Reducing the risk of food borne pathogens (Campylobacter) in pre-slaughter pigs via short-time feeding with prebiotics

Reducing the presence of human pathogens like Campylobacter and Salmonella (zoonoses) in their animal hosts is important to enhance food safety of products of animal origin. Campylobacter is considered to be a commensal in the gastrointestinal tract of pigs due to its typically high prevalence. Consequently, it is difficult to control Campylobacter in pigs at farm level by usual hygienic measures, especially in open systems of organic pig production (Jensen et al 2006). However, another potential means to control pathogens is inclusion of non-digestible oligosaccharides (prebiotics) in the diet. For example, prebiotics proofed successful in control of the intestinal disease swine dysentery caused by the spirochaete Brachyspira hyodysenteriae (Molbak et al. 2007

Analysis of roles and groups in blogosphere

In the paper different roles of users in social media, taking into consideration their strength of influence and different degrees of cooperativeness, are introduced. Such identified roles are used for the analysis of characteristics of groups of strongly connected entities. The different classes of groups, considering the distribution of roles of users belonging to them, are presented and discussed.Comment: 8th International Conference on Computer Recognition Systems, CORES 201

On the Influence of Stochastic Moments in the Solution of the Neutron Point Kinetics Equation

On the Influence of Stochastic Moments in the Solution of the Neutron Point Kinetics EquationComment: 12 pages, 2 figure

Phosphorus status of calcareous and sodic soils treated with cheese whey

Acid cheese whey, made using phosphoric acid, contains up to 1200 mg total P kg-1 whey, and cultured cheese or sweet wheys contain up to 500 mg total P kg-1 whey. Much of the 32 x 106 m3 of whey produced in the United States each year is applied to soil. Whey P mobility has not been documented for calcareous or sodic soils. This study was conducted to determine the ratio between ortho- and the more soluble organic P forms in freshly produced cheese whey, and to determine ortho- and organic P concentrations by depth within calcareous and sodic soils within one to two years of different whey rates and time of the year applications. Applications of up to 1050 kg P ha-1 in acid whey were applied to a sodic soil (in green house lysimeters) and up to 750 kg P ha-1 in sweet whey were applied to calcareous soils (field plots). Bicarbonate-extractable ortho-P did not move below 0.3 m in the sodic Freedom silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, mesic, Xerollic Calciorthid) soil by the end of one growing season. Neither bicarbonate-extractable nor saturation extract ortho- or organic P moved below 0.6 m in the calcareous Portneuf silt loam (coarse-silty, mixed, mesic, Durixerollic Calciorthid) soil after three growing seasons or below 0.3 m in the calcareous Nibley silty clay loam (fine, mixed, mesic Aquic Argiustolls) soil after two growing seasons. Even though the wheys contained up to 42% organic P, these soils retained the applied ortho- and organic P against leaching. The winter-applied whey-P did not move deeper into the soil than that applied during the growing season

Extractable Potassium and Soluble Calcium, Magnesium, Sodium, and Potassium in Two-Whey-Treated Calcareous Soils

Cheese whey contains 1.0 to 1.4 g K kg-1 and 5.0 to 10.0 g total salts kg-1 (electrical conductivity [EC] of 7 to 15 dS m-1) and has a pH of 3.3 to 4.6. Much of the 38 x 10^9 L of whey produced in the USA each year is applied to soils. Whey application effect on the K and salinity status of irrigated calcareous soils has not been documented. Objectives of this study were to measure soil pH, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), saturation paste extract (EC,), and extractable Ca, Mg, Na, and K changes due to whey application to irrigated calcareous soils at different whey rates and different times of the year. Whey was applied to two calcareous Portneuf silt loam (coarse-silty, mixed, mesic, Durixerollic Calciorthids) soils and a calcareous Nibley silty clay loam (fine, mixes, mesic Aquic Argiustolls) soil at rates up to 2200 m3 ha-1 These treatments added up to 1050 kg Ca, 200 kg Mg, 790 kg Na, and 2200 kg K ha-1 during winter-time, growing season, or year-round whey application. Soil bicarbonate-extractable K increased to more than 500 mg K kg-1 in the surface 0.3 m at the highest whey rates and may induce grass tetany in livestock grazed on high whey-treated pastures. Soil K did not increase below 0.6 m in any treatment. Soil pH and SAR were not affected sufficiently to be of concern under these conditions. The EC, increased to nearly 2.0 dS m-1 in the surface 0.3 m under the highest whey rates and would likely affect salt-sensitive crop yields. After a 1-yr whey application rest period under irrigated alfalfa (Medicago saliva L.), the EC, levels returned to background levels

