Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PERFORMANCE OF MYOCARDIAL AND BLOOD SERAL CHANGES IN PIGS FED DIETS CONTAINING HIGH OR LOW ERUCIC ACID RAPESEED OILS

Eighty crossbred pigs (barrows and gilts), 4–5 wk old and averaging 7.9 kg were fed diets containing 15% rapeseed oil of either high (34.2%) or low (1.2%) erucic acid content, or a control diet to which no oil was added. Tissue samples were taken from the left ventricle of pigs slaughtered after 4, 16 and 23 wk on experiment, at which time they averaged 19, 87 and 130 kg liveweight. Differences in growth rate were not significant for any of the five treatments. Feed conversion efficiency was poorest (P < 0.01) for pigs fed the control diet. Significant differences between treatments were detected at one or more slaughter weights for serum cholesterol, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, blood urea nitrogen, glucose, protein-bound iodine and serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase. Total backfat and area of loin were not significantly affected by either source or level of rapeseed oil. Most of the carcass measurements recorded were significantly (P < 0.01) influenced by sex and slaughter weight. Histological ex.
Child and family characteristics as risk factors for peer victimization in kindergarten

Die vorliegende Studie untersucht Risikofaktoren fur die Viktimisierung durch Gleichaltrige. Es wird insbesondere untersucht, ob der Einfluss von Risikofaktoren auf der Ebene des Kindes (Verhaltensauffalligkeiten, verbale Kompetenz) den Einfluss von familiaren Risikofaktoren (Familienklima, Bildungsstand der Eltern, Migrationshintergrund) mediiert. Eltern und Lehrpersonen fullten Fragebogen aus; mit den Kindern im Alter von 5 und 6 Jahren (N=163) wurden das Berkeley Puppeninterview und ein Sprachtest durchgefuhrt. Die Analysen zeigen, dass Risikofaktoren von Kind und Familie unabhangig voneinander wirken: Je mehr Verhaltensprobleme, je mehr emotionale Symptome und je schwacher die verbalen Fertigkeiten des Kindes, umso mehr Mobbingerfahrungen macht das Kind. Kinder aus bildungsfernen Familien haben ein erhohtes Risiko Opfer zu werden. Padagogische und klinische Implikationen werden diskutiert.
The intake and performance of cashmere goats grazing sown swards

An experiment was conducted to examine the relationships between sward surface height and the intake and liveweight gain of lactating female goats and their single kids and of 12-month-old castrated male goats continuously grazing grass pasture. Herbage intake was measured using the n-alkane marker technique. Goats grazed the experimental area from May to August at nominal sward heights of 3–4, 5–6, 7–8 and 9–10 cm. Sward heights achieved were variable but were consistently ranked in treatment order. The herbage intake of females [57-140 g DM (kg LW0.75)−1 d−1] and castrates [26-88 g DM (kg LW0.75)−1 d−1] increased linearly with sward height over the range 3.2-11.0 cm. The liveweight change of females and castrates reflected the pattern of change in sward height. The herbage intake of kids [17-41 g DM (kg LW0·75)−1 d−1] was not related to sward height, but there was a consistent increase in liveweight gain with sward height from 98 to 129 g d−1. The herbage intake of kids did not increase with age with means of 25–29 g DM (kg LW0·75 d−1 for kids aged 9–17 weeks. There was evidence that all classes of goat selected green leafy material of high digestibility.
A comparison of long-term effects of scarification methods on the establishment of Norway spruce

Scarification is the most common measure to improve the planting environment in Sweden. However, different scarification methods give varying results. During the early 1990s, a nation-wide experiment with 10 field installations was established in order to test the effect of several scarification methods, including two intensities of soil inversion and mounding, on growth of planted Norway spruce seedlings and in comparison with no scarification (i.e. control). Eighteen growing seasons after planting, a higher seedling survival was found following soil inversion (77 per cent for normal and 76 per cent for intensive) compared with mounding (67 per cent) and control (57 per cent). The mean height of the planted trees across all sites 18 years after planting was 413 and 430 cm following normal and intensive soil inversion, respectively, 424 cm after mounding and 346 cm in the control. The difference in height between the scarification treatments and the control corresponded to a time gain of 4 years of growth after 18 years. However, the length of the leading shoot was not affected by scarification after 14–18 years, indicating that scarification did not affect growth beyond the establishment phase. Scarification reduced variation in height of the planted trees. On scarified plots, the number of naturally regenerated trees increased with more than 100 per cent to reach a mean value of 2300 stems per hectare.
Power, performance, and upheaval : an opportunity for managed languages

