Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Energy value of meat in selected species of feathered game

The aim of this work was to compare gross energy (GE) in breast and thigh muscles in the following six species of feathered game reared in Europe: guineafowl (Numida meleagris), common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica), chukar (Alectoris chucar), grey partridge (Perdix perdix) and wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo). Calorimetric analysis revealed significant (P ≤ 0.05) and highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) differences between individual species in the content of energy in breast and thigh muscles. The highest content of energy (recalculated to dry matter) was found in breast muscles from wild turkey (24.75 MJ·kg -1 ) and Japanese quail (24.57 MJ·kg -1 ) whereas the highest content of energy (recalculated to dry matter) in thigh muscles was found in Japanese quail and grey partridge. Highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) differences in the energy content were also found between breast and thigh muscles in all studied game species except for wild turkey. Differences in the content of energy in muscles between individual species occur mainly due to different contents of fat in muscles. This is also confirmed by high correlation coefficients between the content of energy and the content of fat in breast (r = 0.912) and thigh muscles (r = 0.878). Our study provides more specific data on the amount of energy in muscles of major species of feathered game reared in Europe and significantly extends current knowledge in this field. Game birds, breast and thigh muscles, the content of energy, crude protein and fat
Secrecy and Leadership: The Case of Theresa May’s Brexit Negotiations

Openness is essential for democratic leadership. It represents a moral commitment and an instrument for increasing trust and legitimacy. However, secrecy can still aid leaders by safeguarding their power and policies or preserving their reputation. This article examines Theresa May’s attempted use of secrecy around the UK–EU Brexit negotiations to protect her power, policy, and reputation between 2016 and 2019. While this approach appeared successful initially, over time, the counter-pressure for openness reversed its benefits. By the beginning of 2019, it was clear that May’s secrecy had limited her power, undermined her policy, and ultimately damaged her reputation. The analysis ends by drawing comparisons with Donald Trump, whose efforts to conceal his actions have produced the same counterproductive results. The case study illustrates how secrecy can create political space and bolster a leader’s reputation in the short term; however, over time, secret-keeping encourages leaks and greater scrutiny, exposes policies, and damages reputations, especially in increasingly transparent governance systems such as in the United States and the UK. Context is key, and secrecy surrounding high-profile, controversial issues, such as Brexit, is difficult to preserve. It can prove particularly damaging when it is tied to the leader’s reputation, as in May’s case.
What Does the Convenience Yield Curve Tell Us about the Crude Oil Market

Using the prices of crude oil futures contracts, we construct the term structure of crude oil convenience yields out to one-year maturity. The crude oil convenience yield can be interpreted as the interest rate, denominated in barrels of oil, for borrowing a single barrel of oil, and it measures the value of storing crude oil over the borrowing period. We show that the convenience yield curve is well explained by a level and a slope factor. Consistent with the theory of storage, convenience yields have predictive power over future crude oil inventories, production, global real economic activity and the price of oil.
ENSEMBLE PREDICTION OF AVALANCHE HAZARD

The prediction of avalanche hazard results from an analysis of current snow conditions, the upcoming meteorological conditions and their combined impact on the future state of the snowpack. The SAFRAN – SURFEX/ISBA-Crocus – MEPRA (S2M) chain of numerical models is used by French avalanche forecasters to estimate present and future avalanche hazard over areas assumed to be meteorologically homogeneous (massifs), primarily as a function of altitude. The input provided until now to S2M in terms of meteorological forecast comes from the deterministic numerical weather prediction model ARPEGE with a lead-time of 2 days. Here we introduce an application to avalanche hazard forecast of ensemble meteorological prediction using the output of an ensemble of 35 ARPEGE forecasts, which are used to feed S2M and thus provide an ensemble of 35 different predicted snowpack conditions. A posteriori ensemble forecasts were generated and evaluated in the French Alps for the winter 2013-2014 with 4 days lead time, initialized each day at 6 UTC. Forecasts over the Pyrenees during the exceptional winter and spring 2012-2013 are also described. Results indicate that accounting for the uncertainty in meteorological forecast improves significantly the skill and the usefulness of the modeling chain, regardless of the prediction lead time. The predictability of snowpack conditions using the ensemble forecast technique remains good at a 4 day lead time. This will allow, in the future, building probabilistic estimates of simulated avalanche hazard level in support of operational avalanche hazard forecasting activities.
Metallo-dielectric electromagnetic bandgap structures for suppression and isolation of the parallel-plate noise in high-speed circuits

