Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of seasonal stress on growth rate and serum enzyme levels in young crossbred calves

A study was conducted on 16 crossbred calves during spring (Feb–Mar) and summer (July) on crossbred calves aged 15 days. Body weights were recorded at fortnightly intervals till 120 days of age. Approximately 10.0 ml blood was collected from each calf in the mid experimental period in chilled glass vials kept in ice-salt mixture. Blood sera were analyzed for glucose, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), serum glutamic oxaloacetic transminase (SGOT) and alkaline phosphatase. Growth rate was significantly (P<0.01) depressed in summer (362.12±17.42 gm./day) compared to spring (534.12±22.57 gm./day). Serum glucose was significantly (P<0.05) lower in summer (38.62±4.81 mg %) than spring (51.69±4.40 mg %). Similarly serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT) activity was lower (P<0.05) in summer (10.68±0.96 U/ml) compared to spring (16.44±2.17 U/ml). Serum alkaline phosphatase was higher in summer (130.43±14.79 KA Units) compared to spring (119.44±10.81 KA Units), though the differences were nonsignificant at 5% level. It can be concluded that summer stress reduces growth rate and it may be due to lower energy generation and impaired metabolism. Lower SGPT activity indicates lower amino acid turnover while higher alkaline phosphatase activity is an indicator of bone resorption/alkalosis.
Extraction of the induced gate noise, channel noise, and their correlation in submicron MOSFETs from RF noise measurements

An extraction method to obtain the induced gate noise (i~/sub g/~/sup 2/~) channel noise (i~/sub d/~/sup 2/~), and their cross correlation (i~/sub g/~i~/sub d/~*~) in submicron MOSFETs directly from scattering and RF noise measurements has been presented and verified by measurements. In addition, the extracted induced gate noise, channel noise, and their correlation in MOSFETs fabricated in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process versus frequencies, bias conditions, and channel lengths are presented and discussed.
Current Situations on Identification of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) cause diseases in both immuno-compromised and immunocompetent patients. Besides sputa, the NTM infections are also identified in nodes, pleura, and osteoarticular. Isolation rate of NTM has been increasing during recent years, ranging between 30-50% among mycobacterial isolates. Although the clinical significance remains to be continuously evaluated, emerging NTM infections are frequently reported. Traditional clinical assessments, acid fast bacilli staining (AFB), and culture methods accompanied with biochemical identifications will gradually not be able to cope with the clinical requirements. Instead, specific in vitro DNA amplification and/or nucleic acid hybridization-based detection systems including (real-time) PCR, chips, arrays, or liquid detection systems, together with new next-generation nucleic acid sequencing technology will gradually replace traditional diagnostic methods in NTM identification. The aim of this article is to provide a general overview on clinical significance, classification, and laboratory diagnostic methods of NTM.
NITROGEN UTILIZATION BY DAIRY GOATS OFFERED DIFFERENT NITROGEN SOURCES AS SUPPLEMENTS IN HIGH ISOCALORIC ENERGY CONCENTRATES

Twelve growing female goats (Anglo-Nubian) were assigned to a multiple latin square designexperiment to evaluate the effectiveness of additions of nitrogen (N) supplements to a high isocaloricenergy ration on N utilization. In this experiment, microbial synthesis and N balance were assessed. Thedaily rations were either unsupplemented barley meal (BM), or BM supplemented with one of threenitrogen sources. All rations were isocaloric (3.0 Mcal ME/kg DM) and the N supplements weresoybean meal (BSBM), cottonseed meal (BCSM) or urea (BU) to provide 2.9% N in the concentratecomponent. The unsupplemented BM contained 1.7% N. The addition of N supplements to the rationenhanced N utilization in dairy goats. The organic matter (OM) intake, N intake, N balance, andmicrobial N synthesis for BM, BSBM, BCSM and BU were 660.5 g, 721.9 g, 728.1g and 703.5 g; 13.5g, 21.5 g, 20.9 g and 20.7 g; 2.7 g; 7.1 g, 5.4 g, and 5.7 g; and 14.1 g 19.1 g, 19.1 g, and 20.0 g,respectively. It can be concluded that when sufficient dietary energy was available for ruminal microbialactivities, the source of N did not affect N balance, and microbial N synthesis.
DEVELOPMENTS IN DESIGN PEDAGOGY

