404 research outputs found
On-farm estimation of energy balance in dairy cows using only frequent body weight measurements and body condition score
AbstractPrecise energy balance estimates for individual cows are of great importance to monitor health, reproduction, and feed management. Energy balance is usually calculated as energy input minus output (EBinout), requiring measurements of feed intake and energy output sources (milk, maintenance, activity, growth, and pregnancy). Except for milk yield, direct measurements of the other sources are difficult to obtain in practice, and estimates contain considerable error sources, limiting on-farm use. Alternatively, energy balance can be estimated from body reserve changes (EBbody) using body weight (BW) and body condition score (BCS). Automated weighing systems exist and new technology performing semi-automated body condition scoring has emerged, so frequent automated BW and BCS measurements are feasible. We present a method to derive individual EBbody estimates from frequently measured BW and BCS and evaluate the performance of the estimated EBbody against the traditional EBinout method. From 76 Danish Holstein and Jersey cows, parity 1 or 2+, on a glycerol-rich or a whole grain-rich total mixed ration, BW was measured automatically at each milking. The BW was corrected for the weight of milk produced and for gutfill. Changes in BW and BCS were used to calculate changes in body protein, body lipid, and EBbody during the first 150d in milk. The EBbody was compared with the traditional EBinout by isolating the term within EBinout associated with most uncertainty; that is, feed energy content (FEC); FEC=(EBbody+EMilk+EMaintenance+Eactivity)/dry matter intake, where the energy requirements are for milk produced (EMilk), maintenance (EMaintenance), and activity (EActivity). Estimated FEC agreed well with FEC values derived from tables (the mean estimate was 0.21MJ of effective energy/kg of dry matter or 2.2% higher than the mean table value). Further, the FEC profile did not suggest systematic bias in EBbody with stage of lactation. The EBbody estimated from daily BW, adjusted for milk and meal-related gutfill and combined with frequent BCS, can provide a successful tool. This offers a pragmatic solution to on-farm calculation of energy balance with the perspective of improved precision under commercial conditions
Spin glass behavior of frustrated 2-D Penrose lattice in the classical planar model
Via extensive Monte Carlo studies we show that the frustrated XY Hamiltonian
on a 2-D Penrose lattice admits of a spin glass phase at low temperature.
Studies of the Edwards-Anderson order parameter, spin glass susceptibility, and
local (linear) susceptibility point unequivocally to a paramagnetic to spin
glass transition as the temperature is lowered. Specific heat shows a rounded
peak at a temperature above the spin glass transition temperature, as is
commonly observed in spin glasses. Our results strongly suggest that the
critical point exponents are the same as obtained by Bhatt and Young in the
Ising model on a square lattice. However, unlike in the latter case,
the critical temperature is clearly finite (nonzero). The results imply that a
quasiperiodic 2-D array of superconducting grains in a suitably chosen
transverse magnetic field should behave as a superconducting glass at low
temperature.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages Including 4 figures. To appear in the June 1 1996
issue of Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communications). Revised/replaced edition
contains an erratum at the end of the paper, also to appear in Phys. Rev.
Myocardial fibrosis in asymptomatic and symptomatic chronic severe primary mitral regurgitation and relationship to tissue characterisation and left ventricular function on cardiovascular magnetic resonance
Background: Myocardial fbrosis occurs in end-stage heart failure secondary to mitral regurgitation (MR), but it is not
known whether this is present before onset of symptoms or myocardial dysfunction. This study aimed to characterise
myocardial fbrosis in chronic severe primary MR on histology, compare this to tissue characterisation on cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, and investigate associations with symptoms, left ventricular (LV) function, and
exercise capacity.
Methods: Patients with class I or IIa indications for surgery underwent CMR and cardiopulmonary exercise testing. LV
biopsies were taken at surgery and the extent of fbrosis was quantifed on histology using collagen volume fraction
(CVFmean) compared to autopsy controls without cardiac pathology.
Results: 120 consecutive patients (64±13 years; 71% male) were recruited; 105 patients underwent MV repair
while 15 chose conservative management. LV biopsies were obtained in 86 patients (234 biopsy samples in total).