Interchannel coupling effects in the spin polarization of energetic photoelectrons

Effects of the interchannel coupling on the spin polarization of energetic photoelectrons emitted from atomic Ne valence subshells are examined. Like previously obtained results for cross sections and angular distributions, the photoelectron spin polarization parameters too are found considerably influenced by the coupling. The result completes a series of studies to finally conclude that the independent particle description is inadequate for the {\em entire} range of photoionization dynamics over the {\em full} spectral energy domainComment: 7 pages, 5 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.

Precursors of catastrophe in the BTW, Manna and random fiber bundle models of failure

We have studied precursors of the global failure in some self-organised critical models of sand-pile (in BTW and Manna models) and in the random fiber bundle model (RFB). In both BTW and Manna model, as one adds a small but fixed number of sand grains (heights) to any central site of the stable pile, the local dynamics starts and continues for an average relaxation time (\tau) and an average number of topplings (\Delta) spread over a radial distance (\xi). We find that these quantities all depend on the average height (h_{av}) of the pile and they all diverge as (h_{av}) approaches the critical height (h_{c}) from below: (\Delta) (\sim (h_{c}-h_{av}))(^{-\delta}), (\tau \sim (h_{c}-h_{av})^{-\gamma}) and (\xi) (\sim) ((h_{c}-h_{av})^{-\nu}). Numerically we find (\delta \simeq 2.0), (\gamma \simeq 1.2) and (\nu \simeq 1.0) for both BTW and Manna model in two dimensions. In the strained RFB model we find that the breakdown susceptibility (\chi) (giving the differential increment of the number of broken fibers due to increase in external load) and the relaxation time (\tau), both diverge as the applied load or stress (\sigma) approaches the network failure threshold (\sigma_{c}) from below: (\chi) (\sim) ((\sigma_{c}) (-)(\sigma)^{-1/2}) and (\tau) (\sim) ((\sigma_{c}) (-)(\sigma)^{-1/2}). These self-organised dynamical models of failure therefore show some definite precursors with robust power laws long before the failure point. Such well-characterised precursors should help predicting the global failure point of the systems in advance.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures (eps

Can residuals of the Solar system foreground explain low multipole anomalies of the CMB ?

The low multipole anomalies of the Cosmic Microwave Background has received much attention during the last few years. It is still not ascertained whether these anomalies are indeed primordial or the result of systematics or foregrounds. An example of a foreground, which could generate some non-Gaussian and statistically anisotropic features at low multipole range, is the very symmetric Kuiper Belt in the outer solar system. In this paper, expanding upon the methods presented by Maris et al. (2011), we investigate the contributions from the Kuiper Belt objects (KBO) to the WMAP ILC 7 map, whereby we can minimize the contrast in power between even and odd multipoles in the CMB, discussed discussed by Kim & Naselsky (2010). We submit our KBO de-correlated CMB signal to several tests, to analyze its validity, and find that incorporation of the KBO emission can decrease the quadrupole-octupole alignment and parity asymmetry problems, provided that the KBO signals has a non-cosmological dipole modulation, associated with the statistical anisotropy of the ILC 7 map. Additionally, we show that the amplitude of the dipole modulation, within a 2 sigma interval, is in agreement with the corresponding amplitudes, discussed by Lew (2008).Comment: 24 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables. Matches version in JCA