8,968 research outputs found
Live Animal Ultrasound Information as a Decision Tool in Replacement Beef Heifer Programs
Real-time ultrasound information taken on beef heifers prior to backgrounding is used to develop a logit model to aid heifer retention decisions. The value of ultrasound data is calculated as the difference in certainty equivalents between a decision rule incorporating ultrasound information and one using only visual cues. The value of ultrasound data is found to be around $10 per head but is influenced by heifer value and backgrounding costs.expected utility, heifer development, logit, real-time ultrasound, Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Livestock Production/Industries, Q11, Q12, Q13,
Live Animal Ultrasound Information as a Decision Tool in Replacement Beef Heifer Programs
Ultrasound data are used to sort heifers for immediate sale or for development as replacement stock. While ultrasound improves predictions about conception, the value of ultrasound the data is relatively small. This value is primarily influenced by heifer development costs and bred heifer premiums over commercial feeder heifers.Livestock Production/Industries,
A combined approach for comparative exoproteome analysis of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis
Background: Bacterial exported proteins represent key components of the host-pathogen interplay. Hence, we
sought to implement a combined approach for characterizing the entire exoproteome of the pathogenic
bacterium Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, the etiological agent of caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) in sheep and
goats.
Results: An optimized protocol of three-phase partitioning (TPP) was used to obtain the C. pseudotuberculosis
exoproteins, and a newly introduced method of data-independent MS acquisition (LC-MSE) was employed for
protein identification and label-free quantification. Additionally, the recently developed tool SurfG+ was used for in
silico prediction of sub-cellular localization of the identified proteins. In total, 93 different extracellular proteins of
C. pseudotuberculosis were identified with high confidence by this strategy; 44 proteins were commonly identified
in two different strains, isolated from distinct hosts, then composing a core C. pseudotuberculosis exoproteome.
Analysis with the SurfG+ tool showed that more than 75% (70/93) of the identified proteins could be predicted as
containing signals for active exportation. Moreover, evidence could be found for probable non-classical export of
most of the remaining proteins.
Conclusions: Comparative analyses of the exoproteomes of two C. pseudotuberculosis strains, in addition to
comparison with other experimentally determined corynebacterial exoproteomes, were helpful to gain novel
insights into the contribution of the exported proteins in the virulence of this bacterium. The results presented
here compose the most comprehensive coverage of the exoproteome of a corynebacterial species so far
Finite Size Analysis of Luttinger Liquids with a source of 2k_f Scattering
Numerical analysis of the spectrum of large finite size Luttinger liquids
(g<1) in the presence of a single source of 2k_f scattering has been made
possible thanks to an effective integration of high degrees of freedom.
Presence of irrelevant operators and their manifestation in transport are
issues treated independently. We confirm the existence of two irrelevant
operators: particle hopping and charge oscillations, with regions of dominance
separated by g=1/2. Temperature dependence of conductance is shown to be
dominated by hopping alone. Frequency dependence is affected by both irrelevant
operators.Comment: 4 pages, LaTex (RevTex), 3 PostScript figures appende
Laser Cooling of Trapped Fermi Gases deeply below the Fermi Temperature
We study the collective Raman cooling of a polarized trapped Fermi gas in the
Festina Lente regime, when the heating effects associated with photon
reabsorptions are suppressed. We predict that by adjusting the spontaneous
Raman emission rates and using appropriately designed anharmonic traps,
temperatures of the order of 2.7% of the Fermi temperature can be achieved in
3D.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; final versio
A homogeneous spectroscopic analysis of host stars of transiting planets
The analysis of transiting extra-solar planets provides an enormous amount of
information about the formation and evolution of planetary systems. A precise
knowledge of the host stars is necessary to derive the planetary properties
accurately. The properties of the host stars, especially their chemical
composition, are also of interest in their own right. Information about planet
formation is inferred by, among others, correlations between different
parameters such as the orbital period and the metallicity of the host stars.
The stellar properties studied should be derived as homogeneously as possible.