Two significant revolutions are underway in computing. (1) On the hardware side, exponentially growing transistor counts in the same area, limited power budget and the breakdown of MOSFET voltage scaling are forcing power to be the first order constraint of computer architecture design. Data center electricity costs are billions of dollars each year in the U.S. alone. To address power constraints and energy cost, industry and academia propose Asymmetric Multicore Processors (AMP) that integrate general-purpose big (fast, high power) cores and small (slow, low power) cores. They promise to improve both single-thread performance and multi-threaded throughput with lower power and energy consumption. (2) On the software side, managed languages, such as Java and C#, and an entirely new software landscape of web applications have emerged. This has revolutionized how software is deployed, is sold, and interacts with hardware, from mobile devices to large servers. Managed languages abstract over hardware using Virtual Machine (VM) services (garbage collection, interpretation, and/or just-in-time compilation) that together impose substantial power and performance overheads. Thus, hardware support for managed software and managed software utilization of available hardware are critical and pervasive problems. However, hardware and software researchers often examine the changes arising from these on going revolutions in isolation. Architects mostly grapple with microarchitecture design through the narrow software context of native sequential SPEC CPU benchmarks, while language researchers mostly consider microarchitecture in terms of performance alone. This dissertation explores the confluence of the two trends. My thesis is that there exists a synergy between managed software and AMP architectures that can be automatically exploited to reduce VM overheads and deliver the efficiency promise of AMP architectures while abstracting over hardware complexity. This thesis identifies a synergy between AMP and managed software, and addresses the challenge of exploiting it through the following three steps. (1) It first systematically measures and analyzes the power, performance, and energy characteristics of managed software compared to native software on current mainstream symmetric hardware, which motivates the next part of the thesis. (2) It next demonstrates that VM services fulfil the AMP workload requirements and tailored small cores for VM services deliver improvements in performance and energy. (3) Finally, it introduces a dynamic scheduling algorithm in the VM that manages parallelism, load balance and core sensitivity for efficiency. This thesis is the first to quantitatively study measured power and performance
Training Algorithms for Multiple Object Tracking

Multiple object tracking is a crucial Computer Vision Task. It aims at locating objects of interest in the image sequences, maintaining their identities, and identifying their trajectories over time. A large portion of current research focuses on tracking pedestrians, and other types of objects, that often exhibit predictable behaviours, that allow us, as humans, to track those objects. Nevertheless, most existing approaches rely solely on simple affinity or appearance cues to maintain the identities of the tracked objects, ignoring their behaviour. This presents a challenge when objects of interest are invisible or indistinguishable for a long period of time. In this thesis, we focus on enhancing the quality of multiple object trackers by learning and exploiting the long ranging models of object behaviour. Such behaviours come in different forms, be it a physical model of the ball motion, model of interaction between the ball and the players in sports or motion patterns of pedestrians or cars, that is specific to a particular scene. In the first part of the thesis, we begin with the task of tracking the ball and the players in team sports. We propose a model that tracks both types of objects simultaneously, while respecting the physical laws of ball motion when in free fall, and interaction constraints that appear when players are in the possession of the ball. We show that both the presence of the behaviour models and the simultaneous solution of both tasks aids the performance of tracking, in basketball, volleyball, and soccer. In the second part of the thesis, we focus on motion models of pedestrian and car behaviour that emerge in the outdoor scenes. Such motion models are inherently global, as they determine where people starting from one location tend to end up much later in time. Imposing such global constraints while keeping the tracking problem tractable presents a challenge, which is why many approaches rely on local affinity measures. We formulate a problem of simultaneously tracking the objects and learning their behaviour patterns. We show that our approach, when applied in conjunction with a number of state-of-the-art trackers, improves their performance, by forcing their output to follow the learned motion patterns of the scene. In the last part of the thesis, we study a new emerging class of models for multiple object tracking, that appeared recently due to availability of large scale datasets sequence models for multiple object tracking. While such models could potentially learn arbitrarily long ranging behaviours, training them presents several challenges. We propose a training scheme and a loss function
The effect of fertilizer nitrogen rate, white clover variety and closeness of cutting on herbage productivity from perennial ryegrass/white clover swards

