Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Performance and Digestibility of White Fulani Heifers Fed Banana Leaf Ensiled With Brewers Spent Grain and Poultry Waste

Original Research Article The use of crop residues can bring benefits to the ruminant’s diet and in many cases ensure an increase in food availability, improved production efficiency and an economic and appropriate disposal of these sub products. An experiment was carried out to determine the performance and digestibility of sixteen (16) White Fulani heifers fed banana leaf (BL) ensiled with cassava peel (CP), and varying levels of brewers spent grain (BSG) and poultry waste (PW). The animals were allotted into four (4) dietary treatments with four (4) replicates per treatment in a completely randomized design. Treatments consist of control: 40% BL + 60% CP , Treatment 1: 40% BL + 20% CP + 40% BSG, Treatment 2: 40% BL + 20% CP + 40% PW and Treatment 3: 40% BL + 20% CP + 20% BSG+ 20% PW. The results from the study showed that the dry matter intake (DMI), crude protein (CP)intake, neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) of the diets were significantly (P< 0.05) affected. The chemical composition of the silage fed to white Fulani heifers shows that the treatment were significantly affected cross the treatments. T2 had the highest value of dry matter (51.22) and control had the lowest value (27.16), T1 had the value of crude protein (25.55), NDF value (49.70), ADF (30.60) and ADL (14.50) while control had the lowest value (11.19). (29.60), (22.10) and (11.30) respectively. Mean dry matter digestibility of the experimental study shows that all parameters across dietary treatments were significantly affected (p< 0.05). T1 had the highest dry matter intake (526.91) and dry matter digestibility (67.05), while control had the lowest dry matter intake (233.44) and faecal output (96.86). T3 had the highest faecal putput (205.17). The performance indices of White Fulani heifers fed the experimental diets indicates that parameter across diets treatment were significantly affected (p<0.05). T1 had the highest values of feed intake (19.57), weight gain (17.02) and average weight gain (0.81), while T2 had the lowest values (5.88), (-6.23) and (-0.30) respectively. It was however observed that the values of all parameters showed no regular pattern with the highest value recorded in T1, and the lowest values in T2 which later increased in T3. From the study, silage with T1 in diet favoured feed utilization, increased intake, nutrient digestibility and better performance.
Influence of glucomannan on the bioavailability and tissue residues of doxycycline in rabbits after its oral administration

M ycotoxins existence in rabbit fodder has toxic effects on animal health. Mycotoxin binders are feed supplements adsorb mycotoxins in the intestine to prevent oral mycotoxins from being absorbed. Concerns about an unspecified association with oral veterinary drugs were raised in 2010 by the European Food Safety Authority. This study evaluated the effect of dietary supplementation of esterified glucomannan yeast extract (0.1% for 15 days) as a mycotoxin binder (EGM) on doxycycline (DOX) bioavailability and residues in different rabbits tissues after oral administration at a dosage of 6 mg kg b.wt; single dose for oral bioavailability study and for 15 successive days for evaluation tissue residue of doxycycline. Pharmacokinetic investigation of DOX in group received DOX alone shows that AUC0−inf, Tmax and Cmax are diminished significantly when EGM is used with DOX as a feed additive. The 67% decline in AUC0−24 in the group fed EGM results in a significant decrease in oral bioavailability. This reflects its presence in different tissues, as the EGM binder significantly reduced the levels of doxycycline in different rabbit’s tissues. On the basis of the obtained results of pharmacokinetic and tissue residue studies, it can be concluded that EGM mycotoxin binder can virtually reduce the DOX absorption after oral administration in rabbits, and this is may be owed to the adsorption of the EGM additive to doxycycline. Consequently, when doxycycline is administered orally to rabbits that are also actually nourished an EGM fodder additive; the potential interaction must be taken into consideration carefully. INTRODUCTION Doxycycline hyclate (doxycycline-HCL, is a semisynthetic tetracycline derivative commonly used in veterinary and human medication because of its relatively wide spectrum (Rinaldi 2014). It is the most lipophilic member in tetracycline's groupsuch as oxytetracycline, so it has better antimicrobial properties and more tissue diffusion (Gutiérrez Article History Received in 14/12/2020 Received in revised from 7/2/2021 Accepted in 1/3/2021
Resolving farmer-herder conflict in Agogo traditional area of Ghana: an assessment of the government policy of expulsion

