112 research outputs found
Short term supplementation rates to optimise vitamin E concentration for retail colour stability of Australian lamb meat
The relationship between vitamin E supplementation rate and colour stability was investigated using 70 mixed sex 6-8 month old crossbred lambs. An initial group of 10 were slaughtered, while the remainder were fed a pellet ration containing either 30, 150, 275 or 400IU vitamin E/kg ration or on green pasture for 56days. After slaughter, carcases were halved; one side packed fresh (5days) and the other in CO2 (21days), both at 2°C. Five muscles were set for retail display for 96h. The oxy/metmyoglobin ratio was measured every 12h. Colour stability increased with increasing muscle vitamin E until an apparent maximum effect for vitamin E concentration (3.5-4.0mg α-tocopherol/kg tissue) was reached beyond which no further response was evident. This was reached within 3-4weeks (275IU treatment), and meat from these lambs should reach 60h retail display with a satisfactory surface colour. This effect was most apparent in aerobic muscle types and meat aged post slaughter
Phenotypic blood glutathione concentration and selenium supplementation interactions on meat colour stability and fatty acid concentrations in Merino lambs
The interaction between blood glutathione (GSH) and supplementation of selenium (Se, 2.5 mg/kg diet) on meat colour and fatty acids concentrations was studied. Forty eight Merino lambs selected for high blood GSH (HGSH) or low GSH (LGSH) concentration were used. They were fed individually with or without Se supplement for 8 weeks. There were interactions (P< 0.05) between GSH and Se on the colour stability (as w630 nm/w580 nm ratio) of m. longissimus (LD), m. semimembranosus (SM) and m. semitendinosus. Without Se supplementation the ratio was higher in HGSH than LGSH group. However, the difference was reduced with Se supplement. Polyunsaturated and n-3 fatty acids in SM and LD were higher in HGSH than in LGSH group (P< 0.05), and did not change with Se supplement. Se supplementation increased Se content in LD (P< 0.001) and the lungs (P< 0.05), but had no influence in the heart
Application of a stochastic weather generator to assess climate change impacts in a semi-arid climate: The Upper Indus Basin
Assessing local climate change impacts requires downscaling from Global Climate Model simulations. Here, a stochastic rainfall model (RainSim) combined with a rainfall conditioned weather generator (CRU WG) have been successfully applied in a semi-arid mountain climate, for part of the Upper Indus Basin (UIB), for point stations at a daily time-step to explore climate change impacts. Validation of the simulated time-series against observations (1961–1990) demonstrated the models’ skill in reproducing climatological means of core variables with monthly RMSE of <2.0 mm for precipitation and ⩽0.4 °C for mean temperature and daily temperature range. This level of performance is impressive given complexity of climate processes operating in this mountainous context at the boundary between monsoonal and mid-latitude (westerly) weather systems. Of equal importance the model captures well the observed interannual variability as quantified by the first and last decile of 30-year climatic periods. Differences between a control (1961–1990) and future (2071–2100) regional climate model (RCM) time-slice experiment were then used to provide change factors which could be applied within the rainfall and weather models to produce perturbed ‘future’ weather time-series. These project year-round increases in precipitation (maximum seasonal mean change:+27%, annual mean change: +18%) with increased intensity in the wettest months (February, March, April) and year-round increases in mean temperature (annual mean +4.8 °C). Climatic constraints on the productivity of natural resource-dependent systems were also assessed using relevant indices from the European Climate Assessment (ECA) and indicate potential future risk to water resources and local agriculture. However, the uniformity of projected temperature increases is in stark contrast to recent seasonally asymmetrical trends in observations, so an alternative scenario of extrapolated trends was also explored. We conclude that interannual variability in climate will continue to have the dominant impact on water resources management whichever trajectory is followed. This demonstrates the need for sophisticated downscaling methods which can evaluate changes in variability and sequencing of events to explore climate change impacts in this region
Non-critical supergravity (d>1) and holography
In this paper we investigate the supergravity equations of motion associated
with non-critical () type II string theories that incorporate RR forms.
