Production Systems Involving Stocker Cattle and Soft Red Winter Wheat

A three year study at the Livestock and Forestry Research Station near Batesville, Arkansas evaluated production systems involving stocker cattle and soft red winter wheat. Grazing of soft red winter wheat forage from October through February followed by harvesting wheat grain or grazing through April with stocker cattle offers an alternative to conventional farming. Soft red winter wheat, when planted by September 15, produces an ample supply of high-quality forage that supports rapid growth of stocker cattle during October through April. Net income from stocker cattle averaged over $100 per acre. A normal wheat grain crop can also be harvested. These alternative production systems could increase the agricultural income by over$75,000,000 per year if 750,000 acres of wheat are grazed

Quantum data processing and error correction

This paper investigates properties of noisy quantum information channels. We define a new quantity called {\em coherent information} which measures the amount of quantum information conveyed in the noisy channel. This quantity can never be increased by quantum information processing, and it yields a simple necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of perfect quantum error correction.Comment: LaTeX, 20 page

Evaluation of Small Grain Forage Crops and Cultivars of Soft Red Winter Wheat for Stocker Cattle

Use of small grain forage crops for stocker cattle production was extensively evaluated in two separate three-year research projects at the Livestock and Forestry Branch Research Station near Batesville, Ark. The first section of this Research Report presents results of a study in which 216 commercial crossbred steers (Avg. body weights 463 lb) grazed forage of wheat, oats, rye, ryegrass, wheat + rye, wheat + ryegrass, rye + ryegrass, and wheat + rye + ryegrass during the winter and spring months from 1999 through 2002. Grazing of these forages during the winter and spring provides excellent gains in stocker cattle and could increase the agricultural income for the state by over 100 million dollars per year

Disorder-induced microscopic magnetic memory

Using coherent x-ray speckle metrology, we have measured the influence of disorder on major loop return point memory (RPM) and complementary point memory (CPM) for a series of perpendicular anisotropy Co/Pt multilayer films. In the low disorder limit, the domain structures show no memory with field cycling--no RPM and no CPM. With increasing disorder, we observe the onset and the saturation of both the RPM and the CPM. These results provide the first direct ensemble-sensitive experimental study of the effects of varying disorder on microscopic magnetic memory and are compared against the predictions of existing theories.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters in Nov. 200

Quantum optical versus quantum Brownian motion master-equation in terms of covariance and equilibrium properties

Structures of quantum Fokker-Planck equations are characterized with respect to the properties of complete positivity, covariance under symmetry transformations and satisfaction of equipartition, referring to recent mathematical work on structures of unbounded generators of covariant quantum dynamical semigroups. In particular the quantum optical master-equation and the quantum Brownian motion master-equation are shown to be associated to $\mathrm{U(1)}$ and $\mathrm{R}$ symmetry respectively. Considering the motion of a Brownian particle, where the expression of the quantum Fokker-Planck equation is not completely fixed by the aforementioned requirements, a recently introduced microphysical kinetic model is briefly recalled, where a quantum generalization of the linear Boltzmann equation in the small energy and momentum transfer limit straightforwardly leads to quantum Brownian motion.Comment: 11 pages, latex, no figures, slight changes and a few references added, to appear in J. Math. Phy

Effects of Menopause in Women With Multiple Sclerosis: An Evidence-Based Review

Over two thirds of all individuals who develop multiple sclerosis (MS) will be women prior to the age of menopause. Further, an estimated 30% of the current MS population consists of peri- or postmenopausal women. The presence of MS does not appear to influence age of menopausal onset. In clinical practice, symptoms of MS and menopause can frequently overlap, including disturbances in cognition, mood, sleep, and bladder function, which can create challenges in ascertaining the likely cause of symptoms to be treated. A holistic and comprehensive approach to address these common physical and psychological changes is often suggested to patients during menopause. Although some studies have suggested that women with MS experience reduced relapse rates and increased disability progression post menopause, the data are not consistent enough for firm conclusions to be drawn. Mechanisms through which postmenopausal women with MS may experience disability progression include neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration from age-associated phenomena such as immunosenescence and inflammaging. Additional effects are likely to result from reduced levels of estrogen, which affects MS disease course. Following early retrospective studies of women with MS receiving steroid hormones, more recent interventional trials of exogenous hormone use, albeit as oral contraceptive, have provided some indications of potential benefit on MS outcomes. This review summarizes current research on the effects of menopause in women with MS, including the psychological impact and symptoms of menopause on disease worsening, and the treatment options. Finally, we highlight the need for more inclusion of MS patients from underrepresented racial and geographic groups in clinical trials, including among menopausal women

Relativistic Quantum Measurements, Unruh effect and Black Holes

It is shown how the technique of restricted path integrals (RPI) or quantum corridors (QC) may be applied for the analysis of relativistic measurements. Then this technique is used to clarify the physical nature of thermal effects as seen by an accelerated observer in Minkowski space-time (Unruh effect) and by a far observer in the field of a black hole (Hawking effect). The physical nature of the "thermal atmosphere" around the observer is analysed in three cases: a) the Unruh effect, b) an eternal (Kruskal) black hole and c) a black hole forming in the process of collapse. It is shown that thermal particles are real only in the case (c). In the case (b) they cannot be distinguished from real particles but they do not carry away mass of the black hole until some of these particles are absorbed by the far observer. In the case (a) thermal particles are virtual.Comment: 24 pages (Latex), 8 EPS figures The text was edited for the new versio

Share Your Life and Get More of Yourself. Experience Sharing in CouchSurfing

By means of a multi-sited multi-method ethnography of CouchSurfing.org, this study explores what motivates consumers to share their homes with strangers. Our findings suggest that participation is best understood by focusing on experience sharing and identify four types of experiential capital as sources of self-enhancement

The Threat of Capital Drain: A Rationale for Public Banks?

This paper yields a rationale for why subsidized public banks may be desirable from a regional perspective in a financially integrated economy. We present a model with credit rationing and heterogeneous regions in which public banks prevent a capital drain from poorer to richer regions by subsidizing local depositors, for example, through a public guarantee. Under some conditions, cooperative banks can perform the same function without any subsidization; however, they may be crowded out by public banks. We also discuss the impact of the political structure on the emergence of public banks in a political-economy setting and the role of interregional mobility

Neuromyelitis optica and pregnancy during therapeutic B cell depletion: infant exposure to anti-AQP4 antibody and prevention of rebound relapses with low-dose rituximab postpartum

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) predominantly affects women, some in childbearing age, and requires early therapeutic intervention to prevent disabling relapses. We report an anti-AQP4 antibody-seropositive patient who became pregnant seven months after low-dose (100 mg) rituximab application. Pregnancy showed no complications, and low-dose rituximab restarted two days after delivery resulted in neurological stability for 24 months. Remarkably, her otherwise healthy newborn presented with anti-AQP4 antibody and reduced B lymphocyte counts in umbilical cord blood, which normalized three months later. Confirming and extending previous reports, our case suggests that low-dose rituximab might be compatible with pregnancy and prevent rebound NMO disease activity postpartum