Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Management practices, reproductive performances, and production constraints of indigenous cattle in north-western parts of Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Description of the production condition and level of performance is the first step in improving production performance. The study described the indigenous cattle reproductive performances, management practices and production limitations in north-western Ethiopia. Multistage purposive and random sampling methods were used to select the study sites/districts and households. A semi-structured questionnaire (320 interviewees), focus group discussions (12) and personal observations were used for data collection. Chi-square (χ2) test, the least squares mean and the ranking indexes were the statistical methods employed for data analysis. Livestock composition, reproductive performance and production constraints of cattle showed significant differences (p < 0.001) between agro-ecological zones. Cattle were the dominant livestock species, with mean numbers of 18.3 ± 9.9, 8.1 ± 3.2 and 5.4 ± 2.5 heads in the lowland, midland and highland agro-ecological zones, respectively. The mean ages at first mating of bulls, first service of heifers, first calving and calving interval of cows were best in the highlands, while the midland agro-ecology had the worst performance. Feed shortage (Index = 0.4) and disease prevalence (Index = 0.25) were the main cattle production problems. Natural pasture was the main feed source for cattle in the study areas. The study revealed a significant effect agro-ecology on landholding, cattle management practices, species composition; cattle herd structure, reproductive performances and cattle production constraints. This implies that the socioeconomic characteristics, management-level constraints for production and performance level of the livestock stock are important for developing improvement strategies for smallholder livestock production in different agro-ecological zones.
On Bootstrap Iteration for Coverage Correction in Confidence Intervals

Abstract Iterated bootstrap procedures may be used to reduce error in many statistical problems. We discuss their use in constructing confidence intervals with accurate coverage and show that bootstrap coverage correction produces improvements in coverage accuracy of order n −1/2 in one-sided intervals, but of order n −1 in two-sided intervals. Explicit formulas are provided for the dominant term in coverage error after iteration in each case. These results are used to compare various iterated bootstrap intervals and to assess the effect of bootstrap iteration on other indicators of interval performance, such as position of critical points and length of interval. We show that, for one-sided intervals, the coverage-correction algorithm yields critical points that are second-order correct. This is not the case for two-sided intervals, where second-order correctness is not crucial in obtaining high-order coverage accuracy. We also show that the asymptotic mean increase in length between the original and cove.
Extracts of Eryngium foetidum Leaves from the Amazonia Were Efficient Scavengers of ROS and RNS

Eryngium foetidum L. is an edible plant widespread in Amazonian cuisine and its leaves have high levels of promising phenolic compounds for the production of extracts to be used as natural antioxidant additives. In this study, the in vitro scavenging capacity of three freeze-dried extracts of E. foetidum leaves, obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction using green solvents [water (H2O), ethanol (EtOH), and ethanol/water (EtOH/H2O)], was investigated against the most common reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) generated in both physiological and food systems. Six phenolic compounds were identified, chlorogenic acid (2198, 1816 and 506 μg/g) being the major compound for EtOH/H2O, H2O, and EtOH extracts, respectively. All E. foetidum extracts were efficient in scavenging all the ROS and RNS (IC50 = 45–1000 µg/mL), especially ROS. The EtOH/H2O extract showed the highest contents of phenolic compounds (5781 μg/g) and showed the highest efficiency in scavenging all the reactive species, with high efficiency for O2•− (IC50 = 45 μg/mL), except for ROO•, for which EtOH extract was the most efficient. Therefore, E. foetidum leaf extracts, especially EtOH/H2O, showed high antioxidant potential to be used as natural antioxidants in food formulations and are promising for nutraceuticals products.
Regression Theory for Near-Integrated Time Series

The concept of a near-integrated vector random process is introduce d, helping the author work towards a general asymptotic theory of regression fo r multiple time series in which some series may be integrated processe s of the ARIMA type, others may be stable ARMA processes with near unit roots, and yet others may be mildly explosive. A limit theory for th e sample moments of such time series is developed using weak convergence. The theory is applied to the study of vector autoregress ions and cointegrating regressions of the type advanced by R. F. Engle and C. W. Granger (1987). A noncentral limiting distribution theory is derived for some recently-proposed multivariate unit root tests. Models with drift and near-integration are also studied. Copyright 1988 by The Econometric Society.
Attentive mechanisms for dynamic and static scene analysis

