Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Wideband and Narrowband Noise on the Olivocochlear Bundle and the Cochlear Microphonic

In humans, activation of the olivocochlear bundle (OCB) can have a suppression or enhancement effect on cochlear processes. This phenomenon was studied via OCB activation effects on otoacoustic emissions (OAEs). However, it has been suggested that cochlear microphonics (CMs) can provide better, more detailed information regarding OCB function. In the present study, 22 normal hearing female subjects between the ages of 18-30 were recruited and the OCB was examined via the recording of CMs under changes in three conditions: OCB activating noise, stimulus polarity and stimulus frequency. Specifically, the present study examines the effects of activating wideband noise and narrowband noise centered at 1 and 0.5 kHz, presented contralaterally. CMs were elicited using 0.5 and 1 kHz tone bursts. Stimuli were presented using both condensation and rarefaction polarity. CM response amplitude for each condition was collected. Data analysis using repeated measures ANOVA revealed that OCB activation did not cause a significant change in the CM response. These results indicate that the recorded response may not have reflected activity from the apical end of the cochlea.
Inflammatory bowel disease: a focus on the involvement of dietary fats

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are chronic immune-mediated diseases of the gastrointestinal tract well known to be associated with both genetic and environmental risk factors. Certain genotypes may develop clinical manifestations under particular environmental influences. There is increasing evidence to suggest that diet is a key environmental factor in IBD, and dietary fats in particular have been implicated in both pro- and anti-inflammatory roles. Previous epidemiological studies have highlighted variable results, most probably due to the complex pathways that may be mediated by fatty acid activity. We aim to review the available studies on dietary fats and IBD pathogenesis and explore mechanisms involved to identify potential opportunities for future research and therapies.
A Carbon Footprint Study and a Life Cycle Assessment of an identical Refrigerated Display Cabinet: comparative analysis of the respective ratios of embodied and operational impacts

Environmental footprinting is widely used in the academic, industrial and political circles alike. But it is in the product centric category of environmental footprinting techniques that Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) emerged as pivotal instruments in response to the climate change and sustainability imperatives. In addition, these techniques have been the object of several international assessment guidelines and according to Carbonostics (2011) and Fishwick (2012) they can be evaluated in terms of international acceptance, time/cost involvement and comparability. In contrast, little literature discusses the dissimilarities inherent in the use of different environmental measurements for an identical product. That is the reason why this paper presents a comparison between the results obtained from a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) against that of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for an identical Refrigerated Display Cabinets (RDC). Results of the study show that the proportions (embodied/operational) derived from a PCF and that an LCA for an identical RDC are dissimilar; and the implications of those results warrant the need for further research but strengthens the case for LCA over PCF because the former offers a more holistic environmental assessment. Moreover, initial results show that the ratio of embodied and operational impact are 5% and 95% while that of the LCA are 20% and 80% respectively. This paper will present in turn an overview of the RDC studied, the set of assumptions made, and breakdowns of the results for PCF and LCA as well as avenues for further research.
Exploiting sequence variants for genomic prediction in Australian sheep using Bayesian models

Agriculture Victoria, AgriBio Centre for AgriBioscience, Bundoora, VIC 3083, Australia majid.khansefid@ecodev.vic. gov.au (Corresponding Author) Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia 4 School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia 5 School of Applied Systems Biology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC 3086, Australia
THE USE OF AGRO INDUSTRIAL BY-PRODUCTS IN THE DIET OF GROWER TURKEYS

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of grower turkeys to diets containing different agro industrial by-products. A total of 120grower turkeys were used for this study. Four experimental diets were formulated and designated as T1, T2, T3, and T4. T1 (control diet) contained none of the agro industrial by products used while T2, T3 and T4 contained15% each of Wheat offal, Maize offal, Rice offal respectively. The turkeys were randomly allocated to four experimental treatments of thirty birds per treatment while each treatment was replicated three times (3) with ten (10) birds per pen in a completely randomized design. The result of growth performance revealed that average feed intake, average weight gain and feed conversion ratio of turkeys fed the control and 15% Wheat Offal diets were not significantly different (P>0.05). The result of carcass characteristics and organ weights followed similar trend. Turkeys fed 15% Maize Offal and 15% Rice Offal diets recorded the lowest values (P<0.05). There were no significant differences (P>0.05) in all the haematological parameters and serum biochemical indices measured except PCV which decreased across the treatment groups. It was concluded that 15% wheat offal can be included in the diet of grower turkeys without adverse effect on growth performance, carcass yield and health status of birds. Â
El compromiso organizacional y su relación con el intercambio líder-empleado y la satisfacción laboral

