Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nutrition and reproduction in dairy cattle.

Nutrition has an important impact on the reproductive performance of dairy cattle. Energy is the major nutrient required by adult cattle, and inadequate energy intake has a detrimental impact on reproductive activity of the female bovine. Cows under negative energy balance have extended periods of anovulation. Postpartum anestrus, as well as infertility, is magnified by losses of body condition during the early postpartum period. Resumption of ovulatory cycles is associated with energy balance, but it seems to be mediated by a rise in plasma insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), which is linked to nutritional status and concentrations of insulin in blood. Feeding diets that promote higher plasma glucose and insulin may improve the metabolic and endocrine status of cows. Feeding behavior of dairy cows during the transition period, particularly a decline in feed intake prior to calving, is associated with risk of postpartum uterine disease, such as metritis. Because metritis has a profound negative effect on risk of pregnancy in dairy cows, providing adequate bunk space and environment to maximize feed intake is expected to minimize the risk of uterine diseases and improve fertility. Addition of supplemental fat to the diet improves energy intake, modulates prostaglandin F 2α (PGF 2α ) secretion by the uterus, affects ovarian dynamics, enhances luteal function, and improves fertility. More specifically, some fatty acids (FA) might impact fertilization rate and embryo quality in dairy cows. Although gossypol intake seems to not affect lactation performance of dairy cows, it may affect fertility when the resulting plasma gossypol concentrations are excessive.
Stepsize Selection for Approximate Value Iteration and a New Optimal Stepsize Rule

Approximate value iteration is used in dynamic programming when we use random observations to estimate the value of being in a state. These observations are smoothed to approximate the expected value function, leading to the problem of choosing a stepsize (the weight given to the most recent observation). A stepsize of 1/n is a common (and provably convergent) choice. However, we prove that it leads to very slow convergence for a basic instance of approximate value iteration, to the point of being unusable for most applications. We then derive an optimal stepsize rule for that instance. This is the first stepsize rule that explicitly takes into account the covariance between the current observation and the previous prediction in approximate dynamic programming. The rule can be easily extended to general ADP settings; experimental results show that it produces fast convergence without the need for tunable parameters.
Cryptanalysis of the TAE Mode and Its Improvement

The TAE (tweakable authenticated encryption) mode is an authenticated encryption mode which is based on a tweakable block cipher. Previous research results show that the secure tweakable block cipher is not sufficient for the security of the authenticated encryption TAE mode. Only when the tweakable block cipher is strong will the TAE be secure. Some improvements to the TAE mode are also given in this paper, resulting in a MTAE (modified tweakable authenticated encryption) mode with security proof.
, and Political Contest

[Abstract] Although Leviathan-type governments would impose taxes at the level where the tax revenue is maximized, competition among governments could serve as a proper substitute for constitutional constraints on the power of politicians. It is important to consider the political contest between rent-seeking politicians and the general people. We show that with the political bargaining, the rent-seeking government may intend to set the tax rate higher than the revenue-maximizing rate. With the selection effort where the government behaves as a benevolent agent to some extent, the tax rate set by the government could again be higher than the revenue-maximizing rate. Overall, taming Leviathans by political constraints may not be as effective as that via competition among governments. Earlier versions were presented at PCS meetings in Las Vegas 2009 and EPCS meetings in Athens 2009. We would like to thank useful comments from participants.
Monetary Policy: Goals, Institutions, Strategies, and Instruments

This book provides an in-depth description and analysis of monetary policy in Europe and the United States. Unusually for a volume in the field, it focuses on actual monetary policy---targets, institutions, strategies, and instruments---but traditional and contemporary theoretical approaches to monetary policy form the basis for each chapter. Concentrating specifically on the European Central Bank, Monetary Policy offers one of the first comprehensive guides to understanding the targets, strategy, and instruments of the ECB. In the past, many books have presented mere descriptions of the institutional framework without providing a theoretical framework, while others have dealt mainly with theoretical aspects, thus neglecting the policy implications of their analysis. By combining a theoretical with a policy-oriented approach, Peter Bofinger succeeds in closing this gap in the monetary policy literature. As a result, his book will appeal to a broad readership, including investment bankers and other professional investors, central bankers, and scholars working in the field.
Sustaining Global Growth and Development: G7 and IMF Governance

