Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Controlled Breeding Techniques on Fertility and Plasma Profile of Biochemical and Mineral Constituents in Anoestrus Buffaloes

This study was planned to evaluate the fertility response and plasma profile of biochemical and mineral constituents in 55 postpartum (>90 days) anoestrus rural buffaloes treated with three standard hormonal protocols (CIDR, Ovsynch and Crestar, n=15 each), keeping a group of untreated anoestrus control (n=10) and a group of normal cyclic control (n=10). All the 15 (100 %) buffaloes in each group under CIDR, Ovsynch and Crestar protocols exhibited induced oestrus within mean intervals of 65.00±1.55, 69.46±1.04 and 46.00±1.37 hrs, respectively, from PGF2α injection. The conception rates obtained at induced oestrus with CIDR, Ovsynch and Crestar protocols were 46.67, 53.33 and 33.33 per cent, respectively. The corresponding overall conception rates of three cycles were observed to be 66.67, 73.33 and 60.00 per cent. In untreated anoestrus control (n=10), only 2 buffaloes exhibited spontaneous oestrus within 90 days of follow up and one conceived. The pooled conception rates of all three treatment groups at induced oestrus and overall of 3 cycles were 44.44 and 66.67 per cent, respectively. These were nearer to those in normal cyclic control group (40.00 and 70.00 %). Further, in the normal cyclic control group, the overall mean plasma total cholesterol, total protein, calcium and inorganic phosphorus concentrations were 64.93±2.87 mg/dl, 8.75±0.18 g/dl, 9.22±0.18 mg/dl, and 5.12±0.11 mg/dl, respectively. The influence of treatment days (0, 7, 9 (AI) or day 21 post-AI) was not significant for any of the traits in any of the groups. The levels of all these traits, except cholesterol, were significantly higher in normal Cyclic Control group than the values found in all three treatment groups of anoestrus animals, which were at par. The conceived buffaloes had insignificantly lower values of total cholesterol and significantly (p<0.05) higher protein as compared to non-conceived buffaloes in all the three protocols and even in cyclic control group, but no such trend was noted for either plasma calcium or phosphorus profile. It was concluded that Ovsynch and/or CIDR protocols could be a better option to improve fertility in anoestrus buffaloes without altering blood biochemical and mineral status under field conditions.
Controlling the clock: Working hours in the UK hotel sector

ABSTRACT The hotel sector is synonymous with working hours that are long, unpredictable and result in poor outcomes for employees. Arguably, they constitute one of the most significant features of the employment relationship, yet little research exists to explore the factors influencing the scheduling of hours and the degree of control employees can exert on their pattern of work. This article aims to help fill this gap by exploring what shapes employee working hours and the extent to which each side of the employment relationship exercises control. Qualitative research was conducted with purposive sampling used to identify and interview employees in the UK hotel sector, combined with managers responsible for budgetary control over labour and for setting work schedules. The findings suggest that a combination of customer demand patterns and the choice by employers to minimise labour costs effectively reduce employees’ ability to control or challenge work schedules. The lack of employee voice is structured into the employment relationship, depriving workers of a healthy work-life balance, their ability to take breaks and legally entitled pay.
Estimating Equivalency of Explosives Through A Thermochemical Approach