Organizational commitment is one of the most important attitudes at work since its value influ ences and is directly related to organizational outcomes. However, commitment is also affected by other preceding variables that modulates its intensity. Thus, in our study, we intend to observe the influence of two of them specifically: the relationship and distance between employee and supervisor as well as job satisfaction. To that end, after a literature review of the three-dimen sional model of commitment, the job satisfaction constructs and the Leader-Employee Exchange (L-MX) model on the supervisor-employee relationship, we carried out a cross-sectional study in a sample of 353 workers from two Bolivian manufacturing factories. In the study we applied the organizational commitment questionnaire, the supervision quality scale and the overall job satisfaction questionnaire, which obtained good psychometric scores. From the obtained results, we were able to verify our proposed model, that is, on the one hand, the influence of job satisfac tion on affective and normative commitment, mainly of the intrinsic type, although there was no influence on continuance commitment. In addition, we also observed that employees who had a good and close relationship with their supervisors developed greater satisfaction (mainly extrinsic) and commitment. These results encourage more research on the antecedents of com mitment and specially in other national and Latin American samples.
The influence of sentential context and frequency of occurrence on the recognition of words with scrambled letters

The influence of sentential context and frequency of occurrence on the recognition of words with scrambled letters In this paper we examine the "jumbled words" effect which denotes human ability to easily read words whose internal letters have been re-arranged as long as external letters remain in their positions. Hitherto, many explanations for this effect have focussed on the processes that operate "bottom-up". Here we suggest that "top-down" processes also play an important role and demonstrate this experimentally. First, we briefly describe the main types of word-recognition models and consider which model best explains the effect. Then, we present an experiment in which jumbled words of different frequency of occurrence were immersed in various types of contexts. Results indicate that both the frequency and semantic sentential context are involved in jumbled word recognition. The implications of these findings for word recognition models are discussed.
Multiple Object Tracking Based on Motion Estimation and Structural constraints

To solve the time-consuming problem and the low efficiency of the global exhaustive searching in the object tracking, this paper propose a new search strategy based on motion estimation and structural constraints. First, the motion vector of one object is calculated, associating with the location of the object in the previous frame, its moving direction and scope are predicted in the current frame. Then, with the combination of structural constraints between objects, the accurate search direction and scope of the other targets can be determined. We choose five videos for the experiment to confirm the superiority of the search algorithm in this paper. For each video, all these measurements are averaged over all objects, over all frames, and over five separate runs of the tracker. Experimental results show that the new search method can narrow the search range and enhance the searching efficiency under the condition of no affect on the tracking accuracy, thus the complexity of the multi-object tracking algorithm will be reduced. Keywords-multiple object tracking; motion estimation; motion vector; structural constraints; online structured SVM
Microbial degradation of cellulosic material under intermediate-level waste simulated conditions

Abstract Under the alkaline conditions expected in an intermediate-level waste repository, cellulosic material will undergo chemical hydrolysis. This will produce hydrolysis products, some of which can form soluble complexes with some radionuclides. Analyses of samples containing autoclaved tissue and cotton wool incubated in a saturated solution of Ca(OH)2 ( pH > 12) confirmed previous reports that isosaccharinic acid (ISA) is produced from these cellulose polymers at high pH. However, when inoculated with a sediment sample from a hyperalkaline site contaminated with lime-kiln waste, microbial activity was implicated in the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose and the subsequent production of acetate. This in turn led to acidification of the microcosms and a marked decrease in ISA production from the abiotic alkali hydrolysis of cellulose. DNA analyses of microbial communities present in the microcosms further support the hypothesis that bacterial activities can have a controlling influence on the formation of organic acids, including ISA, via an interplay between direct and indirect mechanisms. These and previous results imply that microorganisms could have a role in attenuating the mobility of some radionuclides in and around a geological disposal facility, via either the direct biodegradation of ISA or by catalysing cellulose fermentation and therefore preventing the formation of ISA.
What do Buyers Value when making Herd Sire Purchases? An Analysis of the Premiums Paid for Genetic and Phenotypic Differences at a Bull Consignment Auction

