1,108 research outputs found
Application of near-infrared spectroscopy for determination of nutrient contents in manure
111 solid poultry layer, 95 solid poultry broiler litter, 39 swine solid hoop, 72 beef cattle, 85 swine slurry, and 88 swine liquid lagoon manure samples were collected from farms in three states. Samples were analyzed for total nitrogen (TN), ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) and total solids (TS) by traditional laboratory methods. The strong relationships of TN, NH3-N, P and K with TS were only found for K in swine lagoon manure and for P in swine slurry. Further, poor prediction performance was found in regression lines even with a strong relationship by using the ratio of standard deviation/standard error of prediction (RPD). These manure samples were also used to develop NIRS calibration models by using different mathematical data pretreatments. The R2 of the one-out cross validation for TS, TN, and NH3-N are between 0.80 and 0.97 for all manure samples. The R2 of the one-out cross validation for minerals range from 0.71 to 0.81, 0.50 to 0.78, 0.74 to 0.94, 0.66 to 0.91, 0.73 to 0.91, and 0.70 to 0.90 in poultry solid layer manure, poultry broiler litter, swine solid hoop, beef cattle, swine liquid lagoon, and swine slurry manure samples, respectively. The RPD values indicate NIRS can predict several minerals in certain manure samples, for example, P in beef cattle, swine lagoon, and swine slurry manure samples. Seventy-two beef cattle feedlot manure samples were scanned through the Foss NIRSystems 6500 (master) and the Foss NIRSystems 5000 (slave) instruments. Three standardization methods including cloning, direct standardization, and piece-wise direct standardization were used to transfer the master equations to slave spectra. The 72-sample data set was split into a 30-sample standardization set to generate standardized files and a 42-sample prediction set to test the accuracy of different standardization methods. The standard error of difference (SED) of the standardized slave spectra was much less than the corresponding SED of the unstandardized slave spectra. It was concluded that NIRS can determine TS, VS, TN, NH3-N, and possibly some minerals in manures rapidly and accurately, and the transfer of manure sample calibrations between instruments is possible
Thermographical Quantification of Physiological and Behavioral Responses of Group-housed Young Pigs
Young pigs 4 to 7 wk old (7~15 kg) were exposed to 20 factorial combinations of five air temperatures (20, 24, 28, 32, and 36°C) and four air velocities (0.1, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 m/s). Infrared imaging (0.06°C sensitivity) was used to simultaneously quantify postural pattern and surface temperature (T s ) of the pigs. Three postural indexes were evaluated for expressing thermal comfort level of the pigs: (1) ratio of occupied floor area (A f ) to the total surface area of the pigs— index I f ; (2) ratio of A f to its maximum possible value—index I m ; and (3) A f per 100 kg body mass—index A f(100) . The pigs shared common thresholds of postural indexes I f = 0.20~0.24 and I m = 0.75~0.84 and T s of 34.5~36.3°C for the thermoneutral zone (TNZ). In comparison, index A f(100) of TNZ was greatly dependent on pig age or size. The numerical indexes (I f and I m ) provide objective, quantitative assessment of thermal comfort of the pigs. Functional relationships were established between I m and T s . Moreover, I m was used to quantify the effects of air velocity on the effective environmental temperature of the pigs at cool to warm ambient temperatures
Quantifying thermal comfort behavior of young pigs using thermography
Group-housed pigs at 4 to 6 weeks of age were exposed, inside a wind tunnel, to five levelsof T,, (20, 24, 28, 32 and 36'C) associated with four levels of V (0. 1, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 m/s). Aninfrared thermal imager (0.06'C thermal sensitivity) and its analysis program were used to quantifythe behavioral and physiological responses of the pigs to the thermal conditions. Over 800thermograms were recorded and analyzed for the study. Three behavioral indexes were examinedfor their efficacy to represent the thermal comfort of the pigs. They were: a) ratio of projectedfloor area occupied by the pigs (Ap) to the total surface area (A), denoted as la; b) ratio ofmeasured Ap to the maximum theoretical Ap (Afma.,), denoted as If, and c) Ap per 100 kg bodymass, denoted as Ap(,Wkg).
