bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Genetic correlations among female fertility traits and milk production in different parities in Swedish dairy cattle
Authors: Roth A. , Strandberg E. , Berglund B. , Emanuelson U. , Philipsson J. 
Published: June 2019

AbstractThe main objective of this study was to estimate genetic correlations between fertility and production in first and second lactations as well as between fertility traits measured in the same way at different ages. The analyses were carried out for Swedish Red and White cows born from 1986 to 1996, in total about 578 000, 430 000, and 221 000 records in the heifer period, first lactation and second lactation, respectively. The fertility traits studied were: interval between calving and first insemination (CFI), interval between calving and last insemination (CLI), number of inseminations per service period (NINS) and number of treatments for reproductive disturbances (NREPT). Production was measured as the average of the energy-corrected milk yield from the second and third test-days in a lactation (ECM23). A linear, bivariate model that included effects of herd-year, month, age, and sire of the cow was applied. A relationship matrix containing sire and maternal grandsire of the sire was included. The (co)variance components for the random effects were estimated by use of a restricted maximum likelihood algorithm. The genetic correlations between fertility traits and production within first and second lactation were in the range of 0.1 to 0.3, all of them unfavourable. However, the genetic correlation between NREPT and ECM23 was close to zero within both lactations. The heritabilities, calculated without the herd-year variance included in the phenotypic variance, varied between 0.02 and 0.06 for the fertility traits with only minor differences between first and second lactation. The heritability of ECM23 was 0.35 in the first lactation and 0.28 in the second lactation. The genetic correlation between NINS during the heifer period and in first lactation was high, 0.7. The heritabilities for NINS and NREPT during the heifer period were very low, <0.01. In conclusion, there were only minor differences in inter-relationships between fertility and production in first and second lactation and the traits were negatively associated with each other. Based on the genetic correlation between NINS in the heifer period and NINS in first lactation, this study indicated that the traits at least partly are regulated by different sets of genes.
Grazing behaviour of dairy cattle selected for high and average milk yield
Authors: Fuerst-Waltl B. , Sölkner J. , Appleby M. C. 
Published: June 2019

AbstractThe present study was designed to examine the effects of selection for milk production as well as stage of pregnancy, on the grazing behaviour of dairy cattle. Subjects were 43 Holstein-Friesian cows from the Langhill Dairy Herd in Edinburgh. The herd consists of two genetic lines, one selected for high milk solids yield and a control line of average genetic index for milk solids yield. Animals of both genetic lines were observed as non-lactating heifers in 1992 and as first lactating and dry cows in 1993. Behaviour was recorded using scan-sampling procedures during seven observation periods at day and two periods at night. For analysis animals were grouped by their first lactation 305-day ECM (energy-corrected milk) yield for four observation periods during the day and for both night time observations animals were additionally grouped by stage of pregnancy. The majority of selected animals was in the high yielders’ group. In September 1992 and 1993 herbage intake on pasture was also investigated.No significant influence of 305-day ECM yield on time spent grazing, lying or ruminating was found. The influence of stage of pregnancy was stronger, although results for heifers and cows were contradictory. During the day heifers which were closer to parturition spent less time grazing (P < 0.10 in two of three periods) and more time lying (P < 0.05 in one period) whereas lactating cows in late pregnancy spent more time grazing and less time lying (P < 0.01 and P < 0.10, respectively). High yielders had higher herbage intakes than low yielders but this result was significant for heifers only (P < 0.01).
The Sound of Profession Ceremonies in Novohispanic Convents
Authors: FAVILA CESAR D. 
Published: June 2019

