Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estrus synchronization in buffaloes: Prospects, approaches and limitations

Estrus synchronization and timed inseminations can overcome two distinct problems of buffalo breeding: poor overt estrus expression and seasonality of breeding. Evidence is accumulating that, similar to cattle, the synchronization of estrus in buffalo is dependent on the presence of dominant follicle (DF) and corpus luteum (CL) on the ovary. Approaches for estrus synchronization govern either the progression of DF to ovulation following luteolysis (prostaglandins PG) or regression of a DF, followed by growth of a new DF that progresses to ovulation (progestins and GnRH). The use of prostaglandins for estrus synchronization has led to estrus rates (ER) of 60-80% and conception rates (CR) of 12.5%-60% in buffalo heifers and ER of 70-100% and CR of 40-80% in adult buffaloes. Such an approach has the disadvantage of poor response in postpartum anestrus buffaloes and buffalo heifers with absence of CL and follicular growth. Moreover, the effects are suboptimal during the non-breeding season and during nutritional inadequacies. Progestagen treatments are more useful in buffalo heifers and adult buffaloes during the non-breeding season when combined with estradiol, eCG, prostaglandins and GnRH/hCG. A slightly longer duration (12-14 d) of progesterone therapy is suggested during the non-breeding season along with estradiol at the time of progesterone implant insertion, as this effectively regresses large follicles and/or initiates a new follicular growth. Such therapies effectively produce additional pregnancies during the unfavourable season, which is clearly advantageous. The ovsynch is the most commonly used GnRH based estrus synchronization protocol used in buffaloes with conception rates of up to 60% during the breeding season however, during the non-breeding season and in buffalo heifers the conception rates are suboptimal (11-20%). The nutritional status of buffaloes appears important before initiating estrus synchronization. In conclusion, estrus and ovulation can be effectively synchronized in buffaloes using ovsynch protocols during the breeding season; however during the non-breeding season progestagen based protocols in combination with estradiol, eCG, PG and GnRH are a better option for timing insemination and planning calvings.
Post-harvest Fungal Spoilage of Maize Silage: Species, growth conditions and mycotoxin detection

Purpose of review: This paper reviews the present knowledge on mycotoxins in silage, focusing on grass and maize silage. This includes the occurrence of filamentous fungi preand postharvest, possible and confirmed mycotoxins in silage, toxicological concerns and means to prevent the problem. Findings: Preharvest contamination of grass and maize by Fusarium, Aspergillus and Alternaria can lead to contamination of silage. Well known mycotoxins deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEA), fumonisins and aflatoxins have been detected in silages but concentrations seldom exceed regulatory limits. It also appears that DON, ZEA and fumonisins are degraded in silage, but exact mechanisms are unknown. Postharvest spoilage is dominated by Penicillium roqueforti, Aspergillus fumigatus and Zygomycetes. Both P. roqueforti and Asp. fumigatus produce a wide range of secondary metabolites, some of them confirmed mycotoxins, others with antimicrobial or immunosuppressive effects. Some fungal metabolites have been detected in silage but many have not been looked for. Evidence for acute toxicosis caused by contaminated silage is rare. Mycotoxins in silage are more often associated with less specific symptoms like ill-thrift or decreasing yield. This may be caused by long-term exposure to the complex mixture of secondary metabolites that silage can contain. Mycotoxins with antimicrobial effects may also affect ruminant digestion. To prevent postharvest spoilage of silage the most important factor is omission of oxygen. Additives can improve certain silage properties but they are not conclusively an advantage and cannot replace good silage management. Directions for future research: The effects of long-term exposure and of complex mixtures of bioactive fungal compounds are subjects of interest. Especially high-yielding livestock may be subject to sub-acute symptoms under these conditions. There is also a need for analytical methods with specificity and accuracy to determine many of the less known mycotoxins and secondary metabolites in silage as well as possible unknown compounds.
THE KNOWN UNKNOWNS OF GOVERNANCE BY RODOLPHE DESBORDES AND GARY KOOP

Empirical researchers interested in how governance shapes various aspects of economic development frequently use the Worldwide Governance indicators (WGI). These variables come in the form of an estimate along with a standard error reflecting the uncertainty of this estimate. Existing empirical work simply uses the estimates as an explanatory variable and discards the information provided by the standard errors. In this paper, we argue that the appropriate practice should be to take into account the uncertainty around the WGI estimates through the use of multiple imputation. We investigate the importance of our proposed approach by revisiting in three applications the results of recently published studies. These applications cover the impact of governance on (i) capital flows; (ii) international trade; (iii) income levels around the world. We generally find that the estimated effects of governance are highly sensitive to the use of multiple imputation. We also show that model misspecification is a concern for the results of our reference studies. We conclude that the effects of governance are hard to establish once we take into account uncertainty around both the WGI estimates and the correct model specification.
inativação de Listeria innocua Effect of pressurization rate on the inactivation of Listeria innocua