Violent conflicts, particularly farmer-herder conflicts have, for a long time, been a serious security problem in Agogo Traditional Area of Ghana. This paper explores “Operation Cowleg”, the local community and national level response in dealing with the conflict. However, the study confirms that the policy is not sustainable for two main reasons: i.e (i) most of the cattle are owned by influential Ghanaians with competing interest in the cattle business in Agogo and (ii) the ECOWAS1 protocol. Based on the findings, the study recommends the following short, medium and long terms solutions: dialogue and settlement committee, creation of buffer zone, socialisation and integration, distribution and relocation, ranching system and proper land arrangement.
JPPE 24권1호_3차편집(0224).hwp

Background and objective: This study was conducted to examine the effects of the theme-based garden book (photo book) making integration program on social skills and self-determination of college students with developmental disabilities. Methods: We analyzed the changes in social skills and self-determination of college students with developmental disabilities. The first step was defining the theme-based garden book (photo book) making integration program, which was done by focus group interviews (FGI) comprised of specialists in the industry and academia. The second step was carrying out 8 sessions of the program. The third step was examining the effects of the program on social skills and self-determination of college students with developmental disabilities. The participants of this study were 36 college students with developmental disabilities attending N University, and 17 students were in the experiment group and the other 19 in the control group. Results: The control group showed no statistically significant changes in the three sub-domains of social skills, while the experimental group showed statistically significant differences across all three sub-domains, such as cooperation(P < .05), assertion(P < .05), and self-control(P < .05). The experimental group, that participated in the program showed statistically significant differences across all four sub-domains of self-determination skills, such as behavior (P < .05), cognition(P < .05), school support(P < .05) and home support(P < .05). This proved that the theme-based garden book (photo book) making program contributed to bringing positive effects to self-determination and social skills. Conclusion: These results suggest that the theme-based garden book (photo book) making integration program could improve self-determination and social skills of college students with developmental disabilities. These positive changes are related to the high level of interest in theme-based garden design programs among college students with developmental disabilities, and thus these programs can be used effectively to improve social adjustment.
Seasonally dynamic nutrient modeling quantifies storage lags and time-varying reactivity across large river basins

Nutrients that have gradually accumulated in soils, groundwaters, and river sediments in the United States over the past century can remobilize and increase current downstream loading, obscuring effects of conservation practices aimed at protecting water resources. Drivers of storage accumulation and release of nutrients are poorly understood at the spatial scale of basins to watersheds. Predicting water quality outcomes in large river basins demands modeling storage lags and time varying reactivity that models of mean conditions typically cannot elucidate. We developed a seasonally dynamic approach to large-scale nutrient modeling based on a multiscale framework and nutrient storage lags were quantified for the nearly 190 000 small catchments that feed the rivers across the northeastern United States where catchment mean transit times were found to be around 4.7 (2–10) years for nitrogen and 1.3 (0.7–2) years for phosphorus. Nutrient loads carried in river flow in the current season contained a significant—and sometimes dominant—portion of mass lagged in its release from catchment storage repositories. Our approach of integrating storage releases with seasonally dynamic hydroclimatic drivers sets the stage to assess the accumulated effects of nutrient storage and lagged releases to the river interacting with seasonally varying nutrient reactivity and societal management actions throughout large river basins.
Semi-Decentralized Federated Learning With Cooperative D2D Local Model Aggregations

