Adaptation of Ultrasonics in the Selection Program

A useful selection tool available to swine producers in recent years has been the ultrasonic animal tester, more commonly called the Sonoray. In creasing numbers of swine producers across the nation have adapted the sonoray to their selection programs in an attempt to more accurately evaluate breeding herd replacements. This report is intended to demonstrate ways that a South Dakota swine producer could use the sonoray in a selection program for total herd improvement. The use of the sonoray could aid the purebred producer in three ways. Number one, the sonoray could be used to select the best gilts after a preliminary selection has been made. Secondly , the information is an aid to prospective breeding stock customers. Third, the producer could utilize ultrasonic information when selecting herd sire replacements

Occurrence Statistics of Horse Collar Aurora

Horse collar aurora (HCA) are an auroral feature where the dawn and dusk sector auroral oval moves polewards and the polar cap becomes teardrop shaped. They form during prolonged periods of northward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), when the IMF clock angle is small. Their formation has been linked to dual-lobe reconnection (DLR) closing magnetic flux at the dayside magnetopause. The conditions necessary for DLR are currently not well-understood therefore understanding HCA statistics will allow DLR to be studied in more detail. We have identified over 600 HCA events between 2010 and 2016 in UV images captured by the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager instrument on-board the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program spacecraft F16, F17 and F18. As expected, there is a clear preference for HCA occurring during northward IMF. We find no clear seasonal dependence in their occurrence, with an average of 8 HCA events per month. The occurrence of HCA events does not appear to depend on the Bx component of the IMF. Considering the average radiance intensity across the dusk-dawn meridian shows the HCA as a separate bulge inside the auroral oval and that the dawn side arc of the HCA is usually brighter than the dusk in the Lyman-Birge-Hopfield short band. We relate this to the expected field aligned current pattern of HCA formation. We further suggest that transpolar arcs observed in the dawn sector simultaneously in both northern and southern hemispheres are misidentified HCA.publishedVersio

Mesoscale observations of Joule heating near an auroral arc and ion-neutral collision frequency in the polar cap E region

We report on the first mesoscale combined ionospheric and thermospheric observations, partly in the vicinity of an auroral arc, from Svalbard in the polar cap on 2 February 2010. The EISCAT Svalbard radar employed a novel scanning mode in order to obtain F and E region ion flows over an annular region centered on the radar. Simultaneously, a colocated Scanning Doppler Imager observed the E region neutral winds and temperatures around 110 km altitude using the 557.7 nm auroral optical emission. Combining the ion and neutral data permits the E region Joule heating to be estimated with an azimuthal spatial resolution of ∼64 km at a radius of ∼163 km from the radar. The spatial distribution of Joule heating shows significant mesoscale variation. The ion-neutral collision frequency is measured in the E region by combining all the data over the entire field of view with only weak aurora present. The estimated ion-neutral collision frequency at ∼113 km altitude is in good agreement with the MSIS atmospheric model

Strategic priorities for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine development

AbstractAlthough RSV has been a high priority for vaccine development, efforts to develop a safe and effective vaccine have yet to lead to a licensed product. Clinical and epidemiologic features of RSV disease suggest there are at least 4 distinct target populations for vaccines, the RSV naïve young infant, the RSV naïve child ≥6 months of age, pregnant women (to provide passive protection to newborns), and the elderly. These target populations raise different safety and efficacy concerns and may require different vaccination strategies. The highest priority target population is the RSV naïve child. The occurrence of serious adverse events associated with the first vaccine candidate for young children, formalin inactivated RSV (FI-RSV), has focused vaccine development for the young RSV naïve child on live virus vaccines. Enhanced disease is not a concern for persons previously primed by a live virus infection. A variety of live-attenuated viruses have been developed with none yet achieving licensure. New live-attenuated RSV vaccines are being developed and evaluated that maybe sufficiently safe and efficacious to move to licensure. A variety of subunit vaccines are being developed and evaluated primarily for adults in whom enhanced disease is not a concern. An attenuated parainfluenza virus 3 vector expressing the RSV F protein was evaluated in RSV naïve children. Most of these candidate vaccines have used the RSV F protein in various vaccine platforms including virus-like particles, nanoparticles, formulated with adjuvants, and expressed by DNA or virus vectors. The other surface glycoprotein, the G protein, has also been used in candidate vaccines.We now have tools to make and evaluate a wide range of promising vaccines. Costly clinical trials in the target population are needed to evaluate and select candidate vaccines for advancement to efficacy trials. Better data on RSV-associated mortality in developing countries, better estimates of the risk of long term sequelae such as wheezing after infection, better measures of protection in target populations, and data on the costs and benefits of vaccines for target populations are needed to support and justify funding this process. Addressing these challenges and needs should improve the efficiency and speed of achieving a safe and effective, licensed RSV vaccine

