Improvement of the Nutritive Value of High Tannin Sorghums for Broiler Chickens by High Moisture Storage (Reconstitution)

Grains from three high and one low tannin sorghum cultivars were treated as follows: 1) untreated, no water was added, the dry grain had an average moisture content of 8% and 2) the moisture content of the grain was raised by adding 25% (w/w) distilled water to the grain. The treated grain was then stored for 10 or 20 days with a 2% level of acetic-propionic acid mixture (60/40, v/v) added to deter fungal growth. This treated grain was used in diets during a 3-week feeding trial with broiler chickens. High moisture storage (reconstitution) of high tannin sorghums decreased their extractable tannin content. Chickens fed diets containing these treated sorghums had improved weight grains (23 to 83 g) and feed efficiencies compared to birds fed diets containing the untreated grain. Treatment of low tannin sorghum did not improve weight gains. Reconstitution of high but not low tannin sorghums improved protein digestibility (6 to 16%) and dietary metabolizable energy (.1 to .3 kcal/g) for broiler chickens. There was a highly significant cultivar effect on leg scores, but the correlation between dietary tannin content and leg scores was low (r = .10), suggesting that tannin content was not a major factor in leg abnormality incidences shown. The improvement in weight grains, feed efficiencies, and protein digestibilities at 10 and 20 days storage periods was not different (P greater than .05), indicating that the benefits of high moisture storage were already obtained by 10 days

Monitoring the Movement of N and S Through the Soil Plant Animal System Under Degraded and Perennial Pastures

An experiment was carried at Armidale, NSW, Australia, to test the hypothesis that pastures dominated by the perennial grass phalaris (Phalaris aquatica) together with white clover (Trifolium repens) can optimize nutrient cycling and minimize nutrient leakage in comparison with one where the perennial grass has been lost through prior overgrazing (‘degraded’). The concentrations of mineral nitrogen present as ammonium and nitrate indicated limited opportunities for N leaching under either perennial or ‘degraded’ pastures in this environment. The high S content in the 40-60 cm soil layer indicates some movement of S under both ‘degraded’ and perennial pastures

Collision statistics of driven granular materials

We present an experimental investigation of the statistical properties of spherical granular particles on an inclined plane that are excited by an oscillating side-wall. The data is obtained by high-speed imaging and particle tracking techniques. We identify all particles in the system and link their positions to form trajectories over long times. Thus, we identify particle collisions to measure the effective coefficient of restitution and find a broad distribution of values for the same impact angles. We find that the energy inelasticity can take on values greater than one, which implies that the rotational degrees play an important role in energy transfer. We also measure the distance and the time between collision events in order to directly determine the distribution of path lengths and the free times. These distributions are shown to deviate from expected theoretical forms for elastic spheres, demonstrating the inherent clustering in this system. We describe the data with a two-parameter fitting function and use it to calculated the mean free path and collision time. We find that the ratio of these values is consistent with the average velocity. The velocity distribution are observed to be strongly non-Gaussian and do not demonstrate any apparent universal behavior. We report the scaling of the second moment, which corresponds to the granular temperature, and higher order moments as a function of distance from the driving wall. Additionally, we measure long time correlation functions in both space and in the velocities to probe diffusion in a dissipative gas.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, uses revtex

NMR Experiments on a Three-Dimensional Vibrofluidized Granular Medium

A three-dimensional granular system fluidized by vertical container vibrations was studied using pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR coupled with one-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The system consisted of mustard seeds vibrated vertically at 50 Hz, and the number of layers N_ell <= 4 was sufficiently low to achieve a nearly time-independent granular fluid. Using NMR, the vertical profiles of density and granular temperature were directly measured, along with the distributions of vertical and horizontal grain velocities. The velocity distributions showed modest deviations from Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics, except for the vertical velocity distribution near the sample bottom which was highly skewed and non-Gaussian. Data taken for three values of N_ell and two dimensionless accelerations Gamma=15,18 were fit to a hydrodynamic theory, which successfully models the density and temperature profiles including a temperature inversion near the free upper surface.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figure

Navier-Stokes transport coefficients of dd-dimensional granular binary mixtures at low density

The Navier-Stokes transport coefficients for binary mixtures of smooth inelastic hard disks or spheres under gravity are determined from the Boltzmann kinetic theory by application of the Chapman-Enskog method for states near the local homogeneous cooling state. It is shown that the Navier-Stokes transport coefficients are not affected by the presence of gravity. As in the elastic case, the transport coefficients of the mixture verify a set of coupled linear integral equations that are approximately solved by using the leading terms in a Sonine polynomial expansion. The results reported here extend previous calculations [V. Garz\'o and J. W. Dufty, Phys. Fluids {\bf 14}, 1476 (2002)] to an arbitrary number of dimensions. To check the accuracy of the Chapman-Enskog results, the inelastic Boltzmann equation is also numerically solved by means of the direct simulation Monte Carlo method to evaluate the diffusion and shear viscosity coefficients for hard disks. The comparison shows a good agreement over a wide range of values of the coefficients of restitution and the parameters of the mixture (masses and sizes).Comment: 6 figures, to be published in J. Stat. Phy