Four varieties of white clover (small-leaved cv. Aberystwyth S184. medium-leaved cv. Grasslands Huia and large-leaved cvs Linda and Olwen) were sown at 3 kg ha-1 together with 10 kg ha-1 perennial ryegrass cv. Talbot. Herbage productivity was measured for three harvest years, 1979-81, over four annual rates of fertilizer N (0,120,240 and 360 kg ha-1) and two closeness of cutting treatments (80 and 40 mm from ground level). A simulated grazing regime of six cuts per year at 3- to 6-week intervals was used. Production of total herbage DM was increased by increasing N rate; mean annual DM production ranged from 783 1 ha-1 with no N to 11701 ha-1 at 360 kg ha-1 N. Mean herbage response to N (kg DM per kg N applied) was 73,90 and 108 for the three successive N increments relative to no N. Mean white clover DM production was reduced from 4 14t ha-1 with no N to 051 t ha-1 at 360 kg ha-1 N. The large-leaved clover varieties were more productive than the small- or medium-leaved varieties at all N rates. Close cutting increased total herbage and white clover by a mean annual 16% and 31%. respectively. White clover varieties did not interact with either N rate or closeness of cutting. It is concluded that repetitive N application over the growing season is incompatible with white clover persistence and production, even with large-leaved clover varieties or with close cutting, two factors which improved clover performance in the experimental swards.
Evidence on the Trade-Off between Risk and Return for IPO and SEO Firms

Do the low long-run average returns of equity issuers reflect Do the low long-run average returns of equity issuers reflect underperformance due to mispricing or the risk characteristics of the issuing firms? We shed new light on this question by examining how institutional lenders price loans of equity-issuing firms. We find that equity-issuing firms' expected debt return is equivalent to the expected debt return of non-issuing firms with similar characteristics, implying that institutional lenders perceive equity issuers to be as risky as similar non-issuing firms. We also find that institutional lenders perceive small and high book-to-market borrowers as systematically riskier than larger borrowers with low book-to-market ratios, consistent with the asset pricing approach in Fama and French (1993). Finally, we find that firms' expected debt returns decline after equity offerings, consistent with recent theoretical arguments suggesting that firm risk should decline following an equity offering if equity is issued to exercise a real option. Overall, our analysis provides novel evidence consistent with risk-based explanations for the observed equity returns following IPOs and SEOs.
A new method to build multiplex networks using canonical correlation analysis for the characterization of the Alzheimer’s disease continuum

Objective. The aim of this study was to solve one of the current limitations for the characterization of the brain network in the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) continuum. Nowadays, frequency-dependent approaches have reached contradictory results depending on the frequency band under study, tangling the possible clinical interpretations. Approach. To overcome this issue, we proposed a new method to build multiplex networks based on canonical correlation analysis (CCA). Our method determines two basis vectors using the source and electrode-level frequency-specific network parameters for a reference group, and then project the results for the rest of the groups into these hyperplanes to make them comparable. It was applied to: (i) synthetic signals generated with a Kuramoto-based model; and (ii) a resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) database formed by recordings from 51 cognitively healthy controls, 51 mild cognitive impairment subjects, 51 mild AD patients, 50 moderate AD patients, and 50 severe AD patients. Main results. Our results using synthetic signals showed that the interpretation of the proposed CCA-based multiplex parameters (multiplex strength, multiplex characteristic path length and multiplex clustering coefficient) can be analogous to their frequency-specific counterparts, as they displayed similar behaviors in terms of average connectivity, integration, and segregation. Findings using real EEG recordings revealed that dementia due to AD is characterized by a significant increase in average connectivity, and by a loss of integration and segregation. Significance. We can conclude that CCA can be used to build multiplex networks based from frequency-specific results, summarizing all the available information and avoiding the limitations of possible frequency-specific conflicts. Additionally, our method supposes a novel approach for the construction and analysis of multiplex networks during AD continuum.
Effect of timing of precommercial thinning on the consumption of working time in Picea abies stands in Finland

The effect of the timing of precommercial thinning on the productivity of work was examined in young Norway spruce [Picea abies (L.) Karst. ] stands in southern Finland. The common problem of large variation between sample plots in time studies was avoided by introducing a new approach based on a combination of stand measurements, tree-ring analysis and existing work productivity functions. The results indicated that a 2 year delay in the precommercial thinning of a stand was enough to cause an increase of 10-42% in the consumption of working time at a mean height of 1.5-3.1 m. At a later thinning, at a mean height 4.1-7.2 m, the increase was 8-24%. The development of the stand up to the first commercial thinning was not significantly influenced by a 2 year delay in the late precommercial thinning.
ANTIBACTERIAL EFFECT, HISTOLOGICAL IMPACT AND OXIDATIVE STRESS STUDIES FROM LAURUS NOBILIS EXTRACT