Using a superpotential formalism we determine several classes of solutions. In
particular we find analytic backgrounds with a structure of and numerical solutions that asymptote a linear dilaton with a
topology of . The SUGRA solutions we have found
can serve as anti holographic descriptions of gauge theories in a large
limit which is different than the one of the critical gauge/gravity duality. It
is characterized by N\rt \infty and . We have made the
first steps in analyzing the corresponding gauge theory properties like Wilson
loops and the glue-ball spectra.Comment: 48 pages, JHEP style, 11 figure
Cold atom dynamics in non-Abelian gauge fields
The dynamics of ultracold neutral atoms subject to a non-Abelian gauge field
is investigated. In particular we analyze in detail a simple experimental
scheme to achieve a constant, but non-Abelian gauge field, and discuss in the
frame of this gauge field the non-Abelian Aharanov-Bohm effect. In the last
part of this paper, we discuss intrinsic non-Abelian effects in the dynamics of
cold atomic wavepackets.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
Towards Prospective Life Cycle Assessment: How to Identify Key Parameters Inducing Most Uncertainties in the Future? Application to Photovoltaic Systems Installed in Spain
The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09150-1_51International audienceProspective Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a relevant approach to assess the environmental performance of future energy pathways. Amongst different types of prospective scenarios, cornerstone scenarios meant for complex systems and long-term approaches, are of interest to assess such performance. They rely on different types of long-term projections, such as projections of technological evolutions and of energy resources. In most studies, scenarios are defined with single values for each parameter, and environmental impacts are assessed in a deterministic way. Inherent uncertainties related to these prospective assumptions are not considered and prospective LCA uncertainties are thus not addressed. In this paper we describe a methodology to account for these uncertainties and to identify the parameters inducing most of the uncertainties in the prospective LCA results. We apply this approach to prospective LCAs of photovoltaic-based electricity generation systems
Adaptation of Brucella melitensis Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing to the ISO 20776 Standard and Validation of the Method
This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Themes in Brucella and Brucellosis.Brucellosis, mainly caused by Brucella (B.) melitensis, is associated with a risk of chronification
and relapses. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) standards for B. melitensis are not
available, and the agent is not yet listed in the EUCAST breakpoint tables. CLSI recommendations
for B. melitensis exist, but they do not fulfill the requirements of the ISO 20776 standard regarding
the culture medium and the incubation conditions. Under the third EU Health Programme, laboratories
specializing in the diagnostics of highly pathogenic bacteria in their respective countries
formed a working group within a Joint Action aiming to develop a suitable method for the AST of B. melitensis. Under the supervision of EUCAST representatives, this working group adapted the
CLSI M45 document to the ISO 20776 standard after testing and validation. These adaptations included
the comparison of various culture media, culture conditions and AST methods. A Standard
Operation Procedure was derived and an interlaboratory validation was performed in order to evaluate
the method. The results showed pros and cons for both of the two methods but also indicate
that it is not necessary to abandon Mueller–Hinton without additives for the AST of B. melitensis.This research was funded by the EU Health Programme 2014–2020, through the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA, European Commission), the Joint
Action EMERGE (CHAFEA n° 677 066) and the Joint Action SHARP (848096-SHARP JA).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Exotic state photoproduction
It is shown that the list of unusual mesons planned for a careful study in
photoproduction can be extended by the exotic states with which should be looked for in the decay
channels in the reactions and . The full classification of the states by their
quantum numbers is presented. A simple model for the spin structure of the , , and reaction amplitudes is formulated and the tentative estimates of the
corresponding cross sections at the incident photon energy
GeV are obtained: b, b, b, and b. The problem of the
signal extraction from the natural background due to the other production channels is discussed. In particular the estimates are
presented for the , , and reaction cross sections.
Our main conclusion is that the search for the exotic
states is quite feasible at JEFLAB facility. The expected yield of the events in a 30-day run at the 100% detection
efficiency approximates events.Comment: 19 pages, revtex, 1 figure in postscipt, some comments and references
added, a few minor typos corrected, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Association of a novel mutation in the plasmodium falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter with decreased piperaquine sensitivity
Background. Amplified copy number in the plasmepsin II/III genes within Plasmodium falciparum has been associated with decreased sensitivity to piperaquine. To examine this association and test whether additional loci might also contribute, we performed a genome-wide association study of ex vivo P. falciparum susceptibility to piperaquine. Methods. Plasmodium falciparum DNA from 183 samples collected primarily from Cambodia was genotyped at 33 716 genomewide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Linear mixed models and random forests were used to estimate associations between parasite genotypes and piperaquine susceptibility. Candidate polymorphisms were evaluated for their association with dihydroartemisinin- piperaquine treatment outcomes in an independent dataset. Results. Single nucleotide polymorphisms on multiple chromosomes were associated with piperaquine 90% inhibitory concentrations (IC90) in a genome-wide analysis. Fine-mapping of genomic regions implicated in genome-wide analyses identified multiple SNPs in linkage disequilibrium with each other that were significantly associated with piperaquine IC90, including a novel mutation within the gene encoding the P. falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter, PfCRT. This mutation (F145I) was associated with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine treatment failure after adjusting for the presence of amplified plasmepsin II/III, which was also associated with decreased piperaquine sensitivity. Conclusions. Our data suggest that, in addition to plasmepsin II/III copy number, other loci, including pfcrt, may also be involved in piperaquine resistance
Physics with the KLOE-2 experiment at the upgraded DANE
Investigation at a --factory can shed light on several debated issues
in particle physics. We discuss: i) recent theoretical development and
experimental progress in kaon physics relevant for the Standard Model tests in
the flavor sector, ii) the sensitivity we can reach in probing CPT and Quantum
Mechanics from time evolution of entangled kaon states, iii) the interest for
improving on the present measurements of non-leptonic and radiative decays of
kaons and eta/eta mesons, iv) the contribution to understand the
nature of light scalar mesons, and v) the opportunity to search for narrow
di-lepton resonances suggested by recent models proposing a hidden dark-matter
sector. We also report on the physics in the continuum with the
measurements of (multi)hadronic cross sections and the study of gamma gamma
processes.Comment: 60 pages, 41 figures; added affiliation for one of the authors; added
reference to section
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