FeederAnt - An autonomous mobile unit feeding outdoor pigs

Small robots and the concept of decentralized animal husbandry make it possible to renew the principles of organic agriculture. The farm animals will be able to use the same type of housing and are placed integrated with the fields. This is expected to achieve a better utilization of nutrients and a better survival rate for useful insects and micro organisms. The small fields are flexible and could fit to the variation in soil structure topography. This type of precision agriculture has the possibility of increasing biodiversity. The paper presents the concept of an autonomic feeding system for outdoor piglets. Initial results are presented using a remote controlled feeding unit (a prototype of the FeederAnt) to feed several pens with piglets. The FeederAnt drives into the grass paddocks twice a day and position itself in a new location for each feeding. This will help to distribute the manure from the animals evenly over the grass paddock to prevent point leaching of nutrients. The FeederAnt replaces many stationary feeding tables and reduce the amount of daily manual feeding routines. Further, it is expected that the problem with vermins will be solved since no feed residues will be left within the pens.

Real-time Internet-Based Traceability Unit for Mobile Payload Vehicles

Rosana G. Moreira, Editor-in-Chief; Texas A&M UniversityThis is a paper from International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR, Commission Internationale du Genie Rural) E-Journal Volume 9 (2007): Real-time Internet-Based Traceability Unit for Mobile Payload Vehicles. Manuscript CIOSTA 07 003. Vol. IX. December, 2007

Homogeneous Modes of Cosmological Instantons

We discuss the O(4) invariant perturbation modes of cosmological instantons. These modes are spatially homogeneous in Lorentzian spacetime and thus not relevant to density perturbations. But their properties are important in establishing the meaning of the Euclidean path integral. If negative modes are present, the Euclidean path integral is not well defined, but may nevertheless be useful in an approximate description of the decay of an unstable state. When gravitational dynamics is included, counting negative modes requires a careful treatment of the conformal factor problem. We demonstrate that for an appropriate choice of coordinate on phase space, the second order Euclidean action is bounded below for normalized perturbations and has a finite number of negative modes. We prove that there is a negative mode for many gravitational instantons of the Hawking-Moss or Coleman-De Luccia type, and discuss the associated spectral flow. We also investigate Hawking-Turok constrained instantons, which occur in a generic inflationary model. Implementing the regularization and constraint proposed by Kirklin, Turok and Wiseman, we find that those instantons leading to substantial inflation do not possess negative modes. Using an alternate regularization and constraint motivated by reduction from five dimensions, we find a negative mode is present. These investigations shed new light on the suitability of Euclidean quantum gravity as a potential description of our universe.Comment: 16 pages, compressed and RevTex file, including one postscript figure fil

An autonomous robot for feeding outdoor pigs

The objective of this is to develop a rational feeding technique for outdoor pigs and at the same time improve the outdoor system with regard to environmental impact and health. For a rational and competitive free ranch system ensuring high animal welfare and low environmental strain automation is crucial

Improving the transferability of suspended solid estimation in wetland and deltaic waters with an empirical hyperspectral approach

The deposition of suspended sediment is an important process that helps wetlands accrete surface material and maintain elevation in the face of sea level rise. Optical remote sensing is often employed to map total suspended solids (TSS), though algorithms typically have limited transferability in space and time due to variability in water constituent compositions, mixtures, and inherent optical properties. This study used in situ spectral reflectances and their first derivatives to compare empirical algorithms for estimating TSS using hyperspectral and multispectral data. These algorithms were applied to imagery collected by NASA’s Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-Next Generation (AVIRIS-NG) over coastal Louisiana, USA, and validated with a multiyear in situ dataset. The best performing models were then applied to independent spectroscopic data collected in the Peace–Athabasca Delta, Canada, and the San Francisco Bay–Delta Estuary, USA, to assess their robustness and transferability. A derivative-based partial least squares regression (PLSR) model applied to simulated AVIRIS-NG data showed the most accurate TSS retrievals (R2 = 0.83) in these contrasting deltaic environments. These results highlight the potential for a more broadly applicable generalized algorithm employing imaging spectroscopy for estimating suspended solids

Bessel Process and Conformal Quantum Mechanics

Different aspects of the connection between the Bessel process and the conformal quantum mechanics (CQM) are discussed. The meaning of the possible generalizations of both models is investigated with respect to the other model, including self adjoint extension of the CQM. Some other generalizations such as the Bessel process in the wide sense and radial Ornstein- Uhlenbeck process are discussed with respect to the underlying conformal group structure.Comment: 28 Page

