Impact of soaking cows housed in a tunnel-ventilated, evaporative-cooled barn in Thailand

Ten multiparous lactating Holstein cows were arranged in a replicated 5 x 5 Latin Square design to evaluate the effect of soaking frequency and volume of water per soaking on lactating cows housed in a tunnel-ventilated and evaporative-cooled freestall barn. Rectal temperature, respiration rate, and body surface temperatures were measured every 5 minutes. Treatments were: control (C); soaking every 5 minutes with 0.26 gallons (5L); soaking every 5 minutes with 0.53 gallons (5H); soaking every 10 minutes with 0.26 gallons (10L); or soaking every 10 minutes with 0.53 gallons (10H). Average ambient temperature and humidity were 86.5ºF and 68% outside the barn, and 80.4ºF at 86% inside the barn, respectively. Water having a temperature of 80.6ºF was applied manually from the shoulder to the tail. Treatments were applied after three initial measurements were assessed. Seventeen measurements were made during treatment application and five measurements after the treatments were stopped. Air velocity over the shoulder of the cows was 4 mph. Respiration rate and body surface temperature for all treatments were less than those of the control, except for rear udder surface temperature in the 10L treatment. Rectal temperature for 5L, 5H, and 10H were less than those of the control. Respiration rate for 5L and 5H were less than that of 10L. These data indicate that soaking can be used in combination with tunnel ventilation and evaporative pads to reduce heat stress.; Dairy Day, 2004, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 2004

Impact of frequency of feedline soaking combined with evaporative air cooling in a humid environment

Heat stress in hot and humid environments reduces milk production, decreases reproduction, and increases health-related problems. The summertime environment in north-central Florida is especially difficult because the combination of high relative humidity and high temperature results in a temperaturehumidity index (THI) above the critical value of 72 for significant portions of the day. Previous work at Kansas State University had shown that the combination of soaking and evaporative air cooling could effectively cool heat-stressed cattle. Effectiveness of this feedline soaking, either in the afternoon and at night, or only at night, in combination with evaporative cooling was evaluated on a commercial dairy located in north-central Florida. A high-pressure fogging system and feedline soakers were installed in a typical 4-row freestall barn equipped with tunnel ventilation creating a north to south airflow of 6 to 8 mph at the cow level. Eight lactating Holstein cows in each of two, 292-stall pens were selected and fitted with vaginal temperature probes. Data on vaginal temperature and respiration rate were used to evaluate two cooling treatments. Barn temperature averaged 74.8 ± 5.4ºF, relative humidity was 84.6 ± 15.4 %, and THI was 74.7 ± 5.3 during the study. The evaporative cooling system reduced average barn temperature by 0.9ºF and reduced afternoon temperatures by a maximum of 9.2ºF. Average respiration rates were less (58.5 vs. 66.9 breaths/min) in the afternoon and night soaking treatment, compared with the respiration rate of cattle in the night soaking treatment. Differences were greatest at the 10:00 p.m. observation (55.0 vs. 73.3 breaths/min). Average vaginal temperature was also less (102.0 vs. 102.6°F) in the afternoon and night soaking treatment. Our results indicate that the combination of cooling the air via a highpressure fogging system and feedline soaking reduced heat stress experienced by dairy cattle. Using feedline soaking during the afternoon and night was more effective than soaking only at night.; Dairy Day, 2005, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 2005; Dairy Research, 2005 is known as Dairy Day, 200

The glueball spectrum

Mass ratios of glueballs predicted by the latest Lattice QCD calculations in the quenched approximation agree well with four prime experimental candidates.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, LaTeX using elsart.st

Bound Chains of Tilted Dipoles in Layered Systems

Ultracold polar molecules in multilayered systems have been experimentally realized very recently. While experiments study these systems almost exclusively through their chemical reactivity, the outlook for creating and manipulating exotic few- and many-body physics in dipolar systems is fascinating. Here we concentrate on few-body states in a multilayered setup. We exploit the geometry of the interlayer potential to calculate the two- and three-body chains with one molecule in each layer. The focus is on dipoles that are aligned at some angle with respect to the layer planes by means of an external eletric field. The binding energy and the spatial structure of the bound states are studied in several different ways using analytical approaches. The results are compared to stochastic variational calculations and very good agreement is found. We conclude that approximations based on harmonic oscillator potentials are accurate even for tilted dipoles when the geometry of the potential landscape is taken into account.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Few-body Systems special issue on Critical Stability, revised versio

Thermodynamics of Dipolar Chain Systems

The thermodynamics of a quantum system of layers containing perpendicularly oriented dipolar molecules is studied within an oscillator approximation for both bosonic and fermionic species. The system is assumed to be built from chains with one molecule in each layer. We consider the effects of the intralayer repulsion and quantum statistical requirements in systems with more than one chain. Specifically, we consider the case of two chains and solve the problem analytically within the harmonic Hamiltonian approach which is accurate for large dipole moments. The case of three chains is calculated numerically. Our findings indicate that thermodynamic observables, such as the heat capacity, can be used to probe the signatures of the intralayer interaction between chains. This should be relevant for near future experiments on polar molecules with strong dipole moments.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, final versio

Partial wave analysiss of pbar-p -> piminus-piplus, pizero-pizero, eta-eta and eta-etaprime