Contents: Introduction, observations and conclusions, Michele Fratianni, Paolo Savona and John J. Kirton. Part I: Generating Growth Through Productivity, ICT, and Trade: Globalization, international competitiveness, the new economy, and growth in the G7, Dominick Salvatore Productivity growth in Canada and the G7, Allan Crawford The global information society and development: smoke without a fire? , Andreas Freytag The World Trade Organization, multinational enterprise, and civil society, Alan M. Rugman and Alain Verbeke Globalization, growth and health: the private sector perspective, Paolo Savona and Chiara Oldani. Part II: Designing African Development Through NEPAD: The New Partnership for Africa's Development and the G8's Africa Action Plan: a Marshall Plan for Africa? , Nicholas Bayne Designing for development in Africa: the role of international institutions, Ivan Mbirimi Is African development through the New Partnership for Africa's Development synonymous with sustainable development? , Stephane Doumbe-Bille. Part III: Critical Challenges in International Finance: The International Monetary Fund and its critics, Michele Fratianni Evaluating Koizumi's reforms and the implications for the global economy, Takashi Kiuchi The Chinese crux of monetary union in East Asia, George M. von Furstenberg and Jianjun Wei. Part IV: Conclusion: The G7/8 contribution at Kananaskis and beyond, John J. Kirton and Ella Kokotsis. Analytical Appendices: Impressions of the Kananaskis summit, 26-27 June 2002, Nicholas Bayne Summit achievement grades, 1975-2002, John J. Kirton Commitments by summit, 1975-2002, Ella Kokotsis and John J. Kirton Summit performance assessment by issue and country, 2002, G8 Research Group Keeping Genoa's commitments: the 2001 - 02 compliance report, Ella Kokotsis, John J. Kirton and the G8 Research Group. Documentary Appendices: Statement of G7 finance ministers and central bank governors, Ottawa, 8 February 2002 Statement of G7 finance ministers and central bank governors, Washington DC, 20 April 2002 Statement of G7 finance ministers, Halifax, 15 June 2002 G8 Africa Action Plan, Kananaskis, 27 June 2002 Statement by G7 leaders: delivering on the promise of the enhanced HIPC initiative, Kananaskis, 27 June 2002 The Kananaskis summit chair's summary, Kananaskis, 27 June 2002 Statement by G7 finance ministers on the framework for the International Monetary Fund program for Brazil, 8 August 2002 Statement of G7 finance ministers and central bank governors, Washington DC, 27 September 2002 G8 development ministers meeting, Chair's summary, Windsor, 27 September 2002 G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting, Delhi Communique, 23 November 2002 Bibliography Index.
A Conceptual Framework for Investigating the Impact of the Internet on Corporate Financial Reporting

This paper develops a conceptual framework of the impact of the Internet on corporate financial reporting on the basis of the issues and concerns elicited through an open-ended questionnaire survey of 17 UK-based experts in the Internet/accounting. These experts were drawn from academics, accounting firms, business companies, regulators, and users of accounting information. The diverse views expressed by our experts enable us to construct a four dimensional framework on the nature of change in financial reporting (content, form or both), the role of the Internet (as problem solver, problem creator or both), the determinant of change (technology, non-technology, or both) and the pace of change (little or no change, progressive change and radical change). These dimensions and sub-dimensions are combined to form a 'perspective surround' enclosing a conceptual matrix of 81 different possible scenarios. The framework provides a basis for mapping existing and future studies on Internet reporting and constructing scenarios of future Internet-based financial reporting.
Sperm epigenomics: challenges and opportunities