ticular design practice, illustrating them through case studies. This can be approached by strengthening studio culture to provide safe spaces for creative and problem-centred learning and ‘gateway’ strategies of assessment. Key to sustaining motivation in this context is the toleration of design uncertainty as a threshold concept. Negotiating it successfully involves entering a liminal space in order to develop confidence and skills. Students need the time, space and structure to immerse themselves into a design brief, engaging in a reflective process to resolve the contradictions of a dual processing cognitive model. This work has been brought together in a recent publication which provides a synthesis and overview
Living with large carnivores: predation on livestock by the snow leopard (Uncia uncia)

Livestock predation by large carnivores and their retaliatory persecution by pastoralists are worldwide conservation concerns. Poor understanding of the ecological and social underpinnings of this human? wildlife conflict hampers effective conflict management programs. The endangered snow leopard Uncia uncia is involved in conflict with people across its mountainous range in South and Central Asia, where pastoralism is the predominant land use, and is widely persecuted in retaliation. We examined human-snow leopard conflict at two sites in the Spiti region of the Indian Trans-Himalaya, where livestock outnumber wild ungulates, and the conflict is acute. We quantified the snow leopard's dependence on livestock by assessing its diet in two sites that differed in the relative abundance of livestock and wild ungulates. We also surveyed the indigenous Buddhist community's attitudes towards the snow leopard in these two sites. Our results show a relatively high dependence of snow leopards on livestock. A higher proportion of the snow leopard's diet (58%) was livestock in the area with higher livestock (29.7 animals km? 2) and lower wild ungulate abundance (2.1? 3.1 bharal Pseudois nayaur km? 2), compared with 40% of diet in the area with relatively lower livestock (13.9 km? 2) and higher wild ungulate abundance (4.5? 7.8 ibex Capra ibex km? 2). We found that the community experiencing greater levels of livestock losses was comparatively more tolerant towards the snow leopard. This discrepancy is explained by the presence of a conservation-incentive program at the site, and by differences in economic roles of livestock between these two communities. The former is more dependent on cash crops as a source of income while the latter is more dependent on livestock, and thereby less tolerant of the snow leopard. These data have implications for conflict management strategies. They indicate that the relative densities of livestock and wild prey may be reasonable predictors of the extent of predation by the snow leopard. However, this by itself is not an adequate measure of the intensity of conflict even in apparently similar cultural settings.
Drinking Games: Simulating Alcoholic Behavior Patterns in the ”Pubcrawler” Video Game

Pubcrawler is an interactive video game that presents con-cepts of alcoholic behavior within actionable gameplay. By implementing simulations of impairment in gameplay controls and player tasks based on denial, rationalization and concealments behaviors, this game is intended to use traditional gameplay elements to immerse the non-alcoholic user in the alcoholic’s experience and promote understanding and empathy, and also elicit reﬂection in the alcoholic user to aid therapy.
A Survey of Compressive Sensing Based Greedy Pursuit Reconstruction Algorithms

