Non-conventional Technologies as Alternative Solutions to the Proposed Whakamaru-Otahuhu Transmission Upgrade

This commentary brings together a preliminary view of the potential of non-conventional generation as a comprehensive alternative solution to the proposed Auckland transmission upgrade

Evolutionary adaptations of ruminants and their potential relevance for modern production systems

Comparative physiology applies methods established in domestic animal science to a wider variety of species. This can lead to improved insight into evolutionary adaptations of domestic animals, by putting domestic species into a broader context. Examples include the variety of responses to seasonally fluctuating environments, different adaptations to heat and drought, and in particular adaptations to herbivory and various herbivore niches. Herbivores generally face the challenge that a high food intake compromises digestive efficiency (by reducing ingesta retention time and time available for selective feeding and for food comminution), and a variety of digestive strategies have evolved in response. Ruminants are very successful herbivores. They benefit from potential advantages of a forestomach without being constrained in their food intake as much as other foregut fermenters, because of their peculiar reticuloruminal sorting mechanism that retains food requiring further digestion but clears the forestomach of already digested material; the same mechanism also optimises food comminution. Wild ruminants vary widely in the degree to which their rumen contents ‘stratify', with little stratification in ‘moose-type' ruminants (which are mostly restricted to a browse niche) and a high degree of stratification into gas, particle and fluid layers in ‘cattle-type' ruminants (which are more flexible as intermediate feeders and grazers). Yet all ruminants uniformly achieve efficient selective particle retention, suggesting that functions other than particle retention played an important role in the evolution of stratification-enhancing adaptations. One interesting emerging hypothesis is that the high fluid turnover observed in ‘cattle-type' ruminants - which is a prerequisite for stratification - is an adaptation that not only leads to a shift of the sorting mechanism from the reticulum to the whole reticulo-rumen, but also optimises the harvest of microbial protein from the forestomach. Although potential benefits of this adaptation have not been quantified, the evidence for convergent evolution toward stratification suggests that they must be substantial. In modern production systems, the main way in which humans influence the efficiency of energy uptake is by manipulating diet quality. Selective breeding for conversion efficiency has resulted in notable differences between wild and domestic animals. With increased knowledge on the relevance of individual factors, that is fluid throughput through the reticulo-rumen, more specific selection parameters for breeding could be defined to increase productivity of domestic ruminants by continuing certain evolutionary trajectorie

Unforgeable Noise-Tolerant Quantum Tokens

The realization of devices which harness the laws of quantum mechanics represents an exciting challenge at the interface of modern technology and fundamental science. An exemplary paragon of the power of such quantum primitives is the concept of "quantum money". A dishonest holder of a quantum bank-note will invariably fail in any forging attempts; indeed, under assumptions of ideal measurements and decoherence-free memories such security is guaranteed by the no-cloning theorem. In any practical situation, however, noise, decoherence and operational imperfections abound. Thus, the development of secure "quantum money"-type primitives capable of tolerating realistic infidelities is of both practical and fundamental importance. Here, we propose a novel class of such protocols and demonstrate their tolerance to noise; moreover, we prove their rigorous security by determining tight fidelity thresholds. Our proposed protocols require only the ability to prepare, store and measure single qubit quantum memories, making their experimental realization accessible with current technologies.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

Stochastic model of transcription factor-regulated gene expression

We consider a stochastic model of transcription factor (TF)-regulated gene expression. The model describes two genes: Gene A and Gene B which synthesize the TFs and the target gene proteins respectively. We show through analytic calculations that the TF fluctuations have a significant effect on the distribution of the target gene protein levels when the mean TF level falls in the highest sensitive region of the dose-response curve. We further study the effect of reducing the copy number of Gene A from two to one. The enhanced TF fluctuations yield results different from those in the deterministic case. The probability that the target gene protein level exceeds a threshold value is calculated with a knowledge of the probability density functions associated with the TF and target gene protein levels. Numerical simulation results for a more detailed stochastic model are shown to be in agreement with those obtained through analytic calculations. The relevance of these results in the context of the genetic disorder haploinsufficiency is pointed out. Some experimental observations on the haploinsufficiency of the tumour suppressor gene, Nkx3.1, are explained with the help of the stochastic model of TF-regulated gene expression.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Biolog

