Analysis of Silage Fermentation Characteristics Using Transflectance Measurements by Near Infrared Spectroscopy

The fermentation end products as lactic acid, volatile fatty acids and ammonia-nitrogen, are important indicators of the efficiency of silage fermentation and are closely related to nutritive value of them (Jaster, 1995). Drying is problematic in the case of silage as many fermentation products are volatile and may get lost during the drying process. This may be a reason why NIR technology is being little used for the evaluation of silage fermentation characteristics. The feasibility of using near infrared transflectance spectroscopy to evaluate the content in fermentation end products of grass and maize fresh silage was investigated in this study

Transition path to a dense efficient-packed post-delafossite phase. Crystal structure and evolution of the chemical bonding

[EN] A(I)B(III)O(2) delafossite-type oxides are important technological compounds characterized by the linear coordination of the monovalent A metal by oxygen atoms. Based on results of in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements and ab initio calculations, we herein report on the high-pressure behavior of AgGaO2, to the best of our knowledge the first compound showing step-wise transitions of Ag coordination from linear (2) to octahedral (6), through a leaning delafossite structure. These transformations take place at similar to 10.5 and similar to 16.5 GPa, respectively. Our structural analysis evidences that the initial rhombohedral delafossite structure first becomes dynamically unstable, and distorts continuously via a gliding motion of the [GaO2] octahedral layers within the ab plane, and subsequently transform into another rhombohedral phase 8% denser. This structural sequence is associated with a simultaneous decrease in the bond order of the Ag-O bonds and an increase in the ionicity of the crystal. These results may help to unveil the high-pressure phases of several delafossite compounds which were reported to undergo phase transitions under compression that could not be identified.We are thankful for the financial support received from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion and the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion under national projects PGC2018-094417-B-I00 (co-financed by EU FEDER funds), MAT2016-75586-C4-1-P/2-P, FIS2017-83295-P, PID2019-106383GB-C41/C42 and RED2018-102612-T (MALTA Consolider), and from Generalitat Valenciana under project PROMETEO/2018/123. D.S-P, A.O.R, and J.A.S acknowledge financial support of the Spanish MINECO for the RyC-2014-15643, RyC-2016-20301, and RyC-2015-17482 Ramon y Cajal Grants, respectively. Authors thank ALBA-CELLS synchrotron for providing beamtime (ALBA experiments 2012010170).Chuliá-Jordán, R.; Santamaria-Perez, D.; Pellicer-Porres, J.; Otero-De-La-Roza, A.; Martinez-Garcia, D.; García-Domene, B.; Gomis, O.... (2021). Transition path to a dense efficient-packed post-delafossite phase. Crystal structure and evolution of the chemical bonding. Journal of Alloys and Compounds. 867. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.15901215901286

The Threshold Bias Model: A Mathematical Model for the Nomothetic Approach of Suicide

Comparative and predictive analyses of suicide data from different countries are difficult to perform due to varying approaches and the lack of comparative parameters.A simple model (the Threshold Bias Model) was tested for comparative and predictive analyses of suicide rates by age. The model comprises of a six parameter distribution that was applied to the USA suicide rates by age for the years 2001 and 2002. Posteriorly, linear extrapolations are performed of the parameter values previously obtained for these years in order to estimate the values corresponding to the year 2003. The calculated distributions agreed reasonably well with the aggregate data. The model was also used to determine the age above which suicide rates become statistically observable in USA, Brazil and Sri Lanka.The Threshold Bias Model has considerable potential applications in demographic studies of suicide. Moreover, since the model can be used to predict the evolution of suicide rates based on information extracted from past data, it will be of great interest to suicidologists and other researchers in the field of mental health

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016

Micromechanical Properties of Injection-Molded Starch–Wood Particle Composites

The micromechanical properties of injection molded starch–wood particle composites were investigated as a function of particle content and humidity conditions. The composite materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. The microhardness of the composites was shown to increase notably with the concentration of the wood particles. In addition,creep behavior under the indenter and temperature dependence were evaluated in terms of the independent contribution of the starch matrix and the wood microparticles to the hardness value. The influence of drying time on the density and weight uptake of the injection-molded composites was highlighted. The results revealed the role of the mechanism of water evaporation, showing that the dependence of water uptake and temperature was greater for the starch–wood composites than for the pure starch sample. Experiments performed during the drying process at 70°C indicated that the wood in the starch composites did not prevent water loss from the samples.Peer reviewe

Search for dark matter at √s=13 TeV in final states containing an energetic photon and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for physics beyond the Standard Model in events containing an energetic photon and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. As the number of events observed in data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, is in agreement with the Standard Model expectations, model-independent limits are set on the fiducial cross section for the production of events in this final state. Exclusion limits are also placed in models where dark-matter candidates are pair-produced. For dark-matter production via an axial-vector or a vector mediator in the s-channel, this search excludes mediator masses below 750–1200 GeV for dark-matter candidate masses below 230–480 GeV at 95% confidence level, depending on the couplings. In an effective theory of dark-matter production, the limits restrict the value of the suppression scale M∗ to be above 790 GeV at 95% confidence level. A limit is also reported on the production of a high-mass scalar resonance by processes beyond the Standard Model, in which the resonance decays to Zγ and the Z boson subsequently decays into neutrinos

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI): a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Remote ischaemic conditioning with transient ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). We investigated whether remote ischaemic conditioning could reduce the incidence of cardiac death and hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. METHODS: We did an international investigator-initiated, prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI) at 33 centres across the UK, Denmark, Spain, and Serbia. Patients (age >18 years) with suspected STEMI and who were eligible for PPCI were randomly allocated (1:1, stratified by centre with a permuted block method) to receive standard treatment (including a sham simulated remote ischaemic conditioning intervention at UK sites only) or remote ischaemic conditioning treatment (intermittent ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of an automated cuff device) before PPCI. Investigators responsible for data collection and outcome assessment were masked to treatment allocation. The primary combined endpoint was cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02342522) and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 6, 2013, and March 31, 2018, 5401 patients were randomly allocated to either the control group (n=2701) or the remote ischaemic conditioning group (n=2700). After exclusion of patients upon hospital arrival or loss to follow-up, 2569 patients in the control group and 2546 in the intervention group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At 12 months post-PPCI, the Kaplan-Meier-estimated frequencies of cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure (the primary endpoint) were 220 (8·6%) patients in the control group and 239 (9·4%) in the remote ischaemic conditioning group (hazard ratio 1·10 [95% CI 0·91-1·32], p=0·32 for intervention versus control). No important unexpected adverse events or side effects of remote ischaemic conditioning were observed. INTERPRETATION: Remote ischaemic conditioning does not improve clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure) at 12 months in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, University College London Hospitals/University College London Biomedical Research Centre, Danish Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, TrygFonden