Forage Quality of Cereal–Common Vetch at Different Age and Proportions

Cereal plant age at harvesting and the proportion of vetch in the harvested forage from cereal-common vetch mixtures might influence total forage quality. The objectives were to determine forage of a forage mixture cereal-vetch, from cereal harvested at two development stages and vetch at different proportion. Cereals were oats and triticale, cultivars: Chihuahua, Bicentenario and Siglo XXI, the last two were triticale; cereal development stages at harvest were: 50% flowering and hard grain. Vetch was harvested at two development stages: 100% flowering and pod formation, while vetch proportions in the forage mix were: 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1.0. Forage quality measures were: crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), organic matter (OM), ether extract (EE) and dry matter digestibility (DMD). Statistical analysis was by linear regression; cereal cultivar was a categorical variable. Models developed showed a R2≥0.7871. As vetch proportion increased in the mix so did CP while NDF decreased, CP increased from 9.2 to 17.5% and 9.2 to 14.4% and NDF decreased from 71.4 to 57.6% and 79.1 to 58.9%, as vetch proportion increased, when cereal was harvested at 50% flowering and grain hard, respectively. OM and EE showed small changes over vetch proportion and cereal development stage. DMD showed major (p\u3c 0.05) changes with cereal development stage at harvesting. It was concluded that forage quality of cereal-vetch mix depends on vetch proportion and stage of development of the cereal at the time of harvest

Renormalization Constants of Quark Operators for the Non-Perturbatively Improved Wilson Action

We present the results of an extensive lattice calculation of the renormalization constants of bilinear and four-quark operators for the non-perturbatively O(a)-improved Wilson action. The results are obtained in the quenched approximation at four values of the lattice coupling by using the non-perturbative RI/MOM renormalization method. Several sources of systematic uncertainties, including discretization errors and final volume effects, are examined. The contribution of the Goldstone pole, which in some cases may affect the extrapolation of the renormalization constants to the chiral limit, is non-perturbatively subtracted. The scale independent renormalization constants of bilinear quark operators have been also computed by using the lattice chiral Ward identities approach and compared with those obtained with the RI-MOM method. For those renormalization constants the non-perturbative estimates of which have been already presented in the literature we find an agreement which is typically at the level of 1%.Comment: 36 pages, 13 figures. Minor changes in the text and in one figure. Accepted for publication on JHE

The non-convex shape of (234) Barbara, the first Barbarian

Asteroid (234) Barbara is the prototype of a category of asteroids that has been shown to be extremely rich in refractory inclusions, the oldest material ever found in the Solar System. It exhibits several peculiar features, most notably its polarimetric behavior. In recent years other objects sharing the same property (collectively known as "Barbarians") have been discovered. Interferometric observations in the mid-infrared with the ESO VLTI suggested that (234) Barbara might have a bi-lobated shape or even a large companion satellite. We use a large set of 57 optical lightcurves acquired between 1979 and 2014, together with the timings of two stellar occultations in 2009, to determine the rotation period, spin-vector coordinates, and 3-D shape of (234) Barbara, using two different shape reconstruction algorithms. By using the lightcurves combined to the results obtained from stellar occultations, we are able to show that the shape of (234) Barbara exhibits large concave areas. Possible links of the shape to the polarimetric properties and the object evolution are discussed. We also show that VLTI data can be modeled without the presence of a satellite.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Cover Contact Graphs.

We study problems that arise in the context of covering certain geometric objects (so-called seeds, e.g., points or disks) by a set of other geometric objects (a so-called cover, e.g., a set of disks or homothetic triangles). We insist that the interiors of the seeds and the cover elements are pair wise disjoint, but they can touch. We call the contact graph of a cover a cover contact graph (CCG). We are interested in two types of tasks: (a) deciding whether a given seed set has a connected CCG, and (b) deciding whether a given graph has a realization as a CCG on a given seed set. Concerning task (a) we give efficient algorithms for the case that seeds are points and covers are disks or triangles. We show that the problem becomes NP-hard if seeds and covers are disks. Concerning task (b) we show that it is even NP-hard for point seeds and disk covers (given a fixed correspondence between vertices and seeds)