Chiral Magnetic Effect in Hydrodynamic Approximation

We review derivations of the chiral magnetic effect (ChME) in hydrodynamic approximation. The reader is assumed to be familiar with the basics of the effect. The main challenge now is to account for the strong interactions between the constituents of the fluid. The main result is that the ChME is not renormalized: in the hydrodynamic approximation it remains the same as for non-interacting chiral fermions moving in an external magnetic field. The key ingredients in the proof are general laws of thermodynamics and the Adler-Bardeen theorem for the chiral anomaly in external electromagnetic fields. The chiral magnetic effect in hydrodynamics represents a macroscopic manifestation of a quantum phenomenon (chiral anomaly). Moreover, one can argue that the current induced by the magnetic field is dissipation free and talk about a kind of "chiral superconductivity". More precise description is a ballistic transport along magnetic field taking place in equilibrium and in absence of a driving force. The basic limitation is exact chiral limit while the temperature--excitingly enough- does not seemingly matter. What is still lacking, is a detailed quantum microscopic picture for the ChME in hydrodynamics. Probably, the chiral currents propagate through lower-dimensional defects, like vortices in superfluid. In case of superfluid, the prediction for the chiral magnetic effect remains unmodified although the emerging dynamical picture differs from the standard one.Comment: 35 pages, prepared for a volume of the Springer Lecture Notes in Physics "Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields" edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A. Schmitt, H.-U. Ye

Improving estimation of the prognosis of childhood psychopathology; combination of DSM-III-R/DISC diagnoses and CBCL scores [IF: 2.7]

Objective: To compare the predictive validity of the clinical-diagnostic and the empirical-quantitative approach to assessment of childhood psychopathology, and to investigate the usefulness of combining both approaches. Method: A referred sample (N=96), aged 6 to 12 years at initial assessment, was followed up across - on average - a period of 3.2 years. It was assessed to what extent DISC/DSM-III-R diagnoses - representing the clinical-diagnostic approach, and CBCL scores - representing the empirical-quantitative approach, predicted the following signs of poor outcome: outpatient/inpatient treatment, or parents' wish for professional help for the child at follow-up, disciplinary problems in school, and police/judicial contacts. Results: Both diagnostic systems added significantly to the prediction of poor outcome, and neither of the two systems was superior. Use of both systems simultaneously provided the most accurate estimation of the prognosis, reflected by the occurrence of future poor outcome. Even diagnostic concepts that are generally regarded as relatively similar, such as ADHD (DSM) and attention problems (CBCL), or conduct disorder (DSM) and delinquent behavior (CBCL), appeared to differ in their ability to predict poor outcome. Conclusions: The present study supports the use of the empirical-quantitative approach and the clinical-diagnostic approach simultaneously, both in research and in clinical settings, to obtain a comprehensive view of the prognosis of psychopathology in children. © Association for Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2004

Chopped or long roughage: what do calves prefer? Using cross point analysis of double demand functions

The present study aimed to quantify calves'(Bos taurus) preference for long versus chopped hay and straw, and hay versus straw, using cross point analysis of double demand functions, in a context where energy intake was not a limiting factor. Nine calves, fed milk replacer and concentrate, were trained to work for roughage rewards from two simultaneously available panels. The cost (number of muzzle presses) required on the panels varied in each session (left panel/right panel): 7/35, 14/28, 21/21, 28/14, 35/7. Demand functions were estimated from the proportion of rewards achieved on one panel relative to the total number of rewards achieved in one session. Cross points (cp) were calculated as the cost at which an equal number of rewards was achieved from both panels. The deviation of the cp from the midpoint (here 21) indicates the strength of the preference. Calves showed a preference for long versus chopped hay (cp ¿=¿14.5; P ¿=¿0.004), and for hay versus straw (cp ¿=¿38.9; P¿=¿0.004), both of which improve rumen function. Long hay may stimulate chewing more than chopped hay, and the preference for hay versus straw could be related to hedonic characteristics. No preference was found for chopped versus long straw (cp ¿=¿20.8; P¿=¿0.910). These results could be used to improve the welfare of calves in production systems; for example, in systems where calves are fed hay along with high energy concentrate, providing long hay instead of chopped could promote roughage intake, rumen development, and rumination