The Cheetah thermochemical computer code provides an accurate method for estimating the TNT equivalency of any explosive, evaluated either with respect to peak pressure or the quasi-static pressure at long time in a confined volume. Cheetah calculates the detonation energy and heat of combustion for virtually any explosive (pure or formulation). Comparing the detonation energy for an explosive with that of TNT allows estimation of the TNT equivalency with respect to peak pressure, while comparison of the heat of combustion allows estimation of TNT equivalency with respect to quasi-static pressure. We discuss the methodology, present results for many explosives, and show comparisons with equivalency data from other sources.
Incidence of Adverse Effects of Propofol for Procedural Sedation/Anesthesia in the Pediatric Emergency Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background To investigate the incidence of adverse effects of propofol among pediatric population for sedation or anesthesia. Methods We performed Cochrane Library, PubMed, CNKI, VIP, and Wanfang databases to research relevant literature. We did sensitivity analysis to assess the incidence of adverse effects of propofol among pediatric population for sedation or anesthesia. Results In 132 studies, eight RCTs were included in this analysis. The result showed that adverse events (bradypnea, hypotension, hypertension, and apnea) were significantly improved in the pediatric emergency population in the propofol group, but it had no effect on the incidence of cough attacks, desaturation, agitation, stridor, and laryngospasm. Furthermore, the subgroup analysis showed that those who received propofol for had decreased adverse effects compared with the patients who received ketamine treatment (SMD = 0.44, 95%CI = [0.28, 0.67], I2 = 0%, and P = 0.0002), which demonstrated that propofol could decrease the incidence of adverse effects compared with ketamine and ketofol. Conclusions The study demonstrated that propofol may decrease the incidence of bradypnea, hypotension, hypertension, and apnea, but it had no effect on the incidence of cough attacks, desaturation, agitation, stridor, and laryngospasm. Furthermore, more large RCTs are needed to assess incidence of adverse effects of propofol among pediatric population.
Pathophysiology of Lipid Droplets in Neuroglia

In recent years, increasing evidence regarding the functional importance of lipid droplets (LDs), cytoplasmic storage organelles in the central nervous system (CNS), has emerged. Although not abundantly present in the CNS under normal conditions in adulthood, LDs accumulate in the CNS during development and aging, as well as in some neurologic disorders. LDs are actively involved in cellular lipid turnover and stress response. By regulating the storage of excess fatty acids, cholesterol, and ceramides in addition to their subsequent release in response to cell needs and/or environmental stressors, LDs are involved in energy production, in the synthesis of membranes and signaling molecules, and in the protection of cells against lipotoxicity and free radicals. Accumulation of LDs in the CNS appears predominantly in neuroglia (astrocytes, microglia, oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells), which provide trophic, metabolic, and immune support to neuronal networks. Here we review the most recent findings on the characteristics and functions of LDs in neuroglia, focusing on astrocytes, the key homeostasis-providing cells in the CNS. We discuss the molecular mechanisms affecting LD turnover in neuroglia under stress and how this may protect neural cell function. We also highlight the role (and potential contribution) of neuroglial LDs in aging and in neurologic disorders.
Expansion of Intermittent Renewables: Strategies, pass-through costs, and welfare distribution

We investigate technology as a source of product differentiation and its impact on strategic behavior and wealth distribution in the German day-ahead market. We compare the performance of our model to a benchmark, using elasticity-adjusted markups and without bid data. We represent uncertainty on the demand side as an intermittency of renewables or a flexible demand response. In a system with 33% renewable shares, both model estimates converge at off-peak hours, being robust to ramping cost and renewable forecast assumptions. Producers pass on fuel and CO2 costs differently with implications for reinforced regulations by the European Emissions Trading Scheme. Implications for counterfactuals with carbon prices up to e100/tCO2 are also discussed. JEL D22, L13, L94
Supporting Middle School Students' Development of an Accurate and Applicable Energy Concept.