High pressure processing (HPP) enables the inactivation of microorganisms to sublethal temperatures ensuring the preservation of the organoleptic properties of food. However, must be determined and established the optimum conditions for an efficient inactivation, namely as regards the pressure value to be applied, holding time, and temperature. The pressurization rate can also be a condition of efficiency of inactivation. The present study had as main objective to evaluate the effect of different rates of pressurization in the inactivation of Listeria innocua. For that, cultures in stationary phase of growth in Tryptic Soy Broth (TSB) were subject to different pressurization rates up to a pressure of 300 MPa or 400 MPa, applied during 1 and 5 minutes, at room temperature. Additionally it was also evaluated the recovery of microbial cultures after treatments with high pressure (400 MPa and 500 MPa), when stored at chill temperature (4 °C) and room temperature (25 °C) for 1, 5 and 10 days. The concentration of survivors was evaluated by counting colonies after pourplated in Tryptic Soy Agar (TSA) of convenient dilutions. The inactivation factor was calculated as Log10 (N0/Ni). The results show that there are differences in the inactivation factor obtained with different pressurization/depressurization rates, to treatments at 300 MPa during 5 minutes. The inactivation has proven to be significantly more efficient with the low pressurization and depressurization rates (1.5 MPa s -1 and 3.2 MPa s -1 , respectively). There were no significant differences in the inactivation factor achieved in other conditions tested – 300 MPa during 1 minute, and 400 MPa during 1 and 5 minutes. The results concerning the recovery of cell viability after sublethal treatment at 400 MPa and lethal treatment at 500 MPa show full recovery of initial concentration of viable cells when the culture is stored at 25 °C. In cultures maintained at 4 °C, after sublethal treatment, the content of viable cells remains stable, with no evidence of recovery neither late inactivation, post-treatment. The results allow concluding that beyond the pressure value and holding time, the pressurization rate is a relevant parameter in the efficiency of inactivation of Listeria innocua and that the inactivation factor remains stable until 10 days of storage at 4 °C.
ANN based Data Mining Technique to Achieve Improved Accuracy to Predict ISMR from Ocean –Atmosphere State Variables

Oceans are currently undergoing a warming phase in response to global climate change. Rate of warming is however not uniform within a particular ocean and also between the oceans. Utilizing ICOADS Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data of 53 years (1960-2012), we studied the warming trend(s) in Indian Ocean (IO) on monthly, seasonal and annual scale applying statistical regression tools. Higher warming rate [0.300C/decade] has been identified in the equatorial IO. Over the tropical Indian Ocean, rate of warming had varied from 0.05 to 0.300C/decade. We also find that ICOADS data has limitations in producing the basin wide estimate of long term warming trend due to the limited data coverage.
GENERAL SELF-EFFICACY LEVEL AND CHANGES IN NEGATIVE POSTTRAUMATIC COGNITIONS AND POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER ( PTSD ) SYMPTOMS AMONG MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT SURVIVORS AFTER PTSD THERAPY 1

According to Bandura, a sense of personal efficacy is the foundation of human agency. Traumatic experiences cause important changes in activity, emotions and cognitive processes, in its extreme form leading to the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Diverse studies focused on the relation between self-efficacy and PTSD symptoms, indicate, in general the vulnerability effect. Some results suggest increase in self-efficacy beliefs in individuals who survived a traumatic experience and coped well with its consequences. The aim of this research was to determine whether the PTSD treatment leads to the increase of self-efficacy level among motor vehicle survivors. Eighty seven participants diagnosed with PTSD were randomly assigned to different types of therapy (psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy or combined therapy). The levels of PTSD symptoms, posttraumatic cognitions and self-efficacy were assessed by self-report measures before treatment and at one year follow-up. The results indicate that, in a longer time after trauma and therapy PTSD symptoms influence self-efficacy level and this relation is mediated by negative posttraumatic cognitions about the self. An increase in self-efficacy level between the assessment points was independent of the type of therapy and was observed only among subjects whose PTSD symptoms were significantly reduced during therapy process. Significant reduction of PTSD symptoms after the therapy process (regardless the type of therapy) leads to the reduction of negative posttraumatic cognitions about self and to the increase of general self-efficacy.
The Evolution of Interlocking Directorates Studies - A Global Trend Perspective