Attention mechanisms extract regions of interest from image data to reduce the amount of information to be analyzed by time-consuming processes such as image transmission, robot navigation, and object recognition. Two such mechanisms are described. The first one is an alerting system that extracts moving objects in a sequence through the use of multiresolution representations. The second one detects regions in still images that are likely to contain objects of interest. Two types of cues are used and integrated to compute the measure of interest. First, bottom-up cues result from the decomposition of the input image into a number of feature and conspicuity maps. The second type of cues is top-down, and is obtained from a priori knowledge about target objects, represented through invariant models. Results are reported for both the alerting and the attention mechanisms using cluttered and noisy scenes.
Crafting for oneself while considering others: how the relational design of work shapes job crafting

Abstract Job crafting is a concept of increasing interest to human resource management (HRM), as it involves employees re-designing their jobs to maintain and increase their person-job fit. Job crafting is seen as an individual’s self-focused approach to his/her work, and the way other people influence and are influenced by these behaviors is understudied. We built on the relational work design theory and used focus group interviews of 44 employees and thematic analysis method to explore how job crafting is shaped by interactions with others at work. Our results show that relational work characteristics, namely contact with other people and impact on other people, shape the way jobs are crafted. Further, we find that jobs are crafted by mobilizing the relational work design and adapting to it. Based on these findings, we present a typology of four general job crafting strategies. We advance theory on how individuals craft their jobs to consider not just themselves but also others. This study has implications for job crafting theory and HRM by highlighting how the relational properties of work shape the way employees craft their jobs.
Terahertz conductivity characterization of nanostructured graphene-like films for optoelectronic applications

Abstract. Difficulty in deposition and integration of fragile graphene-like samples for optoelectronic devices may prevent a multiple contact measurement procedure. We employed noncontact and nondestructive transmission and reflection terahertz (THz)-pulsed spectroscopy to investigate not only the electrical conductivity, but also to study the optical properties of one-dimensional and two-dimensional graphene-like samples. The Drude and non-Drude models were applied to observe and compare the ultrafast carrier transport parameters and high mobility characteristic of such high conductance-nanostructured thin films without requirement for postprocess patterning. The diffusive coefficient and nanoscopic characteristic length from noncontact THz measurement enables us to predict the cut-off frequency of such devices in relevant optoelectronic applications in sub-THz and THz frequencies. The results show that the cut-off frequency of the devices increases with a reduction of the channel length.
Test of special relativity or of the isotropy of space by use of infrared masers.

The highly monochromatic frequencies of optical or infrared masers allow very sensitive detection of any change in the round-trip optical distance between two reflecting surfaces. Hence, comparison of the frequencies of two masers with axes perpendicular to each other allows an improved experiment of the Michelson- Morley type, or a very precise examination of the isotropy of space with respect to light propagation. Two He-- Ne masers were mounted with axes perpendicular on a rotating table carefully isolated from acoustical vibrations. Their frequency difference was found to be constant to within 30 c over times as short as about one second, or to one part in 10/sup 13/ of the maser frequency, which is near 3 x 10/sup 14/ c. Rotation of the table through 90 deg produced repeatable variations in the frequency difference of about 275 kc presumably because of magetostriction in the fnvar spacers due to the geomagetic field. Examination of this variation over six consecutive hours shows that there was no relative variation in the maser frequencies associated with orientation of the earth in space greater than about 3 kc. Hence there is no anisotropy or effect of either drift larger than 1/1000 of the small fractionalmore » term (v/c)/sup 2/ associated with the earth's orbital velocity. This preliminary version of the experiment is more precise by a factor of about three than previous MichelsonMorley experiments. There is reason to hope that improved versions will allow as much as two more orders of magnitude in precision, and that similar techniques will also yield considerably improved precision in an experi-ment of the Kennedy-Thorndike type. (auth) dependence of the hamiltonian is due to a coupling with« less
SIRT2 Deficiency Aggravates Diet-Induced Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease through Modulating Gut Microbiota and Metabolites