Understanding how buyers value traits and performance measures when making sire selections is important for bull sale auctions, seedstock producers, extension agents, and other educators. Recognizing the challenge commercial bull buyers face sorting through available genetic and phenotypic information, many smalland mid-sized bull sale auctions attempt to differentiate their sales by consolidating and summarizing relevant information. Because computing summary scores and measuring bull traits is costly, auction owners and managers need to know what traits and information are most valuable to buyers to make their marketing efforts cost effective. Further, the profitability of seedstock producers depends on their ability to supply bulls that meet the needs of the commercial beef cattle industry, and the relative value placed on different traits at auction provides insight into what traits are most desired by buyers. As market conditions change and new measures of performance and performance predictions become available, the prices buyers are willing to pay for traits and performance indicators may change.
Real-time scalable structure from motion: from fundamental geometric vision to collaborative mapping

Good egomotion estimation forms the backbone of any modern highperformance localization and navigation system. In contrast to global positioning systems or laser-based range measurement devices, the use of cameras represents an increasingly interesting alternative promising the applicability in a vast number of related scenarios. The range of possible fields of application easily extends from indoor to outdoor, small-scale to large-scale, and under-water to aerial operations. The computer vision community has investigated camera-based egomotion estimation for more than three decades now—research that has lead to impressive results. Two fundamental ways have been pursued. The first one consists of a purely geometric approach, where the incremental transformation between consecutive images is each time computed by absolute or relative camera pose algorithms, based on the identified feature correspondences. The second approach additionally takes time information into account, and estimates priors about the relative camera displacement by means of a motion model. Each modality can be extended by taking additional sensorial information into account, such as inertial readings from an IMU, GPS data, or laser range information. The present dissertation represents a contribution towards purely geometric visual egomotion-estimation approaches, which are of major importance for initializing model-based solutions or robustifying estimation of motion with challenging dynamics. The scope ranges from fundamental algebraic geometry to the practical realization of systems for real-time motion estimation on real-life image sequences. The main cornerstones of this dissertation are given by a number of novel geometrical solutions for absolute and relative camera-pose computation in the calibrated case. The presented minimal solution for absolute camera-pose computation sets a new standard in terms of efficiency and numerical robustness. This algorithm is then extended to the non-perspective case via minimal and linear complexity n-point solutions. Finally, the derivation of an intuitive novel epipolar constraint leads to a minimal solution for direct translation-independent computation of the
Control MPC basado en un modelo LTV para seguimiento de trayectoria con estabilidad garantizada

Este articulo presenta una aplicacion de seguimiento de trayectoria para vehiculos mediante control predictivo basado en modelo (MPC) con un modelo linealmente variable en el tiempo (LTV) con estabilidad garantizada. El sistema de control considera tanto el error lateral como el error de orientacion respecto de la trayectoria de referencia para garantizar un correcto seguimiento de la trayectoria bajo ciertos criterios de confort. Ademas, tambien se consideran restricciones estrictas en la senal de control, en la variacion de la senal de control y en el error lateral de seguimiento de la trayectoria, asi como se tienen en cuenta consideraciones de estabilidad. Se exponen los resultados para diferentes tipos de trazados, concluyendo con un circuito y para un rango muy amplio de velocidades.
Sovereign Bond Market Integration: The Euro, Trading Platforms and Globalization

We disentangle different driving factors of sovereign bond market integration by studying yield co-movements of EMU countries, the UK, the US and 16 German Lander in the last 15 years. At a low frequency of weeks, bond market integration has increased gradually in the course of the last 15 years in EMU countries, as well as the UK, the US and the German Lander. The euro, as well as increasing international capital flows, appear to drive low frequency integration. In contrast, yield adjustments to changes of the German benchmark bond at high frequencies, i.e., 2 days, remain relatively low until October 2000, when a sharp increase in integration can be observed in all samples. The increase in high frequency integration can be attributed to electronic trading platforms becoming functional. The change-over from national currencies to the euro can not explain the dramatic increase in high frequency integration.
The effects of perceived complexity and perceived time and distance on path choice behavior and walking

