular mechanism linked these two diseases remains largely unknown. SHP2, a non-receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase encoded by pro-oncogene PTPN11, has been reported involved in insulin resistance through PI3K/Akt/mOTR signaling and has also been considered to play a vital role in carcinogenesis via Ras/Erk pathways. Based on our previous studies, we hypothesize that SHP2 may present a key molecule linked both T2DM and cancers through both Ras/Erk and PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathways. We believe that the comprehensive and detailed investigation of SHP2 may provide a new insight into the underlying molecular mechanism linked both T2DM and cancers, thereby facilitating the process to discover novel therapeutic targets to prevent and treat cancers.
Algorithms can Mimic Human Piano Performance: The Deep Blues of Music

Abstract Can a computer play a music score, e.g. via a Disklavier, in a way that cannot be distinguished from a human performance of the same music? One hundred and seventy-two participants with a wide range of music playing backgrounds rated sound recordings of 7 performances of piano music by Kuhlau, one played by a human, and six generated by algorithms, including a ‘mechanical’ and an ‘unmusical’ rendering. Participants rated the extent to which each performance was by a human and explained their answers. The mechanical performance had the lowest mean rating, but the human performance was rated as statistically identical to the other stimuli. There were no differences between ratings made by classical piano experts and lay listeners, but despite this, the musicians were more confident with their ratings. Qualitative analysis revealed five broad themes that contribute to judging whether a piece appears to be human. The themes were labelled (in descending order of frequency) intuitive, expressive, imperfections, halo (global preference) and empathy. This paper presents new evidence systematically demonstrating that algorithm generated performances of piano music can be indistinguishable from human performances, suggesting some parallels with the 1990s victory of the Deep Blue computer of the world champion (human) chess player.
Which Investors Matter for Equity Valuations and Expected Returns?

Based on an asset demand system, we develop a framework to quantify the impact of market trends and changes in regulation on asset prices, price informativeness, and the wealth distribution. Our leading applications are the transition from active to passive investment management and climate-induced shifts in asset demand. The transition from active to passive investment management had a large impact on equity prices but a small impact on price informativeness because capital did not flow from more to less informed investors on average. This finding is based on a new measure of investor-level informativeness that identifies which investors are more informed about future profitability. Climate-induced shifts in asset demand have a potentially large impact on equity prices and the wealth distribution, implying capital gains for passive investment advisors, pension funds, insurance companies, and private banking and capital losses for active investment advisors and hedge funds.
Moderated Mediation Effect of Feedback Seeking Behavior and Goal Commitment on the relationship between Proactive Personalities and Sales Performance of Insurance Sales Agents in Mombasa, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to examine the Moderated Mediation effect of Feedback seeking behavior and Goal Commitment on the indirect relationship between Proactive personalities and Sales performance. The study adapted explanatory research design targeting 448 insurance Sales Agents in Mombasa County, Kenya. Using self-administered questionnaires, reliability test of the research instrument was done by the use of Cronbach’s alpha. The Pearson correlation and conditional process analysis, model 4 and model 58 was used to analyze the data and to test each of the hypotheses. The findings of the study confirm a positive effect of Proactive personalities on Sales performance and Goal Commitment. Goal Commitment was also found to positively affect Sales performance. Furthermore, the result confirms the Mediating effect of Goal Commitment on the relationship between Proactive personalities and Sales performance. The study also confirms that Feedback seeking behavior Moderates the relationship between Proactive personalities and Goal Commitment but does not moderate the relationship between Proactive personalities and Sales performance. Lastly the finding confirms that Feedback seeking behavior Moderates the indirect relationship between Proactive personalities and Sales performance via Goal Commitment. Managers and policymakers should formulate policies and strategies which nurture proactive behaviour among sales people by seeking feedback of their performance as they pursue the individual desired and organization’s set goals.