espanolLas redes de directores han sido objeto de muchos estudios que exploran sus consecuencias tales como la colaboracion de recursos, transmision de practicas, decisiones financieras, reduccion de la incertidumbre, control, reputacion e intereses individuales. Sin embargo, aun no existe un consenso acerca de lo que estas redes de directorios realmente hacen para las empresas y el camino que sigue su investigacion. Este estudio realizo una revision extensa de 75 articulos (desde 1969 hasta 2018) enfocados en estas redes y propone dos categorias y cuatro subcategorias de acuerdo a sus resultados para las empresas. Se encontro que la mayor contribucion para las empresas se enfoca en la descripcion de la estructura de la red y en los resultados de control, mostrando diferencia entre la investigacion de Norteamerica y otras regiones, dando luz acerca de lo que hacen estas redes para las empresas. Se identifico tambien que los efectos de difusion, la globalizacion y la colusion requieren mas atencion. EnglishDirectors’ corporate networks have been the subject of several studies that explore their different consequences, such as resource collaboration, transmission of practices, financial decisions, reduction of uncertainty, control and management, the firm’s reputation and individual interests. However, there is still no consensus about what these interlocking directorates (IDs) really do for firms and in what direction current research is following. This study carried out an extensive review of the literature in 75 papers (from 1969 to 2018) focused on IDs research, and as a result proposes two categories and four subcategories related to companies’ outcomes. The study found that the biggest contribution to firms, focuses on the description of network structures and control and management results, remarking the difference between North America IDs research and other regions, while shedding light on what IDs do for firms. It also identified gaps in research such as dissemination, globalization and collusion that need to have more analysis.
Interactive comment on “ An experimental seasonal hydrological forecasting system over the Yellow River basin – Part I : Understanding the role of initial hydrological conditions ” by Xing Yuan

manuscript is generally well written with good quality illustrations. It is a good piece of work. But I am a little disappointed with the scientific contribution of this work to our knowledge and understanding about seasonal hydrological forecasting, at least in the way that was presented. This is one of my major concerns. There are also a number of places in the manuscript that needs clarification or justification. Overall, I think a major revision is necessary to improve the quality of the paper.
Briones replicating RNA molecules Modular evolution and increase of functional complexity in

At early stages of biochemical evolution, the complexity of replicating molecules was limited by unavoidably high mutation rates. In an RNA world, prior to the appearance of cellular life, an increase in molecular length, and thus in functional complexity, could have been mediated by modular evolution. We describe here a scenario in which short, replicating RNA sequences are selected to perform a simple function. Molecular function is represented through the secondary structure corresponding to each sequence, and a given target secondary structure yields the optimal function in the environment where the population evolves. The combination of independently evolved populations may have facilitated the emergence of larger molecules able to perform more complex functions (including RNA replication) that could arise as a combination of simpler ones. We quantitatively show that modular evolution has relevant advantages with respect to the direct evolution of large functional molecules, among them the allowance of higher mutation rates, the shortening of evolutionary times, and the very possibility of finding complex structures that could not be otherwise directly selected.
Exploring business performance in Micro Enterprises through Entrepreneurial Orientation, Knowledge Sharing and Innovation

Micro enterprises form most of business establishments in Malaysia. They represent more than 90 percent of such establishments in the country. Interestingly, most studies have shown that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) is an important element of entrepreneurship for micro enterprises. Hence, in the era of robustness of technology and explosion of knowledge, the role of knowledge sharing and innovation should be incorporated in investigating the performance of micro enterprises. This paper aims to explore the business performance of selected micro enterprises in Malaysia. One hundred and six micro enterprise owners took part in a survey. Partial Least Square was used to analyze the data. The results show that while entrepreneurial orientation on its own has no direct impact on business performance, the practice of knowledge sharing and innovation practices does. Entrepreneurial orientation and knowledge sharing have shown a strong impact on innovation where innovation reflects the impact of all variables on business performance. The study has also shown that knowledge sharing and innovation are being practiced actively in micro enterprises, thus providing a good platform for future research.
arket reaction to the effect of corporate social responsibility on ergers and acquisitions : Evidence on emerging markets

This cross-country study examines a large sample of 1986 merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in 23 emerging market (EM) countries between 2008 and 2014 to investigate market reactions to deal announcements regarding the acquiring firms with different levels of pre-merger corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and under different degrees of agency cost concerns. We find that, neither positive stakeholder nor negative shareholder view alone can explain the CSR effects. The effects of CSR performance on market reactions to M&As depend mainly on the cost–benefit concerns of investors. While a higher level of acquirers’ pre-merger CSR performance could be helpful in conducting crossborder deals, market reactions to the CSR effects on such overseas deals still depend directly on the CSR cost concerns rather than indirectly on the CSR interests for deal efficiency. Evidence also shows that investors’ CSR cost concerns arise mainly from EM acquirers’ agency problems that could be effectively eased by country-level legal institutions rather than by firm-level governance mechanisms. Market investors with CSR agency concerns would not consider acquirers’ pre-merger CSR performance as a signal for investment during the deal announcement period, and that related CSR agency costs do impair gency cost orporate governance egal system merging market the financial performance after the merger. Additionally, we confirm that the better governance quality of targets’ nations compared with that of acquirers’ nation is not valued by the market investors but significantly leads to the better long-term operating performance. Furthermore, we propose an argument disputing the conclusions of previous research that consider emerging countries collectively as examples of weak governance quality. © 2018 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
CENTRE FOR NEWFOUNDLAND STUDIES