Sperm is a highly differentiated cell type whose function is to deliver a haploid genome to the oocyte. The sperm “epigenomes” were traditionally considered to be insignificant – the sperm is transcriptionally inactive, its genome is packaged in sperm-specific protamine toroids instead of nucleosomes, and its DNA methylation profile is erased immediately post-fertilization. Yet, in recent years there has been an increase in the number of reported cases of apparent epigenetic inheritance through the male germline, suggesting that the sperm epigenome may transmit information between generations. At the same time, technical advances have made the genome-wide profiling of different layers of the sperm epigenome feasible. As a result, a large number of datasets have been recently generated and analyzed with the aim to better understand what non-genetic material is contained within the sperm and whether it has any function post-fertilization. Here, we provide an overview of the current knowledge of the sperm epigenomes as well as the challenges in analysing them and the opportunities in understanding the potential non-genetic carriers of information in sperm.
Light Responsive Polymer Membranes: A Review

In recent years, stimuli responsive materials have gained significant attention in membrane separation processes due to their ability to change specific properties in response to small external stimuli, such as light, pH, temperature, ionic strength, pressure, magnetic field, antigen, chemical composition, and so on. In this review, we briefly report recent progresses in light-driven materials and membranes. Photo-switching mechanisms, valved-membrane fabrication and light-driven properties are examined. Advances and perspectives of light responsive polymer membranes in biotechnology, chemistry and biology areas are discussed.
A Variant betweenness Centrality Approach towards Distributed Network Monitoring

As the development of Internet thrives, the network management has to be taken a serious look. This paper faces the dilemma of putting more monitors into the system and maintains the original settings at the same time. We research the adding mechanism and present a new algorithm for finding the critical locations for additional deployment in the network, in the context of traffic estimation with link weight change method. The algorithm is based on Apriori search method that combines with the link weight change algorithm, then tested with Between ness Centrality to form the candidate snapshots. We also develop the greedy algorithm with Group Between ness Centrality(GBC) involved for the purpose of comparing. The result shows that the new algorithm need less additional monitors than greedy algorithm.
PEAK TO AVERAGE POWER RATIO (PAPR) REDUCTION IN OFDM BASED RADIO SYSTEMS

High data rate wireless access is demanded by many applications. Usually, more bandwidth is required for higher data rate transmission in any of the system. With promising technology and ever-increasing wireless devices, the spectrum is becoming scarcer day by day. In this case, using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Cognitive Radio (CR) for spectrally efficient transmission are an alternative solution. OFDM is a bandwidth efficient multicarrier modulation where the available spectrum is divided into subcarriers, with each subcarrier containing a low rate data stream. OFDM has gained a tremendous interest in recent years because of its robustness in the presence of severe multipath channel conditions with simple equalization, robustness against Inter-symbol Interference (ISI), multipath fading, in addition to its high spectral efficiency. However, the Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) is a major drawback of multicarrier transmission system such as OFDM. CR can be defined as an intelligent wireless system that is always alert about its surrounding environment through sensing and should have ability to dynamically adjust its radio operation parameters. The CR demands that the physical layer (PHY) needs to be adaptable and flexible. For flexibility and adaptability, the OFDM is an attractive candidate for CR systems. This dissertation proposes a novel non-contiguous OFDM (NC-OFDM) technique, where the implementation achieves high data rates of non-contiguous subcarriers while simultaneously avoiding any interference to the transmissions. In this dissertation we apply different modulation techniques to reduce high PAPR for non-contiguous bands spectrum of OFDM based CR. The simulation results for PAPR reduction shows that higher modulation techniques are better compared to lower modulation techniques.
ENVIRONMENT MODELING FROM IMAGES TAKEN BY A LOW COST CAMERA