Federated learning has emerged as a popular technique for distributing machine learning (ML) model training across the wireless edge. In this paper, we propose <italic>two timescale hybrid federated learning</italic> (<monospace>TT-HF</monospace>), a semi-decentralized learning architecture that combines the conventional device-to-server communication paradigm for federated learning with device-to-device (D2D) communications for model training. In <monospace>TT-HF</monospace>, during each global aggregation interval, devices (i) perform multiple stochastic gradient descent iterations on their individual datasets, and (ii) aperiodically engage in consensus procedure of their model parameters through cooperative, distributed D2D communications within local clusters. With a new general definition of gradient diversity, we formally study the convergence behavior of <monospace>TT-HF</monospace>, resulting in new convergence bounds for distributed ML. We leverage our convergence bounds to develop an adaptive control algorithm that tunes the step size, D2D communication rounds, and global aggregation period of <monospace>TT-HF</monospace> over time to target a sublinear convergence rate of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathcal {O}(1/t)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> while minimizing network resource utilization. Our subsequent experiments demonstrate that <monospace>TT-HF</monospace> significantly outperforms the current art in federated learning in terms of model accuracy and/or network energy consumption in different scenarios where local device datasets exhibit statistical heterogeneity. Finally, our numerical evaluations demonstrate robustness against outages caused by fading channels, as well favorable performance with non-convex loss functions.
Nutritional and Biological evaluation of using Spirulina algae as anew source of protein

pirulina platensis (SP) alga has been a common dietary substance around the world from ancient times. This study was aimed to using Spirulina as a novel protein source, especially in growth phase. Thirty six male albino rats aged six weeks were divided into six groups according to the protein source as following: The casein groups (C1, C2, and C3) contain (100, 200, and 300 g casein /kg diet) as (10%, 20% &30% casein), respectively. On the corresponding side, the spirulina clusters (SP1, SP2, and SP3) contained (157, 315 and 472 gm algal protein/kg food) respectively. It lasted 28 days. SP has high total antioxidant activity (39.2 %). SP groups recorded significant increases in feed intake, body weight gain, feed efficiency ratio and protein efficiency ratio compared with casein groups. While casein recorded significant increases in apparent digestibility, Co-efficient compared to groups of SP algae. Eating Spirulina has significantly preserved liver and kidney function. As for complete blood picture, the groups of SP3 recorded highest percentage in Hb and RBCs compared with C3 group, other than WBCs, which was lower in SP3. Significant increase in the antioxidant enzymes in liver tissues were observed in SP groups, while Malondialdehyde recorded a significant reduction in the same groups. SP treatment increased GH levels in all groups. On the other side, the results of alpha tumor necrosis factors recorded a significant decrease in groups of SP compared with the groups of casein. In conclusion, Spirulina can be used as a new protein replacement.
EMBEDDEDNESS , PROSOCIALITY , AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE : EVIDENCE FROM ONLINE CROWDFUNDING 1 Yili

This paper examines how (1) a crowdfunding campaign’s prosociality (the production of a public versus private good), (2) the social network structure (embeddedness) among individuals advocating for the campaign on social media, and (3) the volume of social media activity around a campaign jointly determine fundraising from the crowd. Integrating the emerging literature on social media and crowdfunding with the literature on social networks and public goods, we theorize that prosocially, public-oriented crowdfunding campaigns will benefit disproportionately from social media activity when advocates’ social media networks exhibit greater levels of embeddedness. Drawing on a panel dataset that combines campaign fundraising activity associated with more than 1,000 campaigns on Kickstarter with campaign-related social media activity on Twitter, we construct network-level measures of embeddedness between and amongst individuals initiating the latter, in terms of transitivity and topological overlap. We demonstrate that Twitter activity drives a disproportionate increase in fundraising for prosocially oriented crowdfunding campaigns when posting users’ networks exhibit greater embeddedness. We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings, highlighting how our work extends prior research on the role of embeddedness in peer influence by demonstrating the joint roles of message features and network structure in the peer influence process. Our work suggests that when a transmitter’s message is prosocial or cause-oriented, embeddedness will play a stronger role in determining influence. We also discuss the broader theoretical implications for the literatures on social media, crowdfunding, crowdsourcing, and private contributions to public goods. Finally, we highlight the practical implications for marketers, campaign organizers, and crowdfunding platform operators. 1
Nexus between Exchange Rate Volatility and Trade Flows in Nigeria

