Use of maize silage in beef cattle feeding during the finishing period

The research investigated the use of maize silage (MS) in beef cattle diets during the finishing period by monitoring a sample of 406 commercial farms located in the Po Valley. Farms were selected in order to cover the most diverse rearing situations, in terms of farm size and cattle genotype, in which MS was fed to beef cattle during the finishing period. Each farm was visited to collect information about the feeding regimen and representative samples of total mixed ration (TMR) and MS were collected for chemical and physical analysis. Two specific classification factors of the farm population were created for statistical analysis of experimental data. The former considered the quantity of MS included in the TMR and the latter was based on the content of long particles of MS (>13 mm). Regardless of chop length, the quality of MS population was satisfactory both by a nutritional and a preservation standpoint, as indicated by the dry matter (DM) (350 ± 38 g/kg of fresh weight) and the high starch content (310 ± 28 g/kg DM) and lactic acid concentration (49 ± 12 g/kg DM). Physical analysis of MS samples showed a wide range of particle size, as result of the different chopping lengths during harvest. The average content of long particles retained by a 13-mm screen was 143 ± 73 g/kg of fresh weight. On average, MS accounted for 33.4% to the total dietary DM but a large standard deviation (11.4%) was observed across farms. The decision about the amount of MS to be included in the TMR has shown to be independent on both chemical composition and particle size of the roughage. In diets with a high quantity of MS the risk of occurrence of rumen acidosis due to the additional starch brought by this silage is balanced either by a significant reduction in the amount of other starch sources or by the higher NDF content and the coarser size of the dietary particles which should promote a prolonged rumination. The analysis of TMR particle size showed that in more than 30% of the farms MS was damaged during diet preparation with a loss of long particles. A logistic analysis demonstrated that the relative risk of MS damage was significantly increased either by a larger inclusion of the roughage in the TMR or by the use of silage with coarse particles

MEAT QUALITY FROM CHAROLAIS BULLS FED DIETS WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF CORN SILAGE INCLUSION

A sample of 6 intensive beef farms was selected according to the feeding plan adopted during the fattening period of Charolais bulls. Two farms did not include any corn silage in the diet (CS0), while corn silage represented 22% of the dietary DM in the second group of 2 farms (CS22), and it raised up to 44% of the dietary DM in the last 2 farms (CS44). Five bulls were randomly selected from each farm to be slaughtered in the same abattoir. Bulls age was similar across treatments but the CS44 bulls had a lower carcass weight (396 kg) than the other two treatments (436 and 446 kg for CS0 and CS22, respectively). Carcass fleshiness (SEUROP) and fatness scores were not affected by the level of corn silage in the diet. Meat quality was evaluated on a joint sample of the m. Longissimus thoracis, excised from the 5th to the 9th rib of each right half carcass 24 h post-mortem, after an ageing period of 10 d vacuum packaged at 4°C. Meat chemical analysis showed no variations in pH, DM, intramuscular fat and protein content due to the different silage inclusion in the diet. Only the cholesterol content was progressively reduced in the meat of bulls fed increasing quantities of corn silage according to a significant negative linear trend. Meat colour, cooking losses and shear force values were not affected by the diet. Therefore, based on these findings there are no substantial arguments against the use of a large amount of corn silage in the fattening diets of Charolais bulls

growth performance and behaviour of finishing beef cattle illegally treated with growth promoters

The study aimed at evaluating growth performance, feeding and social behaviour of finishing beef cattle treated with Dexamethasone per os alone or in association with Estradiol. Twenty-four French cross-bred beef bulls were allotted to 3 balanced treatment groups: Control (C); Dexamethasone (D) and Dexamethasone + Estradiol (D+E). All the bulls received the same diet and the experimental period lasted 43 days. All the productive traits and eating behaviour were similar among treatments. Bulls provided with D+E showed a prolonged rumination during the 8 h following diet distribution but this behaviour was partially performed in standing position, since lying was significantly reduced in both treated groups as compared to Control. However, difference in behaviour were too limited to be considered a reliable indicator of these illegal treatments

Muon tracking underground

We present a new design of plastic streamer tubes, optimized to match the experimental requirements of large-area under-ground detectors, where muon identification is needed with good angular resolution

BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE TO DIFFERENT CLIMATIC CONDITIONS OF BEEF CATTLE IN INTENSIVE REARING SYSTEMS

The study aimed to evaluate the behaviour of beef cattle reared in intensive systems in northern Italy under different climatic conditions. In particular, it considered 3 levels of THI (Temperature-Humidity-Index) in order to evaluate the coping response to heat stress conditions regarding changes of beef cattle nutritional and social behaviours, drinking frequency and resting time. Behavioural observations were carried out from July to October 2005, during hot (THI above 78), mild (THI 76) and cool (THI below 72) conditions, on 24 finishing French crossbred bulls. The animals were housed in 6 fully slatted floor group pens of 4 bulls each. Within each class of THI, behaviours were recorded in two sessions of 24 hours using a 5 minute interval scan sampling technique. A focal animal was chosen in order to count the number of visits at the waterer. Results showed that eating behaviour was maximum during the first 8 hours after fresh feed delivery. However, in the same interval, when THI was above 78, eating activity was penalized while an increase of ruminating was observed. The overall number of visits at the waterer was increased by the heat stress condition and they were mainly concentrated in the hottest hours of the day. Hot environment also affected beef cattle social behaviour increasing agonistic interactions and mounts among penmates. Since heat stress affected bulls behaviour impairing their welfare, the adoption of cooling devices should be recommended