Conventional approaches to sampling images use Shannon theorem, which requires signals to be sampled at a rate twice the maximum frequency. This criterion leads to larger storage and bandwidth requirements. Compressive Sensing (CS) is a novel sampling technique that removes the bottleneck imposed by Shannon's theorem. This theory utilizes sparsity present in the images to recover it from fewer observations than the traditional methods. It joins the sampling and compression steps and enables to reconstruct with the only fewer number of observations. This property of compressive Sensing provides evident advantages over Nyquist-Shannon theorem. The image reconstruction algorithms with CS increase the efficiency of the overall algorithm in reconstructing the sparse signal. There are various algorithms available for recovery. These algorithms include convex minimization class, greedy pursuit algorithms. Numerous algorithms come under these classes of recovery techniques. This paper discusses the origin, purpose, scope and implementation of CS in image reconstruction. It also depicts various reconstruction algorithms and compares their complexity, PSNR and running time. It concludes with the discussion of the various versions of these reconstruction algorithms and future direction of CS- based image reconstruction algorithms.
Evaluating the possible impact of pension reforms on future living standards in Europe

Successive reforms enacted since the 1990s have dramatically changed Europe’s pensions landscape. This paper tries to assess the impact of recent reforms on the ability of systems to alleviate poverty and maintain living standards, using estimates of pension wealth for a number of hypothetical cases. By focusing on all prospective pension transfers rather than just those at the point of retirement, this approach can provide additional insights on the efficacy of pension systems in the light of increasing longevity. Our estimates indicate that while reforms have decreased generosity significantly, in most countries poverty alleviation remains strong. However, moves to link benefits to contributions have made some systems less progressive, raising adequacy concerns for certain groups. In particular, unless the labour market outcomes of women and of lower-income individuals change substantially over the coming decades, state pension transfers will prove inadequate, particularly in Eastern European countries. Similarly while the generosity of minimum pensions appears to have either been safeguarded by pension reforms, or improved in some cases, these transfers generally remain inadequate to maintain individuals above the 60% relative poverty threshold throughout retirement. Our simulations suggest that the gradual negative impact of price indexation on the relative adequacy of state pensions is becoming even more substantial in view of the lengthening of the time spent in receipt of retirement benefits. The consumption smoothing function of state pensions has declined noticeably, strengthening the need for longer careers and additional private saving. When pressed, policymakers, particularly in Western Europe, seem to have been more willing to sacrifice the income smoothing function of pensions rather than its poverty alleviation function. Policymakers in some counties, notably Germany, France and the UK, have sought to refocus state pension systems towards generating better outcomes for people in the bottom half of the income distribution, probably with the insight that middle- to high-income individuals are possibly in a better position to accommodate the effect of state pension reforms by increasing their private saving. However in some cases, notably in Eastern Europe, results suggest that policymakers may not have fully considered the full impact of their policies on those on low incomes, on those with incomplete careers and on women.
A Frictionless View of U.S. Inflation

Financial innovation challenges the foundations of monetary theory, and standard monetary theory has not been very successful at describing the history of U.S. inflation. Motivated by these observations, I ask: Can we understand the history of U.S. inflation using a framework that ignores monetary frictions? The fiscal theory of the price level allows us to think about price-level determination with no monetary frictions. According to this approach, the price level adjusts to equilibrate the real value of nominal government debt with the present value of surpluses. I describe the theory, and I argue that it is a return to pre-quantity-theoretic ideas in which money is valued via a commodity standard or because the government accepts it to pay taxes. Both sources of value are immune to financial innovation and the presence or absence of monetary frictions. I then interpret the history of U.S. inflation with a fiscal-theory, frictionless view. I show how the fiscal theory can accommodate the stylized fact that deficits and inflation seem to be negatively, not positively correlated. I verify its prediction that open-market operations do not affect inflation. I show how debt policy has already smoothed inflation a great deal.
Comparison of dairy potential in Europe and its effect on assessment of milking systems

The development of milking systems is one of the most important examples proving the dynamic improvement of dairy production on the basis of a technical infrastructure. Farm milking systems incorporate many technical solutions—this provides a basis for analysing and assessing different milking systems in use today. Milking systems can be evaluated on the basis of a set of data and indices directly connected with the work of milking installations. The purpose of the analysis is to show how different kind of milking systems can be assessed in view of milk and its selected features, especially the value of the milk.
Temporal sensitivity for hydrologic model characterization