AbstractNuns in New Spain were celebrated with music and elaborate rituals when they took the habit and professed in a convent. These grandiose profession ceremonies drew in a host of urban citizens to the convent churches. Indeed, “more girls are smitten by the ceremony, than anything else,” remarked Fanny Calderón, wife of a Spanish ambassador who lived in Mexico City in the early 1840s, confirming that the iconic festivity endured well into the nineteenth century after Mexico's independence.This article on nuns’ professions is framed within the Order of the Immaculate Conception (Conceptionists). One of the largest extant collections of Novohispanic convent music comes from the Conceptionist community of the Santísima Trinidad, founded in seventeenth-century Puebla. The manuscripts are preserved at Centro Nacional de Investigación, Documentación e Información Musical “Carlos Chávez” in Mexico City, and they contain profession villancicos. My research on Conceptionist ritual books and biographies of noteworthy nuns allows me to place the villancicos within the wider context of Conceptionist devotion, convent race relations, and artistic patronage. The texts for the villancicos present women as the main subject of the compositions, which adorned a spectacular ritual also centered on women. The profession ceremony is, therefore, a valuable source to begin understanding Novohispanic women's contribution to music making.
“Per noi emigrati”: Nostalgia in the Reception of Puccini's La fanciulla del West in New York City's Italian-Language Newspapers
Authors: HARA KUNIO 
Published: June 2019

AbstractThe premiere of Puccini's La fanciulla del West at the Metropolitan Opera in 1910 inspired enthusiastic reactions from the New York audience. However, as demonstrated by Annie J. Randall and Rosalind Gray Davis's 2005 study, Puccini and the Girl: History and Reception of “The Girl of the Golden West,” the critical reception of the work highlighted the Italian composer's inability to measure up to the critics’ preconceived notions about the American West. Among the many perceived oddities of the opera was the character of Jake Wallace, a “wandering camp minstrel,” who appeared in an unconventional form of blackface and sang an aria based on a transcription of a Native American song. This essay reexamines the early American reception of La fanciulla by analyzing the coverage of the opera in Italian-language newspapers published in New York. Articles in these periodicals suggest that Jake's nostalgic song (canto nostalgico) and the sentiment of homesickness that it projected played a central role in the positive reception of the work among their readers. Acknowledging such a reaction to the opera reminds us of the difficulty of ascribing a uniformly “American” reception to any work. It also uncovers an unexpected way in which Puccini and his collaborators promoted the opera to a particular segment of the American society.
Up Close and Personal: Opera and Television Broadcasting in the 1950s
Authors: WARD-GRIFFIN DANIELLE 
Published: June 2019

AbstractThis article examines early pedagogical experiments in opera on television that were meant to attract new audiences in the 1950s. The aesthetics of early television have often been thought to run contrary to opera, particularly in its grander iterations, but I argue that television producers capitalized upon the traits of early television to personalize opera, both on and off screen. Comparing two NBC pedagogical initiatives—a 1958Omnibusprogram starring Leonard Bernstein and the 1956–57 visits of the NBC Opera Company to Saint Mary's College (South Bend, Indiana)—I explore how these efforts were meant to approximate the opera fan's experience as well as prepare audience members to enter the opera house. Ultimately, although opera on television failed to secure a strong foothold in the 1950s, it helped to re-envision the ways in which American audiences could relate to the art form and set the terms for the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD broadcasts today.
An introduction to endocrine disrupting compounds
Authors: Rhind S.M. 
Published: June 2019

Endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC) include a diverse range of chemicals derived from industrial, agricultural and domestic processes (IEH, 1999). They include phthalates (used in the manufacture of plastics), alkyl phenols (present in detergents and surfactants), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB; formerly used in electrical equipment), dioxins (released from incinerators), organochlorine pesticides and organohalogens (used as flame retardants).The compounds have a wide range of chemical structures but all of them have the capacity to disrupt normal hormonal actions. In some cases they bind to steroid hormone receptors and so they can have weak oestrogenic or androgenic effects while others disrupt thyroid hormones or other physiological functions. Consequently, they may disrupt reproductive or immune function and can be carcinogenic.Evidence of adverse effects on animal physiology is partly circumstantial and partly based on empirical studies, mostly involving laboratory rodents. Many reports in the literature indicate that reproductive disorders in wildlife species such as pelicans, birds of prey and polar bears are associated with abnormally high concentrations of EDC in their tissues. Furthermore, controlled studies involving the administration of large, arguably pharmacological, doses of EDC to laboratory rodents have demonstrated adverse effects on their reproductive or immune systems. Relatively little work has yet been done to determine the pattern of uptake and bioaccumulation of EDC in domestic species or the effects of EDC on the physiology of these species.
Food safety Issues: safe meat and a prosperous industry?
Authors: Humphrey Tom 
Published: June 2019