Studies on the Role of Rumen-Anaerobic Fungi and Protozoa in Fibre Digestion

The objectives of this study were: 1. To evaluate the effects of defaunation of the rumen on the growth of rumen anaerobic fungi and on fibre digestion in sheep given high-fibre diets. 2. To determine the contribution of rumen-anaerobic fungi to plant cell wall digestion in vitro. Determination of pool size of anaerobic fungi in the rumen is important in order to study the contribution of these microorganisms to feed digestion relative to other rumen inhabitants. Two methods used in the present studies, viz. counting the numbers of sporangia on feed particles and culturing the zoospores in roll tubes containing agar medium plus antibiotic, resulted in large variations between animals and diets, suggesting that these methods cannot be used to determine the fungal biomass accurately. However, they may be used for comparing the relative numbers of anaerobic fungi present in the rumen between treatments under the same experimental conditions. ... It was concluded that on high-fibre diets the presence of rumen protozoa may be disadvantageous because they appear to reduce the pool size of cellulolytic microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) in the rumen. Although information on enzymic activities of anaerobic fungi on fibre digestion now seems clear from the literature, the major question of the magnitude of the contribution made by fungi to fibre digestion remains to be answered. For these reasons, the development of a reliable method for assessment of fungal biomass in the rumen is a major priority for future research

Perception of soundscapes : an interdisciplinary approach

This paper takes an overall view of findings from the Positive Soundscape Project, a large inter-disciplinary soundscapes study. Qualitative fieldwork (soundwalks and focus groups) have found that soundscape perception is influenced by cognitive effects such as the meaning of a soundscape and its components, and how information is conveyed by a soundscape, for example on the behaviour of people within the soundscape. Three significant clusters were found in the language people use to describe soundscapes: sound sources, sound descriptors and soundscape descriptors. Results from listening tests and soundwalks have been integrated to show that the two principal dimensions of soundscape emotional response seem to be calmness and vibrancy. Further, vibrancy seems to have two aspects: organisation of sounds and changes over time. The possible application of the results to soundscape assessment and design are briefly discussed

Skepticism about Reasoning

Less discussed than Hume’s skepticism about what grounds there could be for projecting empirical hypotheses is his concern with a skeptical regress that he thought threatened to extinguish any belief when we reflect that our reasoning is not perfect. The root of the problem is the fact that a reflection about our reasoning is itself a piece of reasoning. If each reflection is negative and undermining, does that not give us a diminution of our original belief to nothing? It requires much attention to detail, we argue, to determine whether or not there is a skeptical problem in this neighborhood. For consider, if we subsequently doubt a doubt we had about our reasoning, should that not restore some confidence in our original belief? We would then have instead an alternating sequence of pieces of skeptical reasoning that cancel each others’ effects on our justification in the original proposition, at least to some degree. We will argue that the outcome of the sequence of reflections Hume is imagining depends on information about a given case that is not known a priori. We conclude this from the fact that under three precise, explanatory, and viable contemporary reconstructions of what this kind of reasoning about reasoning could be like and how it has the potential to affect our original beliefs, a belief-extinguishing regress is not automatic or necessary. The outcome of the sequence of reflections depends on further information whose character we will explain

Seroepidemiologi Nipah Virus Pada Kalong Dan Ternak Babi Di Beberapa Wilayah Di Indonesia

Nipah Virus Seroepidemiology in Flying Fox and Pig Husbandry in Several Areasof Indonesia. Nipah is a dangerous zoonotic disease which was carried by flying fox.The disease had been occurred in Malaysia in 1999 and infect pigs and caused humandeath. Indonesia is adjacent country to Malaysia, hence, a serological study had beenconducted on 156 flying fox (P. vampyrus) sera from North Sumatera, West Java, CentralJava and East Java. Besides that, 2740 pig sera was randomly collected in differentprovinces to detect Nipah infection. Both flying fox and pig sera were tested usingELISA test to detect the presence of Nipah antibody. The results indicated that 37 from156 flying fox sera (23.7%) has antibodies against Nipah virus. Infections were occuredin all sampling sites with the prevalence varied from 18% to 33 %. Meanwhile, no pigsera tested (2740) had antibody against Nipah virus. Based on these results it can beconcluded that Nipah virus infections were occurred in flying fox in some parts inIndonesia, but not in pigs. It was suggested that the presence of Nipah virus in Indonesiashould be anticipated. Hence the distribution of its infection in pigs and human must beanticipated. Monitoring of Nipah infection in areas adjacent to Malaysia must be increasedto detect the entering of the disease in Indonesia