This paper describes a system to generate 3D model from image sequence taken in complex environment including variable ground surface, buildings and trajectory loops. Here we use a $1000 catadioptric camera and an approximate knowledge of its calibration. This contrasts to current systems which rely on more costly hardware such as the (calibrated) spherical vision camera Ladybug. All steps of the method are summarized. Experiments include a campus reconstruction from thousands of images.
Modelling , Design and Parametric Considerations for different Dielectric Materials on Substrate Integrated Waveguide

YASSER ARFAT, SHARAD P. SINGH, SANDEEP ARYA, SALEEM KHAN Dept of Electronics & Communication Engineering, Arni University, Himachal Pardesh, India Dept of Physics & Electronics, University of Jammu, Jammu, J&K, India saleem.k21@gmail.com, snp09arya@gmail.com AbstractIn this paper, the model of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) has been analyzed and designed to investigate the effect of dielectric materials on its operating parameters. Parameters that have been evaluated in this work are electric field, return losses and the transmission gain. Printed circuit board (PCB), silicon (Si), Mica and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) are used as different dielectrics to evaluate the results in the frequency domain of 1 to 10 GHz. Design steps in an orderly manner were pursued for the optimization of geometrical dimensions followed by the finite-element method (FEM) based modeling of the SIW structure. The results obtained had shown that the maximum change in the electric field is observed for PMMA while the transmission gain increases with the increase in frequency up to 9.75 GHz and correspondingly the return loss is minimum at this frequency.
The Strength of Occupation Indicators as a Proxy for Skill

Labor economists have long used occupation indicators as a proxy for unobserved skills that a worker possesses. In this paper, we consider whether inter-occupational wage differentials that are unexplained by measured human capital are indeed due to differences in often-unmeasured skill. Using the National Compensation Survey, a large, nationally- representative dataset on jobs and ten different components of requisite skill, we compare the effects on residual wage variation of including occupation indicators and including additional skills measures. We find that although skills do vary across 3-digit occupations, occupation indicators decrease wage residuals by far more than can be explained by skill differentials. This indicates that “controlling for occupation” does not equate to controlling for skill alone, but also for some other factors to a great extent. Additionally, we find that there is considerable within occupation variation in skills, and that the amount of variation is not constant across skill levels. As a result, including occupation indicators in a wage model introduces heteroskedasticity that must be accounted for. We suggest that greater caution be applied when using and interpreting occupation indicators as controls in wage regressions.
Wavelet-based maize leaf image denoising method

When applying adaptive local smoothing in the process of image denoise, the image edge will be blurred to a certain extent. Wavelet analysis is a powerful tool in image enhancement. Considering the factors mentioned above, a coupling method of adaptive local smoothing method and wavelet is adopted to cope with noisy maize leaf image. The image signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) are applied to estimate the noise reduction effect of the images objectively. Simulation result positively shows that the proposed method can effectively decrease image noise with minimum image details loss. Meanwhile the image contrast and visual effect are improved to a great extent, and the SNR and the PSNR are also enhanced.
Positioning of APOBEC3G/F Mutational Hotspots in the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Genome Favors Reduced Recognition by CD8+ T Cells