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), characterized by excessive lipid accumulation in hepatocytes, is an increasing global healthcare burden. Sirtuin 2 (SIRT2) functions as a preventive molecule for NAFLD with incompletely clarified regulatory mechanisms. Metabolic changes and gut microbiota imbalance are critical to the pathogenesis of NAFLD. However, their association with SIRT2 in NAFLD progression is still unknown. Here, we report that SIRT2 knockout (KO) mice are susceptible to HFCS (high-fat/high-cholesterol/high-sucrose)-induced obesity and hepatic steatosis accompanied with an aggravated metabolic profile, which indicates SIRT2 deficiency promotes NAFLD-NASH (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis) progression. Under palmitic acid (PA), cholesterol (CHO), and high glucose (Glu) conditions, SIRT2 deficiency promotes lipid deposition and inflammation in cultured cells. Mechanically, SIRT2 deficiency induces serum metabolites alteration including upregulation of L-proline and downregulation of phosphatidylcholines (PC), lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC), and epinephrine. Furthermore, SIRT2 deficiency promotes gut microbiota dysbiosis. The microbiota composition clustered distinctly in SIRT2 KO mice with decreased Bacteroides and Eubacterium, and increased Acetatifactor. In clinical patients, SIRT2 is downregulated in the NALFD patients compared with healthy controls, and is associated with exacerbated progression of normal liver status to NAFLD to NASH in clinical patients. In conclusion, SIRT2 deficiency accelerates HFCS-induced NAFLD-NASH progression by inducing alteration of gut microbiota and changes of metabolites.
Hospital Admission Profile Related to Inner Ear Diseases in England and Wales

Background: Due to an expansion in the usage of medications (such as anticancer therapies), increased exposure to noise, and an increase in life expectancy, the prevalence of inner ear disease-related hearing loss is rising. Diseases of the inner ear are frequently accompanied by other conditions, such as chronic heart failure, systemic inflammation, arterial hypertension, and cerebrovascular disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the profile of hospital admissions linked to inner ear diseases in England and Wales. Method: This was an ecological descriptive study using public medical databases in England and Wales. Diagnostic codes for diseases of the inner ear (H80–H83) were used to identify all hospital admissions. Between 1999 and 2020, the chi-squared test was used to assess the difference between the admission rates. Results: From 5704 in 1999 to 19,097 in 2020, the total annual number of hospital admissions increased by 234.8%, which corresponds to a 192.3% increase in the admission rate [from 10.94 (95% CI 10.66–11.22) in 1999 to 31.98 (95% CI 31.52–32.43) in 2020 per 100,000 people, p < 0.01]. “Disorders of vestibular function” and “other inner ear diseases” were the most frequent causes of hospital admissions due to inner ear diseases, accounting for 47.6% and 43.6%, respectively. The age range of 15 to 59 years accounted for 42.3% of all diseases of the inner ear hospital admissions. Around 59.6% of all admissions were made by females. The female admission rate increased by 210.1% (from 12.43 (95% CI 12.01–12.85) in 1999 to 38.54 (95% CI 37.84–39.24) in 2020 per 100,000 people). The male admission rate for diseases of the inner ear increased by 169.6% [from 9.37 (95% CI 9.00–9.75) in 1999 to 25.26 (95% CI 24.69–25.84) per 100,000 people] in 2020. Conclusion: Inner ear disease admissions increased markedly in England and Wales during the past two decades. Females and the middle-aged population were at higher risk of being admitted for inner ear diseases. Further cohort studies are warranted to identify other risk factors and develop effective prevention strategies.
Characterization of Natural Cellulosic Fiber Obtained from the Flower Heads of Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum) as a Potential Polymer Reinforcement Material

