7,587 research outputs found
Improving performance through HEI–industry engagements in the built environment
The poor performance and inefficiencies of the construction industry are well recognized and documented. Through a variety of combined industry and government initiatives there has been a continual expression in the UK over the last decade of the urgent need to address the fragmented nature of the industry to improve its performance. A major challenge is for education and industry stakeholders to create closer and more effective relationships with each other to facilitate greater mutual understanding. ‘Accelerating Change in Built Environment Education’ (ACBEE) is a sponsored initiative designed to encourage the closer working together of industry, education and professional bodies to provide more relevant training and education. This paper introduces ACBEE, along with an evaluation framework for measuring the performance of engagements at various levels. This is followed by an analysis of the application of this performance measurement framework through case studies of industry–education engagement. A number of case studies were identified as operating at the grades of ‘strategic alliance’ and ‘partnership’ (as classified in the ACBEE evaluation framework). The analysis of these cases focuses on the drivers behind and the purpose of the engagement, and how these are aligned with the business strategy of the collaborating organizations and measurement of the activity. Evidence of meeting the explicit business needs and strategic objectives and the contribution to good practice knowledge are also discussed
Spring Grass Availability and Silage Supplementation Impact on Dry Matter Intake and Enteric Methane Emissions in Grazing Dairy Cattle
Enteric methane (CH4) emissions were measured in forty spring calving cows offered one of two (n=20) contrasting diets (High Grass; HG, Low Grass; LG) over 10 weeks in early lactation (8th February – 18th April 2021). All cows were blocked for breed and parity and balanced on milk production, economic breeding index (EBI), bodyweight and body condition score and randomly allocated to treatments. The HG grazing treatment cows were offered their full daily nutrient requirement from grazed grass and concentrate with no silage supplementation. The LG grazing treatment cows were offered a restricted (~60%) amount of their daily nutrient requirement from grazed grass with the deficit being supplied by 3 kg DM/cow of grass silage fed daily. Concentrate supplementation was the same for both treatments at 2.7 kg DM/cow/day. All forage samples were analysed using near – infrared spectrometry to evaluate quality parameters. Milk yield was recorded daily with milk composition determined weekly. Daily CH4 emissions were monitored using Greenfeed technology. Individual animal dry matter intake (DMI) was determined at five time points using the n-alkane technique. Over the 10 week experiment collected data was averaged fortnightly in 5 periods (period 1-5) prior to analysis. Milk yield and milk solids (fat plus protein) production were similar for both treatments. The HG treatment tended to have greater total DMI (TDMI) with a significant diet by period interaction evident. Daily CH4 emissions (g/d) were not effected by treatment, however there was a treatment by period interaction. This resulted in a significant treatment effect for CH4 yield (g/kg TDMI). This was complemented with a significant treatment by period interaction with the greatest difference in CH4 yield evident in period 4. Increasing the proportion of highly digestible grazed grass in the diet in early lactation can aid in reducing enteric CH4 emissions in pasture based dairy systems
The Effect of Spring Grass Availability on Dry Matter Intake of Early Lactation Dairy Cows
Spring grass availability has a major impact on dry matter intake (DMI) of dairy cows during early lactation. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of opening farm cover (OFC) on DMI during early lactation. A twelve week experiment, which was split into two 6 week periods (Period 1 (Week 1 – 6) and period 2 (Week 7 – 12), was conducted over a two year period. A high and low OFC were established for two treatment groups; 1253 kg DM/ha (High grass = HG) and 887 kg DM/ha (Low grass = LG). Animals were randomly assigned to either the HG or LG treatment as they calved. Cows on the LG treatment were offered a lower daily herbage allowance (DHA) (10.99 kg DM/cow/day) and were offered silage supplementation at a rate of 3 kg DM/cow/day, while the cows on the HG treatment, were offered a higher DHA (13.98 kg DM/cow/day) with no silage supplementation. Dry matter intake was measured bi-weekly using the n-alkane technique. Silage supplementation on the LG treatment did not significantly affect (P \u3e 0.05) total DMI (TDMI), however, the LG cows TDMI was lower than HG cows throughout the experimental period. The inclusion of silage in the diet of early lactation dairy cows, resulted in a significantly (P \u3c 0.05) lower grass DMI, milk yield and milk protein concentration. Increasing OFC results in higher DHA which increases grass DMI and milk production
The Cosmic Coincidence as a Temporal Selection Effect Produced by the Age Distribution of Terrestrial Planets in the Universe
The energy densities of matter and the vacuum are currently observed to be of
the same order of magnitude: . The cosmological window of time during which this occurs is
relatively narrow. Thus, we are presented with the cosmological coincidence