Due to constitutive expression in cells targeted by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and immediate mode of viral restriction upon HIV entry into the host cell, APOBEC3G (A3G) and APOBEC3F (A3F) have been considered primarily as agents of innate immunity. Recent bioinformatic and mouse model studies hint at the possibility that mutation of the HIV genome by these enzymes may also affect adaptive immunity but whether this occurs in HIV-infected individuals has not been examined. We evaluated whether APOBEC-mediated mutations within common HIV CD8+ T cell epitopes can potentially enhance or diminish activation of HIV-specific CD8+ T cells from infected individuals. We compared ex vivo activation of CD8+ T lymphocytes from HIV-infected individuals by wild type HIV peptide epitopes and synthetic variants bearing simulated A3G/F-induced mutations by measuring interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production. We found that A3G/F-induced mutations consistently diminished HIV-specific CD8+ T cell responses against the common epitopes we tested. If this reflects a significant trend in vivo, then adaptation by HIV to enrich sequences that are favored for mutation by A3G/F (A3G/F hotspots) in portions of its genome that encode immunogenic CD8+ T cell epitopes would favor CTL escape. Indeed, we found the most frequently mutated A3G motif (CCC) is enriched up to 6-fold within viral genomic sequences encoding immunodominant CD8+ T cell epitopes in Gag, Pol and Nef. Within each gene, A3G/F hotspots are more abundant in sequences encoding epitopes that are commonly recognized due to their HLA restriction. Thus, in our system, mutations of the HIV genome, mimicking A3G/F activity, appeared to abrogate or severely reduce CTL recognition. We suggest that the physiological significance of this potential effect in facilitating CTL escape is echoed in the adaptation of the HIV genome to enrich A3G/F hotspots in sequences encoding CTL epitopes that are more immunogenic at the population level.
Dynamic Task Allocation: Issues for Implementing Adaptive Intelligent Automation

How should tasks be allocated dynamically between people and intelligent machines? What are the initial issues? Previous work on static task allocation and work on human performance when multi-tasking and when interrupted provides suggestions on how to dynamically allocate tasks between humans and machines. We use these results to explore previous theories of task allocation. Some of these theories have direct suggestions for dynamic task allocation and some have indirect implications. We use both types to provide a list of suggestions for creating systems that do dynamic task allocation. The context we will be working with is a type of pilot’s associate that has a description of the pilot’s tasks and flight mission built within a cognitive architecture. The proposed associate has an additional component that can match the pilot’s performance to these tasks, predict the flight phase and pilot’s current tasks, and use this information to dynamically allocate these tasks between the pilot and the automation. These suggestions are to inform the design of a high-level intelligent controller.
THz spectrum deconvolution with Total variation regularization

Deconvolution has become one of the most used methods for improving spectral resolution, and blind deconvolution as a typical method has been researched widely. However, the predefined point spread function (PSF) used in blind deconvolution method is not known exactly in practice. In general, the PSF is estimated simultaneously from the observed spectrum, but it becomes difficult when the spectroscopic data are polluted by strong noise. In this paper, we present a deconvolution method used to improve the resolution of THz spectrum. In the method, the energy function is constructed, which includes the likelihood term, Total variation of spectrum term and L2 norm of the PSF term. The PSF is modeled as a parametric function combination with the a priori knowledge about the characteristics of the instrumental response. The spectrum and the parameter of PSF are obtained by minimizing the energy functional using alternate minimization approach. Experimental results are shown to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method used for THz spectrum.
Do Stock Markets Penalise Environment-Unfriendly Behaviour? Evidence from India

A growing body of research points to the fact that capital markets react to environmental news and thus create incentives for pollution control in both developed and emerging market economies. In this paper we conduct an event study to examine the impact of environmental rating of large pulp and paper, auto and chlor alkali firms on their stock prices. We find that the market generally penalizes environmentally un-friendly behaviour in that announcement of weak environmental performance by firms leads to negative abnormal returns of up to 43 percent. A positive correlation is found between abnormal returns to a firm's stock and the level of its environmental performance. These findings should be viewed as further evidence of the important role that capital markets could play in environmental management, particularly in developing countries where environmental monitoring and enforcement are weak.
Dual User Selection for Security Enhancement in Uplink Multiuser Systems

This letter proposes a novel dual user selection scheme for uplink transmission with multiple users, where a jamming user and a served user are jointly selected to improve the secrecy performance. Specifically, the jamming user transmits jamming signal with a certain rate, so that the base station (BS) can decode the jamming signal before detecting the secret information signal. By carefully selecting the jamming user and the served user, it makes the eavesdropper to decode the jamming signal with a low probability; meanwhile the BS can achieve a high receive signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, the uplink transmission achieves the dual secrecy improvement by jamming and scheduling. It is shown that the proposed scheme can significantly improve the security of the uplink transmission.