ABSTRACT Natural fibers are being investigated as alternatives to synthetic fibers in composite materials. In this paper, the physical, chemical, thermal, and morphological characteristics of fibers derived from milk thistle flower heads were characterized as potential polymer reinforcement material using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The fibers were found to contain 42.9% cellulose, 21.2% hemicellulose, and a negligible lignin content. The fiber constituent functional groups were similar to those observed for other natural fibers. The crystallite size and the crystallinity index were found to be 2.23 nm and 84 ± 3%, respectively. The thermal stability of the fibers was found to be 220°C. The fibers start rapidly degrading above 290°C. Morphologically, the fibers appeared to have a nonporous surface with well-structured longitudinal parallel grooves. Cross sectionally, the fibers consisted of multiple hollow lumens interconnected with cell walls. The hollowed nature of the fibers explains the low value (0.33 ± 0.04 g mL−1) of their density. The tensile strength of the fibers was determined to be 22 ± 1 MPa. In conclusion, the fibers of the flower heads of milk thistle can be used as effective reinforcements in polymer matrices.
The 14N(p,γ)15O reaction studied at low and high beam energy

6 1 Astrophysics: Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen cycle 9 1.1 Evolution of stars . 9 1.2 Bethe-Weizsäcker (CNO) cycle . 12 1.3 Our Sun: chemical composition problem . 15 1.4 The bottleneck reaction N(p,γ)O: literature overview . 21 2 N(p,γ)O experiment at LUNA, E = 0.3 0.4MeV 29 2.1 Experimental Setup . 29 2.1.1 Underground laboratory . 29 2.1.2 Accelerator and beam line . 30 2.1.3 Targets . 32 2.1.4 The Clover composite detector . 33 2.2 γ-ray spectra and data acquisition . 35 2.2.1 Gain-matching and summing of individual spectra . 36 2.2.2 Addback mode: Study of the BGO veto . 37 2.2.3 Singles mode: Study of the ADC multiplexer . 39 2.2.4 Uncertainty due to geometry reproducibility issues . 42 2.2.5 Summary of corrections and uncertainties due to DAQ issues . 43 2.3 Net peak area calculation . 43 2.4 γ-ray detection efficiency . 49 2.5 Effective energy . 52 2.6 True coincidence summing . 53 2.6. 1 Summing-out effect calculation . 53 2.6. 2 Summing-in effect for the ground state capture line . 54 2.7 Relative cross section data for capture to the ground state . 59 2.7. 1 S-factors for capture to the ground state . 60 2.8 Branching ratios for the decay of the 259 keV resonance . 61 2.9 Absolute analysis of GS, 5.18, 6.17, 6.79 cross sections . 62 2.9. 1 The absolute cross section . 62
Restricted Search Space Exploration With Refinement for Symbol Detection in Uplink Massive MIMO

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is a promising technique to overcome the explosive increase in the demand for high-speed data, quality of service and energy efficiency for fifth generation (5G) and beyond wireless systems. Low-complexity symbol detection in massive MIMO is one of the challenging issues for their practical realization. The existing approximate matrix inversion based and matrix inversion less iterative symbol detection techniques suffer significant performance loss when the number of users increases in the system. Therefore, this article proposes a low-complexity restricted search space exploration based ordered iterative detection (REOD) technique to achieve superior performance in large user massive MIMO systems. The proposed low-complexity REOD technique iteratively prunes the discrepancy term associated with the previous estimation and further explores an improved estimate confined to a predefined search space. Convergence of the proposed REOD technique is analytically justified. An analytical expression for the approximate upper bound on the bit error rate is derived and corroborated by simulations. The obtained results prove the viability of the proposed REOD technique compared to the several existing state-of-the-art uplink massive MIMO detection techniques, both in terms of error performance and computational complexity.
The Way of the Bodhisattva