The 3D Structure of N132D in the LMC: A Late-Stage Young Supernova Remnant

We have used the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) on the 2.3m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory to map the [O III] 5007{\AA} dynamics of the young oxygen-rich supernova remnant N132D in the Large Magellanic Cloud. From the resultant data cube, we have been able to reconstruct the full 3D structure of the system of [O III] filaments. The majority of the ejecta form a ring of ~12pc in diameter inclined at an angle of 25 degrees to the line of sight. We conclude that SNR N132D is approaching the end of the reverse shock phase before entering the fully thermalized Sedov phase of evolution. We speculate that the ring of oxygen-rich material comes from ejecta in the equatorial plane of a bipolar explosion, and that the overall shape of the SNR is strongly influenced by the pre-supernova mass loss from the progenitor star. We find tantalizing evidence of a polar jet associated with a very fast oxygen-rich knot, and clear evidence that the central star has interacted with one or more dense clouds in the surrounding ISM.Comment: Accepted for Publication in Astrophysics & Space Science, 18pp, 8 figure

Granular fluid thermostatted by a bath of elastic hard spheres

The homogeneous steady state of a fluid of inelastic hard spheres immersed in a bath of elastic hard spheres kept at equilibrium is analyzed by means of the first Sonine approximation to the (spatially homogeneous) Enskog--Boltzmann equation. The temperature of the granular fluid relative to the bath temperature and the kurtosis of the granular distribution function are obtained as functions of the coefficient of restitution, the mass ratio, and a dimensionless parameter $\beta$ measuring the cooling rate relative to the friction constant. Comparison with recent results obtained from an iterative numerical solution of the Enskog--Boltzmann equation [Biben et al., Physica A 310, 308 (202)] shows an excellent agreement. Several limiting cases are also considered. In particular, when the granular particles are much heavier than the bath particles (but have a comparable size and number density), it is shown that the bath acts as a white noise external driving. In the general case, the Sonine approximation predicts the lack of a steady state if the control parameter $\beta$ is larger than a certain critical value $\beta_c$ that depends on the coefficient of restitution and the mass ratio. However, this phenomenon appears outside the expected domain of applicability of the approximation.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures; minor changes; to be published in Phys. Rev.

Significant out-of-sample classification from methylation profile scoring for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

We conducted DNA methylation association analyses using Illumina 450K data from whole blood for an Australian amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) case–control cohort (782 cases and 613 controls). Analyses used mixed linear models as implemented in the OSCA software. We found a significantly higher proportion of neutrophils in cases compared to controls which replicated in an independent cohort from the Netherlands (1159 cases and 637 controls). The OSCA MOMENT linear mixed model has been shown in simulations to best account for confounders. When combined in a methylation profile score, the 25 most-associated probes identified by MOMENT significantly classified case–control status in the Netherlands sample (area under the curve, AUC = 0.65, CI95% = [0.62–0.68], p = 8.3 × 10−22). The maximum AUC achieved was 0.69 (CI95% = [0.66–0.71], p = 4.3 × 10−34) when cell-type proportion was included in the predictor

Psychological stress and other potential triggers for recurrences of herpes simplex virus eye infections

Objective To assess psychological stress and other factors as possible triggers of ocular herpes simplex virus (HSV) recurrences. Design A prospective cohort study nested in a randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial. Setting Fifty-eight community-based or university sites. Participants Immunocompetent adults (N = 308), aged 18 years or older, with a documented history of ocular HSV disease in the prior year and observed for up to 15 months. Exposure Variables Psychological stress, systemic infection, sunlight exposure, menstrual period, contact lens wear, and eye injury recorded on a weekly log. The exposure period was considered to be the week before symptomatic onset of a recurrence. Main Outcome Measure The first documented recurrence of ocular HSV disease, with exclusion of cases in which the exposure week log was completed late after the onset of symptoms. Results Thirty-three participants experienced a study outcome meeting these criteria. Higher levels of psychological stress were not associated with an increased risk of recurrence (rate ratio, 0.58; 95% confidence interval, 0.32-1.05; P = .07). No association was found between any of the other exposure variables and recurrence. When an analysis was performed including only the recurrences (n = 26) for which the exposure week log was completed late and after symptom onset, there was a clear indication of retrospective overreporting of high stress (P = .03) and systemic infection (P = .01). Not excluding these cases could have produced incorrect conclusions due to recall bias. Conclusions Psychological stress does not appear to be a trigger of recurrences of ocular HSV disease. If not accounted for, recall bias can substantially overestimate the importance of factors that do not have a causal association with HSV infection

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results