This study examines the exchange rate volatility-trade flows nexus in Nigeria from 1986 to 2019 using monthly data from the World Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The ARCH effect model showed evidence of exchange rate volatility. The study estimated ARCH (1) to ARCH (5), GARCH (1,1), GJR-GARCH (1,1), and EGARCH (1,1) to determine the optimal model for volatility modeling in the exchange rate. GARCH (1, 1) was selected. Vector Error Correction Models were used in examining the nexus. Three proxies were utilized for trade flows, viz: trade balance, the export and import of goods and services. The study found exchange rate volatility has negative influence trade flows and positive influence imports in the long-run, and that trade flows and economic growth has capacity to curtail volatility in exchange rate in the long-run while inflation and gross fixed capital formation accelerate the rate of volatility in exchange rate in the long-run. In The study, therefore, suggests that Nigerian government should boost domestic production by granting incentives to domestic firms to enhance production for exports, encourage local utilization of the country abundant resources and also diversify the country’s exports base to curtail exchange rate volatility.
The Correlation Between Low Serum T3 Levels and All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients

Objective This study is to investigate the correlation between serum triiodothyronine (T3) levels and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in PD patients. Methods A total of 376 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients who started maintenance PD treatment in the Department of Nephrology in our hospital and stable treatment for ≥3 months were selected, and the total T3 (TT3) and free T3 (FT3) levels were determined. Among them, 168 cases with FT3 <3.5 pmol/L and/or TT3 <0.92 nmol/L were divided into the low serum T3 level group, and the remaining 208 cases were divided into normal serum T3 level group. The Cox survival analysis method was used to analyze the correlation between low serum T3 levels and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in PD patient. Results Compared with the normal serum T3 level group, patients with low serum T3 levels had higher systolic blood pressure and a higher proportion of heart disease, and lower levels of total T4, free T4, hemoglobin, serum albumin, blood calcium, serum total bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase, and 24-h urine volume (all P < 0.05). Binary Logistic regression analysis showed that heart disease (P = 0.003, OR: 2.628, 95% CI: 1.382–4.997) and high TT4 level (P < 0.001, OR: 0.968, 95% CI: 0.956–0.979) were related to low serum T3 levels in PD patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that low serum FT3 level was an independent risk factor for all-cause death in PD patients (HR = 0.633, 95% CI = 0.431–0.930; P < 0.020). Conclusion Low serum T3 levels in PD patients were associated with heart disease and TT4 levels. Low serum FT3 levels were associated with the risk of all-cause death in PD patients.
The impact of local assembly rules on RNA packaging in a T = 1 satellite plant virus

The vast majority of viruses consist of a nucleic acid surrounded by a protective icosahedral protein shell called the capsid. During viral infection of a host cell, the timing and efficiency of the assembly process is important for ensuring the production of infectious new progeny virus particles. In the class of single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) viruses, the assembly of the capsid takes place in tandem with packaging of the ssRNA genome in a highly cooperative co-assembly process. In simple ssRNA viruses such as the bacteriophage MS2 and small RNA plant viruses such as STNV, this cooperative process results from multiple interactions between the protein shell and sites in the RNA genome which have been termed packaging signals. Using a stochastic assembly algorithm which includes cooperative interactions between the protein shell and packaging signals in the RNA genome, we demonstrate that highly efficient assembly of STNV capsids arises from a set of simple local rules. Altering the local assembly rules results in different nucleation scenarios with varying assembly efficiencies, which in some cases depend strongly on interactions with RNA packaging signals. Our results provide a potential simple explanation based on local assembly rules for the ability of some ssRNA viruses to spontaneously assemble around charged polymers and other non-viral RNAs in vitro.
Photocatalytic Degradation of Caffeine in a Solar Reactor System