A partial wave analysis is presented of Crystal Barrel data on pbar-p -> pizero-pizero, eta-eta and eta-etaprime from 600 to 1940 MeV/c, combined with earlier data on d\sigma /d\Omega and P for pbar-p->piminus-piplus. The following s-channel I=0 resonances are identified: (i) J^{PC} = 5^{--} with mass and width (M,\Gamma) at (2295+-30,235^{+65}_{-40}) MeV, (ii) J^{PC} = 4^{++} at (2020+-12, 170+-15) MeV and (2300+-25, 270+-50) MeV, (iii) 3D3 JPC = 3^{--} at (1960+-15, 150+-25) MeV and (2210+-4$, 360+-55) MeV, and a 3G3 state at (2300 ^{+50}_{-80}, 340+-150) MeV, (iv) JPC = 2^{++} at (1910+-30, 260+-40) MeV, (2020+-30, 275+-35) MeV, (2230+-30, 245+-45) MeV, and (2300+-35, 290+-50) MeV, (v) JPC = 1^{--} at (2005+-40, 275+-75) MeV, and (2165+-40, 160 ^{+140}_{-70}) MeV, and (vi) JPC = 0^{++} at (2005+-30, 305+-50) MeV, (2105+-15, 200+-25) MeV, and (2320+-30, 175+-45) MeV. In addition, there is a less well defined 6^{++} resonance at 2485+-40 MeV, with Gamma = 410+-90 MeV. For every JP, almost all these resonances lie on well defined linear trajectories of mass squared v. excitation number. The slope is 1.10+-0.03 Gev^2 per excitation. The f_0(2105) has strong coupling to eta-\eta, but much weaker coupling to pizero-pizero. Its flavour mixing angle between q-qbar and s-sbar is (59-71.6)deg, i.e. dominant decays to s-sbar. Such decays and its strong production in pbar-p interactions strongly suggest exotic character.Comment: Makes available the combined fit to Crystal Barrel data on pbar-p -> 2-body final states. 29 pages, 11 figures. Typo corrected in version

A new view of the 0- and 2+ glueballs

Data on $J/\Psi \to \gamma (\rho\rho)$ demand a broad $0^-$ $\rho\rho$ signal, attributable to a glueball with a mass of 1750--2100 MeV. Decays of this broad state to $\rho\rho$, $\omega\omega$, $K^*\bar K^*$ and $\phi \phi$ channels agree well with flavour blindness. The narrow $\iota(1440)$ may be attributed to mixing between the glueball and the $s\bar s$ radial excitation. The latter is pushed down in mass by repulsion between the two levels. We conjecture that the $2^+$ glueball may likewise be broad. Mixing between it and the $2^3P_2~q\bar q$ and $s\bar s$ radial excitation can explain the appearance of $f_2(1565)$ and a $2^+$ $\Theta (1710)$ at masses lower than anticipated. Mixing with higher $q\bar q$ states can explain the $2^+$ resonance at 1920 MeV and also $\phi \phi$ signals observed by Etkin et al. and by the JETSET collaboration.Comment: 15 pages + 3 postscript figure

Electromagnetic Polarization Effects due to Axion Photon Mixing

We investigate the effect of axions on the polarization of electromagnetic waves as they propagate through astronomical distances. We analyze the change in the dispersion of the electromagnetic wave due to its mixing with axions. We find that this leads to a shift in polarization and turns out to be the dominant effect for a wide range of frequencies. We analyze whether this effect or the decay of photons into axions can explain the large scale anisotropies which have been observed in the polarizations of quasars and radio galaxies. We also comment on the possibility that the axion-photon mixing can explain the dimming of distant supernovae.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

UNDERSTANDING THE SCALAR MESON qqˉq\bar q NONET

It is shown that one can fit the available data on the a0(980), f0(980), f0(1300) and K*0(1430) mesons as a distorted 0++ qq bar nonet using very few (5-6) parameters and an improved version of the unitarized quark model. This includes all light two-pseudoscalar thresholds, constraints from Adler zeroes, flavour symmetric couplings, unitarity and physically acceptable analyticity. The parameters include a bare uu bar or dd bar mass, an over-all coupling constant, a cutoff and a strange quark mass of 100 MeV, which is in accord with expectations from the quark model. It is found that in particular for the a0(980) and f0(980) the KK bar component in the wave function is large, i.e., for a large fraction of the time the qq bar state is transformed into a virtual KK bar pair. This KK bar component, together with a similar component of eta' pi for the a0(980) , and eta eta, eta eta' and eta' eta' components for the f0(980), causes the substantial shift to a lower mass than what is naively expected from the qq bar component alone. Mass, width and mixing parameters, including sheet and pole positions, of the four resonances are given, with a detailed pedagogical discussion of their meaning.Comment: 35 pages in plain latex (ZPC in press), 10 figures obtainable from the author ([email protected]) with regular mail or as a large PS fil

Dissociation of Hydrofluorocarbon Molecules after Electron Impact in Plasma

The process of dissociation for two hydrofluorocarbon molecules in low triplet states excited by electron impact in plasma is investigated by ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD). The interest in the dissociation of hydrofluorocarbons in plasma is motivated by their role in plasma etching in microelectronic technologies. Dissociation of triplet states is very fast, and the reaction products can be predicted. In this work, it was found that higher triplet states relax into the lowest triplet state within a few femtoseconds due to nonadiabatic dynamics, such that the simplest ab initio MD on the lowest triplet state seems to give a reasonable estimate of the reaction channels branching ratios. We provide evidence of the existence of simple rules for the dissociation of hydrofluorocarbon molecules in triplet states. For molecules with a double bond, the bonds adjacent to the double bond dissociate faster than the other bonds