Sizing milking groups in small cow dairies of mediterranean countries

A dairy farmer chooses the number of milking groups in function of the herd size, stall type and milking system also in small cow dairies (number of animals lower than 100–120). In these dairies, there are different milking systems (bucket, trolley, pipeline, little autotandem, herringbone or parallel parlors) and each of them has a different work routine. The knowledge of the routine is the starting point for assessing the milking installation, because it determines the number of milked cows per hour. Different milking systems have common tasks (as pre-dipping, inspecting foremilk, udder preparation, attaching teat cups, post-dipping), but in the meantime there are different operations that characterize each specific routine (e.g., animal entry and exit if there is a parlor, bucket, trolley or milking group positioning if tie-stall). For this reason, we surveyed twenty small dairy farms located in the Piedmont Region (Italy) with different milking systems to correctly acquire the specific milking routines. Different models were therefore studied using the observed routines in in the examined farms. These models were then used to calculate the number of milked cows per hour and the number of milking groups. The main findings were simple equations, specific for each milking system, easily accessible by the farmer to correctly size his milking system

Ignitor: Physics and Progress Towards Ignition

Thermonuclear ignition condition for deuterium-tritium plasmas can be achieved in compact, high magnetic field devices such as Ignitor. The main scientific goals, the underlying physics basis, and the most relevant engineering solutions of this experiment are described. Burning plasma conditions can be reached either with ohmic heating only or with small amount of auxiliary power in the form of ICRH waves, and this condition can be sustained for a time considerably longer than all the relevant plasma time scales. In the reference operating scenario, no transport barriers are present, and the resulting thermal loads on the plasma facing component are estimated to be rather modest, thanks to the high edge density and low edge temperature that ensure an effective intrinsic radiating mantle in elongated limiter configurations. Enhanced confinement regimes can also be obtained in configurations with double X-points near the first wall

Characterization of the interface between composites and embedded Fiber Optic sensors or NiTiNOL wires

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Who wrote Ronald Reagan's radio addresses?

In his campaign for the U.S. presidency from 1975 to 1979, Ronald Reagan delivered over 1000 radio broadcasts. For over 600 of these we have direct evidence of Reagan's authorship. The aim of this study was to determine the authorship of 312 of the broadcasts for which no direct evidence is available. We addressed the prediction problem for speeches delivered in different epochs and we explored a wide range of off-the-shelf classification methods and fully Bayesian generative models. Eventually we produced separate sets of predictions using the most accurate classifiers, based on non-contextual words as well as on semantic features, for the 312 speeches of uncertain authorship. All the predictions agree on 135 of the "unknown" speeches, whereas the fully Bayesian models agree on an additional 154 of them. The magnitude of the posterior odds of authorship led us to conclude that Ronald Reagan drafted 167 speeches and was aided in the preparation of the remaining 145. Our inferences were not sensitive to "reasonable" variations in the sets of constants underlying the prior distributions, and the cross-validated accuracy of our best fully Bayesian model was above 90 percent in all cases. The agreement of multiple methods for predicting the authorship for the "unknown" speeches reinforced our confidence in the accuracy of our classifications.Statistic

Impact of lower limb movement on the hemodynamics of femoropopliteal arteries: A computational study

Femoropopliteal arteries (FPAs) are subjected to a wide range of deformations, mainly determined by leg movement. FPAs are often affected by atherosclerotic plaque development, presumably influenced by the biomechanics of surrounding tissues. Although abnormal hemodynamics in FPAs appears to be an important factor in driving plaque development, to date it has been investigated in few studies, in which the leg was modeled in either fixed straight or bent configuration. Hence, the current work investigates the impact of leg movement on FPA hemodynamics. An idealized model of FPA was created to perform moving-boundary computational fluid dynamics analyses. By mimicking hip rotation, knee flexion and complete movement of walking, the hemodynamics was compared between moving- and fixed-boundary models. Moreover, additional features affecting the hemodynamics (e.g. flow-rate curve amplitude, walking speed) were examined. Significant hemodynamic differences were found between the moving- and fixed-boundary models, with the leg movement inducing higher time-averaged wall shear stress (TAWSS) (up to 66%). The flow-rate amplitude and walking period were the most influential parameters (differences in TAWSS up to 68% and 74%, respectively). In conclusion, this numerical approach highlighted the importance of considering leg movement to investigate FPA hemodynamics, and it could be employed in future patient-specific analyses

Home advantage? Decomposition across the freshwater-estuarine transition zone varies with litter origin and local salinity

Expected increases in the frequency and intensity of storm surges and river flooding may greatly affect the relative salinity of estuarine environments over the coming decades. In this experiment we used detritus from three contrasting environments (marine Fucus vesiculosus; estuarine Spartina anglica; terrestrial Quercus robur) to test the prediction that the decomposition of the different types of litter would be highest in the environment with which they are associated. Patterns of decomposition broadly fitted our prediction: Quercus detritus decomposed more rapidly in freshwater compared with saline conditions while Fucus showed the opposite trend; Spartina showed an intermediate response. Variation in macro-invertebrate assemblages was detected along the salinity gradient but with different patterns between estuaries, suggesting that breakdown rates may be linked in part to local invertebrate assemblages. Nonetheless, our results suggest that perturbation of salinity gradients through climate change could affect the process of litter decomposition and thus alter nutrient cycling in estuarine transition zones. Understanding the vulnerability of estuaries to changes in local abiotic conditions is important given the need to better integrate coastal proceses into a wider management framework at a time when coastlines are increasingly threatened by human activities