Lobe Reconnection and Cusp-Aligned Auroral Arcs

Following the St. Patrick's Day (17 March) geomagnetic storm of 2013, the interplanetary magnetic field had near-zero clock angle for almost two days. Throughout this period multiple cusp-aligned auroral arcs formed in the polar regions; we present observations of, and provide a new explanation for, this poorly understood phenomenon. The arcs were observed by auroral imagers onboard satellites of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. Ionospheric flow measurements and observations of energetic particles from the same satellites show that the arcs were produced by inverted-V precipitation associated with upward field-aligned currents (FACs) at shears in the convection pattern. The large-scale convection pattern revealed by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network and the corresponding FAC pattern observed by the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment suggest that dual-lobe reconnection was ongoing to produce significant closure of the magnetosphere. However, we propose that once the magnetosphere became nearly closed complicated lobe reconnection geometries arose that produced interleaving of regions of open and closed magnetic flux and spatial and temporal structure in the convection pattern that evolved on timescales shorter than the orbital period of the DMSP spacecraft. This new model naturally explains many features of cusp-aligned arcs, including why they focus in from the nightside toward the cusp region.publishedVersio

Nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate in the D+iD superconducting state: implications for CoO superconductor

We calculated the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_1$ for the D+iD superconducting state with impurities. We found that small amount of unitary impurities quickly produces the residual density of states inside the gap. As a result, the T-linear behavior in 1/T$_1$ is observed at low temperatures. Our results show that the D+iD pairing symmetry of the superconducting state of Na$_{0.35}$CoO$_{2} \cdot y$H$_2$ O is compatible with recent $^{59}$Co 1/T$_1$ experiments of several groups.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, minor change

Imaging of n-hexane in zeolites by positron emission profiling (PEP)

Positron Emission Profiling (PEP) has been used for in-situ measurement of the surface coverage of H-mordenite by n-hexane, as a function of hexane partial pressure, at the elevated temperatures typically used for hydroisomerization by monitoring the retention time of an injected radio-labelled pulse of n-hexane. The labelled molecules ((CH3C5H11)-C-11) were produced via a two-step alkene homologation reaction in which C-11, produced using a cyclotron, was added to 1-pentene. The PEP method described is similar to the ''tracer pulse technique'' however it has the significant advantage of in-situ imaging of the puls

The Reverse Transcription Signature of N-\u3csub\u3e1\u3c/sub\u3e-Methyladenosine in RNA-Seq is Sequence Dependent

The combination of Reverse Transcription (RT) and high-throughput sequencing has emerged as a powerful combination to detect modified nucleotides in RNA via analysis of either abortive RT-products or of the incorporation of mismatched dNTPs into cDNA. Here we simultaneously analyze both parameters in detail with respect to the occurrence of N-1-methyladenosine (m1A) in the template RNA. This naturally occurring modification is associated with structural effects, but it is also known as a mediator of antibiotic resistance in ribosomal RNA. In structural probing experiments with dimethylsulfate, m1A is routinely detected by RT-arrest. A specifically developed RNA-Seq protocol was tailored to the simultaneous analysis of RT-arrest and misincorporation patterns. By application to a variety of native and synthetic RNA preparations, we found a characteristic signature of m1A, which, in addition to an arrest rate, features misincorporation as a significant component. Detailed analysis suggests that the signature depends on RNA structure and on the nature of the nucleotide 3’ of m1A in the template RNA, meaning it is sequence dependent. The RT-signature ofm1Awas used for inspection and confirmation of suspected modification sites and resulted in the identification of hitherto unknown m1A residues in trypanosomal tRNA

A Complete Supersymmetric SO(10) Model

A complete supersymmetric SO(10) model is constructed, which is the most general consistent with certain $R$, discrete, and $U(1)$ flavor symmetries. The desired vacuum of the theory has vevs which lie in particular directions of group space. This leads to both doublet triplet splitting and to the generation of just four operators for charged fermion masses. The model illustrates how many features of superunification become related in the context of a complete theory. The features discussed here include: the weak mixing angle prediction, the doublet-triplet splitting problem, proton decay, the generation of the $\mu$ parameter, neutrino masses and the generation of the operators which lead to charged fermion mass predictions.Comment: 18 page