problem: Why, just now, do these energy densities happen to be of the same
order? Here we show that this apparent coincidence can be explained as a
temporal selection effect produced by the age distribution of terrestrial
planets in the Universe. We find a large () probability that
observations made from terrestrial planets will result in finding at
least as close to as we observe today. Hence, we, and any
observers in the Universe who have evolved on terrestrial planets, should not
be surprised to find . This result is
relatively robust if the time it takes an observer to evolve on a terrestrial
planet is less than Gyr.Comment: Submitted to Ap
Infrared emission from interstellar dust cloud with two embedded sources: IRAS 19181+1349
Mid and far infrared maps of many Galactic star forming regions show multiple
peaks in close proximity, implying more than one embedded energy sources. With
the aim of understanding such interstellar clouds better, the present study
models the case of two embedded sources. A radiative transfer scheme has been
developed to deal with an uniform density dust cloud in a cylindrical geometry,
which includes isotropic scattering in addition to the emission and absorption
processes. This scheme has been applied to the Galactic star forming region
associated with IRAS 19181+1349, which shows observational evidence for two
embedded energy sources. Two independent modelling approaches have been
adopted, viz., to fit the observed spectral energy distribution (SED) best; or
to fit the various radial profiles best, as a function of wavelength. Both the
models imply remarkably similar physical parameters.Comment: 17 pages, 6 Figures, uses epsf.sty. To appear in Journal of
Astronophysics & Astronom
Tiny microbes with a big impact: The role of cyanobacteria and their metabolites in shaping our future
© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI. Cyanobacteria are among the first microorganisms to have inhabited the Earth. Throughout the last few billion years, they have played a major role in shaping the Earth as the planet we live in, and they continue to play a significant role in our everyday lives. Besides being an essential source of atmospheric oxygen, marine cyanobacteria are prolific secondary metabolite producers, often despite the exceptionally small genomes. Secondary metabolites produced by these organisms are diverse and complex; these include compounds, such as pigments and fluorescent dyes, as well as biologically-active compounds with a particular interest for the pharmaceutical industry. Cyanobacteria are currently regarded as an important source of nutrients and biofuels and form an integral part of novel innovative energy-efficient designs. Being autotrophic organisms, cyanobacteria are well suited for large-scale biotechnological applications due to the low requirements for organic nutrients. Recent advances in molecular biology techniques have considerably enhanced the potential for industries to optimize the production of cyanobacteria secondary metabolites with desired functions. This manuscript reviews the environmental role of marine cyanobacteria with a particular focus on their secondary metabolites and discusses current and future developments in both the production of desired cyanobacterial metabolites and their potential uses in future innovative projects
Stochastic series expansion method for quantum Ising models with arbitrary interactions
A quantum Monte Carlo algorithm for the transverse Ising model with arbitrary
short- or long-range interactions is presented. The algorithm is based on
sampling the diagonal matrix elements of the power series expansion of the
density matrix (stochastic series expansion), and avoids the interaction
summations necessary in conventional methods. In the case of long-range
interactions, the scaling of the computation time with the system size N is
therefore reduced from N^2 to Nln(N). The method is tested on a one-dimensional
ferromagnet in a transverse field, with interactions decaying as 1/r^2.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Recent star formation in the inner Galactic Bulge seen by ISOGAL. I - Classification of bright mid-IR sources in a test field
Context: The stellar populations in the central region of the Galaxy are
poorly known because of the high visual extinction and very great source
density in this direction.
Aims: To use recent infrared surveys for studying the dusty stellar objects
in this region.
Methods: We analyse the content of a 20x20 arcmin^2 field centred at
(l,b)=(-0.27,-0.06) observed at 7 and 15 microns as part of the ISOGAL survey.
These ISO observations are more than an order of magnitude better in
sensitivity and spatial resolution than the IRAS observations. The sources are
cross-associated with other catalogues to identify various types of objects. We
then derive criteria to distinguish young objects from post-main sequence
stars.
Results: We find that a sample of about 50 young stellar objects and
ultra-compact HII regions emerges, out of a population of evolved AGB stars. We
demonstrate that the sources colours and spatial extents, as they appear in the
ISOGAL catalogue, possibly complemented with MSX photometry at 21 microns, can
be used to determine whether the ISOGAL sources brighter than 300 mJy at 15
microns (or [15] < 4.5 mag) are young objects or late-type evolved stars.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
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