Quantitative assessment of the effects of space allowance, group size and floor characteristics on the lying behaviour of growing-finishing pigs

To obtain quantitative information that can be later used in animal welfare modelling, the relationship between the lying behaviour of growing-finishing pigs (initial body weight (BW) between 19 and 87 kg) and different factors related to the housing conditions, with a potential negative effect on their welfare, was studied by means of a meta-analytical approach. Data from 22 experiments reported in 21 scientific publications were collected. The space allowance, expressed on an allometric basis by means of a k-value (m2/BW0.667), the group size (n) and the floor characteristics (fully and partly slatted v. non-slatted floor), as well as their significant two-way interactions were used as fixed effects, and the experiment was used as a random factor to take into account the interexperiment effect. Further regression analyses were performed on the predicted values of observations in order to improve the adjustment of data. A significant quadratic relationship was established between space allowance (k-value, P <0.05; squared k-value, P <0.01) and the percentage of time spent lying. A significant interaction between the k-value and the floor type was also found (P <0.05), showing that the relationship between space allowance and lying behaviour is affected by the presence or absence of slats. Threshold k-values were obtained using broken-line analyses, being about 0.039 for slatted floors and almost double for non-slatted floors. Compared to other studies, these values suggest that the ability to rest as space availability decreases may be compromised before a reduced performance becomes apparent. Group size did not show a significant effect. Additional information should be added to the model, as further data become available, to adjust the proposed parameters as well as to try to include the effect of other important aspects such as that of ambient temperature

‘What’s it like to have ME?’ The discursive construction of ME in computer-mediated communication and face-to-face interaction

ME/CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) is a debilitating illness for which no cause or medical tests have been identified. Debates over its nature have generated interest from qualitative researchers. However, participants are difficult to recruit because of the nature of their condition. Therefore, this study explores the utility of the internet as a means of eliciting accounts. We analyse data from focus groups and the internet in order to ascertain the extent to which previous research findings apply to the internet domain. Interviews were conducted among 49 members of internet (38 chatline, 11 personal) and 7 members of two face-to-face support groups. Discourse analysis of descriptions and accounts of ME/CFS revealed similar devices and interactional concerns in both internet and face-to-face communication. Participants constructed their condition as serious, enigmatic and not psychological. These functioned to deflect problematic assumptions about ME/CFS and to manage their accountability for the illness and its effects

Finite-volume meson propagators in quenched chiral perturbation theory

We compute meson propagators in finite-volume quenched chiral perturbation theory.Comment: 3 pages, Lattice2001(chiral fermions

Square Patterns and Quasi-patterns in Weakly Damped Faraday Waves

Pattern formation in parametric surface waves is studied in the limit of weak viscous dissipation. A set of quasi-potential equations (QPEs) is introduced that admits a closed representation in terms of surface variables alone. A multiscale expansion of the QPEs reveals the importance of triad resonant interactions, and the saturating effect of the driving force leading to a gradient amplitude equation. Minimization of the associated Lyapunov function yields standing wave patterns of square symmetry for capillary waves, and hexagonal patterns and a sequence of quasi-patterns for mixed capillary-gravity waves. Numerical integration of the QPEs reveals a quasi-pattern of eight-fold symmetry in the range of parameters predicted by the multiscale expansion.Comment: RevTeX, 11 pages, 8 figure

The Swinburne Intermediate Latitude Pulsar Survey

We have conducted a survey of intermediate Galactic latitudes using the 13-beam 21-cm multibeam receiver of the Parkes 64-m radio telescope. The survey covered the region enclosed by 5 deg < |b| < 15 deg and -100 deg < l < 50 deg with 4,702 processed pointings of 265 s each, for a total of 14.5 days of integration time. Thirteen 2x96-channel filterbanks provided 288 MHz of bandwidth at a centre frequency of 1374 MHz, one-bit sampled every 125 microsec and incurring ~DM/13.4 cm^-3 pc samples of dispersion smearing. The system was sensitive to slow and most millisecond pulsars in the region with flux densities greater than approximately 0.3--1.1 mJy. Offline analysis on the 64-node Swinburne workstation cluster resulted in the detection of 170 pulsars of which 69 were new discoveries. Eight of the new pulsars, by virtue of their small spin periods and period derivatives, may be recycled and have been reported elsewhere. The slow pulsars discovered are typical of those already known in the volume searched, being of intermediate to old age. Several pulsars experience pulse nulling and two display very regular drifting sub-pulses. We discuss the new discoveries and provide timing parameters for the 48 slow pulsars for which we have a phase-connnected solution.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figures, accepted to MNRA

