Rumen Fermentation, Blood Metabolites, and Performance of Sheep Fed Tropical Browse Plants

The in vitro study was designed to evaluate total gas production, dry matter degradability (DMD), and VFA profile; while in vivo study was designed to evaluate nutrient intakes, blood metabolites, and performance of sheep fed native grass mixed with Calliandra calothyrrus (CC), Leucaena leucochepala (LL), Moringa oleifera (MO), Gliricidea sepium (GS), and Artocarpus heterophyllus (AH). The best three from the in vitro results were used to formulate diets in in vivo study. Sixteen male growing sheep (average BW 20 kg) were fed 100% native grass (NG) as control; 70% NG + 30% GS; 70% NG + 30% MO; and 70% NG + 30% AH. Nutrient consumptions, DMD, blood metabolites, and sheep performances were analyzed by using Completely Randomized Design. The in vitro results showed that the total gas production and DMD of CC and LL were the lowest (P<0.05) while the highest was found in GS, MO, and AH treatments (P<0.05). Meanwhile, the in vivo results showed that nutrient intakes (DM, CP, and CF) of GS and AH rations were the highest. The ADG, concentration of albumin, and globulin in all treatments were similar, while total serum protein, triglycerides, and glucose concentration in MO and AH rations were higher than others. Serum cholesterol concentration in MO ration was the lowest, meanwhile the concentration of IgG was the highest (P<0.05). Supplementation of 30% MO was the best choice for optimum rumen fermentation and maintaining health status of local sheep

Light-cone Gauge Superstring Field Theory and Dimensional Regularization II

We propose a dimensional regularization scheme to deal with the divergences caused by colliding supercurrents inserted at the interaction points, in the light-cone gauge NSR superstring field theory. We formulate the theory in $d$ dimensions and define the amplitudes as analytic functions of $d$. With an appropriately chosen three-string interaction term and large negative $d$, the tree level amplitudes for the (NS,NS) closed strings can be recast into a BRST invariant form, using the superconformal field theory proposed in Ref.[arXiv:0911.3704]. We show that in the limit $d \to 10$ they coincide with the results of the first quantized theory. Therefore we obtain the desired results without adding any contact interaction terms to the action.Comment: 23 pages; v2: minor modifications; v3: revised argument in section 3, added appendix C, results unchanged; v4: added clarifications, two figures and a footnote; v5: minor modification

D-brane States and Disk Amplitudes in OSp Invariant Closed String Field Theory

We construct solitonic states in the OSp invariant string field theory, which are BRST invariant in the leading order of regularization parameter $\epsilon$. We calculate the disk amplitudes using these solitonic states and show that they describe D-branes and ghost D-branes.Comment: 37 pages, 8 figure