Nutritional management for reproductive efficiency

Nutrition influences reproductive efficiency and the survival of lambs and weaners but the costs of supplementary feeding or maintaining low stocking rates are not justified by the resulting income from higher lamb weaning rates and reduced weaner mortality. The current practice of segmenting the ewe flock using ultrasound scanning to determine the number of foetuses still results in groups of ewes with a wide range of condition scores and with widely differing nutritional requirements. This report describes an approach to precision management of pregnant ewes and weaners that is based on the e-sheep platform of technologies and uses computer-directed drafting for nutritional management of individual animals and walk-through weighing to monitor changing nutritional status. It is estimated that the cost of feeding a thousand-ewe flock can be reduced from $14,000 for feeding all animals to$3300 for targeted feeding of 25% of ewes requiring additional nutrition and 20% of weaners at risk of dying. The cost of the targeted feeding strategy is more than justified by the value of additional 12-month-old animals, which is $9000. The e-sheep precision nutrition system is not attractive to industry at this stage because of the cost of the e-sheep infrastructure, the perceived complexity of the technology and the requirement for further research, but it is expected to be a commercial option within three years

Search for coherent charged pion production in neutrino-carbon interactions

We report the result from a search for charged-current coherent pion production induced by muon neutrinos with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV. The data are collected with a fully active scintillator detector in the K2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. No evidence for coherent pion production is observed and an upper limit of $0.60 \times 10^{-2}$ is set on the cross section ratio of coherent pion production to the total charged-current interaction at 90% confidence level. This is the first experimental limit for coherent charged pion production in the energy region of a few GeV.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Experimental study of the atmospheric neutrino backgrounds for proton decay to positron and neutral pion searches in water Cherenkov detectors

The atmospheric neutrino background for proton decay to positron and neutral pion in ring imaging water Cherenkov detectors is studied with an artificial accelerator neutrino beam for the first time. In total, about 314,000 neutrino events corresponding to about 10 megaton-years of atmospheric neutrino interactions were collected by a 1,000 ton water Cherenkov detector (KT). The KT charged-current single neutral pion production data are well reproduced by simulation programs of neutrino and secondary hadronic interactions used in the Super-Kamiokande (SK) proton decay search. The obtained proton to positron and neutral pion background rate by the KT data for SK from the atmospheric neutrinos whose energies are below 3 GeV is about two per megaton-year. This result is also relevant to possible future, megaton-scale water Cherenkov detectors.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figure

Measurement of single charged pion production in the charged-current interactions of neutrinos in a 1.3 GeV wide band beam

Single charged pion production in charged-current muon neutrino interactions with carbon is studied using data collected in the K2K long-baseline neutrino experiment. The mean energy of the incident muon neutrinos is 1.3 GeV. The data used in this analysis are mainly from a fully active scintillator detector, SciBar. The cross section for single $\pi^{+}$ production in the resonance region ($W<2$ GeV/$c^2$) relative to the charged-current quasi-elastic cross section is found to be 0.734 $^{+0.140}_{-0.153}$. The energy-dependent cross section ratio is also measured. The results are consistent with a previous experiment and the prediction of our model.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables. Uses revtex4. Minor revisions to match version accepted for publication in Physical Review

Evidence for muon neutrino oscillation in an accelerator-based experiment

We present results for muon neutrino oscillation in the KEK to Kamioka (K2K) long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. K2K uses an accelerator-produced muon neutrino beam with a mean energy of 1.3 GeV directed at the Super-Kamiokande detector. We observed the energy dependent disappearance of muon neutrino, which we presume have oscillated to tau neutrino. The probability that we would observe these results if there is no neutrino oscillation is 0.0050% (4.0 sigma).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Influence of socioeconomic factors on medically unnecessary ambulance calls