MR patients had more fbrosis compared to 8 autopsy controls (median: 14.6% [interquartile range 7.4–20.3] vs. 3.3%
[2.6–6.1], P<0.001); this diference persisted in the asymptomatic patients (CVFmean 13.6% [6.3–18.8], P<0.001), but
severity of fbrosis was not signifcantly higher in NYHA II-III symptomatic MR (CVFmean 15.7% [9.9–23.1] (P=0.083).
Fibrosis was patchy across biopsy sites (intraclass correlation 0.23, 95% CI 0.08–0.39, P=0.001). No signifcant relationships were identifed between CVFmean and CMR tissue characterisation [native T1, extracellular volume (ECV)
or late gadolinium enhancement] or measures of LV function [LV ejection fraction (LVEF), global longitudinal strain
(GLS)]. Although the range of ECV was small (27.3±3.2%), ECV correlated with multiple measures of LV function (LVEF:
Rho=−0.22, P=0.029, GLS: Rho=0.29, P=0.003), as well as NTproBNP (Rho=0.54, P<0.001) and exercise capacity
(%PredVO2max: R=−0.22, P=0.030). Conclusions: Patients with chronic primary MR have increased fbrosis before the onset of symptoms. Due to the
patchy nature of fbrosis, CMR derived ECV may be a better marker of global myocardial status.
Clinical trial registration Mitral FINDER study; Clinical Trials NCT02355418, Registered 4 February 2015, https://clinicaltr
ials.gov/ct2/show/NCT0235541
Effect of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists on proteinuria and progression of chronic kidney disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Background: Hypertension and proteinuria are critically involved in the progression of chronic kidney disease. Despite treatment with renin angiotensin system inhibition, kidney function declines in many patients. Aldosterone excess is a risk factor for progression of kidney disease. Hyperkalaemia is a concern with the use of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists. We aimed to determine whether the renal protective benefits of mineralocorticoid antagonists outweigh the risk of hyperkalaemia associated with this treatment in patients with chronic kidney disease. Methods: We conducted a meta-analysis investigating renoprotective effects and risk of hyperkalaemia in trials of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists in chronic kidney disease. Trials were identified from MEDLINE (1966-2014), EMBASE (1947-2014) and the Cochrane Clinical Trials Database. Unpublished summary data were obtained from investigators. We included randomised controlled trials, and the first period of randomised cross over trials lasting ≥4 weeks in adults. Results: Nineteen trials (21 study groups, 1 646 patients) were included. In random effects meta-analysis, addition of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists to renin angiotensin system inhibition resulted in a reduction from baseline in systolic blood pressure (-5.7 [-9.0, -2.3] mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (-1.7 [-3.4, -0.1] mmHg) and glomerular filtration rate (-3.2 [-5.4, -1.0] mL/min/1.73 m2). Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism reduced weighted mean protein/albumin excretion by 38.7 % but with a threefold higher relative risk of withdrawing from the trial due to hyperkalaemia (3.21, [1.19, 8.71]). Death, cardiovascular events and hard renal end points were not reported in sufficient numbers to analyse. Conclusions: Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism reduces blood pressure and urinary protein/albumin excretion with a quantifiable risk of hyperkalaemia above predefined study upper limit
Anthropogenic Space Weather
Anthropogenic effects on the space environment started in the late 19th
century and reached their peak in the 1960s when high-altitude nuclear
explosions were carried out by the USA and the Soviet Union. These explosions
created artificial radiation belts near Earth that resulted in major damages to
several satellites. Another, unexpected impact of the high-altitude nuclear
tests was the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that can have devastating effects
over a large geographic area (as large as the continental United States). Other
anthropogenic impacts on the space environment include chemical release ex-
periments, high-frequency wave heating of the ionosphere and the interaction of
VLF waves with the radiation belts. This paper reviews the fundamental physical
process behind these phenomena and discusses the observations of their impacts.Comment: 71 pages, 35 figure
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
Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC
provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of
lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with
a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the
transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the
anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the
nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of
the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp.
Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in
the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies
smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating
nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and
transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of
inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous
measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables,
submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are
available at
http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02
Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET
The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR
On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection
A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)
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