Characterization of physically based hydrologic model behaviour with temporal sensitivity analysis for flash floods in Mediterranean catchments P. A. Garambois, H. Roux, K. Larnier, W. Castaings, and D. Dartus Université de Toulouse, INPT, UPS, IMFT (Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse), Allée Camille Soula, 31400 Toulouse, France CNRS, IMFT, 31400 Toulouse, France EDYTEM, Université de Savoie, Le Bourget du Lac cedex, France
Changes in Vegetation Cover and Productivity in Yosemite National Park (California) Detected Using Landsat Satellite Image Analysis

The Sierra Nevada of California is a landscape where large forest fires have been suppressed for over a century and future climate warming has the potential to alter vegetation cover and surface water runoff. Remote sensing over the past 25 years can add new data and insights to this climate impact study. To determine if vegetation cover density and productivity had changed significantly across Yosemite National Park (NP) in California (USA) since the mid-1980s, a time-series of Landsat satellite imagery was analyzed. The study design controlled for annual precipitation amounts, elevation gradients, and vegetation age since the last stand-replacing (wildfire) disturbance in a comparison of Landsat data. Landsat image analysis over the past 20+ years showed that consistent increases in the satellite normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) during relatively dry years were confined to large wildfire areas that burned in the late 1980s and 1990s. Unburned areas of the NP above 2900 m elevation on the Sierra Crest showed extensive decreases of more than -100 units in NDVI between relatively dry years. Several relatively small wildfires that burned in the early 1980s (prior to 1987) were the only areas of the NP that showed notable increases in NDVI (more than +200 units) between relatively wet years. These findings conflict with any hypotheses that NDVI-controlled plant evapotranspiration fluxes and river flows downstream could be markedly altered solely by vegetation cover change over most of the Yosemite NP in coming decades.
ACCUMULATION OF SOME HEAVY METALS (PD, CD AND CR) IN MILK OF GRAZING SHEEP IN NORTH-EAST HUNGARY

Food safety and traceability control in the production of agricultural primary products becomes more important criteria for the consumers because of the novel requirements of foods as tools for disease prevention and health. The objective of this study was to investigate the accumulation of lead, cadmium and chromium in milk of ewes during pasture condition. In present study, the amounts of the heavy metals in grass samples were lower than the highest acceptable limits according the regulations. Moreover, lead, cadmium and chromium concentrations were 0.023 mg, 0.012 mg and 0.290 mg/wet weight kg in milk samples, respectively. 50% and 40% of the milk samples the lead and cadmium values were out of the permissible limit. However, the amount of the heavy metals in grass and other forages samples were lower than the highest acceptable limits, concentration of Pb and Cd in milk samples were higher than the maximum acceptable limits of the EU regulation. These results suggested that necessary control the heavy metal contents of primary food products for food safety.
Virtual Reality is 'Finally Here': A Qualitative Exploration of Formal Determinants of Player Experience in VR

It is already a truism that consumer virtual reality (VR) systems offer sensorially immersive first-person experiences that differ markedly from those begat by traditional screen displays. But what are the implications of this for player experience? It is welldocumented that VR can induce illusions of non-mediation; of spatial presence; of embodiment in avatars. This paper asks—and reports on—what common features of digital games are liable to be experienced as stressors (that is, as beyond optimally affective or intense) when the player perceives her avatar–self egocentrically as a ‘lifesized’, spatially present, and potentially vulnerable entity within the gameworld. The present paper describes and discusses findings from a qualitative content analysis of immersive virtual environments (IVEs) experienced via head-mounted display-based VR systems akin to those now commercially available. A purposive sample comprising video, photographic, and written documentation of IVEs (n = 124) from historical clinical VR and telepresence research is interrogated through the lens of cognitive media theory. Effecting a novel approach inspired by systematic review, the present study's observations and inferences regarding players' subjective experience of IVEs are presented alongside relevant findings from the research literature sampled. This produces a preliminary formal framework for discussing VR player experience as significantly structured by patiency (cf. agency), with VR experiences eliciting self-directed affect, and thereby somewhat unintentionally engaging the player's body as a site for feedback.
Validation of predictive equations for basal metabolic rate in eutrophic and obese subjects