Search for CP Violation in the decays D+ -> K_S pi+ and D+ -> K_S K+

A high statistics sample of photo-produced charm from the FOCUS(E831) experiment at Fermilab has been used to search for direct CP violation in the decays D+->K_S pi+ and D+ -> K_S K+. We have measured the following asymmetry parameters relative to D+->K-pi+pi+: A_CP(K_S pi+) = (-1.6 +/- 1.5 +/- 0.9)%, A_CP(K_S K+) = (+6.9 +/- 6.0 +/- 1.5)% and A_CP(K_S K+) = (+7.1 +/- 6.1 +/- 1.2)% relative to D+->K_S pi+. The first errors quoted are statistical and the second are systematic. We also measure the relative branching ratios: \Gamma(D+->\bar{K0}pi+)/\Gamma(D+->K-pi+pi+) = (30.60 +/- 0.46 +/- 0.32)%, \Gamma(D+->\bar{K0}K+)/\Gamma(D+->K-pi+pi+) = (6.04 +/- 0.35 +/- 0.30)% and \Gamma(D+->\bar{K0}K+)/\Gamma(D+->\bar{K0}pi+) = (19.96 +/- 1.19 +/- 0.96)%.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

A High Statistics Measurement of the Lambdac+ Lifetime

A high statistics measurement of the Lambdac+ lifetime from the Fermilab fixed-target FOCUS photoproduction experiment is presented. We describe the analysis technique with particular attention to the determination of the systematic uncertainty. The measured value of 204.6 +/- 3.4 (stat.) +/- 2.5 (syst.) fs from 8034 +/- 122 Lambdac -> pKpi decays represents a significant improvement over the present world average.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review Letter

A Measurement of the Ds+ Lifetime

A high statistics measurement of the Ds+ lifetime from the Fermilab fixed-target FOCUS photoproduction experiment is presented. We describe the analysis of the two decay modes, Ds+ -> phi(1020)pi+ and Ds+ -> \bar{K}*(892)0K+, used for the measurement. The measured lifetime is 507.4 +/- 5.5 (stat.) +/- 5.1 (syst.) fs using 8961 +/- 105 Ds+ -> phi(1020)pi+ and 4680 +/- 90 Ds+ -> \bar{K}*(892)0K+ decays. This is a significant improvement over the present world average.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, submitted to PR

A measurement of branching ratios of D+D^+ and Ds+D^+_s hadronic decays to four-body final states containing a KSK_S

We have studied hadronic four-body decays of $D^+$ and $D^+_s$ mesons with a $K_S$ in the final state using data recorded during the 1996-1997 fixed-target run at Fermilab high energy photoproduction experiment FOCUS. We report a new branching ratio measurement of $\Gamma(D^+\to K_S K^-\pi^+\pi^+)/\Gamma(D^+\to K_S \pi^+\pi^+\pi^-)=0.0768\pm0.0041\pm0.0032$. We make the first observation of three new decay modes with branching ratios $\Gamma(D^+\to K_S K^+\pi^+\pi^-)/\Gamma(D^+\to K_S \pi^+\pi^+\pi^-)=0.0562\pm0.0039\pm0.0040$, \Gamma(D^+\to\K_S K^+ K^-\pi^+)/\Gamma(D^+\to K_S \pi^+\pi^+\pi^-)=0.0077\pm0.0015\pm0.0009, and $\Gamma(D^+_s\to K_S K^+\pi^+\pi^-)/\Gamma(D^+_s\to K_S K^-\pi^+\pi^+)=0.586\pm0.052\pm0.043$, where in each case the first error is statistical and the second error is systematic.Comment: 4 pages, 1 table, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Coastal high-frequency radars in the Mediterranean - Part 2: Applications in support of science priorities and societal needs

The Mediterranean Sea is a prominent climate-change hot spot, with many socioeconomically vital coastal areas being the most vulnerable targets for maritime safety, diverse met-ocean hazards and marine pollution. Providing an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution at wide coastal areas, high-frequency radars (HFRs) have been steadily gaining recognition as an effective land-based remote sensing technology for continuous monitoring of the surface circulation, increasingly waves and occasionally winds. HFR measurements have boosted the thorough scientific knowledge of coastal processes, also fostering a broad range of applications, which has promoted their integration in coastal ocean observing systems worldwide, with more than half of the European sites located in the Mediterranean coastal areas. In this work, we present a review of existing HFR data multidisciplinary science-based applications in the Mediterranean Sea, primarily focused on meeting end-user and science-driven requirements, addressing regional challenges in three main topics: (i) maritime safety, (ii) extreme hazards and (iii) environmental transport process. Additionally, the HFR observing and monitoring regional capabilities in the Mediterranean coastal areas required to underpin the underlying science and the further development of applications are also analyzed. The outcome of this assessment has allowed us to provide a set of recommendations for future improvement prospects to maximize the contribution to extending science-based HFR products into societally relevant downstream services to support blue growth in the Mediterranean coastal areas, helping to meet the UN's Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and the EU's Green Deal goals