The magnitudes of these indexes corresponding to the thermalneutral zone (TNZ) of the pigs were also established using the calculated lower and upper criticaltemperatures (LCT, UCT) and validated by the patterns of the postural behavior of the pigs. The results showed that 1a and 1f were not affected by body mass, making them effective numerical indicators to the thermal comfort level of the pigs. Specifically, la had a TNZ range of 0.20 to 0.24 and If had a TNZ range of 0.72 to 0.84 for the experiment pigs. The lower threshold values of the indexes correspond to LCT whereas the upper threshold values to UCT. By comparison, Ap(100kg) depended greatly on body mass or age and had the TNZ range of 0.95 to 1.11 m2/(100 kg) for 7.6 kg (4-week-old) pigs and O.70 to 0.90 m 2/(100 kg) for 14.7 (6-week-old) pigs.
The TNZ range of Ts was 34.0'C to 36.4'C for the pigs. Increase in V reduced T,, with the effect being more pronounced at lower T.. The results also revealed the interactive effects of Ta and V on the effective environmental temperature (EET) of the pigs
Matte Anything: Interactive Natural Image Matting with Segment Anything Models
Natural image matting algorithms aim to predict the transparency map
(alpha-matte) with the trimap guidance. However, the production of trimap often
requires significant labor, which limits the widespread application of matting
algorithms on a large scale. To address the issue, we propose Matte Anything
(MatAny), an interactive natural image matting model that could produce
high-quality alpha-matte with various simple hints. The key insight of MatAny
is to generate pseudo trimap automatically with contour and transparency
prediction. In our work, we leverage vision foundation models to enhance the
performance of natural image matting. Specifically, we use the segment anything
model to predict high-quality contour with user interaction and an
open-vocabulary detector to predict the transparency of any object.
Subsequently, a pre-trained image matting model generates alpha mattes with
pseudo trimaps. MatAny is the interactive matting algorithm with the most
supported interaction methods and the best performance to date. It consists of
orthogonal vision models without any additional training. We evaluate the
performance of MatAny against several current image matting algorithms. MatAny
has 58.3% improvement on MSE and 40.6% improvement on SAD compared to the
previous image matting methods with simple guidance, achieving new
state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance. The source codes and pre-trained models
are available at https://github.com/hustvl/Matte-Anything.Comment: 21 pages, codes: https://github.com/hustvl/Matte-Anythin
Predictors of continuation with olanzapine during the 1-year naturalistic treatment of patients with schizophrenia in Japan
Wenyu Ye1, Haya Ascher-Svanum2, Yuka Tanji3, Jennifer A Flynn3, Michihiro Takahashi3,41Lilly Suzhou Pharmaceutical Co, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN, USA; 3Lilly Research Laboratories Japan, Eli Lilly Japan KK, Kobe, 4Terauchi-Takahashi Psychiatric Clinic, Ashiya, JapanPurpose: Treatment continuation is considered an important measure of antipsychotic effectiveness in schizophrenia, reflecting the medication’s efficacy, safety, and tolerability from both patients’ and clinicians’ perspectives. This study identified characteristics of patients with schizophrenia who continue olanzapine therapy for a 1-year period in Japan.Methods: In a large (N = 1850), prospective, observational study, Japanese patients with schizophrenia who initiated treatment with olanzapine were followed for 1 year. Baseline characteristics were compared using t-tests and chi-square tests. Stepwise logistic regression was used to identify independent baseline predictors of treatment continuation.Results: Most patients (68.2%) continued with olanzapine therapy for the full 1-year study period, with an average duration of 265.5 ± 119.4 days. At baseline, patients who continued were significantly more likely to be male, older, and inpatients; have longer illness duration, higher negative and cognitive symptoms, better health-related quality of life, and prior anticholinergic use. Continuers were significantly less likely to engage in social activities, live independently, work for pay, or have prior antidepressant use. Continuers showed significantly greater early (3-month) improvement in global symptom severity. Logistic regression found that continuation was significantly predicted by longer illness duration, lower positive symptoms, higher negative symptoms, and better health-related quality of life.Conclusions: In this large naturalistic study in Japan, most patients with schizophrenia stayed on olanzapine therapy for the full 1-year study period. Treatment completion with olanzapine was independently predicted by longer illness duration, lower positive symptoms, higher negative symptoms, and better health-related quality of life.Keywords: schizophrenia, atypical, antipsychotics, discontinuatio
Integrating Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial Data with External Controls: A Semiparametric Approach with Selective Borrowing
In recent years, real-world external controls (ECs) have grown in popularity
as a tool to empower randomized placebo-controlled trials (RPCTs), particularly
in rare diseases or cases where balanced randomization is unethical or
impractical. However, as ECs are not always comparable to the RPCTs, direct
borrowing ECs without scrutiny may heavily bias the treatment effect estimator.