Unbundling in Current Broadband and Next-Generation Ultra-Broadband Access Networks

This article overviews the methods that are currently under investigation for implementing multi-operator open-access/shared-access techniques in next-generation access ultra-broadband architectures, starting from the traditional "unbundling-of-the-local-loop" techniques implemented in legacy twisted-pair digital subscriber line access networks. A straightforward replication of these copper-based unbundling-of-the-local-loop techniques is usually not feasible on next-generation access networks, including fiber-to-the-home point-to-multipoint passive optical networks. To investigate this issue, the article first gives a concise description of traditional copper-based unbundling-of-the-local-loop solutions, then focalizes on both next-generation access hybrid fiber-copper digital subscriber line fiber-to-the-cabinet scenarios and on fiber to the home by accounting for the mix of regulatory and technological reasons driving the next-generation access migration path, focusing mostly on the European situation. © 2014 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

The small satellite NINA-MITA to study galactic and solar cosmic rays in low-altitude polar orbit

Abstract The satellite MITA, carrying on board the scientific payload NINA-2, was launched on July the 15th, 2000 from the cosmodrome of Plesetsk (Russia) with a Cosmos-3M rocket. The satellite and the payload are currently operating within nominal parameters. NINA-2 is the first scientific payload for the technological flight of the Italian small satellite MITA. The detector used in this mission is identical to the one already flying on the Russian satellite Resurs-O1 n.4 in a 840-km sun-synchronous orbit, but makes use of the extensive computer and telemetry capabilities of MITA bus to improve the active data acquisition time. NINA physics objectives are to study cosmic nuclei from hydrogen to iron in the energy range between 10 MeV/n and 1 GeV/n during the years 2000–2003, that is the solar maximum period. The device is capable of charge identification up to iron with isotope sensitivity up to oxigen. The 87.3 degrees, 460 km altitude polar orbit allows investigations of cosmic rays of solar and galactic origin, so to study long and short term solar transient phenomena, and the study of the trapped radiation at higher geomagnetic cutoff

In-Orbit Performance of the Space Telescope NINA and GCR Flux Measurements

The NINA apparatus, on board the Russian satellite Resurs-01 n.4, has been in polar orbit since 1998 July 10, at an altitude of 840 km. Its main scientific task is to study the galactic, solar and anomalous components of cosmic rays in the energy interval 10--200 MeV/n. In this paper we present a description of the instrument and its basic operating modes. Measurements of Galactic Cosmic Ray spectra will also be shown.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figures, accepted for publication in the ApJ

Compressed Sensing of Sparse Multipath MIMO Channels with Superimposed Training Sequence

Recent advances in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems have renewed the interests of researchers to further explore this area for addressing various dynamic challenges of emerging radio communication networks. Various measurement campaigns reported recently in the literature show that physical multipath MIMO channels exhibit sparse impulse response structure in various outdoor radio propagation environments. Therefore, a comprehensive physical description of sparse multipath MIMO channels is presented in first part of this paper. Superimposing a training sequence (low power, periodic) over the information sequence offers an improvement in the spectral efficiency by avoiding the use of dedicated time/frequency slots for the training sequence, which is unlike the traditional schemes. The main contribution of this paper includes three superimposed training (SiT) sequence based channel estimation techniques for sparse multipath MIMO channels. The proposed techniques exploit the compressed sensing theory and prior available knowledge of channel’s sparsity. The proposed sparse MIMO channel estimation techniques are named as, SiT based compressed channel sensing (SiT-CCS), SiT based hardlimit thresholding with CCS (SiT-ThCCS), and SiT training based match pursuit (SiT-MP). Bit error rate (BER) and normalized channel mean square error are used as metrics for the simulation analysis to gauge the performance of proposed techniques. A comparison of the proposed schemes with a notable first order statistics based SiT least squares (SiT-LS) estimation technique is presented to establish the improvements achieved by the proposed schemes. For sparse multipath time-invariant MIMO communication channels, it is observed that SiT-CCS, SiT-MP, and SiT-ThCCS can provide an improvement up to 2, 3.5, and 5.2 dB in the MSE at signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 12 dB when compared to SiT-LS, respectively. Moreover, for BER=10 −1.9 BER=10−1.9, the proposed SiT-CCS, SiT-MP, and SiT-ThCCS, compared to SiT-LS, can offer a gain of about 1, 2.5, and 3.5 dB in the SNR, respectively. The performance gain in MSE and BER is observed to improve with an increase in the channel sparsity

The On-orbit Calibrations for the Fermi Large Area Telescope

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on--board the Fermi Gamma ray Space Telescope began its on--orbit operations on June 23, 2008. Calibrations, defined in a generic sense, correspond to synchronization of trigger signals, optimization of delays for latching data, determination of detector thresholds, gains and responses, evaluation of the perimeter of the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), measurements of live time, of absolute time, and internal and spacecraft boresight alignments. Here we describe on orbit calibration results obtained using known astrophysical sources, galactic cosmic rays, and charge injection into the front-end electronics of each detector. Instrument response functions will be described in a separate publication. This paper demonstrates the stability of calibrations and describes minor changes observed since launch. These results have been used to calibrate the LAT datasets to be publicly released in August 2009.Comment: 60 pages, 34 figures, submitted to Astroparticle Physic