Abstract In this paper, solar photodegradation of caffeine in aqueous solution was studied, this organic compound is the most consumed stimulant around the world. The degradation experiments were carried outdoors in a solar reactor and Evonik-Degussa P25 TiO2 was used as catalyst. The photochemical and photocatalytic effect were tested in aqueous solutions of caffeine. Experimental results indicate that the organic compound is easily degraded over a very short period of time using 0.5 g L-1 of catalyst. The kinetic analysis indicates that the initial reaction rate of caffeine is described by the LH-HW model. However, the original compound cannot be mineralized very fast, caffeine is converted to other organic compounds with a longer lifetime before the mineralization, converting caffeine CO2 and water.
Are The Factors Determining The Size of Block Ownership Different? Evidence from Korea

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that determine the size of block ownership of companies listed on the Korean exchange from Jan. 1, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2017. We use dependent variables as variables associated with block ownership, and use major independent variables as firm size, idiosyncratic risk, Tobin Q, and R&D. This study applies the system GMM model. We find that the key factors that determine the size of block ownership differ in KOSPI and KOSDAQ. In each individual type of blockholder, the key factors that determine the size of the block ownership differ. The determinants of the size of block ownership for all blockholders grouped together also differ in each individual type of blockholder. This suggests that there is substantial blockholder heterogeneity and the role of blockholders in corporate governance differ in Korea stock market. Our findings contribute to investors and policy makers who interested in the determinants of the size of block ownership and blockhoder heterogeneity in Korea stock market. JEL Classification: G32, G34
Can Cryptocurrency, Gold and Bonds Serve as Safe Haven for the Indonesian Capital Market?

Penelitian ini bertujuan menguji potensi cryptocurrency, emas dan obligasi sebagai safe haven terhadap pasar modal Indonesia. Data yang dipergunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah data penutupan harian cryptocurrency, emas (GOLDIDR) dan Indonesia Government Bond Index (IGBI) selama periode Agustus 2015 hingga Desember 2018 yang diperoleh dari Investing, Yahoo Finance, dan Spindices. Analisis data menggunakan Ordinary Least Square (OLS) dan Quantile Regression (QREG). Hasil penelitian menemukan bahwa ethereum dapat menjadi safe haven. Sementara bitcoin, ripple, emas, dan Indonesia Government Bond Index (IGBI) tidak dapat menjadi safe haven bagi pasar modal Indonesia.
The regression time of ocular surface squamous neoplasia using topical interferon alfa-2b does not depend on the initial tumor size.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to determine if the initial tumor size correlates with the time to regression after topical interferon alfa-2b (1 million IU/mL) therapy in the treatment of ocular surface squamous neoplasia. METHODS A retrospective study was performed in 15 patients clinically diagnosed as having ocular surface squamous neoplasia and treated with topical interferon alfa-2b (1 million IU/mL, four times a day). All the cases of ocular surface squamous neoplasia included in the study had corneo-limbal involvement. The initial extension of the ocular surface squamous neoplasia was measured in square millimeters using the program ImageJ (LOCI, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA) on images taken from the eyes of each patient immediately before the beginning of the treatment. The time until tumor resolution was measured for each case. RESULTS Complete tumor resolution was achieved in all the cases, with a mean initial tumor extension of 26.71 mm² (standard deviation ± 17.21 mm²) and a mean time until resolution of 77 days (standard deviation ± 32 days). An increased tumor volume after 15 days of treatment was obser ved in 2 patients, which completely resolved. No significant correlation was found between the time to resolution and the initial tumor extension measured in square millimeters (Spear man test, p=0.347). CONCLUSIONS Our study suggests that the duration of topical interferon alfa-2b treatment required does not depend on the initial tumor size of the ocular surface squamous neoplasia usually found in clinical practice.