Energy is a fundamental unifying concept of science, yet common approaches to energy instruction in middle school have shown little success with helping students develop their naive ideas about energy into more sophisticated understandings that are useful for making sense of their experiences. While traditional approaches to energy focus on performing calculations in idealized systems, our development team produced a new middle school energy unit that focuses qualitatively on the energy transformations that occur in everyday, non-idealized, systems. This approach uses project-based pedagogy to contextualize instruction with the driving question, “How can I use trash to power my stereo? ” In this study, I investigate the effectiveness of our approach by tracking 8 th grade students’ conceptual development during the unit, following up with students who participated in the unit a year previously, and comparing the energy conceptions and content knowledge between energy unit participants and older students in the same school who learned about energy in an approach that did not emphasize energy transformations in non-idealized systems. Results indicate that during instruction, students’ energy conceptions progress from a set of disconnected ideas toward a coherent understanding that is organized around the principle of transformation. After instruction, students who participated in the energy unit were generally more capable of using their understanding of energy to make sense of everyday scenarios than were older nonparticipants. Furthermore, 9 th grade students who participated in the energy unit in their 8 th grade year continued to develop more sophisticated understandings of energy during their 9 th grade biology course. These 9 th grade students seemed better prepared to learn about energy content in their biology course than 10 th graders, who did not participate in the energy unit, but took the same biology course during their 9 th grade year. Overall, my results suggest that middle school curricula can have a more meaningful and lasting impact on students’ energy conceptions and content knowledge by focusing qualitatively on energy transformations that occur in familiar, non-idealized systems.
Power systems of the future. 2

The assets and working philosophy of individual utilities will in large measure be reflected by the modernization of their power systems in the next 2 decades. The power system of the future should enable utilities to: be more competitive with their overall strategies; provide better service; better manage their assets; extend equipment life; improve diagnostics; and develop reliability-centered maintenance. In looking ahead at the next 2 decades, we consider various options that are available, point out the less likely, and highlight those that have the potential of achieving major improvements. Although the next 20 years is a little soon for dispersed generation to have a significant impact, some of the implications of dispersed generation are considered. The following topics are covered in this paper: transmission and distribution developments; comparison of overhead and underground power delivery; the pros and cons of underground delivery; superconducting power transmission including cables; and cryoresistive delivery including conventional cryoresistive delivery, hyperconductivity and metal-plated graphite fibres.
A Hardware Implementation of a qEEG-Based Discriminant Function for Brain Injury Detection

This paper presents a feature extraction engine based on using Electroencephalogram (EEG) as a tool for Traumatic-Brain-Injury (TBI) detection. The design focuses on the development of hardware accelerator components integrated onto an FPGA platform. Utilizing a combination of four key quantitative-EEG (qEEG) features, the hardware design can perform a discriminant function (DF) based on 20 variables used for predicting TBI. Since the design is intended to operate in real-time and needs to perform intensive EEG-processing tasks, the emphasis is on the architectural aspects and speed capabilities of the feature extraction work.
High accuracy harmonics identification and power measurements in power systems

The paper deals with the amplitude, phase, frequency and reactive power measurements for voltage/current power signals affected by the a/d converter finite word length noise. The version of the interpolating method of FFT spectrum processing was proposed with the focus on method efficiency. The problem was: how to process the corrupted signals to obtain accurate measurements and how to assure the final measurement accuracy for every quantity when a/d converter word size is superimposed. Some results of simulation were presented which confirm theoretical expectations and allow to relate presented data to the different user requirements. <<ETX>>
Karyological Study of Four Species in Callisia and Cyanotis (Commelinaceae) from Thailand

Summary Cytological studies of two genera, four species of Commelinaceae from Thailand were conducted. The chromosome numbers and karyotype formulas of the four species analyzed here were Callisia repens , 2 n =12, 4sm+8st; Ca. soconuscensis 2 n =12, 2sm+10st; Cyanotis axilaris 2 n =20, 20st; and Cyanotis cristata 2 n =26, 6m+2sm+18st. The karyotypes of the four species were asymmetric, the karyotypes of Cy. axilaris and Cy. cristata have satellite chromosomes. The karyotypes of Cy. axilaris and Cy. cristata are reported for the ﬁrst time.
Eigenstructure assignment in a longitudinal power system via excitation control