The present work provides new, uniformly derived parameters for 13 host stars
of transiting planets. Effective temperature, surface gravity, microturbulence
parameter, and iron abundance were derived from spectra of both high
signal-to-noise ratio and high resolution by assuming iron excitation and
ionization equilibria. For some stars, the new parameters differ from previous
determinations, which is indicative of changes in the planetary radii. A
systematic offset in the abundance scale with respect to previous assessments
is found for the TrES and HAT objects. Our abundance measurements are
remarkably robust in terms of the uncertainties in surface gravities. The iron
abundances measured in the present work are supplemented by all previous
determinations using the same analysis technique. The distribution of iron
abundance then agrees well with the known metal-rich distribution of planet
host stars. To facilitate future studies, the spectroscopic results of the
current work are supplemented by the findings for other host stars of
transiting planets, for a total dataset of 50 objects.Comment: accepted for publication in A&A, 7 pages, 6 figure
Distribution and provenance of heavy minerals from recent sediments of Green Lake, North Brazil, revisited
Geostatistical and multivariate statistical analyses were applied to heavy mineral data from an Amazonian fluvial-lake system near the TapajĂłs River mouth to investigate the spatial distribution and source-area of sediments. Twenty-one points were investigated, and the physical characteristics of the Green Lake deepest point were determined. Sand accumulates in the lake margins and mud quantity increases towards the lake center. Heavy mineral assemblage is composed of zircon, tourmaline, kyanite, rutile, staurolite, anatase, sillimanite, garnet, and spinel. Tourmaline, staurolite, and spinel are more abundant in the southeast area of the lake, while kyanite is dominant in the north area and zircon is in the whole lake except in its southeast area. Zircon - tourmaline and zircon - staurolite pairs are negatively correlated (r= -0.947 and -0.775, respectively), while tourmaline - staurolite and sillimanite - anatase pairs have a positive correlation (r= 0.628 and 0.675, respectively) which indicate different source rock types. Geostatistical analysis grouped the heavy minerals in three grups: Group 1 (tourmaline â staurolite â spinel - kyanite) and Group 2 (garnet â rutile â sillimanite - anatase) related to metamorphic source rocks ranging from medium to high grade, and Group 3 (zircon) related to acid igneous source rocks. The heavy mineral assemblage of Green Lake is analogous to the assemblage of the Alter do ChĂŁo Formation, indicating that this formation is the source of sediments of Green Lake
Influence of box height on inter-limb asymmetry and box jump performance
Box jumps are often included in training programs as an introductory exercise to novice athletes and untrained individuals and are an efficient option of lower-body explosiveness training. However, it is unclear whether the use of boxes of differing heights affect the inter-limb asymmetry during this exercise. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of box height in inter-limb asymmetry during box jumps. Recreationally active young males (n = 14) and females (n = 16) performed three jumps at boxes that corresponded to approximately 0, 20, 40, 60, and 80% of their individual countermovement jumps. The selected performance variables were peak force (PF), peak power (PP), rate of force development (RFD), and time to take-off (TToff). The intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.76 to 0.99, and the coefficient of variation ranged from 4.03 to 16.52%. A series of one-way repeated measures ANOVA tests were used to test for significant differences of the performance variables and inter-limb asymmetries. The femalesâ PF at 80% was significantly higher from 0% (p < 0.05). No significant differences were observed for inter-limb asymmetry across box heights (p â„ 0.25). This study shows that the box height does not affect the overall intra-session inter-limb asymmetries in recreationally active individuals
Continuous optical loading of a Bose-Einstein Condensate
The continuous pumping of atoms into a Bose-Einstein condensate via
spontaneous emission from a thermal reservoir is analyzed. We consider the case
of atoms with a three-level scheme, in which one of the atomic
transitions has a very much shorter life-time than the other one. We found that
in such scenario the photon reabsorption in dense clouds can be considered
negligible. If in addition inelastic processes can be neglected, we find that
optical pumping can be used to continuously load and refill Bose-Einstein
condensates, i.e. provides a possible way to achieve a continuous atom laser.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
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