Laurus nobilis is one of the most broadly used spices in Moroccan gastronomy. Its antimicrobial activity against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial species was demonstrated. Likewise, its toxicity was investigated on Swiss albinos' mice. Daily, mice were treated orally with 0.003 and 0.3 mg during 7 days. Plasmatic markers and enzymatic systems were assessed and histological alterations were evaluated. A significant increase in creatine phosphokinase level was observed. The microscopic evaluation showed that L. nobilis induces morphological perturbation in mice's liver. The results also showed an inhibitory effect of glyceraldehydes 3-phosphate dehydrogenase and an important increase in the level of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and succinate dehydrogenase and no change in catalase activities. The results showed that L. nobilis induces toxicity at 0.3 mg/g mouse and affects energy metabolism and oxidative stress. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS The aim of the present study is to determine the antimicrobial effect of Laurus nobilis on pathogens for potential application as herbal medicine in infusion or oral preparation. The effect of the spice extract was investigated on the metabolic markers, stress biomarkers and clinical parameters. This study was completed with histological coupes. To our knowledge, this is the first report to demonstrate the laurel effect on energy metabolism and oxidative stress.
Purification of recombinant SARS-CoV-2 spike, its receptor binding domain, and CR3022 mAb for serological assay

Serology testing for COVID-19 is highly attractive because of the relatively short diagnosis time and the ability to test for an active immune response against the SARS-CoV-2. In many types of serology tests, the sensitivity and the specificity are directly influenced by the quality of the antigens manufactured. Protein purification of these recombinantly expressed viral antigens [e.g., spike and its receptor binding domain (RBD)] is an important step in the manufacturing process. Simple and high-capacity protein purification schemes for spike, RBD, and CR3022 mAb, recombinantly expressed in CHO and HEK293 cells, are reported in this article. The schemes consist of an affinity chromatography step and a desalting step. Purified proteins were validated in ELISA-based serological tests. Interestingly, extracellular matrix proteins [most notably heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG)] were co-purified from spike-expressing CHO culture with a long cultivation time. HSPG-spike interaction could play a functional role in the pathology and the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses.
Influence of climate, edaphic factors and tree nutrition on site index of chestnut coppice stands in north-west Spain

Summary The relationships between climatic variables, soil parameters, tree nutrition and site index (SI) were examined in 30 chestnut coppice stands in Asturias, the region with the largest area of chestnut coppice in north-west Spain. SI was estimated from a top height projection equation for this species. A soil sample was obtained at 0- to 20-cm depth and several leaves were collected from the upper zone of the dominant trees in each plot for further analysis. Chi-square automatic interaction detection and parametric regression techniques were used to determine the key factors affecting SI. According to the regression tree and the parametric regression model for all variables, the extractable Mg in the soil and mean temperature of the warmest month were the most important variables explaining SI in the region. Elevation and foliar concentrations of phosphorus were not significant factors in the parametric regression analysis (although considered key factors when foliar nutrients and physiographical variables were analysed separately). The results show the importance, for chestnut growth, of site selection and balanced fertilizer treatment consistent with the soil requirements of the species.
Nearshore abundance of zooplankton in relation to shoreline configuration and mechanisms involved

Zooplankton abundance was examined in relation to shoreline configuration. Four embay- ments (0.15,1.5, 4 and 7 km opening) were each divided into three zones, corresponding to regions inside, outside and downstream. A portion of straight coast (-12 km, Sainte-Flavie (SF)) was also divided into three zones. Only the largest embayment was sampled in 1993, but all embayments and SF were sampled in 1994. In 1993, zooplankton abundance was significantly higher within the embayment than in external zones for six of seven dates. Zones inside the four embayments had generally higher zooplankton abundance than zones external to the embayments in 1994, but the opposite was observed during the first of two sampling dates for the largest embayments. No definite pattern was observed among zones along SF. Four hypotheses could explain the higher abundance of zooplankton inside embayments. Three were tested using meroplankton (M)/holoplankton (H) ratios. The M/H ratios confirmed hypotheses of retention and local production of meroplanktoni c larvae inside embayments. Zooplankton abundance was lower inside than in zones external to embay- ments only twice, and wind direction may have been responsible for these results. No embayment size effect on zooplankton abundance was detected. The patchy distribution of zooplankton may increase the difficulty of observing an effect of embayment size on zooplankton abundance.
Effect of grazing by a neotropical copepod, Notodiaptomus, on a natural cyanobacterial assemblage and on toxic and non-toxic cyanobacterial strains

The neotropical, freshwater copepod Notodiaptomus iheringi decreased the growth of small colonies in cyanobacteria-dominated plankton, indicating that they can be efficiently ingested and that they may represent an important food source for this copepod in reservoirs dominated by cyanobacteria. Cultured, colonial, toxic Microcystis aeruginosa was not affected, indicating that toxicity may cause a decrease in its ingestion by N. iheringi.