Cluster Spin Glass Distribution Functions in La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xCuO4_4

Signatures of the cluster spin glass have been found in a variety of experiments, with an effective onset temperature $T_{on}$ that is frequency dependent. We reanalyze the experimental results and find that they are characterized by a distribution of activation energies, with a nonzero glass transition temperature $T_g(x)<T_{on}$. While the distribution of activation energies is the same, the distribution of weights depends on the process. Remarkably, the weights are essentially doping independent.Comment: 5 pages, 5 ps figure

Shared characteristics underpinning C 4 leaf maturation derived from analysis of multiple C 3 and C 4 species of Flaveria

Most terrestrial plants use C3 photosynthesis to fix carbon. In multiple plant lineages a modified system known as C4 photosynthesis has evolved. To better understand the molecular patterns associated with induction of C4 photosynthesis, the genus Flaveria that contains C3 and C4 species was used. A base to tip maturation gradient of leaf anatomy was defined, and RNA sequencing was undertaken along this gradient for two C3 and two C4Flaveria species. Key C4 traits including vein density, mesophyll and bundle sheath cross-sectional area, chloroplast ultrastructure, and abundance of transcripts encoding proteins of C4 photosynthesis were quantified. Candidate genes underlying each of these C4 characteristics were identified. Principal components analysis indicated that leaf maturation and the photosynthetic pathway were responsible for the greatest amount of variation in transcript abundance. Photosynthesis genes were over-represented for a prolonged period in the C4 species. Through comparison with publicly available data sets, we identify a small number of transcriptional regulators that have been up-regulated in diverse C4 species. The analysis identifies similar patterns of expression in independent C4 lineages and so indicates that the complex C4 pathway is associated with parallel as well as convergent evolution

Hadron Masses From Novel Fat-Link Fermion Actions

The hadron mass spectrum is calculated in lattice QCD using a novel fat-link clover fermion action in which only the irrelevant operators in the fermion action are constructed using smeared links. The simulations are performed on a 16^3 x 32 lattice with a lattice spacing of a=0.125 fm. We compare actions with n=4 and 12 smearing sweeps with a smearing fraction of 0.7. The n=4 Fat-Link Irrelevant Clover (FLIC) action provides scaling which is superior to mean-field improvement, and offers advantages over nonperturbative 0(a) improvement, including a reduced exceptional configuration problem.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, new simulation with mean-field improved clover, further discussion of actio

Extragalactic jets on subpc and large scales

Jets can be probed in their innermost regions (d~0.1 pc) through the study of the relativistically-boosted emission of blazars. On the other extreme of spatial scales, the study of structure and dynamics of extragalactic relativistic jets received renewed impulse after the discovery, made by Chandra, of bright X-ray emission from regions at distances larger than hundreds of kpc from the central engine. At both scales it is thus possible to infer some of the basic parameters of the flow (speed, density, magnetic field intensity, power). After a brief review of the available observational evidence, I discuss how the comparison between the physical quantities independently derived at the two scales can be used to shed light on the global dynamics of the jet, from the innermost regions to the hundreds of kpc scale.Comment: Proceedings of the 5th Stromlo Symposium: Disks, Winds, and Jets - from Planets to Quasars. Accepted, to be published in Astrophysics & Space Scienc

On the selection of AGN neutrino source candidates for a source stacking analysis with neutrino telescopes

The sensitivity of a search for sources of TeV neutrinos can be improved by grouping potential sources together into generic classes in a procedure that is known as source stacking. In this paper, we define catalogs of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and use them to perform a source stacking analysis. The grouping of AGN into classes is done in two steps: first, AGN classes are defined, then, sources to be stacked are selected assuming that a potential neutrino flux is linearly correlated with the photon luminosity in a certain energy band (radio, IR, optical, keV, GeV, TeV). Lacking any secure detailed knowledge on neutrino production in AGN, this correlation is motivated by hadronic AGN models, as briefly reviewed in this paper. The source stacking search for neutrinos from generic AGN classes is illustrated using the data collected by the AMANDA-II high energy neutrino detector during the year 2000. No significant excess for any of the suggested groups was found.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, accepted by Astroparticle Physic