The United Kingdom, and much of the rest of Western Europe, has seen a series of food “crises” over the last 10-15 years, which have shaken consumer confidence in the safety of the food they purchase. Such concerns have also led to the establishment of Food Safety/Standards Agencies in a number of European countries. The most serious food safety issue has been BSE, which has claimed the lives of many thousands of cattle and almost 100 people in the UK. The rise of BSE coincided with the appearance of highly pathogenic bacteria, such as Salmonella Enteritidis phage type (PT) 4 and Escherichia coli O157:H7. Campylobacter spp. also became highly important zoonotic pathogens during this period.There is a public belief that the above bacterial pathogens, and BSE, gained a foothold in animal production as a consequence of the intensification of the industry. Although this is an over-simplification, there is no doubt that the presence of a large number of potential host animals in the same place at the same time facilitates both infection and horizontal transmission. Food safety cannot be separated from the economics of production, however, and with ever-falling profit margins farmers must find the most economical ways of producing animals. The unit costs of intensive production will often be lower than with extensive systems and thus it is highly likely that intensive animal production will continue. Does intensification necessarily mean unsafe? Is it possible to produce food at an affordable price that is free from microorganisms that are potentially pathogenic for man? These and other issues will be discussed with particular emphasis on Salmonella, Campylobacter and E.coli O157:H7.
GM technologies – opportunities and threats of applying GM technology in less developed and developed countries
Authors: Bennett A. 
Published: June 2019

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) confidently predict that the demand for meat will increase by 50 percent between 2000 and 2020 and for eggs by 25percent over the same period. They predict that the growth in demand will be greatest for pigs and poultry products. This challenge will be met through increases in production and productivity.Increases in demand will be driven a combination of population increase and economic growth. The greatest increases will be in the rapidly growing economies of Asia – particularly in India and China. While local production meet much of the growing and diversifying needs of consumers it is also inevitable that international trade in animal products will grow. As the wealth of consumers increase so will their tastes diversify together with their interest in sources of food and choice. BSE and outbreaks of foot and mouth have focused consumer interests on food safety issues and have in part contributed to concerns over the production and use of genetically modified organisms.
The effect of dietary soybean isoflavones on their concentration and total output in bovine milk
Authors: Krizova L , Svobodova J , Richter M , Homolka P , Hadrova S 
Published: June 2019

Isoflavones belong to a large group of phytoestrogens that possess the most potent estrogenic activity. Raw soybeans contain 1.2 – 4.2 mg/g dry weight of isoflavones mainly genistein, daidzein and their conjugates (Kurzer and Xu, 1997). In ruminants, isoflavones are highly metabolized by rumen microorganisms that convert daidzein into equol and genistein into p-ethyl-phenol (Lundh, 1995). Isoflavones and their metabolites can be excreted in milk, thus, soybean products used in dairy cows feeding may represent, via milk, a source of isoflavones in the human diet. Isoflavones are particularly important due to their diverse pharmacological and antioxidant properties because they reduce the risk of several types of cancers including the breast, prostate and colon (Messina and Barnes, 1991), heart disease, menopausal symptoms (Chiechi, 1999) and bone health (Anderson and Garner, 1997).The objective of this study was to determine the effect of dietary soybean isoflavones on their concentration and total output in bovine milk.
Analysis of inbreeding, effective population size and inbreeding depression in Iranian native fowls (Mazandaran Province)
Authors: Shad A Ghazi Khani , Javaremi A Nejati , Yeganeh H Mehrabani 
Published: June 2019