Prediction equations for basal metabolic rate (BMR) continue to be the most common clinical tool for diet prescription; however, the values estimated may differ from those measured by indirect calorimetry (IC), especially in obese subjects. The objective of this study was to determine the BMR of obese and eutrophic subjects by IC, and to compare the results obtained with those estimated by prediction equations in order to identify whether differences exist between predicted values and those measured by IC. Forty men aged 18 to 30 years were evaluated; of these, 20 were grade 1 obese and 20 were eutrophic. The agreement between the prediction equations and IC was evaluated using Bland-Altman (1986) plots. The results showed a variation between the prediction equations and IC of -19.6% to -91% in obese subjects and of 4.2% to 4.4% in eutrophic subjects. In both groups, the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation (1990) was the most accurate, with a difference of -9.1% compared to IC in obese subjects and of 0.9% in eutrophic subjects. This study indicates the Mifflin-St. Jeor equation to be the most adequate to estimate BMR. However, it is important to measure the BMR of obese subjects more accurately and safely in order to establish the best intervention based on physical exercise and healthy eating.
Modelling the Volatility of Currency Exchange Rate Using GARCH Model

This paper attempts to study GARCH models with their modifications, in capturing the volatility of the exchange rates. The parameters of these models are estimated using the maximum likelihood method. The performance of the within-sample estimation is diagnosed using several goodness-of-fit statistics and the accuracy of the out-of-sample and one-step-ahead forecasts is evaluated using mean square error. The results indicate that the volatility of the RM/Sterling exchange rate is persistent. The within sample estimation results support the usefulness of the GARCH models and reject the constant variance model, at least within-sample. The Qstatistic and LM tests suggest that long memory GARCH models should be used instead of the short-term memory and high order ARCH model. The stationary GARCH-M outperforms other GARCH models in out-of-sample and one-step-ahead forecasting. When using random walk model as the naive benchmark, all GARCH models outperform this model in forecasting the volatility of the RM/Sterling exchange rates.
PREDICTION OF RELEVANT AREAS FOR DETECTION OF ABNORMALITIES IN X-RAY CHEST IMAGES BY IRIS LORENTE GOMEZ

This project belongs to the field of medical imaging and was motivated by the idea of elaborating a first approximation to automatic medical diagnosis. The principal objective of this study is, given an X-ray chest image, to predict how long a doctor would be looking to specific different parts of the image. This prediction provides an estimation of which of these parts are more relevant for a doctor during diagnosis, and might be correlated with the probability of having an abnormality. Predictions are obtained by training a model with a machine learning algorithm called Relevant Vector Machine (RVM). The choice of this technique is due to its inner bayesian properties that provide the probability distribution of prediction. The knowledge of the distribution is used to determine the accuracy of the estimation. The data set used to learn the model is obtained by applying eye tracking techniques to doctors during diagnosis. It is formed by X-ray images, coordinates of gazed points and gaze duration at each point. In order to obtain good features to learn the model it is necessary to segment and preprocess the images. Preprocessing is done by applying Convergence Index Filters (COIN) to the images. This allows to remark bright nodules by enhancing their boundary and making it clearly different from neighborhood pixels. Then, watershed segmentation is applied to the images so as to divide the lungs in regions of similar intensity and treat all pixels in one region as a unique sample. From each region, a set of features is extracted. The size of this set is reduced by analysis of principal components and the result is used along with gaze durations to learn RVM. Results indicate that the learned model has good performance in predicting which the relevant regions are in X-ray images.