The present study investigated the effects of chronic low and high dose caffeine and aspartame on food intake and anxiety like behaviour in male Wistar rats. Anxiety-like behavior was assessed in the holeboard and elevated plus maze. Rats received caffeine (3.125 x 10-1 or 9.375 x 10-1 mgjml/day) and aspartame (2.5 or 7.5 mgjmljday) in their drinking water for 7 days. Rats were then tested in the holeboard and elevated plus maze. High caffeine with and without aspartame decreased food intake relative to vehicle controls. However, rats treated with high caffeine alone developed a tolerance to the anorectic effects of caffeine while low or high doses of aspartame blocked this tolerance to high caffeine. A low dose of caffeine given with a low dose of aspartame synergistically reduced feeding. This suppression was transient. There were no anxiogenic effects in the holeboard and plus maze tests for any group, although baseline anxiety levels were high for all groups. Future research should examine the feeding suppression effects by high doses of caffeine over an extended period in addition to carefully controlling rats' basal levels of anxiety.
DEVELOPMENT DURING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL YEARS : Evidence from Eye Movements

The present dissertation examined reading development during elementary school years by means of eye movement tracking. Three different but related issues in this field were assessed. First of all, the development of parafoveal processing skills in reading was investigated. Second, it was assessed whether and to what extent sublexical units such as syllables and morphemes are used in processing Finnish words and whether the use of these sublexical units changes as a function of reading proficiency. Finally, the developmental trend in the speed of visual information extraction during reading was examined. With regard to parafoveal processing skills, it was shown that 2 graders extract letter identity information approx. 5 characters to the right of fixation, 4 graders approx. 7 characters to the right of fixation, and 6 graders and adults approx. 9 characters to the right of fixation. Furthermore, it was shown that all age groups extract more parafoveal information within compound words than across adjectivenoun pairs of similar length. In compounds, parafoveal word information can be extracted in parallel with foveal word information, if the compound in question is of high frequency. With regard to the use of sublexical units in Finnish word processing, it was shown that less proficient 2 graders use both syllables and morphemes in the course of lexical access. More proficient 2 graders as well as older readers seem to process words more holistically. Finally, it was shown that 60 ms is enough for 4 graders and adults to extract visual information from both 4-letter and 8-letter words, whereas 2 graders clearly needed more than 60 ms to extract all information from 8letter words for processing to proceed smoothly. The present dissertation demonstrates that Finnish 2 graders develop their reading skills rapidly and are already at an adult level in some aspects of reading. This is not to say that there are no differences between less proficient (e.g., 2 graders) and more proficient readers (e.g., adults) but in some respects it seems that the visual system used in extracting information from the text is matured by the 2 grade. Furthermore, the present dissertation demonstrates that the allocation of attention in reading depends much on textual properties such as word frequency and whether words are spatially unified (as in compounds) or not. This flexibility of the attentional system naturally needs to be captured in word processing models. Finally, individual differences within age groups are quite substantial but it seems that by the end of the 2 grade practically all Finnish children have reached a reasonable level of reading proficiency.
Lobbying on audit regulation at IAASB *

e main goal of the paper is to analyze whether the positions of auditors and regulators, and their respective coalitions, regarding the proposals of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) in the last phase of the public consultation “Improving the Auditor’s Report” are signi cantly di erent, as well as the e ectiveness of a lobbying strategy using comment letters. e relevance of this research lies in providing evidence on whether or not the IAASB is in uenced by the lobbying strategies of di erent interest groups carried out via comment letters, especially auditors and regulators (both individually and in coalitions). e results show that both auditors and regulators attempeted to in uence the IAASB’s decision-making process, with their coalitions taking a di erent position on some questions. However, none of these interest groups predominated in terms of the e ectiveness of the lobbying carried out, hence the results are consistent with institutional theory, in that the IAASB seeks legitimacy in its actions and tries to accommodate several di erent interests, but does not let itself be captured by any speci c group. We analyzed and classi ed the comments (from a total of 86 letters) to nine questions proposed by the IAASB into a ve-point Likert scale. is classi cation was independently cross-validated by a second researcher. We applied ANOVA tests to analyze the position of the interest groups, and chisquared tests for the position of their coalitions. is paper addresses lobbying within the process of auditing standards settings, thus expanding the current literature on lobbying in accounting, which is mainly restricted to accounting regulations. It also contributes methodologically by using a new ve-point scale for the dependent variable instead of the usual binary approach.