A novel approach for the suppression of the parallel-plate waveguide (PPW) noise in high-speed printed circuit boards is presented. In this approach, one of the two conductors forming the PPW is replaced by an electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) surface. The main advantage of the proposed approach over the commonly practiced methods is the omnidirectional noise suppression it provides. For this purpose, two EBG structures are initially designed by utilizing an approximate circuit model. Subsequently, the corresponding band structures are characterized by analytical solutions using the transverse resonance method, as well as full-wave finite-element simulations. The designed EBG surfaces were fabricated and employed in a number of PPW test boards. The corresponding frequency-domain measurements exhibited bandgaps of approximately 2.21 and 3.35 GHz in the frequency range below 6 GHz. More importantly, suppression of the PPW noise by 53% was achieved based on time-domain reflectometry experiments, while maintaining the signal transmission quality within the required specifications for common signaling standards.
Local Institutional and Political Structures and Processes: Recent Experience in Africa

Democratic decentralisation is a stated goal of many African countries, but there are considerable institutional and political challenges involved in making it a reality. Even where official government decentralisation programmes are underway, many central agencies may be reluctant or unwilling to share significant powers with local governments. Overcoming local elite capture and generating genuine local participation can also be extremely difficult. This article reviews basic institutional and political mechanisms intended to facilitate effective decentralisation and intergovernmental fiscal relations, including legal, constitutional, fiscal and managerial reforms. It also explores the challenges of developing institutional mechanisms for hierarchical control and internal accountability which are potentially subject to considerable abuse. Particular attention is given to the development of external accountability through local elections, appropriately defined local government structures and operations, appropriately sized local government jurisdictions and various direct voice mechanisms that have been used to various degrees in Africa. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Board Characteristics and Accounting Performance in Banking Industry: The Indonesian Experience

This paper examines the effect of board characteristics on accounting return in the Indonesian banking industry. The conceptual framework borrows from agency theory claiming that the board is held liable for monitoring responsibilities and that monitoring effectiveness will lead to higher corporate achievement. Yet the theory predicts that board characteristics matter in constituting firm performance. It is hypothesized that leadership structure, representation of independent directors, board size, and the rank of college board chairperson attended are necessary attributes enable the board to deliver better performance. The investigation is based on a dataset consisting of 83 banks during 2009-2015. Panel data analysis reveal that the proportion of independent directors, board leadership structure, and board size shows insignificant influence. The rank of universities the board chairperson graduated is found to have an impact on accounting earnings. The impact is robust after the type of controlling owners is taken into account. Yet the association between university rank and performance is more pronounced in the listed-banks. JEL Classification : G32; M14 DOI: https://doi.org/10.26905/jkdp.v22i1. 1742
Sensitivity of catchment-aggregated estimates of soil carbon dioxide efflux to topography under different climatic conditions

[1] Soil respiration (Rs) is an important component of regional carbon budgets in forested landscapes. Within a sugar maple forest on the Algoma Highlands of the Canadian Shield, mosaics of topographic features create gradients in environmental conditions and carbon pools that influence the pattern of Rs within the region. The sensitivity of catchment-aggregated Rs (CAR) to different spatial partitioning schemes of the landscape under different climate scenarios was examined in two contrasting catchments: one dominated by uplands (C35); the other containing uplands, critical transition zones (transiently saturated areas in isolated depressions or adjacent to wetlands, streams and lakes) and wetlands. CAR was estimated using a six topographic feature representation of the catchments including crest, backslope, footslope, toeslope, inner and outer wetland. CAR was underestimated (−7.4%) or overestimated (30.8%) if coarser spatial partitions were used, but the amount of error differed between catchments and with climatic conditions. A single feature (upland) partitioning scheme performed poorly under all climatic conditions (warm-wet, warm-dry, cool-wet and cool-dry). A two feature (upland and wetland) partitioning scheme showed improvement, but a partitioning scheme with a minimum of three features (upland, transition and wetland) was needed for accurate estimates of CAR in topographically varying catchments. The critical transition zone had the highest rates of Rs under all climate scenarios, and the critical transition zone and wetland became increasingly larger contributors to CAR under warmer and drier conditions. These observations point to the importance of accounting for the differential contribution of topographic features to Rs in carbon budget models. Failure to do so may lead to inaccurate estimates of landscape-scale Rs.
MHD Flow of a Micropolar Fluid past a Stretched Permeable Surface with Heat Generation or Absorption

This work considers steady, laminar, MHD flow of a micropolar fluid past a stretched semi-infinite, vertical and permeable surface in the presence of temperature- dependent heat generation or absorption, magnetic field and thermal radiation effects. A set of similarity parameters is employed to convert the governing partial differential equations into ordinary differential equations. The obtai ned self-similar equations are solved numerically by an efficient implicit, iterative, fini te-difference method. The obtained results are checked against previously published work for special cases of the problem in order to access the accuarcy of the numerical method and found to be in excellent agreement. A parametric study illustrating the i nfluence of the various physical parameters on the skin friction coefficient, microrotaion c oefficient or wall couple stress as well as the wall heat transfer coefficient or Nusselt numbe r is conducted. The obtained results are presented graphically and in tabular form and the physical aspects of the problem are discussed.
Cairn : identifying network locations for large scale censorship by resource-constrained adversaries