Mating of related individuals produces an inbred progeny, with an inbreeding coefficient that is one-half the additive relationship between its parents. One of the consequences of inbreeding is reduction of the mean phenotypic value or inbreeding depression, particularly for reproductive and fitness characters. Another consequence of inbreeding is reduction in additive genetic variance within lines or increasing homozygosity and higher risk for the incidence of lethal or deleterious recessive alleles. In recent years many studies show that inbreeding reduces reproduction and fitness capacity, for example Inbreeding depression in reproductive and productive traits has been reported by Flock et al (1993), Smith et al (1998), Klemetsdal (1998), Thompson et al (2000a,b) and Nwagu et al (2007).The purpose of this study was to investigation recent trends in inbreeding in Iranian Native Fowls and relationship between increase in inbreeding and decreases in economic traits including body weight, age at first egg, egg production and egg weight.
A fully reconfigurable bandpass-to-bandpass-with-embedded-stopband filter with an ultra-wide 0.09–1.41 GHz bandwidth tuning range
Authors: Lan Bo-Zhang , Qu Yan , Guo Chen-Jiang , Ding Jun 
Published: June 2019

AbstractA varactor-based fully reconfigurable microstrip bandpass-to-bandpass-with-embedded-stopband filter is presented in this paper. This filter offers wide center frequency and bandwidth tuning flexibility under both bandpass mode and bandpass-with-embedded-stopband mode. The entire tuning ability is based on multiple mode resonator theory and external quality factor tuning structure for bandpass mode and the introduction of transmission zeros (TZs) for bandpass-with-embedded-stopband mode. Under the bandpass mode, the center frequency tuning range is 0.96–1.45 GHz and the bandwidth can be tuned from 0.09 to 1.41 GHz with a fixed center frequency at 1.22 GHz. Under bandpass-with-embedded-stopband mode, the center frequency and bandwidth can be tuned from 0.94 to 1.61 GHz and 0.2–0.33 GHz, respectively. Good agreements are shown between simulated and measured results.
The Idea of Effective International Law: Continuing the Discussion
Authors: Padmanabhan Vijay 
Published: June 2019

The joint 108th American Society of International Law (ASIL) Annual Meeting and 76th International Law Association (ILA) Biennial Conference was organized under the theme “The Effectiveness of International Law.” In conjunction with this theme, the ASIL Legal Theory Interest Group hosted a panel discussion exploring the theoretical dimensions of the concept of “effectiveness” as understood in international law. Panelists discussed three related questions:
(1)Is the effectiveness of international law an empirical question measured through evaluating compliance with international legal norms?(2)What conceptions of effectiveness might exist beyond compliance? Could such conceptions be captured in theoretical or moral terms?(3)Why is international law concerned with effectiveness at all?
He Got It Almost Right
Authors: Kirgis Frederic L. 
Published: June 2019

Larry Johnson’s answer to his own question is a qualified “no.” Surely he is correct when he says that the General Assembly does not need the Uniting for Peace resolution in order to consider a matter that is on the UN Security Council’s agenda. The International Court of Justice made that clear in its Advisory Opinion on the Construction of a Wall. It is only when the Security Council is actively pursuing the matter that UN Charter Article 12(1) requires the General Assembly to defer to the Council.Johnson is also correct when he says that Uniting for Peace does not serve to enhance the authority that the UN Charter itself supplies to the Assembly to adopt non-binding resolutions intended to keep or restore peace. The ICJ also made that clear in its Advisory Opinion on the Construction of a Wall. Without relying on the Uniting for Peace resolution, the ICJ in paragraphs 27 and 28 of its Opinion approved the practice of the General Assembly to deal with matters concerning maintenance of international peace and security. The Court turned to the Uniting for Peace resolution only in the ensuing paragraphs of its Opinion, dealing with procedural matters related to the Assembly’s request for an Advisory Opinion.
Identifying the Rules for Identifying Customary International Law: Response From Michael Wood and Omri Sender
Authors: Wood Michael , Sender Omri 
Published: June 2019

