Staart beter bewaard door afleidingsmateriaal?

Meer activiteit en meer aandacht voor afleidingsmateriaal leidt bij biggen met intacte staarten tot minder staartbijten

Cryogenics for an HTS degaussing system demonstrator

This paper describes the design, construction and test results of a high temperature superconducting (HTS) degaussing demonstrator system. Such a system compensates the local disturbance in the earth's magnetic field caused by the ferromagnetic hulls of ships, to prevent detection by active or passive magnetic field sensors. This is done by placing coils around the ship, creating a magnetic field opposing the effect of the earth's magnetic field. Degaussing systems for large naval vessels typically need currents of up to 1 or 2 kAturns, which gives rise to sizeable ohmic losses in conventional copper coils. These losses can be reduced if high temperature superconductors are used, since they have no electrical resistance when cooled down to temperatures below 90 K. For the demonstrator, 3 coils able to generate fields in 2 directions were realized both with HTS and copper to get a representative degaussing performance. A dedicatedly designed cooling system maintains the superconductors at a temperature of 77-85K using (subcooled) liquid nitrogen. Due to the relatively small laboratory scale that this first 1:5m long demonstrator system which was produced, the copper degaussing system is still more efficient than the HTS system because of the cooling power needed. A large fraction of this cooling power is needed to cool away parasitic heat loads, that hardly increases if the size of the system increases. Thereafter the performance of both systems was compared to evaluate on what scale HTS degaussing systems become more efficient than copper degaussing systems

The anisotropy of granular materials

The effect of the anisotropy on the elastoplastic response of two dimensional packed samples of polygons is investigated here, using molecular dynamics simulation. We show a correlation between fabric coefficients, characterizing the anisotropy of the granular skeleton, and the anisotropy of the elastic response. We also study the anisotropy induced by shearing on the subnetwork of the sliding contacts. This anisotropy provides an explanation to some features of the plastic deformation of granular media.Comment: Submitted to PR

Small portion sizes in worksite cafeterias: do they help consumers to reduce their food intake?

Background:Environmental interventions directed at portion size might help consumers to reduce their food intake.Objective:To assess whether offering a smaller hot meal, in addition to the existing size, stimulates people to replace their large meal with a smaller meal.Design:Longitudinal randomized controlled trial assessing the impact of introducing small portion sizes and pricing strategies on consumer choices.Setting/participants:In all, 25 worksite cafeterias and a panel consisting of 308 consumers (mean age39.18 years, 50% women).Intervention:A small portion size of hot meals was offered in addition to the existing size. The meals were either proportionally priced (that is, the price per gram was comparable regardless of the size) or value size pricing was employed.Main outcome measures:Daily sales of small and the total number of meals, consumers self-reported compensation behavior and frequency of purchasing small meals.Results:The ratio of small meals sales in relation to large meals sales was 10.2%. No effect of proportional pricing was found B0.11 (0.33), P0.74, confidence interval (CI): 0.76 to 0.54). The consumer data indicated that 19.5% of the participants who had selected a small meal often-to-always purchased more products than usual in the worksite cafeteria. Small meal purchases were negatively related to being male (B0.85 (0.20), P0.00, CI: 1.24 to 0.46, n178).Conclusion:When offering a small meal in addition to the existing size, a percentage of consumers that is considered reasonable were inclined to replace the large meal with the small meal. Proportional prices did not have an additional effect. The possible occurrence of compensation behavior is an issue that merits further attention. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved

Dietary intake of menaquinone is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease: the Rotterdam Study

Vitamin K-dependent proteins, including matrix Gla-protein, have been shown to inhibit vascular calcification. Activation of these proteins via carboxylation depends on the availability of vitamin K. We examined whether dietary intake of phylloquinone (vitamin K-1) and menaquinone (vitamin K-2) were related to aortic calcification and coronary heart disease (CHD) in the population-based Rotterdam Study. The analysis included 4807 subjects with dietary data and no history of myocardial infarction at baseline (1990-1993) who were followed until January 1, 2000. The risk of incident CHD, all-cause mortality, and aortic atherosclerosis was studied in tertiles of energy-adjusted vitamin K intake after adjustment for age, gender, BMI, smoking, diabetes, education, and dietary factors. The relative risk (RR) of CHD mortality was reduced in the mid and upper tertiles of dietary menaquinone compared to the lower tertile [RR = 0.73 (95% CI: 0.45, 1.17) and 0.43 (0.24, 0.77), respectively]. Intake of menaquinone was also inversely related to all-cause mortality [RR = 0.91 (0.75, 1.09) and 0.74 (0.59, 0.92), respectively] and severe aortic calcification [odds ratio of 0.71 (0.50, 1.00) and 0.48 (0.32, 0.71), respectively]. Phylloquinone intake was not related to any of the outcomes. These findings suggest tha

Evaluatie plateaustal vleesvarkens = Evaluation two-level pen for finishing pigs

A two-level pen is an option to create more floor area for pigs. Fattening pigs used the second level as lying room. An optimal pen design is substantially for a good use of a second level

Child care in times of COVID-19:Predictors of distress in Dutch children and parents when re-entering center-based child care After a 2-month lockdown

As a consequence of the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) child care facilities all over the world were temporarily closed to minimize the spread of the virus. In Netherlands, the first closure lasted for almost 2 months. The return to the child care center after this significant interruption was expected to be challenging, because earlier studies demonstrated that transitions into child care can be stressful for both children and their parents. The current paper retrospectively examined the distress of Dutch children (aged 0–4) and their parents during the first 2 weeks after the reopening of child care centers, and what factors accounted for individual differences in distress. In total, 694 parents filled out an online questionnaire about stress during closure and distress after the reopening of child care centers. Furthermore, questions regarding several demographic variables and child care characteristics were included, as well as questionnaires measuring child temperament, parental separation anxiety, and parental perception of the child care quality. Results showed that younger children and children with parents scoring higher on separation anxiety experienced more distress after the reopening, as reported by parents. Furthermore, children were more distressed upon return when they attended the child care center for less hours per week after the reopening, experienced less stress during closure, and grew up in a one-parent family. With regard to parental distress after the reopening, we found that parents scoring higher on separation anxiety and fear of COVID-19 experienced more distress. Moreover, parents experiencing less stress during closure and mothers were more distressed when the child returned to the child care center. Finally, concurrent child and parental distress after reopening were positively related. The results of the current study may help professional caregivers to identify which children and parents benefit from extra support when children return to the child care center after an interruption. Especially the role that parental separation anxiety played in predicting both child and parental distress deserves attention. More research is required in order to study the underlying mechanisms of these associations and to design appropriate interventions

Gla Rich Protein (GRP) is associated to osteoarthritis being highly accumulated in the joint tissues and synovial fluid

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Via (diergezondheids-)management naar minimalisering van antibioticagebruik : resultaten van een experimentele fase met biologische varkensbedrijven

Experiences of organic pig farms with minimizing antibiotic use through strengthening the animal health management