Censorship Of the Internet by government is a hotly contested topic.Some nations lean more towards free speech;others are much more conservative. How feasible is it for a government to censor the Internet? What mechanisms can it use? Where all shall it install the censorship infrastructure? What collateral damage can be seen in other countries? In this paper,we attempt to look at these questions in general, and present a case study of India-a country which currently performs limited censorship,but which will likely change its access policies in the near future.
USES AND PERCEIVED BENEFITS OF GREEN SPACES IN BUENOS AIRES USOS Y BENEFICIOS PERCIBIDOS EN ESPACIOS VERDES EN BUENOS AIRES

Urban green spaces provide a full range of community benefits (physical, environmental, psychological and social) but some parks types appear differentially important in providing certain benefit types. In this study we analyzed quality and perception of two parks and two plazas in Caballito and Flores neighbourhood (Buenos Aires city). We used the green flag index for green spaces´ quality and interviews (n:232) to explore people`s perception asking 10 questions, four referred to public spaces in general and six referred to the selected green spaces in both neighbourhoods. Results showed that parks and plazas are valued spaces, different visited by residents or by people coming elsewhere attracted by high-quality green spaces. Our findings showed that size and the offer of activities/infrastructure play a role in how a green space is used and how different benefits are recognised and perceived.
An investigation on the relationship between TQM and ICT in revenue agency organizations

Article history: Received July 28, 2013 Accepted 14 January 2014 Available online April 28 2014 This paper presents an empirical investigation to study the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on total quality management (TQM). The study is applied for a case study of revenue agency in city of Damghan, Iran. The proposed study consists of 33 questions in five categories including leadership and commitment of top management team, customer satisfaction, empowering employees and their partnership, organizational design perspective and quality of information system. Cronbach alpha has been calculated as 0.95, which validates the overall questionnaire. Using Pearson correlation ratio as well as t-student test, the study has determined that there was a positive and meaningful relationship between ICT and TQM components. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
On Riesz derivative

Abstract This paper focuses on studying Riesz derivative. An interesting investigation on properties of Riesz derivative in one dimension indicates that it is distinct from other fractional derivatives such as Riemann-Liouville derivative and Caputo derivative. In the existing literatures, Riesz derivative is commonly considered as a proxy for fractional Laplacian on ℝ. We show the equivalence between Riesz derivative and fractional Laplacian on ℝn with n ≥ 1 in details.
Mobile Presence Services with ScalabilityUsing Concurrency in Programming

Efficient and scalable server architecture, called Presence Cloud, which enables mobile presence services to support large-scale social network applications. When a mobile user joins a network, Presence Cloud searches for the presence of his/her friends and notifies them of his/her arrival. Presence Cloud organizes presence servers into a quorumbased server-to-server architecture for efficient presence searching. It also leverages a directed search algorithm and a onehop caching strategy to achieve small constant search latency. We analyze the performance of Presence Cloud in terms of the search cost and search satisfaction level. The search cost is defined as the total number of messages generated by the presence server when a user arrives; and search satisfaction level is defined as the time it takes to search for the arriving user’s friend list. Web architectures are an important asset for various large-scale web applications, such as social networks or e-commerce sites. Being able to handle huge numbers of users concurrently is essential, thus scalability is one of the most important features of these architectures. Multicore processors, highly distributed backend architectures and new web technologies force us to reconsider approaches for concurrent programming in order to implement web applications and full scalability demands. While focusing on different stages of scalable web architectures, we provide a survey of competing concurrency approaches and point to their adequate usages.
Analysis of Formal and Analytic Solutions for Singularities of the Vector Fractional Differential Equations

In this article, we study on the existence of solution for a singularities of a system of nonlinear fractional differential equations (FDE). We construct a formal power series solution for our considering FDE and prove convergence of formal solutions under conditions. We use the Caputo fractional differential operator and the nonlinearity depends on the fractional derivative of an unknown function.
Energy-Based Controller Design of Stochastic Magnetic Levitation System

This paper investigates the control problem of magnetic levitation system, in which velocity feedback signal is influenced by stochastic disturbance. Firstly, single-degree-freedom magnetic levitation is regarded as an energy-transform action device. From the view of energy-balance relation, the magnetic levitation system is transformed into port-controlled Hamiltonian system model. Next, based on the Hamiltonian structure, the control law of magnetic levitation system is designed by applying Lyapunov theory. Finally, the simulation verifies the correctness of the proposed results.
Three storage formats for sparse matrices on GPGPUs