Walking to reach the destination is the most important kind of walking in the daily activities. Path choice behavior in different parts of the city contributes to walking behavior for the people who want to reach to their destination in a daily basis. Literatures indicate that shortest path is the most important factor for path choice behavior. Perceived complexity is another important factor. The situation in which a path between some paths with the same length should be selected, raise the importance of perceived complexity for path choice. Such a situation also raises the importance of perceived time and distance rather than actual time and distance. On the other hand there is a relationship between perceived complexity and perceived time and distance. Therefore this paper considers that how perceived complexity affects path choice through correlation with perceived time and distance. Due to importance of gender in considering the relationship between different factors and path choice, all considerations should be done respecting different genders. By finding the adequate context and using the observation and survey questionnaire it was found that perceived time is more important for men rather than women and perceived complexity is more important for women rather than men related to path choice behavior. Therefore it was found that perceived complexity through affecting perceived time has higher impacts for path choice of men rather than women this is while perceived complexity, itself is more important for women rather than its importance through the relationship with perceived time. Due to importance of sense of progression along the urban paths, the relationship between this factor and path choice was also considered. It was found that this factor is important for path choice of the people who want to reach to their destination.
Rationalizing Noneconomic Damages: A Health Utilities Approach

Studdert et al examine why making compensation of noneconomic damages in personal-injury litigation more rational and predictable is socially valuable. Noneconomic-damages schedules as an alternative to caps are discussed, several potential approaches to construction of schedules are reviewed, and the use of a health-utilities approach as the most promising model is argued. An empirical analysis that combines health-utilities data created in a previous study with original empirical work is used to demonstrate how key steps in construction of a health-utilities-based schedule for noneconomic damages might proceed.
Would Some Model Please Give Me Some Hints? An Empirical Investigation On Monetary Policy And Asset Return Dynamics

This paper empirically investigates the forecasting performances for the housing and stock returns of a series of SVAR models, including various combinations of the federal funds rate, term spread, external finance premium, TED spread, and GDP. Using US data 1975Q2-2008Q3, we find that, for both the in-sample-fitting and out-of-sample forecasting, the single-regime version always underperforms the regime-switching counterpart. The term spread and TED spread outperform other variables in predicting the stock returns. We also find preliminary evidence that the housing return may help predicting the stock return since 2006. None of the models we examine predict the 2008 downfall of housing returns.
Mechanism for the Generation of Secondary Waves in Wave Breaking Regions

The authors propose that the body force that accompanies wave breaking is potentially an important linear mechanism for generating secondary waves that propagate into the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. While the focus of this paper is on 3D forcings, it is shown that this generating mechanism can explain some of the mean wind and secondary wave features generated from wave breaking in a 2D nonlinear model study. Deep 3D body forces, which generate secondary waves very efficiently, create high-frequency waves with large vertical wavelengths that possess large momentum fluxes. The efficiency of this forcing is independent of latitude. However, the spatial and temporal variability/intermittency of a body force is important in determining the properties and associated momentum fluxes of the secondary waves. High spatial and temporal variability accompanying a wave breaking process leads to large secondary wave momentum fluxes. If a body force varies slowly with time, negligible secondary wave fluxes result. Spatial variability is important because distributing ‘‘averaged’’ body forces over larger regions horizontally (as is often necessary in GCM models) results in waves with smaller frequencies, larger horizontal wavelengths, and smaller associated momentum fluxes than would otherwise result. Because some of the secondary waves emitted from localized body force regions have large vertical wavelengths and large intrinsic phase speeds, the authors anticipate that secondary wave radiation from wave breaking in the mesosphere may play a significant role in the momentum budget well into the thermosphere.
Rural Institutions and Producer Organizations in Imperfect Markets: Experiences from Producer Marketing Groups in Semi-Arid Eastern Kenya.Socioeconomics and Policy Working Paper Series no. 23

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have liberalized markets to improve efficiency and enhance market linkages for smallholder farmers. The expected positive response by the private sector in areas with limited market infrastructure has however been disappointing. The functioning of markets is constrained by high transaction costs and coordination problems along the production-to-consumption value chain. New kinds of institutional arrangements are needed to reduce these costs and fill the vacuum left when governments withdrew from markets in the era of structural adjustments. One of these institutional innovations has been the strengthening of producer organizations and formation of collective marketing groups as instruments to remedy pervasive market failures in rural economies. The analysis presented here with a case study from eastern Kenya has shown that while collective action – embodied in Producer Marketing Groups (PMGs) – is feasible and useful, external shocks and structural constraints that limit the volume of trade and access to capital and information require investments in complementary institutions and coordination mechanisms to exploit scale economies. The effectiveness of PMGs was determined by the level of collective action in the form of increased participatory decision making, member contributions and initial start-up capital. Failure to pay on delivery, resulting from lack of capital credit, is a major constraint that stifles PMG competitiveness relative to other buyers. These findings call for interventions that improve governance and participation; mechanisms for improving access to operating capital; and effective strategies for risk management and enhancing the business skills of the PMGs.