A study is made of the control method for the simultaneous assignment of eigenvalues and eigenvectors, which is often referred to as eigenstructure assignment. The motivation for eigenstructure assignment is that system damping can be improved by means of eigenvalue assignment and that the system dynamic behavior can be altered using eigenvector assignment. The proposed control scheme is of the decentralized output feedback supplementary excitation control configuration which is most desirable in practice. Results obtained from the application of the proposed controller to the system studied, which is of longitudinal structure, show that exact assignment of the eigenstructure associated with the worst-damped electromechanical mode can be achieved. The effect of eigenvector assignment on the participation factor is also investigated. >
Married gay Asian-American mens’ constructs of marriage

Abstract Introduction: The increase of marriage in Asian-American men indicates a need to further explore the unique cultural characteristics of this population. Method: The present study (n = 14) utilized transcendental phenomenology to explore how Asian-American men organize their marital relationships. Result: Four themes emerged: (a) inapplicability of stereotypes, gender roles, and existing guidelines for marriage, (b) inclusion and normalcy, (c) rules and roles in marriage involve integrating Asian and American values, and (d) rules and roles are negotiated both through conversation and organically developed. Conclusion: Stereotypes, gender, social supports, cultural values, and implications were discussed.
Statistics of Atterberg limit values of some pure kaolinitic clays

ABSTRACT Atterberg limits of soils are the most basic and widely used geotechnical characterisation of fine-grained soils. While the indicative values for different clay types (e.g. kaolinite, smectite, illite) are quite known, no in-depth statistical analysis has been performed to understand any possible variations of the values. In this note, 128 data on Atterberg limits of kaolinitic clays have been gathered and statistically analysed to understand the distribution of the data and to understand whether variations in mean values and variances are detectable. A measurement system analysis has been performed on a kaolinitic sample to detect possible variations of measurements. Based on regression analysis to obtain plasticity index (PI) values from liquid limit (LL) values, a Monte Carlo analysis was performed by building models of possible results by substituting a range of values for the LL factors.
How do the relationships among health phenomena explain the nursing students’ quality of life?

Background and objective: To know the direct relationships between stress, sleep quality, depressive symptoms, resiliency, and quality of life of nursing students. Less is known about how the simultaneous relationships between these variables may explain the nursing students’ quality of life remains unclear. We assessed how the simultaneous causal relationships among stress, depressive symptoms, sleep quality, and resilience explain the nursing students’ quality of life one year after starting a nursing degree program.Methods: This was a one-year longitudinal study. Data were gathered with validated tools from first university-year nursing students enrolled in two public Brazilian universities at the beginning (n = 117) and end (n = 100) of March 2016. The latent variable analysis- a complement of the R statistical package- was used to estimate the Structural Equation Modelling.Results: The final model showed good fitness and residues quality. Stress decreased sleep quality and increased the intensity of the depressive symptoms. Both of these, directly and indirectly, reduced the quality of life. Resiliency decreased stress levels and depressive symptoms and improved sleep quality.Conclusions: The academic environment has the potential for illnesses, impacting the quality of life. On other hand, resiliency plays a protective role on nursing students by reducing stress and its negative effects. Education institutions need to rethink their curricular elements, promote resilience and create actions to promote students’ health.
A three year case study of using audio to blend the engineer’s learning environment

Abstract A blended approach to learning, teaching and assessment has been part of curriculum design in the teaching of software engineering at Sheffield Hallam University since 2003 when the Blackboard virtual learning environment (VLE) was first used alongside lectures and laboratory-based assignments. In seeking a greater degree of integration between physical and virtual learning spaces we have been keen to explore how digital audio can be used to engage and develop students. Digital audio has shown itself to be a simple medium to work with and distribute. Its essential value has proven to be in how it supports access to the disparate voices available in education. We have developed several ideas, including audio notes to support lectures, educational podcasting and audio feedback to bridge the virtual and physical environments in order to offer a richer, more meaningful and formative learning experience. Our recent work has shown that digital audio is generally accessible to, and valued by, students and that it can lead to greater ongoing engagement in the module. This paper focuses on the formative feed forward potential of this flexible medium and illustrates how we have built upon initial successes by improving the design and integration of audio feedback. It describes how the techniques have been used to promote an holistic blended learning environment and how this has affected both the student and the tutor.
The Surface Longwave Cloud Radiative Effect derived from Space Lidar Observations