The multiplication of a sparse matrix by a dense vector is a centerpiece of scientific computing applications: it is the essential kernel for the solution of sparse linear systems and sparse eigenvalue problems by iterative methods. The efficient implementation of the sparse matrix-vector multiplication is therefore crucial and has been the subject of an immense amount of research, with interest renewed with every major new trend in high performance computing architectures. The introduction of General Purpose Graphics Programming Units (GPGPUs) is no exception, and many articles have been devoted to this problem. In this report we propose three novel matrix formats, ELL-G and HLL which derive from ELL, and HDIA for matrices having mostly a diagonal sparsity pattern. We compare the performance of the proposed formats to that of state-of-the-art formats (i.e., HYB and ELL-RT) with experiments run on different GPU platforms and test matrices coming from various application domains.
ELNAIS meets EASIN: distribution of marine alien species in Greece using EASIN mapping services and ELNAIS spatial data

The European Alien Species Information Network (EASIN) was created with the aim to provide easy access to accurate information on alien species in Europe. EASIN allows the retrieval of spatial information from existing online data providers in order to produce integrated georeferenced distribution maps of alien species in Europe. In November 2012, a new data provider, the Hellenic Network on Aquatic Invasive Species (ELNAIS), joined EASIN; this has significantly increased the available georef erenced information on marine/estuarine alien species in Greece. Here, we use maps created by EASIN to show differences in patterns of distribution in the Greek Seas for the most abundant Phyla of marine alien species - Mollusca, Arthropoda, Chordata and Annelida. We also show that the two main pathways of introduction of marine alien species (Lessepsian migration and shipping) are related to different patterns of species spatial distribution in Greece. Overall, the tools provided by EASIN can greatly aid scientists and policy makers in obtaining high quality information on marine alien species in Greece, especially after the association with ELNAIS.
The Study of Correlation and Concordance between a Nutrition Alert Form and a Mini Nutritional Assessment in Evaluating the Nutritional Status of the Elderly.

OBJECTIVES: This research aimed to study the correlation between a Nutrition Alert Form (NAF) and a Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) in evaluating the nutritional status of the elderly and evaluated the relation between NAF, MNA and biochemical nutrition data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted in 153 outpatient and inpatient elder at Bangkok Hospital from February to September 2015. The nutrition status of participants was screened by a longevity nurse with MNA and NAF and serum pre-albumin was collected. After that, the dietitian evaluated the nutrition assessment and recalled dietary habit, and the reason of weight change. Statistical analysis of this study used SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) version 19.0. Kappa index to analyze the agreement between NAF and MNA. The correlation was analyzed by Spearman’s correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The kappa index between the NAF and the MNA (standard) which was moderate: K 0.563 with a sensitivity of 80.0% and a specificity of 91.3 %. The data show the risky level of NAF had a positive correlation with pre-albumin, total lymphocyte count and the risk level of MNA at 0.428, 0.302, 0.583, respectively (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION:A NAF can be applied to screen nutritional status in the elderly because of a moderate agreement between the NAF and MNA and serum pre-albumin, and this is a less time-consuming tool and can be applied in the elderly without body weight data. However, the NAF screening did not focus on age increase. For accurate screening in the elderly using the NAF, increasing age should be assessed as well.
The Potency of Sumba Ongole (So) Cattle: a Study of Genetic Characterization and Carcass Productivity

A study was conducted to assess the genetic characterization of the Sumba Ongole (SO) cattlebased on DNA microsatellites and also to study the potency of SO cattle based on carcass productivity.Blood samples were collected from 28 individual cattle and 12 microsatellite primers as recommendedby FAO were used to identify the genetic characterization of the SO cattle population. Data of carcassproductivity were collected from 506 individual cattle that slaughtered in Karawaci abattoir, Banten,Indonesia. The heterozygosity values of microsatellite loci ranged from 0.143 to 1.000 (mean 0.536). The highest PIC values was 0.814 (locus TGLA122), while the lowest was 0.280 (locus BM1818). Cattle in range of 351-475 kg slaughter weight was most slaughtered in year 2013 and 2014 with carcasspercentage ranged from 52.89% to 53.43%. The highest carcass percentage (56.34%) was obtained fromcattle in range of 626-650 kg slaughter weight while the lowest (51.42%) was obtained from cattle inrange of 250-275 kg slaughter weight. The results of genetic characterization showed that allmicrosatellite locus were highly polymorphic and highly informative for detecting the level of geneticdiversity in the SO cattle population. The results of carcass productivity showed that the SO cattle hasexcellent potential as beef cattle compare with other local breeds cattle in Indonesia.