Fermentation Quality and in Vitro Nutrient Digestibility of Fresh Rice Straw-Based Silage Treated with Lactic Acid Bacteria

The aim of the experiment was to evaluate fermentation characteristics and in vitro nutrient digestibility of fresh rice straw-based silage ensiled with addition of epiphytic lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculant. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design, with 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. The first factor was the ratio of fresh rice straw (FRS), tofu waste (TW) and cassava waste (CW) consisted of two levels i.e., 40 : 20 : 40 and 40 : 25 : 35, on dry matter (DM) basis). The second factor was the level of LAB inoculant with two levels ie., 0 and 20 mL/kg FM. The treatments were (A) FRS + TW + CW with the ratio of 40 : 20 : 40, without LAB inoculant; (B) FRS + TW + CW with the ratio of 40 : 20 : 40 + LAB inoculant; (C) FRS + TW + CW with the ratio of 40 : 25 : 35, without LAB inoculant; (D) FRS + TW + CW with ratio of 40 : 25 : 35 + LAB inoculant. Results showed that addition of LAB inoculant in silage increased lactic acid concentration (P0.05) on chemical composition, fermentation quality of silage and in vitro digestibility. It was concluded that mixture silage with ratio of 40 : 20 : 40 with the addition of LAB inoculant had the best fermentation quality and nutrient digestibility than other silages

Lamb shift of non-degenerate energy level systems placed between two infinite parallel conducting plates

The issue of the observability of the Lamb shift in systems with non-degenerate energy levels is put to question. To this end, we compute the Lamb shift of such systems in the electromagnetic environment provided by two infinite parallel conducting plates, which is instrumental in demonstrating the existence of the so-called Casimir effect. A formula giving the relative change in the Lamb shift (as compared to the standard one in vacuum) is explicitly obtained for spherical semiconductor Quantum Dots (QD). It is the result of a careful mathematical treatment of divergences in the calculations involving distribution theory, which also settles a controversy on two different expressions in the existing literature. It suggests a possibility of QD non-degenerate energy spectrum fine-tuning for experimental purposes as well as a Gedankenexperiment to observe the Lamb shift in spherical semiconductor quantum dots.Comment: submit/040994

Dependence of shock-tube boundary layers on shock strength

Using familiar considerations of vorticity transport, the essential behavior of shock-tube boundary layers is explicitly exhibited; the nearly constant functions that cannot be calculated analytically are evaluated numerically and compared with Mirels' correlations

Induction powered biological radiosonde

An induction powered implanted monitor for epidurally measuring intracranial pressure and telemetering the pressure information to a remote readout is disclosed. The monitor utilizes an inductance-capacitance (L-C) oscillator in which the C comprises a variable capacitance transducer, one electrode of which is a small stiff pressure responsive diaphragm. The oscillator is isolated from a transmitting tank circuit by a buffer circuit and all electric components in the implanted unit except an input and an output coil are shielded by a metal housing

Remotely operated high pressure valve protects test personnel

High pressure valve used in testing certain spacecraft systems is safely opened and closed by a remotely stationed operator. The valve is self-regulating in that if the incoming pressure drops below a desired value the valve will automatically close, warning the operator that the testing pressure has dropped to an undesired level

Miniature bioelectric device accurately measures and telemeters temperature

Miniature micropower solid-state circuit measures and telemeters the body temperature of laboratory animals over periods up to two years. The circuit employs a thermistor as a temperature sensing element and an fm transmitter. It is constructed from conventional discrete components or integrated circuits

The Photospheric Poynting Flux and Coronal Heating

Some models of coronal heating suppose that convective motions at the photosphere shuffle the footpoints of coronal magnetic fields and thereby inject sufficient magnetic energy upward to account for observed coronal and chromospheric energy losses in active regions. Using high-resolution observations of plage magnetic fields made with the Solar Optical Telescope aboard the Hinode satellite, we investigate this idea by estimating the upward transport of magnetic energy --- the vertical Poynting flux, S_z --- across the photosphere in a plage region. To do so, we combine: (i) estimates of photospheric horizontal velocities, v_h, determined by local correlation tracking applied to a sequence of line-of-sight magnetic field maps from the Narrowband Filter Imager, with (ii) a vector magnetic field measurement from the SpectroPolarimeter. Plage fields are ideal observational targets for estimating energy injection by convection, because they are: (i) strong enough to be measured with relatively small uncertainties; (ii) not so strong that convection is heavily suppressed (as within umbrae); and (iii) unipolar, so S_z in plage is not influenced by mixed-polarity processes (e.g., flux emergence) unrelated to heating in stable, active-region fields. In this plage region, we found that the average S_z varied in space, but was positive (upward) and sufficient to explain coronal heating, with values near (5 +/- 1) x 10^7 erg/cm^2/s. We find the energy input per unit magnetic flux to be on the order of 10^5 erg/s/Mx. A comparison of intensity in a Ca II image co-registered with the this plage shows stronger spatial correlations with both total field, B, and unsigned vertical field, |B_z|, than either S_z or horizontal field, B_h. The observed Ca II brightness enhancement, however, probably contains a strong contribution from a near-photosphere hot-wall effect unrelated to atmospheric heating.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures, accepted by Pub. Astron. Soc. Japa