Abstract. Clouds warm the surface in the longwave (LW) and this warming effect can be quantified through the surface LW cloud radiative effect (CRE). The global surface LW CRE is estimated using long-term observations from space-based radiometers (2000–2021) but has some bias over continents and icy surfaces. It is also estimated globally using the combination of radar, lidar and space-based radiometer over the 5–year period ending in 2011. To develop a more reliable long time series of surface LW CRE over continental and icy surfaces, we propose new estimates of the global surface LW CRE from space-based lidar observations. We show from 1D atmospheric column radiative transfer calculations, that surface LW CRE linearly decreases with increasing cloud altitude. These computations allow us to establish simple relationships between surface LW CRE, and five cloud properties that are well observed by the CALIPSO space-based lidar: opaque cloud cover and altitude, and thin cloud cover, altitude, and emissivity. We use these relationships to retrieve the surface LW CRE at global scale over the 2008–2020 time period (27 Wm−2). We evaluate this new surface LW CRE product by comparing it to existing satellite-derived products globally on instantaneous collocated data at footprint scale and on global averages, as well as to ground-based observations at specific locations. Our estimate appears to be an improvement over others as it appropriately capture the surface LW CRE annual variability over bright polar surfaces and it provides a dataset of more than 13 years long.
Minimal Pinning Control for Oscillatority of Boolean Networks

In this article, minimal pinning control for oscillatority (i.e., instability) of Boolean networks (BNs) under algebraic state space representations method is studied. First, two criteria for oscillatority of BNs are obtained from the aspects of state transition matrix (STM) and network structure (NS) of BNs, respectively. A distributed pinning control (DPC) from these two aspects is proposed: one is called STM-based DPC and the other one is called NS-based DPC, both of which are only dependent on local in-neighbors. As for STM-based DPC, one arbitrary node can be chosen to be controlled, based on certain solvability of several equations, meanwhile a hybrid pinning control (HPC) combining DPC and conventional pinning control (CPC) is also proposed. In addition, as for NS-based DPC, pinning control nodes (PCNs) can be found using the information of NS, which efficiently reduces the high computational complexity. The proposed STM-based DPC and NS-based DPC in this article are shown to be simple and concise, which provide a new direction to dramatically reduce control costs and computational complexity. Finally, gene networks are simulated to discuss the effectiveness of theoretical results.
Noninvasive Assessment of Interstitial Fibrosis and Tubular Atrophy in Renal Transplant by Combining Point-Shear Wave Elastography and Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of the combination of point-shear wave elastography (p-SWE) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) for assessing different stages of interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IF/TA) in patients with chronic renal allograft dysfunction (CAD). From September 2020 to August 2021, 47 patients who underwent renal biopsy and p-SWE examinations were consecutively enrolled in this study. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) were calculated to evaluate overall accuracy and to identify the optimal cutoff values for different IF/TA stages. A total of 43 patients were enrolled in this study. The renal cortical stiffness and eGFR showed a significant difference between IF/TA Grade 0–1 and Grade 2–3 (p < 0.001). Additionally, renal stiffness and eGFR were independent predictors for moderate-to-severe IF/TA (Grade ≥ 2) according to multiple logistic regression analysis. The combination of p-SWE and eGFR, with an optimal cutoff value of −1.63, was superior to eGFR alone in assessing moderate-to-severe interstitial fibrosis (AUC, 0.86 vs. 0.72, p = 0.02) or tubular atrophy (AUC, 0.88 vs. 0.74, p = 0.02). There was no difference between p-SWE and eGFR in assessing moderate-to-severe IF/TA (AUC, 0.85 vs. 0.79, p = 0.61). Therefore, combining p-SWE and eGFR is worthy of clinical popularization and application.