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Unnecessary ambulance use has become a socioeconomic problem in Japan. We investigated the possible relations between socioeconomic factors and medically unnecessary ambulance calls, and we estimated the incremental demand for unnecessary ambulance use produced by socioeconomic factors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a self-administered questionnaire-based survey targeting residents of Yokohama, Japan. The questionnaire included questions pertaining to socioeconomic characteristics, dichotomous choice method questions pertaining to ambulance calls in hypothetical nonemergency situations, and questions on the city's emergency medical system. The probit model was used to analyze the data.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 2,029 out of 3,363 targeted recipients completed the questionnaire (response rate, 60.3%). Probit regression analyses showed that several demographic and socioeconomic factors influence the decision to call an ambulance. Male respondents were more apt than female respondents to state that they would call an ambulance in nonemergency situations (p < 0.05). Age was an important factor influencing the hypothetical decision to call an ambulance (p < 0.05); elderly persons were more apt than younger persons to state that they would call an ambulance. Possession of a car and hesitation to use an ambulance negatively influenced the hypothetical decision to call an ambulance (p < 0.05). Persons who do not have a car were more likely than those with a car to state that they would call an ambulance in unnecessary situations.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Results of the study suggest that several socioeconomic factors, i.e., age, gender, household income, and possession of a car, influence a person's decision to call an ambulance in nonemergency situations. Hesitation to use an ambulance and knowledge of the city's primary emergency medical center are likely to be important factors limiting ambulance overuse. It was estimated that unnecessary ambulance use is increased approximately 10% to 20% by socioeconomic factors.</p

Continuum-mechanical, Anisotropic Flow model for polar ice masses, based on an anisotropic Flow Enhancement factor

A complete theoretical presentation of the Continuum-mechanical, Anisotropic Flow model, based on an anisotropic Flow Enhancement factor (CAFFE model) is given. The CAFFE model is an application of the theory of mixtures with continuous diversity for the case of large polar ice masses in which induced anisotropy occurs. The anisotropic response of the polycrystalline ice is described by a generalization of Glen's flow law, based on a scalar anisotropic enhancement factor. The enhancement factor depends on the orientation mass density, which is closely related to the orientation distribution function and describes the distribution of grain orientations (fabric). Fabric evolution is governed by the orientation mass balance, which depends on four distinct effects, interpreted as local rigid body rotation, grain rotation, rotation recrystallization (polygonization) and grain boundary migration (migration recrystallization), respectively. It is proven that the flow law of the CAFFE model is truly anisotropic despite the collinearity between the stress deviator and stretching tensors.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figure

The Evolutionary Basis of Naturally Diverse Rice Leaves Anatomy

Rice contains genetically and ecologically diverse wild and cultivated species that show a wide variation in plant and leaf architecture. A systematic characterization of leaf anatomy is essential in understanding the dynamics behind such diversity. Therefore, leaf anatomies of 24 Oryza species spanning 11 genetically diverse rice genomes were studied in both lateral and longitudinal directions and possible evolutionary trends were examined. A significant inter-species variation in mesophyll cells, bundle sheath cells, and vein structure was observed, suggesting precise genetic control over these major rice leaf anatomical traits. Cellular dimensions, measured along three growth axes, were further combined proportionately to construct three-dimensional (3D) leaf anatomy models to compare the relative size and orientation of the major cell types present in a fully expanded leaf. A reconstruction of the ancestral leaf state revealed that the following are the major characteristics of recently evolved rice species: fewer veins, larger and laterally elongated mesophyll cells, with an increase in total mesophyll area and in bundle sheath cell number. A huge diversity in leaf anatomy within wild and domesticated rice species has been portrayed in this study, on an evolutionary context, predicting a two-pronged evolutionary pathway leading to the ‘sativa leaf type’ that we see today in domesticated species

Measurement of inclusive π0\pi^0 production in the Charged-Current Interactions of Neutrinos in a 1.3-GeV wide band beam

In this paper we report on the measurement of the rate of inclusive $\pi^0$ production induced by charged-current neutrino interactions in a C$_8$H$_8$ target at a mean energy of 1.3 GeV in the K2K near detector. Out of a sample of 11,606 charged current neutrino interactions, we select 479 $\pi^0$ events with two reconstructed photons. We find that the cross section for the inclusive $\pi^0$ production relative to the charged-current quasi-elastic cross section is $$\frac{\sigma_{CC\pi^0}}{\sigma_{CCQE}}=0.426\pm0.032(stat.)\pm0.035(syst.)$$ The energy dependent cross section ratio is also measured. The results are consistent with previous experiments for exclusive channels on different targets.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PR