What can Buddhism offer contemporary religious understandings of King Lear? Shakespeare's great wisdom play has been viewed, more often than not, as pessimistic, even nihilistic, in its tragic rendering of the human condition. A Buddhist perspective challenges the premises of such a bleak reading by offering profound insight into how suffering gives rise to compassion, empathy and wisdom, rather than despair. Focusing particularly on the enigmatic spirituality and moral function of Edgar, this article illuminates his character through the revered teachings of a classic Indian text of Mahāyāna Buddhism, Shāntideva's Way of the Bodhisattva. Edgar appears in the heroic light of a bodhisattva, an enlightened being who seeks to alleviate the suffering of others. His journey exemplifies the human potential for moral transformation, selflessness and universal love in his responsiveness to the suffering of others who wander in a saṃsāric world of ignorance, attachment and aversion.
Delay-induced mixed-mode oscillations in a 2D Hindmarsh-Rose-type model

In this study, we investigate a Hindmarsh-Rose-type model with the structure of recurrent neural feedback. The number of equilibria and their stability for the model with zero delay are reviewed first. We derive conditions for the existence of a Hopf bifurcation in the model and derive equations for the direction and stability of the bifurcation with delay as the bifurcation parameter. The ranges of parameter values for the existence of a Hopf bifurcation and the system responses with various levels of delay are obtained. When a Hopf bifurcation due to delay occurs, canard-like mixed-mode oscillations (MMOs) are produced at the parameter value for which either the fold bifurcation of cycles or homoclinic bifurcation occurs in the system without delay. This behavior can be found in a planar system with delay but not in a planar system without delay. Therefore, the results of this study will be helpful for determining suitable parameters to represent MMOs with a simple system with delay.
Association Analysis of Triglyceride Glucose-Body Mass Index and Bone Turnover Markers in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Objective In view of the high prevalence of osteoporosis in diabetic patients, this study aimed to investigate the correlation between TyG-BMI, which represents insulin resistance, and bone loss markers, which represent bone metabolism, in an attempt to provide new ideas for the early prevention and diagnosis of osteoporosis in patients with T2DM. Patients and Methods A total of 1148 T2DM were enrolled. The clinical data and laboratory indicators of the patients were collected. TyG-BMI was calculated based on fasting blood glucose (FBG), triglycerides (TG), and body mass index (BMI) levels. Patients were divided into Q1-Q4 groups according to TyG-BMI quartiles. According to gender, two groups were divided into men and postmenopausal women. Subgroup analysis was performed according to age, course of disease, BMI, TG level and 25(OH)D3 level. The correlation between TyG-BMI and BTMs was investigated by correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis using SPSS25.0 statistical software. Results 1. Compared with Q1 group, the proportion of OC, PINP and β-CTX in Q2, Q3 and Q4 groups decreased significantly. 2. Correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis showed that TYG-BMI was negatively correlated with OC, PINP and β-CTX in all patients and male patients. In postmenopausal women, TyG-BMI was negatively correlated with OC and β-CTX, but not with PINP. 3. Subgroup analysis of male patients and postmenopausal female patients according to age, course of disease, BMI, TG and 25(OH)D3 showed that TyG-BMI had a stronger negative correlation with BTMs in male patients with age < 65, disease duration < 10, BMI≥24, TG < 1.7, and 25(OH)D3≥20. Conclusion This study was the first to show an inverse association between TyG-BMI and BTMs in T2DM patients, suggesting that high TyG-BMI may be associated with impaired bone turnover.
Less Parameterization Inception-Based End to End CNN Model for EEG Seizure Detection

Many deep-learning-based seizure detection algorithms have achieved good classification, which usually outperformed traditional machine-learning-based algorithms. However, the hand-engineered features increase the computational complexity and potentially have an ineffectiveness problem for the category. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel end-to-end deep-learning model comprising an inception module and a residual module to analyze the multi-scales of original EEG signals and realize seizure detection without feature extraction. Experiments were conducted and evaluated on the Bonn dataset and the CHB-MIT dataset. In the subject-dependent experiments, our model achieved an average F1-score of 69.34% on the CHB-MIT dataset. In subject-independent experiments, our method achieved an average accuracy of 99.04% on the Bonn dataset and an average F1-score of 37.31% on the CHB-MIT dataset. A series of analyses confirmed that our proposed model has better classification performance and lower computational complexity than existing end-to-end seizure detection models.