Our paper proposes a data-adaptive integrative framework capable of preventing
unknown biases of ECs. The adaptive nature is achieved by dynamically sorting
out a set of comparable ECs via bias penalization. Our proposed method can
simultaneously achieve (a) the semiparametric efficiency bound when the ECs are
comparable and (b) selective borrowing that mitigates the impact of the
existence of incomparable ECs. Furthermore, we establish statistical
guarantees, including consistency, asymptotic distribution, and inference,
providing type-I error control and good power. Extensive simulations and two
real-data applications show that the proposed method leads to improved
performance over the RPCT-only estimator across various bias-generating
scenarios
Predictors of antipsychotic monotherapy with olanzapine during a 1-year naturalistic study of schizophrenia patients in Japan
Wenyu Ye1, Haya Ascher-Svanum2, Jennifer A Flynn3, Yuka Tanji3, Michihiro Takahashi3,41Lilly Suzhou Pharmaceutical Co, Shanghai, People's Republic of China; 2Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN, USA; 3Lilly Research Laboratories Japan, Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Kobe, 4Terauchi-Takahashi Psychiatric Clinic, Ashiya, JapanPurpose: Although expert guidelines for the treatment of schizophrenia recommend antipsychotic monotherapy, the use of antipsychotic polypharmacy is common. This study identified characteristics that differentiate patients with schizophrenia who are treated with olanzapine monotherapy versus polypharmacy in usual care in Japan.Patients and methods: In a large (N = 1850) prospective, observational study, Japanese patients with schizophrenia who initiated treatment with olanzapine were followed for 1 year. Consistent with past research, antipsychotic polypharmacy was defined as the concurrent use of olanzapine and another antipsychotic for at least 60 days. Switching was defined as discontinuing a prior antipsychotic therapy rather than augmenting the medication regimen. Predictors of antipsychotic monotherapy were based on information available at the time of olanzapine initiation. Baseline characteristics were compared using t-tests and Χ2 tests. Stepwise logistic regression was used to identify independent predictors of monotherapy.Results: Patients treated with olanzapine monotherapy (43.2%) differed from those treated with antipsychotic polypharmacy (56.8%) on demographics, treatment history, baseline symptom levels, functional levels, and treatment-emergent adverse events. Stepwise logistic regression identified multiple variables that significantly predicted monotherapy: older age, shorter duration of schizophrenia, outpatient status, comorbid medical conditions, lower body mass index, no prior anticholinergic use, no prior mood stabilizer use, and switching from a previous antipsychotic (typical or atypical).Conclusion: Consistent with prior research in Japan, antipsychotic polypharmacy appears to be common in the treatment of schizophrenia. Patients treated with monotherapy could be differentiated from those treated with antipsychotic polypharmacy based on a specific set of demographic and baseline clinical characteristics.Keywords: olanzapine, schizophrenia, polypharmacy, quality improvemen
An empirical model to evaluate the effects of environmental humidity on the formation of wrinkled, creased and porous fibre morphology from electrospinning.
Controlling environmental humidity level and thus moisture interaction with an electrospinning solution jet has led to a fascinating range of polymer fibre morphological features; these include surface wrinkles, creases and surface/internal porosity at the individual fibre level. Here, by cross-correlating literature data of far-field electrospinning (FFES), together with our experimental data from near-field electrospinning (NFES), we propose a theoretical model, which can account, phenomenologically, for the onset of fibre microstructures formation from electrospinning solutions made of a hydrophobic polymer dissolved in a water-miscible or polar solvent. This empirical model provides a quantitative evaluation on how the evaporating solvent vapour could prevent or disrupt water vapor condensation onto the electrospinning jet; thus, on the condition where vapor condensation does occur, morphological features will form on the surface, or bulk of the fibre. A wide range of polymer systems, including polystyrene, poly(methyl methacrylate), poly-L-lactic acid, polycaprolactone were tested and validated. Our analysis points to the different operation regimes associated FFES versus NFES, when it comes to the system's sensitivity towards environmental moisture. Our proposed model may further be used to guide the process in creating desirable fibre microstructure
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