We are grateful to AJIL Unbound for organizing this symposium on the work of the International Law Commission on identification of customary international law. We are particularly grateful to all who have contributed to the symposium for their interest and insights.We shall not here reply comprehensively to everything that has been said. Many points will be addressed in the Special Rapporteur’s third report, to be submitted to the UN Secretariat toward the end of March 2015 in preparation for the Commission’s session beginning in May 2015. We would only say that many of the points made in the symposium thus far seem eminently sensible, and will hopefully be seen as such by the Commission. It has to be noted, however, that the work of the Commission is collegiate, and the eventual output does not belong to the Special Rapporteur (who is just a facilitator) but to the Commission as a whole—and eventually to the General Assembly and the international community.
How to Fight Dinosaur Abuse
Authors: Lessem Don 
Published: June 2019

We are surrounded by dinosaurs. From toilet paper to teacups, television specials and Hollywood films, and more than 300 current books, dinosaurs are as ubiquitous as Ninja Turtles. But dinosaurs are no fad, as merchandisers have belatedly realized. They are a rite-of-passage for the young, a fascination that grips every generation.Our love for dinosaurs is beyond reason. We loved dinosaurs when they were presented as elephantine behemoths, as cold-blooded sluggards. And we love them all the more now that explorations indicate some were as smart as ostriches, as swift as foxes (not as swift as cheetahs nor as smart as chimpanzees, except in the imaginations of Messrs. Crichton and Spielberg), as small as turkeys, as maternal as Donna Reed, as hot-blooded as Madonna, and that all endured far longer than we. World-dominant and immensely varied in form, habitat and behavior for 160,000,000 years, dinosaurs were, arguably, the greatest of all evolutionary success stories.
Does the Physiology of Large Living Reptiles Provide Insights into the Evolution of Endothermy and Paleophysiology of Extinct Dinosaurs?
Authors: Paladino Frank V. , Spotila James R. 
Published: June 2019

Our studies using American alligators,Alligator mississippiensis, green turtles,Chelonia mydas, and leatherback turtles,Dermochelys coriacea, have provided insights into the physiology of large extant and extinct reptiles. Respiratory and metabolic physiology studies indicate that many living large reptiles exhibit heat conservation adaptations and mechanisms which allow them to maintain constant warm body temperatures in cold environments with low “reptilian” metabolism. For example, leatherback turtles which are found in the oceans as far north as the Arctic Circle can maintain constant body temperatures above 25° C while water temperatures are below 7° C. This dramatic ability to maintain warm temperatures in cold, highly conductive water, that would quickly cause hypothermia and kill most endotherms, is made possible by a mechanism we describe as gigantothermy. Gigantothermy is the ability to maintain constant warm body temperatures with low energy consumption, control of peripheral circulation and extensive insulation due to large body size.The muscles of leatherbacks show a fiber type unlike the specialized, endothermic heater organs of modern fish Scombroidei (tunas, billfish, bonitos, butterfly mackerel and relatives) that have evolved specialized “endotherm like” red muscle to maintain regional endothermy. The primitive large reptiles like leatherbacks do not show the specialization in muscle fiber type nor do the enzyme activities indicate the emergence or evolution of endothermy or a high rate of energy consumption. Yet leatherbacks can migrate over 70 km per day in the open ocean and dive to depths deeper than 1000 m on a regular basis.Collectively these physiological studies on large living reptiles support the concept that dinosaurs, especially the larger more spectacular species, were able to maintain high body temperatures, be very active, move great distances quickly, as well as exhibit complex behavior such as communal nesting and nest building without evolving endothermy or high levels of energy consumption. The physiology of large living reptiles indicates that it is not necessary to attribute heretical ideas to explain the paleophysiology and capabilities of dinosaurs. As reptiles they were fully capable of complex and spectacular behaviors such as long and rapid migrations and surviving the cold. All evolutionary indications suggest that large size would provide a negative selection pressure for the development of endothermy especially in equable and or tropical climates.